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Hope this does not confuse you more !
I did hit both the routes in the 1st week of October, so my answers are based on that experience.

It took me 5 hrs (including roughly a 1 hr lunch break at Tamarind Nilambur) to do Gundalur - Nilambur - Vadapuram - Wandur - Perithalmanna-Cherplacherry. Gundalur to Vadapuram the roads were good and there was not much traffic. The ghat sections were most cleared. Some stretches around Wandur were really bad but I could see work in progress. If you add the Bangalore - Mysore - Gundalur part to this, I would recommend that the NH route is better in terms of time taken as well.

I took the NH route Cherplacherry - Palakkad - Coimbatore Bypass - Salem - Bangalore on the way back. Most good roads besides the diversions around Avinashi. The Walayar road was good but there was heavy traffic as usual on this stretch. Cannot comment on the Palakkad - Thrissur part

I think overall it still makes sense to drive through GQ.
The road through Nilambur is strictly for pleasure quotient! In spite of the roads being bad
near Pattambi/Perinthalmanna, its fun seeing the vistas on this route.

But if strictly you want to optimize on drive time, GQ is still the way to go.
But its just that you need to work around Avinashi/Walayar.

For that as Ranjit mentioned, its good to avoid Palakkad-Trichur section of GQ and go via
Ottapalam.

Hey mogambo,

I just traveled to Pune via Tsr - Plkd - Valayar - Salem - Blore. The Plkd - Tsr route is OK if you drive a little slow. The patchworks have been done on most places and hence the roads are bumpy. No potholes. Take it slow till Valayar and the rest of the roads are cool. I started at 4:15AM from Kochi and reached ECity by 12:00pm. You can easily keep the average speed above 70kmph.

Wow - great - I was just poring through Wikimapia.org on the diversions - good to know that won't be needed :)

Thanks, buddy.

Btw, a long time back, I'd seen a post by someone who mentioned that the Kanakapura route (B'lore - Kanakapura - Sathyamangalam - Coimbatore) was actually done up and good as well as hardly used.

Any brave souls have updates on this route? Just curious.

You will all the action about the Nh209 here:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ip-update.html

Summary: Very good route and many folks are able to reach CBE from BLR under 6 hours (~330km).
But if you are going ahead to Kerala, you need to get past the city.

The roads are in excellent condition except for about 3-4 kms each on either side of Kollegal town which has broken roads. Sparse traffic and very scenic.

You may not be able to do the same speed as you do on NH7/NH47 since this is a 2-lane road, and there aren't too many good hotels on the way. But on the plus side you don't need to pay any toll (Saving you around Rs.250-300 ?), the distance is less by about 30kms and you can do the Bangalore-CBE in approximately the same time as you'd do on the Salem route.

You don't need to touch CBE city. Take a left turn at Annur (the road to Avinashi) and then a right turn about half a km down this road. Will take you to Karumathampatti on NH47 (about 10 kms before the start of L&T byepass). Alternately one can go a little bit further from Annur and take a left at Kurumbapalayam - abt 15 kms before CBE city (the road marked as leading to Coimbatore Airport). You then reach the 6 lane road that connects the L&T byepass start and the city. Turn left and go about 2-3 kms and get on to the byepass from there.

Both these byepass options have good roads, The first option is shorter and the preferred one if the 4 laning work on the CBE-Karumathampatti stretch is complete. If work is still ongoing there, use the second one.

Thanks Kala for the update. I was aware of this route and this topic had also come up a year back I think.
The status of L&T by-pass was so bad then that folks were suggesting to go though the city.

Looks like as you said, its much better now.

The only positive on this route is the scenic beauty compared to the regular Blr-salem-cmb-Pkd-tcr, else it nothing great as it takes a heavy toll on the driver and the vehicle as most of way is through single lane roads.

on the usual route -

Cochin - Coimbatore - Avinashi - Salem - Krishnagiri - Hosur - Bangalore

what are the things to watch out for?

do we have to enter salem city, can we bypass that? is it better to bypass salem?

@govigov

Watch out for the odd bumps and small potholes from Tsr to Plkd. The Plkd - Valayar road has a lot of rough patches. From there, the road starts getting better.

I guess there is a bypass road that has newly been constructed at Salem. I did not enter the city. There are clear indications on the road. So you wont miss the bypass.

And yes, watch out for those brainless two wheeler guys who travel on the opposite direction in the right most lane. I had a close shave with one such bike carrying 3 people.

Did Ernakulam - Kayankulam - Adoor (Byepass) - Kottarakara - Pothencode - Kazhakootam - Trivandrum.

Although the route is longer by around 20 Kms the time taken considering its a Sunday is comparitively less. Will take the same route back to check the weekday timings.

Watch Our List:
1) Private buses between Thrissur - Palghat (Completely brainless)
2) Govt buses between Avinashi - Salem
3) Potholes between Wadakanchery - Palghat
4) Junctions along L&T bypass. People wont care even if the signals are red. They come from all directions.
5) Some sections in the L&T bypass is in bad shape (as in some sections are uneven due to hot climate causing the road surface to deform)
6) Bikes, trucks, buses coming in opposite direction between Salem - Hosur.
7) This section also got weird junctions. They have cross roads placed at blind curves. So watch out for occasional crossings by other motorists here.
8) Blore elevated highway. What ever happens, make sure you dont go above 80km/hr. There will be cops on the elevated highway with cameras. I was caught last time even though I was just marginally above 80. I would suggest you keep 70km/hr.

And finally on reaching Blore watch out for the mad auto and cab drivers.
All the best buddy!

In addition to what Naveen said;

here is the exit at Salem towards Bangalore/Mysore. You need to exit at the flyover itself as you approach Salem.

Yes, the exit from the flyover (Salem) to Blore is a bit confusing. The placement of the board is weird. I got it wrong the first time.

Yes totally agree on this point.The funny thing is that one observes majority of the cars stopped for the "so called speeding" are non-KA registered vehicles.I paid up INR 300 for the so called speeding and on reaching home I notice,the receipt which I received had no details of the police inspector who fined me neither the speed.I am not sure whats going on there.