[dinu2506]

Originally Posted by lloydofcochin

If you are driving during the day it should be fine. There are potholes at Kuthiran so in daylight it will be easier to negotiate. If you are driving during the night go via Shoranur.

How is the traffic in this stretch? Is it worthwhile taking the longer Shoranur route?

[zachi]

Originally Posted by dinu2506

Can someone update on the current condition of the road from Thrissur to Palakkad in terms of surface quality and traffic. I am planning to go from Kochi to Bangalore and wanted to know if I should avoid this stretch and go via Shoranur. Car is an X1.

I did BLR - Kochi via Kuthiran on 15th March. There are some bad stretches on the Palakkad – Trichur route but it is okay till Kuthiran. It is not as bad as it used to be.

[denver85]

Originally Posted by dinu2506

How is the traffic in this stretch? Is it worthwhile taking the longer Shoranur route?

As said earlier by others the Kuthiran will not be a problem if you are traveling in daytime. The surface is bad for few stretches only. Now-a-days the traffic is very less in this route during daytime which will offer you a relaxed drive.
On the other hand, the Shornur route is full of traffic in Athani-Wadakanchery-Kulapully stretch on daytime. I always prefer the Kuthiran route in daytime as there is no time advantage.
In night, the Kuthiran is horrible with all the truck/bus traffic. So its better to stick the Shornur route.

[RoadTripper]

Originally Posted by dinu2506

How is the traffic in this stretch? Is it worthwhile taking the longer Shoranur route?

If you're driving in daylight you could take the Kuthiran route, it is not worth taking it even during dusk. Do not take this stretch at night - that would be my sincere request. The stretch is narrow, curvy and there are quite a few potholes to boot. To make matters worse you find truckers driving rash and taking curves at full throttle and you may need to move out of the carriageway just to ensure a safe passage.

I've heard from fellow BHP'ians that the Shoranur route is a better option.

Cheers

Road Tripper

[Recallers]

Originally Posted by dinu2506

How is the traffic in this stretch? Is it worthwhile taking the longer Shoranur route?

Night - Shornur route. No time wasted due to Trichur and other town traffic
Day - Kuthiran, shorter, faster and easy to negotiate.

Mannuthy-Vadakkancherry, some 25 kms in bad shape. Most of the potholes can be negotiated during day time and a stop and go at 3-4 places.

[dhuli]

I am planning a trip to Calicut. I am tempted to go via Mysore - HDKote -Nagarhole - Mananthavadi - Kappad beach resort. The resort recommended the Mysore - Nanjangud - Sultanbathery - Kalpetta - Wayanad - Kappad route. I am planning to start early morning from Mysore and during day. I would like to pick the route that is scenic, decent roads, and shorter drive. My car is an Innova and I will be driving.

Any suggestions please!

[sandsun7]

Originally Posted by dhuli

I am planning a trip to Calicut. I am tempted to go via Mysore - HDKote -Nagarhole - Mananthavadi - Kappad beach resort. The resort recommended the Mysore - Nanjangud - Sultanbathery - Kalpetta - Wayanad - Kappad route. I am planning to start early morning from Mysore and during day. I would like to pick the route that is scenic, decent roads, and shorter drive.

Stick to the route recommended by the resort! Probably the best option with decent surface among all the routes at present. The route would be: Mysore-Nanjangud-gundlupet-SulthanBathery-Kalpetta-Wayanad ghats-Thamarashery-Kozhikode. Excellent surface from Mysore till Kerala-Karnataka border and average then on till S.Bathery, and again very good roads all the way till Kozhikode. You could encounter heavy traffic on kerala roads during day time. Also do not forget that the forest section after Gundlupet towards S.Bathery opens only at 6 AM, so no point in leaving Mysore too early. The newly laid stretches inside the forest on Karnataka side are in pristine condition, but do watch out for numerous humps and 2-3 'trenches'

[arjithin]

Originally Posted by dhuli

I am planning a trip to Calicut. I am tempted to go via Mysore - HDKote -Nagarhole - Mananthavadi - Kappad beach resort. The resort recommended the Mysore - Nanjangud - Sultanbathery - Kalpetta - Wayanad - Kappad route. I am planning to start early morning from Mysore and during day. I would like to pick the route that is scenic, decent roads, and shorter drive. My car is an Innova and I will be driving.

Any suggestions please!

