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Its that acceptable part on which many had posted. Every now and then we read about jam at Walayar, bad conditions on Palakkad-Trichur etc.

If the NH is good, by all means we should go with it. In fact I would say Palakkad-Ottapalam-Shornur-Kunnamkulam is very good. But the issue is hitting the Ottapalam road if CBE-Palakkad is bad.

By no means can this road be called as being in acceptable condition!! Continuous crater filled stretch from Madukkarai to Walayar, since work has been halted. And again crater filled sections between Walayar and Palakkad since work is going on in this section!

Thanks for suggesting the the Kuzhalmannam-Kottayi-Mankara route. I took it over the last weekend on my way to Guruvayoor and it was one of the sceneic drives I have ever driven! On my return drive, I decided to go directly through Palakkad town from Mankara since it was a Sunday and the traffic inside town was likley to be sparse. Google Maps suggested to take a turn-off after Parli towards Mundur and then to join the Calicut Palakkad highway. I do not know the condition of the Parli-Mundur road and if the road is good, this is one more route that travllers can explore to byepass Palakkad town.

A new hotel call "White Sands" has opened up a few KMS before Mankara town ( towards Palakkad). It is a typical non vegetarian Malabar hotel. The food was OK and the wash rooms were better than the ones at Palakkad McDonald's. If they are able to maintain the same level of quality, this adds one more hotel option for travelers in the Palakkad - Ottapalam stretch.

-- Wind

I did this stretch last month and the condition was OK atleast to me. Provided you are driving during the day and you don't end up there during Kovai peak hour traffic.
What worried me more was the badly finished joints on the culverts and bridges around Avinashi. These are real tyre breakers and will slow you down considerably.
Traffic jams can happen anywhere, I have been caught in bad jams at Ottappalam, Pattambi and even Nemmara on other route mentioned. Most of these small towns in Kerala experience heavy traffic snarls especially in the evening rush hour.

If you want 100% smooth roads you can forget about Kunnamkulam Guruvayur road which is in bad shape atleast when I visited my home last month .

I am planning a weekend drive to Kodungaloor from Bangalore. I am planing an early morning departure from Bangalore and will be only able to depart around 3/4 PM on Sunday from Kodungaloor.

Based on my reading of this thread, I have finalized the route to be taken as Bangalore-Salem-Avinashi-Mangalam-Palladam-Pollachi-Alathur-Pazhayannur-Wadakkanchery - Trichur - Challakudy - Kodungaloor and vice versa.

Please let me know your thoughts on the same.

Absolutely agree !

Had done a trip as Bangalore->Palani first leg and then Palani->Guruvayur as second leg in the past.

Went from Palani to Pollachi and then on traced almost exact same route as above. So the overall route is Palani->Pollachi->Kollengode->Alathur->Pazhayannur->Wadakkanchery->Kunnamkulam->Guruvayoor

Return via Guruvayur->Kozhikode for 2-day stay and then Kozhikode->Sulthan Bathery->Mysore->Bangalore route only on a weekday !

Completed a round trip to Kollam and back. Route was Bangalore> Selam>Madhurai>Rajapalayam>Senkottai>Punalur> Kollam.
Return from Trivandrum> Punalur and remaining same as above. Road condition in Aaryankaavu till punalur is bad. Took 14Hrs including breaks for each side.

This stretch IMO has never seen the light at the end of the tunnel. Bad roads and to compound one's agony, heavy traffic and haphazard parking of trucks.

I too believe in this "early to rise, early to bed" theory. Generally we start from Bangalore at around 04:00Hrs. And at this point of time toll booths at Attibele and Krishnagiri are easy to clear. But last time my friends who decided to leave early for Onam got trapped at the Elevated Highway toll booth and at Attibele toll booth.

I am facing problems mainly in the return journeys. Again I used to leave early from home, but with a baby on board the pit stops have become a bit unpredictable.

I feel what is considered as "acceptable" is subjective :). For me I opted for the Palladam route mainly because of the following:-
1. The road after L&T bye pass all the way through Walayar and Chandra Nagar is a big mess. No signage, traffic goes in all direction and road conditions are bad. Not even some decent speed can be maintained.
2. To avoid the L&T bye pass, where like a train working on the "token block working" I need to show the toll receipt at multiple toll booths. I have never seen them operate more than one booth at at time, even when the traffic is high.

