[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

Thanks guys. I am keen on taking Dindigul route as I have not taken it - my native is Ernakulam and I have been taking Salem-Coimbatore route.

Any recommendation for good hotels for overnight stay in Kottayam would be helpful?

1. Arcadia 0481 2569999
2. Anjali Park (Budget) 0481 2563661
3. Pearl Regency 0481 3091061
and many more..

[lloydofcochin]

Originally Posted by joecherian

Blr - Salem - dindugal - Kumily -kottayam will give you a peaceful drive. After Dindugal, you might not find options for good hotel/restrooms (except in major towns).
Roads are very good except for the 5-8 kms before and after Kumily.
I had returned to bangalore from kottayam through this route last week. Good option if you plan to drive during day time (very less traffic). This can be a disadvantage in night as you might not find people to ask for directions if you are travelling for the first time.

+ 1. The roads are excellent except few stretches. The climb up to Kumily is bad and thereafter another 10 kms from Kumily on the KK Road is bad.

If it is a day drive pls make sure that you have lunch from Hotel Annapoorani (Veg) in Bathlagundu. Excellent meals, awesome service and they do have some delectable sweets to savor too

NB: Pls make sure that you sit in the Coffee shop area and not the main lunch hall, it is extremely hot there.

[PatienceWins]

Thanks guys, very useful information.

[B103]

Originally Posted by joecherian

Blr - Salem - dindugal - Kumily -kottayam will give you a peaceful drive. After Dindugal, you might not find options for good hotel/restrooms (except in major towns).
Roads are very good except for the 5-8 kms before and after Kumily.
I had returned to bangalore from kottayam through this route last week. Good option if you plan to drive during day time (very less traffic). This can be a disadvantage in night as you might not find people to ask for directions if you are travelling for the first time.

Thanks Joe. I am planning to drive to Kottayam this time, most probably via Kumali itself. From Google maps, I see that this route is 10 kms more than the Coimbatore route.

However, I am expecting to reach faster via Kumali as there is a 4 laned road till Dindigul. Plus there would be low traffic on the road to Kumali as well. Let me see.

[kala]

Originally Posted by B103

However, I am expecting to reach faster via Kumali as there is a 4 laned road till Dindigul. Plus there would be low traffic on the road to Kumali as well. Let me see.

Yes - the road till Dindigul is quite a fast one, and there wouldn't be too much of traffic till Kumily. But don't keep too high expectations about the average speed you can do between Dindigul and Kottayam. It's a lovely drive, very scenic - but it is by no means a road that I'd call a fast - especially the stretch after Lower camp (about 10-12 kms before Kumily). Quite a bit of ghat sections, and a lot of private bus traffic if you're traversing the stretch during daytime. So don't expect to cover the Kumily to Kottayam distance at anything more than say 45-55kmph on an average, and you will not be disappointed.. (About 2 to 2.5 hours or so for the 105 kms stretch I'd call as excellent timing)

[joecherian]

The travel time depends on when you start your journey. Last week, when I did the manimala-blr trip, started from my home at 4 30, reached Kumily at 6 30, dindugal at 9,salem at 11 30 and HPbunk in shoolagiri at 12 45.

If you can reach lowercamp before 7 AM (when coming from Kumily), you would have crossed major traffic bottleneck in the entire trip.In the kumily route, only issue occurs in the climb from lower camp to Kumily as roads are narrow and badly damaged.

[B103]

Originally Posted by joecherian

The travel time depends on when you start your journey. Last week, when I did the manimala-blr trip, started from my home at 4 30, reached Kumily at 6 30, dindugal at 9,salem at 11 30 and HPbunk in shoolagiri at 12 45.

If you can reach lowercamp before 7 AM (when coming from Kumily), you would have crossed major traffic bottleneck in the entire trip.In the kumily route, only issue occurs in the climb from lower camp to Kumily as roads are narrow and badly damaged.

