[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by NGM

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.

Take the route mentioned by Ampere for onward and Pykara-Gudalur-Perinthalmanna for return.

If you start at 3pm while returning, you can visit Pykara and hill top on the way and by the time you cross Vazhikadavu, traffic will be less.

[NGM]

Originally Posted by ampere

Take a modified version of the second one:

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

Thanx ampere,binand and coolclouds for the input.
If i take this route i guess i will be between Pollachi-Annur during breakfast time.
Is there any good restaurants with clean toilets near Pollachi,Palladam,Annur which you recommend for a breakfast?

There is another post by a fellow bhpian in Bangalore-Manjeri thread that road between Gudalur and Nilambur is bad for a small stretch.Anyways we can't expect a very smooth surface in kerala especially after monsoon.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post3507776

[ampere]

Originally Posted by NGM

Is there any good restaurants with clean toilets near Pollachi,Palladam,Annur which you recommend for a breakfast?

Best option would be to have it Pollachi. Two places I know:
- Nivethas Inn
- Sri Sakhthi.
(Google for their locations)


Meanwhile I have seen good hotels along the state highway also, which might be open.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by NGM

Thanx ampere,binand and coolclouds for the input.
If i take this route i guess i will be between Pollachi-Annur during breakfast time.
Is there any good restaurants with clean toilets near Pollachi,Palladam,Annur which you recommend for a breakfast?

There is another post by a fellow bhpian in Bangalore-Manjeri thread that road between Gudalur and Nilambur is bad for a small stretch.Anyways we can't expect a very smooth surface in kerala especially after monsoon.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post3507776

In Pollachi, you can break for lunch/breakfast at Sakthi Hotels. I have been there before for my trip to Valparai.

[PatienceWins]

Just came back from trip to Kerala.

Took the usual Bangalore> Salem> Coimbatore Bypass> Walayar> Palakkad> Trissur> Aluva while going. As expected, the road from Walayar> Vadakkenchery was bad. Hardly any road in most of the places.

While coming back I took Vadakkenchery> Pollachi> Palladam > Tirupur> Avinashi> Saken> Bangalore. Very good roads throughout, especially after crossing pollachi. Though I had set mapmyindia to go from Palladam to Avinashi through Mangalam, it directed me through Tirupur and I was stuck in Tirupur town during the peak hour traffic. Lost an hour because of this. Finally reached Avinashi from Tirupur and very good roads throughout, I think there was an extra distance of 50 kms through this route.

I passed through Thoppur ghat section just after midnight. There was heavy truck traffic in this route and the road was pinch dark. In many sections trucks had occupied both the lanes and just crawling with heavy load, without giving any option to overtake. A truck suddenly changed the lane and hit my rear door badly when I was crawling next to it with another truck crawling in front of me. As I was sandwiched in between trucks, I could not move easily when I could sense the truck hitting against the rear door and pushing the car. I did not stop as I was travelling with family. Dropped the car at Advaith today, claiming insurance as the estimate for repairing the door is close to 10k.

[kala]

Originally Posted by NGM

Thanx ampere,binand and coolclouds for the input.
If i take this route i guess i will be between Pollachi-Annur during breakfast time.
Is there any good restaurants with clean toilets near Pollachi,Palladam,Annur which you recommend for a breakfast?

There is another post by a fellow bhpian in Bangalore-Manjeri thread that road between Gudalur and Nilambur is bad for a small stretch.Anyways we can't expect a very smooth surface in kerala especially after monsoon.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post3507776

I'm not too sure if the detour via pollachi karumathampatti annur would really be worth it.. The route via Nilambur-Gudalur would certainly be faster, especially if you're going to be driving the stretch before Nilambur in the morning before the traffic picks up. (The real bad stretch on that route - between Gudalur and Theppekkaadu - is applicable only when you're travelling to Mysore / Bangalore, not when going to Ooty)

If you're taking that route, Nilambur would be a good place to stop for breakfast. Can't suggest specific restaurants since I'm not a regular on that route, but recall seeing a KTDC restaurant a little bit after you pass nilambur towards gudalur, looked decent enough from outside.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by kala

If you're taking that route, Nilambur would be a good place to stop for breakfast. Can't suggest specific restaurants since I'm not a regular on that route, but recall seeing a KTDC restaurant a little bit after you pass nilambur towards gudalur, looked decent enough from outside.

