[gadadhar]

Originally Posted by DieselLover

Kuruva Islands
Thirunelly Temple (tentative, looks like a long drive from Lakkidi)

If your covering Kuruva, plan to include Thirunelly temple. It is around 40 mts drive from Kattikulam - a small town on the way to Kuruva. You can enjoy a good drive through the forest on the way to Thirunelly and plan to taste some mouth watering Unniyappam's from the famous Kuttettan's shop on the way to temple. Check if the crossing to Kuruva island is operational now, water level would have gone up in Kabini due to the rains.

[kavu75]

Did Bangalore - Pandalam yesterday (October 21st)

The route i have take is
Bangalore(Marthahalli ORR ) - Madurai Bye pass - Tirumangalam - Rajapalayam - Thenkasi - Punalur - Pathanapuram - Adoor - Pandalam, door to door 668km.
Started at 5.20 am and reached home at 5.30pm, including 2 hours break.

Road conditions are good till Thenkasi.
There are some bad stretches between Thenkasi and Punalur, some sudden pot holes and there are high chances of missing them, even we have to be very careful at some points, some are very bad. More over it was raining heavily when i was covering this.
Punalur - Pathanapuram - Adoor - Pandalam stretch is little bumpy ride, but not a major issue.

[WhiteKnight]

Originally Posted by WhiteKnight

Hi All,

Hitting home stretch on Sat. I would like to know the condition of road

Dindigul> Theni> Kumbum> Kumali> Mundakkayam

Also I hear there is an alternate route that joins theni-Kambum route from NH7? Any ideas?

Since no one answered, let me be the one to answer my own question.

Dindigul to Theni is mostly is mud fest due to rains. Enjoyable, if you are not worried about the speed. At least 30 Kms , you'd be doing at speeds below 30 Kph. Alternate route is to drive down till Madhurai bypass and then take route to Theni, which is in good shape. But this would be 50 Kms extra.

[Xryder]

01. As of today, which is the best route to take if one were travelling from Bangalore to Trivandrum? Planning to start early morning. Except for a small break, no long overhauls intended at any point in route.

02. Unexpected stops may occur and just in case, would like to know which are the best places to stop and rest with family, in such a situation.

Thanks in advance.

[haripg]

I plan to go to Calicut this Thu.
Plan to leave around 1:00pm in the afternoon from Bangalore.
How would the traffic be thro Mysore - Dushera festivities would have ended? Should I consider taking the Kanakapura road?

[kala]

Originally Posted by Xryder

01. As of today, which is the best route to take if one were travelling from Bangalore to Trivandrum? Planning to start early morning. Except for a small break, no long overhauls intended at any point in route.

02. Unexpected stops may occur and just in case, would like to know which are the best places to stop and rest with family, in such a situation.

Thanks in advance.

NH7 would be your best bet. Turn right onto NH47B at Kavalkkinar - about 22 kms before Kanyakumari.

Kavalkkiinar-Nagercoil-Trivandrum would be the slowest part of your drive because of the heavy traffic you're likely to encounter. Allocate about 3 hrs or so for the 90 odd kms. Not sure if there are any alternate routes to bypass this stretch.


Note that NH7 bypasses almost all major towns on the way, so in case you want to stop over somewhere you'd need to go off the highway to head to the nearest town. Madurai would probably be the best place for quality accommodation, and it happens to be bang in the middle of the journey making it an ideal place to take a break.

[deepclutch]

Originally Posted by sandsun7

Not many buses, I am afraid! There are a couple of buses in the morning around 7-8 AM, not sure of the exact timings though. But you may find buses to Virajpet (Mysore/Bangalore bound buses also pass though virajpet) and from virajpet, you will find plenty of buses to Madikeri.
EDIT: got to know now that there is a KSRTC bus to Madikeri at 4.30 PM, Telicherry to Virajpet KSRTC (bangalore/mysore buses) :- 6.30 AM, 7 AM ,8 AM, 8.40 AM , 8 PM ,9 PM , 10 PM. Apart from these, there are few other buses like SRS, SNRTC, and Lakshmi private buses to Virajpet in the morning.

Thanks. so, Buses are not frequent I guess.

please guide the route to take if I drive from Muvattupuzha to Madikeri?

[FasterPhene]

I am planning to drive from Madikeri to Tellicherry during the Nov 1st long weekend. Can somebody please advice what is the best route for me to take and what might be the approximate time I might need for the journey? Thanks in advance.

[sandsun7]

Originally Posted by deepclutch

please guide the route to take if I drive from Muvattupuzha to Madikeri?

The best and shortest route would be Muvattupuzha-Angamali-Thrissur-Kuttipuram-Valanchery-Chelari-Kozhikode byepass-Vadakara-Telicherry-Mattannur-Iritty-koottupuzha-Virajpet-Madikeri. around 380kms total. very good roads almost all the way, but expect heavy traffic during day time. Would be difficult to maintain high speeds, so budget time accordingly. The ghat section from Kootupuzha to Virajpet is in excellent condition and would be a pleasure to drive.

