[ampere]

Originally Posted by Passatman

Thanks! I thought this route goes via T Narsipur and onwards to Chamrajnagar and beyond. I have a drive coming up next week and so was exploring options. Carrying my cycle on my VW passat and hence looking for good roads minus the mad traffic/toll scrambles on the Salem hiway.
Bonus is I also get to check out the Mys Bang expressway!

Mysore- T Narasipur - Kollegal is a section of the old NH212. It ends at Kollegal where you can join the NH948 (Also called Kanakapura Road in Bangalore)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation...way_766_(India)

Like Kala mentioned at Malavalli instead of taking the NH948 you can drive towards Banner and take interior roads to T-Narasipur or go all the way to Bannur and latch on to 766 (old 212) and head to T-Narasipura and there on to Chamarajanagar.

Originally Posted by kala

The National Highway goes through Kollegala, but going through T.Narsipur is an option that allows you to bypass Kollegala town and the few narrow village stretches between Kollegala and Santhamarahalli. But in my experience both routes take almost the same time overall, and road conditions aren't too different either. I have been taking the Kollegala route during all my recent trips, but since Google maps has been advocating the Malavalli- Kiragavalu-T.Narsipur route these days I plan to try that option on my next trip this Sunday. But whichever be the slightly better option, I find both these routes to be a far more peaceful drive compared to the busy four lane highways.

How have you been! It's been a long time seeing your posts!

[kala]

Originally Posted by kala

I have been taking the Kollegala route during all my recent trips, but since Google maps has been advocating the Malavalli- Kiragavalu-T.Narsipur route these days I plan to try that option on my next trip this Sunday.

I did that trip on Sunday via T.Narsipur, and was disappointed. The Malavalli - Mysore SH33 has a lot of broken stretches, and the first 5 kms after you turn off towards T.Narsipur ar Kiragavalu is pathetic to say the least. From a road conditions point of view, the other route via Kollegala is definitely better.

Originally Posted by ampere

Like Kala mentioned at Malavalli instead of taking the NH948 you can drive towards Banner and take interior roads to T-Narasipur or go all the way to Bannur and latch on to 766 (old 212) and head to T-Narasipura and there on to Chamarajanagar.

Yes, there are multiple options to get to T.Narsipur, and some of the others might perhaps be better than the option via Kiragavalu which I used the other day. But not sure if you will save anything in terms of time by taking any of these options.

By the way slight correction - the road from Bannur to T.Narsipura (via Somnathpura) is not NH766, it is State Highway 79. To get on to NH766 before T.Narsipura, you would need to go all the way to Mysore, and that is quite a long diversion which wouldn't be worth the trouble.

Originally Posted by ampere

How have you been! It's been a long time seeing your posts!

Haven't been travelling too much the past 2-3 years thanks to the pandemic..

[vp_morpheus]

Need help and guidance for a Bangalore to Coimbatore road journey.

We are travelling with two cars to Coimbatore, with an early start (5am) from Bangalore (Koramangala). While there is the obvious highway route via Salem and Erode to Coimbatore. I am keen to explore a scenic route which is also safe for the car (My X1 tyres are highly prone to tears due to sharp potholes).

Would members here recommend the BLR-Malavalli-Kollegal-Chamarajanagar-Dimbham-Bannari-Sathy-Annur-Coimbatore route for this drive.

Some additional information - We will be continuing to Munnar from Coimbatore the next morning.

[jkrishnakj]

Go for it! I came back via this route last weekend. So used to this road, that I can’t remember where the bad stretches are. Roads are not super smooth and wide for sure. There are stretches of bad roads till Kanapura, then, you’ll find roads till Malavalli to be good. There are a few bad patches near Nagara, but doable. I have done this in my A6 a few times.

Please note that there aren’t too many places to stop for food on this route. As for scenic content, there is abundance.

The only other pain is the dhimbam ghats. 90% of my drives, it was smooth sailing, but an odd occasion can make you wait out due to a truck struggling to take the hair pins. Hair pins 10 and 11 are quite notorious for large trucks.