That place is called KTDC Tamarind. Its comes before the railway station exit while heading towards Gudalur.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

Just came back from trip to Kerala.

Took the usual Bangalore> Salem> Coimbatore Bypass> Walayar> Palakkad> Trissur> Aluva while going. As expected, the road from Walayar> Vadakkenchery was bad. Hardly any road in most of the places.

While coming back I took Vadakkenchery> Pollachi> Palladam > Tirupur> Avinashi> Saken> Bangalore. Very good roads throughout, especially after crossing pollachi. Though I had set mapmyindia to go from Palladam to Avinashi through Mangalam, it directed me through Tirupur and I was stuck in Tirupur town during the peak hour traffic. Lost an hour because of this. Finally reached Avinashi from Tirupur and very good roads throughout, I think there was an extra distance of 50 kms through this route.

I passed through Thoppur ghat section just after midnight. There was heavy truck traffic in this route and the road was pinch dark. In many sections trucks had occupied both the lanes and just crawling with heavy load, without giving any option to overtake. A truck suddenly changed the lane and hit my rear door badly when I was crawling next to it with another truck crawling in front of me. As I was sandwiched in between trucks, I could not move easily when I could sense the truck hitting against the rear door and pushing the car. I did not stop as I was travelling with family. Dropped the car at Advaith today, claiming insurance as the estimate for repairing the door is close to 10k.

Why did u chose to come via Tiruppur. Many a times traffic in the town can be mad.
Glad to know you and your family are safe. It is a lesson for all of us to be careful while overtaking trucks and not to get sandwiched between trucks.

[ajaypjayaraj]

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

Why did u chose to come via Tiruppur. Many a times traffic in the town can be mad.

Glad to know you and your family are safe. It is a lesson for all of us to be careful while overtaking trucks and not to get sandwiched between trucks.

I think he already mentioned that maps routed him via Tirupur town. That is when navigation decides to take us for a ride.

These days navigation maps available in India has improved a lot. I've been using navigation since the time mapmyindia launched and I know how many times the navigation has taken me to or through land never heard or seen before! Believe me it's a lot improved what you get these days and covers a lot more roads. And now you have the option of adding route points if you want to avoid an area in route.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

Though I had set mapmyindia to go from Palladam to Avinashi through Mangalam, it directed me through Tirupur and I was stuck in Tirupur town during the peak hour traffic.

Been there done that. Thanks to MapMyIndia . In my first trip through this Palladam route, I had royally lost my way and MapMyIndia took me through Tiruppur and Uthukuli and then landed me some where near the first toll booth (Vijayamangalam?) on the highway. Now that I know the route better I realise that right after Pollachi town itself MapMyIndia had directed me on a different route to Palladam and messed up things even further as I moved ahead.

This time thanks to a Team-BHP-ian I had got the exact coordinates of the junctions and major points on this route. I plotted this on MapMyIndia device, saved the route well in advance. And this time I covered this route with not even a single incident of losing my way . My advice would be to take a similar approach when using MapMyIndia. Plot the route well in advance and save the route. The device does have a funny logic when it comes to determining the route.

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

Why did u chose to come via Tiruppur. Many a times traffic in the town can be mad.

MapMyIndia may be the culprit here. As noted above, even I had faced the same situation some time back. The device took me through Tiruppur and Uthukuli, places I would have never other wise visited during my life time.

Originally Posted by ajaypjayaraj

These days navigation maps available in India has improved a lot. I've been using navigation since the time mapmyindia launched and I know how many times the navigation has taken me to or through land never heard or seen before!

Totally agree. I am one of the earliest users of MapMyIndia, started using it some where in 2007 time frame. And Maps were really worse at that time. Now things have really improved a lot, but I still do get irritated at times on MapMyIndia's routing logic.

It was some where in 2008, and it was my first long drive with my wife. We had planned to goto Munnar and MapMyIndia readily accepted the Hotel where we planned to stay. She claimed she knew the place . Finally the device took us to the middle of a huge tea plantation on Kannan Devan Hills. Leave alone a hotel, the place did not even have a tea shop there. There was no mobile coverage and I also did not have the VHF set at that time. I had to come back all the way to Munnar town and call up the hotel folks and ask for directions. The hotel was right there in the town!