+1 to sandsun7. Suggest you to start around 5 AM from Mysore so that you can reach checkpost by 6:15 AM. You can overtake many of the truck traffic inside the Bandipur forest and escape the rush at Kerala checkpost side.
Also it will help you to beat lot of the Kerala traffic. after 9:00 AM, expect only 35-40 km/hr average speed within Kerala; especially near Calicut.

[binand]

Originally Posted by dhuli

The resort recommended the Mysore - Nanjangud - Sultanbathery - Kalpetta - Wayanad - Kappad route.

I am doing part of this route (Bangalore-Kollegal-Gundlupet and rest of this route) on Wednesday. I had driven this route back in January and then it was fine (as reported, a few km of bad roads from KA-KL border till S. Bathery town but good roads elsewhere). I will post an update after my trip.

[A350XWB]

Originally Posted by binand

I am doing part of this route (Bangalore-Kollegal-Gundlupet and rest of this route) on Wednesday. I had driven this route back in January and then it was fine (as reported, a few km of bad roads from KA-KL border till S. Bathery town but good roads elsewhere). I will post an update after my trip.

Just back from a trip to Kerala through the Malavalli-Kollagela-Chamarajnagar-Gundlupet route. I took the Gudalur-Nadugani-Nilambur-Areekode-Kondotty route while going to Kerala as my destination was Calicut University and I found this to be faster and more interesting than the regular SulthanBathery-Kalpetta route. The roads are in good shape except for the section inside the forest on the Tamil Nadu side. The traffic was also less than the other route.
Coming back, I took the normal Kalpetta, Bathery route. Roads are in excellent condition and all of the broken sections have been patched up. Few more humps are in place along the forest and the 3 back breakers (dips) remain (all the 3 are close to each other and the first one is placed at around 2/3 distance of the beautiful straight stretch while going towards Calicut). There is road work going on in the forest border-Gundlupet section and also in the Malavalli-Kollegala section. They are doing the work one side at a time and along the first stretch that I mentioned, just before the first village after Gundlupet, at some places, once side of the road is almost a feet higher than the other side. Not so bad in the Malavalli-Kollegala route.

[binand]

Originally Posted by A350XWB

I took the Gudalur-Nadugani-Nilambur-Areekode-Kondotty route while going to Kerala as my destination was Calicut University

How did you cross over from Kondotty (NH 213) to Thenhipalam (NH 17) where the University is? Did you come to Ramanattukara at the junction of these two, or did you go via the Kondotty - Calicut Airport - small lanes that reach NH 17 at various points?

[RobC]

Originally Posted by A350XWB

... I took the Gudalur-Nadugani-Nilambur-Areekode-Kondotty route while going to Kerala ...

How is the condition of the road in the Gudalur-Nadugani-Nilambur section?

[tachobells]

Originally Posted by lloydofcochin

Bangalore -Kanakapura - Kollegal - Chamrajnagar - Gundulpet - Sulthan Bathery is in good shape. Drove 2 weeks back.

Can somebody please tell me the latest condition of Bangalore-Kanakapura-Kollegal-Chamarajnagar-Sathyamangalam-Annur-Karumathampatti-Coimbatore Bypass-Palakkad route?

Never taken this route. Planning to try when I go to Kerala this weekend.

Thanks.

[dhanushmenon]

Did Arakkonam to Kochi today. Route taken was Arakkonam- Vellore- Krishnagiri- Salem- Coimbatore- Walayar- Palakkad- Mannuthi- Kochi.

The road is in pristine condition till Avinashi. From there, the work is still on. However, easily negotiable by day time (till Mannuthi). Many diversion (some unmarked at various places in the L&T bypass, approaching Coimbatore.) Avoid this by night.

The entire route is easily doable by day time.

[kala]

Originally Posted by tachobells

Can somebody please tell me the latest condition of Bangalore-Kanakapura-Kollegal-Chamarajnagar-Sathyamangalam-Annur-Karumathampatti-Coimbatore Bypass-Palakkad route?

Never taken this route. Planning to try when I go to Kerala this weekend

Roads should be in excellent condition at least till Karumathampatti. Saw a report of some road work in the Malavalli-Kollegal sector, but I don't think that would be anything major because those roads were in very good condition anyway.

The only small bottlenecks on this route would be the 4 or 5 villages that you have to pass in the Kollegal-Chamarajanagar section where the road is quite narrow and if some heavy vehicle is coming in the opposite direction you'll need to wait till it passes. But not too much to worry since traffic is quite sparse at most times.