Quote:
Originally Posted by tmanish76 Hi guys,
1. What would be the distance from Mumbai western suburbs to Trivandrum city? Need to go through Goa
2. Which are the best places for a stopover as I will be driving alone?
3. If I drive at a stretch with just one night stopover for a nap, can I finish the drive in less than 2 days [like starting on Friday night and reaching by Sunday evening?]
4. What would be the overall cost involved as my Accent is presently giving a little less than 9kpl in city driving?
5. What are the ideal speeds at different portions of the route?
6. What are the maintenance activities required before and after the run one way?
7.Any specific instructions for driving on this route during winter?
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I have done the Bombay-Trivandrum-Bombay drive several times, all times non-stop. It takes me 24 hours non-stop through Goa, but the same drive can be cut down to 22 hours if you go via Hubli. I like to take NH17 all the way. Since you are planning the drive in winter, the road will be good throughout and although NH47/NH17/NH63/NH4 route (via Hubli) may be faster, I would settle for nothing less than the scenic NH17 drive via Goa. Many occasions, I have driven alone.
Distance is 1775 kms from Bombay Western.
Going via Goa is more difficult since out of the 550 kms between Bombay and Goa, almost 300kms is on ghat roads. On the other hand, if you take the Pune-Kolhapur-Hubli-Ankola route, you could save up to 2 hours if you are a fast driver.
I don't know how fast a driver you are, but I keep up steady speeds of 100 kmph plus and seldom have halts but for refuelling. I will assume that you will take some halts for food (I carry mine on board to avoid sop overs, such a waste of time).
If you chose to take NH17 via Goa, if you leave early in the morning, you can take a break somewhere like Kumta/Honavar, which is beyond Karwar. On Day 2, it will be a long drive to reach Trivandrum by day-end (which could be late at night). There are good hotels at Kumta and Honavar. There are several towns en route after Goa where you can get good accomodation.
If you chose to go via Hubli, you could reach even Kundapur if yyou are very fast (~900 kms).
If you are comfortable with night driving, I would suggest that you go through Kerala at night, since day driving is quite terrible, and you could save at least 3-4 hours from North (Kasargod) to South Kerala if you drive through at night. But unfortunately such time planning may be difficult in the circumstances. Whenever I drive from TVM to Bombay, I try to leave TVM at night (after 8 pm) so that I cross Mangalore by 600 am the next morning and reach Bombay by evening.
I would not drive on Goa road at night, the traffic is crazy and lethal. But if you want to do the night drive, go on NH4 via Pune to Hubli and that would be ideal. Which means if you leave Bombay on Friday night, you could reach some place like Kumta by breakfast time, take a nap of 2-3 hours, and continue such that you reach Kerala border ideally by 6-7 pm and take on the drive through Kerala that night so that you are in TVM on Sunday morning.
For petrol, you must make use of some savings techniques. If you take the NH4 route, refuel on Pune expressway at the HPCL pump near Khopoli (after toll gate), which will be the cheapest fuel in Maharashtra/Karnataka. After that, refuel at Kolhapur before you enter Karnataka.
On the other hand, if you take NH17, the next cheapest petrol (one of cheapest in India) is Goa (can you make the 550 kms on one tank?).After Goa, the next cheapest petrol is Mahe (Pondicherry) which is between Kannur and Kozhikode. After Mahe, you can reach TVM directly without refuelling. This will give you the best deal on saving petrol costs.
Bombay-Goa is a fast road by day despite the ghat roads - I do the 550 kms in 8 hours. Transit through Goa state can be slow. Once you cross into Karnataka, you continue to have lots of ghat roads but passage is fast. Fastest stretch would be Bhatkal-Kundapura after which traffic increases. Driving through Kerala is slow throughout during day, but at night the fastest stretches would be Kochi-TVM.
I will PM you my log books for you to take a look and decide how you want to go about the trip.