About road from lower camp to Kumily -- How much narrow is it ? Is it such that 2 vehicles cannot pass in opposite direction simultaneosuly ? Also, is this strech so bad that the vehicle had to go very slow ? How many kms is it ?

[kala]

Originally Posted by B103

About road from lower camp to Kumily -- How much narrow is it ? Is it such that 2 vehicles cannot pass in opposite direction simultaneosuly ? Also, is this strech so bad that the vehicle had to go very slow ? How many kms is it ?

It isn't that narrow, would probably be as wide as the Masinagudi-Ooty ghat section road (except that it isn't as steep). But the issue is that in a lot of places the motorable portion of the road is may be 10% of the road width or less, so vehicles in both directions try to use those portions as far as possible

The distance is approximately 10 kms. I took about 25 or 30 minutes approx. to cover it the last time I travelled - a couple of months ago.

[Sportsmind]

Guys it's time for my annual trip to God's own country. I will doing Blr-Calicut via Mysore-Kalpetta which is one of my favourite routes.
I will also be doing Calicut- Guruvayoor and back to Calicut. Kindly update me on the road conditions on these routes which I have planned.My concerns are always the Calicut- Guruvayoor trip. I have some real nightmares when I think of two years back trips on this road, returned back with broken rear and front skirts .

[joecherian]

Originally Posted by kala

It isn't that narrow, would probably be as wide as the Masinagudi-Ooty ghat section road (except that it isn't as steep). But the issue is that in a lot of places the motorable portion of the road is may be 10% of the road width or less, so vehicles in both directions try to use those portions as far as possible

The distance is approximately 10 kms. I took about 25 or 30 minutes approx. to cover it the last time I travelled - a couple of months ago.

I think the road condition has worsened when I did this stretch last week.But it is manageable.
Best thing to do is to stay behind a decently fast moving bus (mostly TNSTC bus) in case you find it on the route.These bus wallas will bully all those who come against them and hence you can take advantage of this so that bus clears the way for you. But if the bus is a slow moving one, then you might endup slogging behind them till you reach Kumily.

[pramodpk]

Originally Posted by Sportsmind

Guys it's time for my annual trip to God's own country. I will doing Blr-Calicut via Mysore-Kalpetta which is one of my favourite routes.
I will also be doing Calicut- Guruvayoor and back to Calicut. Kindly update me on the road conditions on these routes which I have planned.My concerns are always the Calicut- Guruvayoor trip. I have some real nightmares when I think of two years back trips on this road, returned back with broken rear and front skirts .

I drove from Bangalore to Calicut on Apr 2nd and Calicut to Bangalore on April 4th.

Onward Journey

Started from Bangalore at 5:30 AM and reached Calicut by 1:45 PM.
This includes total break time of around 1 hour.

Route taken - Bangalore (Kundalahalli), Domlur, Mysore Road, Mysore, Nanjanguad, Gundlupet, Muthanga, Sultan Battery, Kalpetta, Vythiri, Thamarassery, Kozhikode.

The Thamarasserry Ghat section is little patchy but manageable. Path work is going on. Otherwise roads are generally good.

Return Journey

Started from Calicut at 11:00 AM and reached home at 8:45 PM. This includes total break time of around 2 hours and 15 mins.

Route taken

Calicut, Thamarassery, Kalpetta, Sultan Battery, Muthanga, Gundlupet,
Chamarajnagar, Kollegal, Malavalli, Kanakpura, Bangalore.

Took the Chamarajnagar route to avoid the crowded Bangalore Mysore road after the long weekend and this turned out to be a very good decision. 80% of the road is in very good condition (I could do 100-140 KM/H) and the traffic is less. A very peaceful and scenic drive. The details of this route can be seen in the below threads. The Bangalore - Mysore road is becoming increasingly difficult to manage with the ever increasing number of speed breakers.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...guruvayur.html


http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...erala-117.html

(see post by kala)

@kala - Many thanks for providing information on this route.