The road between Parli and Mundur Kootupatha then onto Mundur will be good and very less in traffic, but then when you get into Calicut - Palakkad NH213 though the surface is excellent you might end up in dense traffic as you approach Olavakode. I would suggest to avoid this as you have to spend close to 30 minutes to clear Puthupariyaram and Chandranagar during peak hours.
Cheers!

To avoid long queue at BETL towards Hosur, take exit to E.City Phase 2 and rejoin NH. It works perfectly on weekends.

I take the Hosur - Bagalur - Sarjapur road to avoid the Attibele toll booth and reach Krishnagiri before 3:00 PM to avoid the mess at Krishnagiri. Attibele toll both is the worst managed. They take long time to collect toll.

Did not take this route as my friend discouraged me saying the travel time will be too high ~ 12 hours while I do Bangalore Vaikom in under 10 hours these days.

Drove from Bangalore to vaikom on August 14th.
Started from Whitefield at 4:50 AM and reached home at 2:40 PM.
In the return journey, started from Vaikom at 5:10 AM on August 18th and reached Home at 2:55 PM.

Took the Varthur - Sarjapur route to Hosur. The Sarjapur bypass is closed and some work is going on. Drainage is being constructed. Although this is not an issue early in the morning, it could be an issue during day time. While coming back, I encountered a mini truck and a bus in the opposite direction. I had to reverse for the bus and squeeze through a tight gap for the mini truck. Will not take this route for returning until the bypass is complete. The NH207 from Sarjapur to Karnataka border is newly laid and in excellent condition. Tamil Nadu side was already good but some widening has been done (some work was happening while I returned in 18th).

The Krishnagiri Thoppur section of NH 7 is being relaid. Some work was till happening but around.

The Madukkarai - Walayar section continues to be patchy. No craters anywhere. Wonder when the work on this section will resume.

Private cars were stopped at the Kerala border. I was also asked to open the boot. This is was my first such experience in 7 years.

There is good progress on the road widening between Walayar and Alathur.
The bad news is that the newly laid Vadakkencherry - Mannuthy road has started breaking already. Numerous small potholes are present in this stretch and I found around 3 craters already. Wonder what was the quality of work done here.

Had to literally crawl from Aluva to Kalamassery. Huge craters near HMT junction and the road connecting HMT junction and Seaport - Airport road.
The craters on the HMT junction to Sea port Airport road were filled when I returned on 18th. Also, did not find any craters in the Kalamassery - Aluva side. There were TV news reports that the repair of roads in places where Metro work is happening has started. So probably the Aluva - Kalamassery section is also fixed by now.

I am planning to travel to Ooty from Kochi on September first week.After going through this thread and google map, i found 2 routes.

1.Kochi-Thrissur-Perinthalmanna-Nilambur-Gudalur-Ooty
2.Kochi-Thrissur -Palakkad-CBE-Mettupalayam-Kottagiri-Ooty

Planning to start by 5 AM from Kochi.For return, i will start by around 3PM from Ooty.Do i need to change start time to reduce traffic?

I have read that Thrissur-Walayar stretch is not good and hence checking the option for alternate routes.Heard Nilambur stretch is scenic and almost similar distance but with bad roads between Nilambur and Gudalur.

Since am travelling with family,prefer better road.Please advise me on route with better road conditions for onward and return journey.

It is definitely scenic, but not bad at all - quite the contrary, they have relaid the entire stretch recently (just before rains) and it should be quite good to drive on now.

Can't say how it is beyond Gudalur though.

Take a modified version of the second one:

Kochi - Trichur Bypass - Kuthiran - Vadakkenchery - Kollengode - Pollachi - Palladam - Karumathampatti - Annur - Mettupalayam - Conoor - Ooty

Palladam can also be bypassed (As I see in Google)Route Link
- This is a good clean route without any traffic all the way till Mettupalayam
- Karumathampatti has railway over bridge construction on going
- This route also would bypass Palakkad, Walayar AND Coimbattore.
- So I think that 50 km detour would still be worth it.