[etrast75]

Did the usual year end trip to CBE from bangalore.. Left BLR on friday 23rd hoping to beat the usual holiday rush and boy was I wrong..
The attibele toll was the usual mess with backups starting at the beginning of the flyovers and our "citizens" trying to take all kinds of possible shortcuts. Took about 25 minutes to cross the toll. Heavy blocks before entering hosur due to trucks occupying 2 lanes before the RTO checkpost (has always been a problem but it has become more pronounced in recent years). Hosur to krishnagiri toll was actually much better and did not have to constantly fight trucks occupying all 3 lanes trying to overtake each other.
After krishnagiri, things become really bad. There are a lot of junctions that have been barricaded in this stretch and each barricaded section has a big backup with everyone trying to cut across at the last minute.. Add to that the slow moving trucks occupying both lanes of traffic, it was tiring and frustrating and time consuming to drive. The usual traffic control on the down section of thoppur ghat resulted in another back up (Totally unnecessary).
Got tired of dealing with highway traffic and took the mecheri/mettur route. Road surface is good and not much traffic to deal with. After mettur, had the choice of going to bhavani and joining the NH but decided to take the turn at ammapettai towards anthiyur.. Excellant roads till anthiyur outskirts.. construction in anthiyur meant the road was bad inside the town.. Once you crossed anthiyur, the road towards sathy was good.. Sathy to annur was also good with not much traffic.. But once you crossed annur, traffic increased exponentially and it took an hour to cross the last 25 kms.. Overall took 7:30 hours but I prefer this route to paying toll and getting stuck in the NH at various places.
Came back the normal route yesterday and traffic was much less and took 5:30 door to door. I think I will stick to the mettur route during busy times..

[NPV]

After a long break, I will be traveling soon from Bangalore to Palakkad via Coimbatore bypass.
1. Are there any (new) recommendations for good breakfast on the way out ? My usual stop is Sai Sangeet Thoppur around 6:45-7am.

2. Veg restaurants in Palakkad? Anything new or should I stick to my tried and tested usual suspects Kapilavasthu, Hariharaputhra, Ashok Bhavan?

3. Similarly, any recommendations for lunch (Veg) on the way back ? Planning for a quick visit to Tex Valley Erode enroute, so some place after that would be good.

[Swaminathan]

Originally Posted by NPV

After a long break, I will be traveling soon from Bangalore to Palakkad via Coimbatore bypass. Are there any (new) recommendations for good breakfast on the way out ? My usual stop is Sai Sangeet Thoppur around 6:45-7am.

Similarly, any recommendations for lunch (Veg) on the way back ? Planning for a quick visit to Tex Valley Erode enroute, so some place after that would be good.

If you stretch your drive a bit, In Salem Asai Dosai (in the Salem Bypass) is a good place for a nice south Indian breakfast

https://www.tripadvisor.in/Restauran...amil_Nadu.html

[jkrishnakj]

Sri Saravana Bhavan after Salem is also good. Just had breakfast there this Thursday.

As for Palakkad, please stick to the regular ones you’ve named. If you like Agraharam food, you can try ‘the taste of Kalpathy’. Small non-descript kind of place, but great vegetarian food, iyer style. May not be to everyone’s liking though.

For return, Sai Sangeeth, Thoppur any day.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

Sri Saravana Bhavan after Salem is also good. Just had breakfast there this Thursday.
...
For return, Sai Sangeeth, Thoppur any day.

Sree Saravana bhavan at the Vaiguntham toll rest area has been another one of our regular pit stops in the past, so this time I'm thinking of another place

During my return, Tex Valley Erode to Sai Sangeeth Thoppur may be a stretch if it's already around lunch time, so probably I will stop at the Sree Saravana bhavan Vaiguntham toll rest area.

At Palakkad, Taste of Kalpathy sounds interesting (at the same time may be very close to our home food, so I'm curious to check if they serve any long lost traditional diahes), Thanks!

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by NPV

After a long break, I will be traveling soon from Bangalore to Palakkad via Coimbatore bypass.
1. Are there any (new) recommendations for good breakfast on the way out ? My usual stop is Sai Sangeet Thoppur around 6:45-7am.
.

There seems to be tons of new places on the highway, but in my personal view they are all just clones of the template set by the Ananda bhavans and the Saravana bhavans of the world. Very standardized menu and taste. Names are all also very similar.

Personally the only one on the route that still stands a little above the rest is Sai Sangeet.

[jkrishnakj]

Originally Posted by NPV

Sree Saravana bhavan at the Vaiguntham toll rest area has been another one of our regular pit stops in the past, so this time I'm thinking of another place

At Palakkad, Taste of Kalpathy sounds interesting (at the same time may be very close to our home food, so I'm curious to check if they serve any long lost traditional diahes), Thanks!

Most dishes for lunch are. I can name some of them, but I’ll run the risk of an infraction. I surely enjoyed the Olan and Thoran. Fairly new place and great food. Enjoy.