Originally Posted by FasterPhene

I am planning to drive from Madikeri to Tellicherry during the Nov 1st long weekend. Can somebody please advice what is the best route for me to take and what might be the approximate time I might need for the journey? Thanks in advance.

Madikeri to Telichery, dont look elsewhere, follow this route:
Madikkeri-Virajpet-through virajpet town, take Malabar road to Perumpadi/Telicherry- Perumpadi check post- Makkutta (ghat section)- Kootupuzha bridge (take left towards Iritty after crossing the bridge)- Iritty (make sure you take left and enter the Iritty bridge at the junction just before the bridge)-Mattannur-Take left at the first main junction (y shaped) in Mattannur town- koothuparamba-take left branch of the Y junction immediately after the bus stand (bus stand comes on right side) (straight leads you to Kannur) - Kathiroor-Telicherry. Roads are in good condition from Perumpadi check post onwards. Budget around 2.5-3 hours for the total journey with sedate driving.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by haripg

I plan to go to Calicut this Thu.
Plan to leave around 1:00pm in the afternoon from Bangalore.
How would the traffic be thro Mysore - Dushera festivities would have ended? Should I consider taking the Kanakapura road?

Yes, festivities as such would have ended by Thursday evening. However you will be reaching Mysore around 4 PM if you start by 1 PM from Bangalore. Expect traffic from Srirangapattanam - Nanjangaud strech. Kanakapura road would be a better option of two.

[SafeDrive]

I'm planning on a drive from Chennai to Trivandrum. Would like to start early morning to reach TVM in the evening. Can anyone please suggest good places to have food - breakfast and lunch? The preferance would be to avoid the big cities for this, so anything on the high way is preferable.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by SafeDrive

I'm planning on a drive from Chennai to Trivandrum. Would like to start early morning to reach TVM in the evening. Can anyone please suggest good places to have food - breakfast and lunch? The preferance would be to avoid the big cities for this, so anything on the high way is preferable.

BF - A2B at Ulundurpet (200km from Chennai)

Hotel Capsi (Around 140km from Madurai) after the second toll (thanks to NPV for this data)

Dont know of anything in between Trichy and Madurai. Would have been ideal for a break in that stretch.
I wonder how come there is no place between these two cities on the 4-lane.

[deepclutch]

Originally Posted by sandsun7

The best and shortest route would be Muvattupuzha-Angamali-Thrissur-Kuttipuram-Valanchery-Chelari-Kozhikode byepass-Vadakara-Telicherry-Mattannur-Iritty-koottupuzha-Virajpet-Madikeri. around 380kms total. very good roads almost all the way, but expect heavy traffic during day time. Would be difficult to maintain high speeds, so budget time accordingly. The ghat section from Kootupuzha to Virajpet is in excellent condition and would be a pleasure to drive. [snip]

from kozhikode, how many hours journey is Madikeri through Thalassery? I need to reach madikeri by 2PM. think muvattupuzha-kojhikode journey will be 4.30-5 hours.

another route google maps shows is through kozhikode-mananthavadi. which route is in better condition.

[rameshnanda]

Originally Posted by SafeDrive

I'm planning on a drive from Chennai to Trivandrum. Would like to start early morning to reach TVM in the evening. Can anyone please suggest good places to have food - breakfast and lunch? The preferance would be to avoid the big cities for this, so anything on the high way is preferable.

I would prefer Aryaas over A2B for the breakfast. Food is becoming average these days at A2B. Aryaas is located in Villupuram on the left side of the NH itself.

Originally Posted by ampere

Dont know of anything in between Trichy and Madurai. Would have been ideal for a break in that stretch.
I wonder how come there is no place between these two cities on the 4-lane.

Actually there are 2 options, A2B and Hotel Temple city. Both are located just before the toll in Madurai and are opposite to each other. Again, I prefer Hotel Temple city as the lunch here is just awesome. A2B is crap. Hotel Temple city is located on the left side of the highway when coming from Trichy.

I have marked the hotel location in RED.


More closer view. A2B is located at the BPCL campus.

[sandsun7]

Originally Posted by deepclutch

from kozhikode, how many hours journey is Madikeri through Thalassery? I need to reach madikeri by 2PM. think muvattupuzha-kojhikode journey will be 4.30-5 hours.

Kozhikode-Telicherry around 1.45min to 2 hrs in medium traffic. There are lot of bottlenecks though, Mahe town being one of the most infamous one! Telicherry to Iritty may take around 1 hr. Iritty to Virajpet would be around 1 hr and another 1 hour to Madikeri from Virajpet. These are very conservative timings, you could drive faster, but with lot more risk.

another route google maps shows is through kozhikode-mananthavadi. which route is in better condition.

Avoid that route like hell. The road condition from Gonikoppal to Virajpet is horrible to say the least! Else you will have to take a detour and go via hunsur-Peryapatna which is quite a long route. The Telichery-virajpet route is the shortest and best option.