[vsbabu]

Last Friday, I went to Pattambi from Bangalore. 3pm at Mysore Road, 5pm Mysore, 6pm Gundlupet, 7pm Gudlur, 745pm Dinner at Manimooli/Vazhikkadavu, 9pm Perinthalmanna, 930pm Pattambi. Mysore to Nanjangud road is freshly tarred. Quite nice. Bad patches are as follows. After Theppakkadu, few potholes (large ones at times) for 1 or 2 km; Gudlur to Nadukani have some potholes. Ghat section till Kerala border has some uneven tarring, but nothing horrible. Nilambur to Pandikkad still have some culvert work pending. It is really bad in 2 or 3 places and at night it is dangerous with hardly any warning. Pandikkad to Perinthalmanna is superb now. Perinthalmanna to Pattambi is old road, but not broken - some potholes here and there. Much better road conditions now than when I drove this route last October.

[lloydofcochin]

@ vsbabu, Thanks for timely update about the Mysore route

I'm planning to take that for my return from Cochin on 25th.

[NFS]

On Apr 9th, drove from Chennai - Vellore - Krishnagiri - Salem - Avinashi - Palakkad. Started at 6:30AM (should have started early, traffic till sriperumbdur was bad, unable to do more than 60kms and city like driving) reached vellore at 10:00am - Had breakfast at Hotel Saravana Bhavan (off the highway, one needs to go into the city) - Reached Salem at 1.30PM - Had lunch at Adyar Anadha Bhavan (off highway, inside the salem city, near new bus stand salem) - Reached L&T bye pass after negotiating the bad roads of Avinashi and further to Kanjikode (thanks to the election campaign - Red color flags - people walking on National highway - lorry taking foot path and bad traffic build up) we were stranded for around 1hour to clear up the mess - Police was standing helpless and motorists found their own way out of the traffic jam. Reached home at 6:00PM - Total 615 kms door to door with a travel time of 12hours with 1.5hrs break at vellore, 1.5hrs break at Salem and 1hr traffic buildup near Puthussery.

Located the restaurant Rajabhogam at Navakkarai (I am mentioning this, because earlier posts did not have this information - at least I did not see it clearly)

Good drive all in all, Roads are bad between Salem and Neelampur (L&T bye pass starts here)
After L&T bye pass ends (near madukkarai) the roads are bad too due to four lane work on NH-47 till Walayar.

[ranjitp1]

Drove Bangalore-Mysore-Gudalur-Nadugani-Vazhikadavu-Nilambur-Wandoor-Pandikad-Pattikad-Perinthalmana-Pattambi-Kulappully-Shornur-Wadakancheri-Thrissur.

Travel time 11hrs with 1 hour of cumulative breaks.

BLR-MYS as usual dense traffic.The route is a warfield of eateries,kamat has around 4-5 outlets,kadamabam,KFC,Mcdonalds and CCDs every 2 kms!We stopped at Kadambam and must admit the food was outstanding.

MYS-Gundulpet:Went through Mysore town,was easy getting onto Ooty road.Road is in ok condition,nothing great,speeds of 80 can be easily maintained.

Gundulpet-Gudalur:The forest guards at Bandipur have begun to ask for bribes!though they werent bold enough to do that that to private cars,but they were ensuring all the yellow boards paid them before letting them pass.

Gudalur-Nadugani:excellent roads,signages can be a little confusing as there is no mention of Nilambur anywhere,follow signages for Calicut and not for Sulthan Batheri.

Nadugani-Nilambur:Excellent roads

Nilambur-Perinthalmana:Bad roads and so many places widening in progress.was a bad drive

Perinthalmana-Pattambi:Again some very bad sections and overall bad to good roads

Pattambi-Thrissur:very good roads

Stopped for a late lunch at Koppam, Pattambi at Nakshatra Regency.Amazing place and very very clean and excellent food.We had packed enough food from kadambam as well to last us till Pattambi.