[NPV]

We had a very good trip. Here's an update:
Decided to do a Sunday and Monday trip to beat the traffic to some extent and it turned out to be a very good decision. We also planned to visit Tex Valley on the way back on Monday.

Bangalore-Palakkad
Sunday morning started from home at 4:45am, not too much traffic but fog and visibility issues slowed us down till Thoppur. Reached Salem at 7:45 and tried Tangerine at Radisson Blu. The breakfast spread was excellent and obviously great ambience, hygiene and excellent facilities.
Restarted the journey at 9:10 am and was making good progress when I thought we should probably visit Tex Valley and can avoid going there during our return journey, this turned out to be a good decision as well. We reached Tex Valley by 10:15, didn't have too much to shop and we left around 11:30 am and we were in Palakkad at 1:45 pm. In the evening, we visited our family deities and got excellent Darshan at all temples!

Couple of diversions for asphalting and road repairs. First one is a couple of kilometres before the Kerala border, here we had to take the service road. Second one was after the Pampampallam toll near the Naragampally river bridge, where the South bound carriageway is shared by traffic in both directions for about half a kilometre.

Palakkad-Bangalore
Monday morning started from Palakkad at 8:45 am and reached Salem at 12:15 pm. Tried Saravana Bhavan Aasai Dosai for lunch and it was decent. Restarted the journey at 1:15 pm and was home at 4pm, escaped the evening traffic mess of Hosur-Attibele-Koramangala. Had we started another hour later in the morning, we would most likely have got delayed by 2-3 hours

L&T bypass
Couple of toll plazas on the L&T bypass are now pass through, overall with Fastag and low traffic the toll plazas were not a bottleneck this time. However, traffic is still a mess with all types and sizes of vehicles vying for space and lot of daredevil overtaking!

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

Most dishes for lunch are. I can name some of them, but I’ll run the risk of an infraction. I surely enjoyed the Olan and Thoran. Fairly new place and great food. Enjoy.

Our trip this time was too short, so couldn't try this one, definitely in my list to try next time.

[warrioraks]

Did anyone try this route recently: Bangalore - Kollegala - Germalam - Dhondeling - Dhimbam - Coimbatore.

What would be a few good places to take a break for food? Also I read on the last few pages that this route is very scenic but can get deserted. How is the mobile network in these lonely patches?

I did the the Hosur - Krishnagiri - Salem route in December and don’t want to repeat on my upcoming trip. Any tips are appreciated.

[Aerobat]

Originally Posted by warrioraks

Did anyone try this route recently: Bangalore - Kollegala - Germalam - Dhondeling - Dhimbam - Coimbatore.

What would be a few good places to take a break for food? Also I read on the last few pages that this route is very scenic but can get deserted. How is the mobile network in these lonely patches?

I did the the Hosur - Krishnagiri - Salem route in December and don’t want to repeat on my upcoming trip. Any tips are appreciated.

I travelled through this route once while coming from Satyamangalam to Mysuru. This route goes through forest areas and is mostly deserted. There is some heavy vehicle traffic. Dhimbam ghat is very steep with narrow roads. Heavy vehicle breakdown and accidents are common in the ghat section, resulting is traffic holdup for hours.

[warrioraks]

Originally Posted by warrioraks

Did anyone try this route recently: Bangalore - Kollegala - Germalam - Dhondeling - Dhimbam - Coimbatore.

What would be a few good places to take a break for food? Also I read on the last few pages that this route is very scenic but can get deserted. How is the mobile network in these lonely patches?

Originally Posted by Aerobat

I travelled through this route once while coming from Satyamangalam to Mysuru. This route goes through forest areas and is mostly deserted. There is some heavy vehicle traffic. Dhimbam ghat is very steep with narrow roads.

Did Bangalore to Coimbatore last week.

Took the forest route for onwards journey. I loved it. There is ample scenery, the ghats were fun, rood quality is good and traffic was very less.
The return trip was through the Salem, Krishnagiri route. Very dull in comparison except for a stretch after Dharmapuri which tends to get scenic. Also the Salem to Dharmapuri part is a royal pain - Barricades every 10 odd kilometers, horrible truck traffic, and cherry on the cake is the horrendous driving sense from truckers. It actually becomes a very frustrating and unsafe experience. The only consolation being availability of food joints.

A realization from the last few trips - As I get older and turn into a more sedate driver, the newer multi-lane highways and expressways are losing charm. Getting more inclined to take the roads less taken that pass through forests, smaller towns and allow more exploration on the way.