[bejoy]

Originally Posted by ampere

Best Option: (Fastest in my opinion and has good roads all the way)

Bangalore-Salem-Avinashi-Mangalam-Palladam-Pollachi-Alathur-Pazhayannur-Wadakkanchery-Kunnamkulam-GVR

Route Link

I am planning to take this route to Palakkad tomorrow (starting around 2PM). I usually take NH47 and this is my first attempt on this route.

How is the Pollachi- Palakkad road condition? Also how long it will take from Avinashi to Palakkad, if I reach Avinashi at say 7PM.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by bejoy

How is the Pollachi- Palakkad road condition? Also how long it will take from Avinashi to Palakkad, if I reach Avinashi at say 7PM.

The road is good all the way. But in the evening hours, there wont be many on this section to Pollachi. Pollachi-Palakkad may have decent traffic (I think, I am not sure).

[dean5545]

Did a 3200km Mumbai-Kodungallur-Mumbai this week. While going was going to take the NH4 till Hiriyur and then turn to Mysore. But got off track when someone on road told me to take a U turn and go by the Shivmoga route which was a very bad decision. We wasted atleast 3 hours and then decided to go to Bangalore and stay the night there.

In the mean while hit a dog and rear ended a Matiz on Nice road.

Stayed the night at Hotel Keys whose experience was purely average the rooms weren't cleaned they said they will pack breakfast but in the end said the kitchen hasn't opened yet.

Next day left for Walayar at 7.00am got stuck in traffic near Hosur for more than an hour. These toll workers need to have a look at the Dahisar toll naka. After that the roads were good till Avinashi. After Avinashi till Coimbatore you will find speed breakers in the middle of the highway which will bring your speed down considerably.

Walayar to Thrissur the roads are pretty bad full of pot holes and diversions. Reached Kodungallur at 5.15 pm.

While coming back left Kodungallur at 6.30am reached Mysore by 1.30pm and joined Hiriyur NH4 at 5.45pm. Roads till then are state highways so expect a lot of speed breakers. Would not recommend this route. It's a shorter route than NH4-Walayar but takes equal amount of time. Had to be alert on the two lane roads between Belgaum and Hubli. The buses overtaking from the other side will make you stop dead for them to overtake. Nothing wrong other than that. Reached hotel Sai International at 11.30pm. Touched Mumbai-Pune Expressway at 2.30am. Did not experience any flooding near Satara as opposed to what people have reported. Reached Mumbai Malad at 4.45am. That's all I remember.

A big shout to tbhpian ranjit who was constantly in touch with me and kept directing me. Thanks Alot buddy. I can't thank you enough next time in Mumbai dinner on me

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by bejoy

How is the Pollachi- Palakkad road condition? Also how long it will take from Avinashi to Palakkad, if I reach Avinashi at say 7PM.

Avinashi-Pollachi would take you about an hour and a half. Pollachi-Palakkad (Kootupatha junction) at night time will take you a little over an hour. Palladam-Pollachi will be devoid of any traffic for the most part. Pollachi-Palakkad stretch would see some sparse traffic.

Roads are excellent all along. There is a not-so-smooth stretch as you approach the New Scheme road in Pollachi, you might even find some barricades there. A couple of potholes were there near the checkpost on the TN side, the last time I did this route, a month ago.

[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by dean5545

Stayed the night at Hotel Keys whose experience was purely average the rooms weren't cleaned they said they will pack breakfast but in the end said the kitchen hasn't opened yet.

I was just wondering why you were particular about this hotel! Its better to exit Bangalore traffic and stay somewhere.

Did few trips within Kerala during this week.

Ernakulam-Alwaye-Karukutty-Mala: Good condition, except for few bad stretches after Karukutty. Some repair work is going on Ernakulam-Alwaye section.

Mala-Athani-Ernakulam: Again, good condition and shorter route compared to above.

Ernakulam-Tripunithura-Thalayolaparambu-Alleppey: Took some interior roads to bypass Vaikom and Cherthalai towns. Roads are generally good except for some small interconnecting roads.

Alleppey-Kollam-Attingal: NH47 in good condition. Some rough surface at Karuvatta and a small detour at Kollam town (some bridge construction) through KSRTC bus stand. There were few potholes in NH but can be avoided.

Attingal-Venjaramood-Vembayam-Nedumangadu-Aryanad-Kallikkad-Vellarada-Karakkonam-Parassala: Good surface all the way, except for few potholes. Its excellent for fun driving, no straight road for even 100 meters. Traffic is sparse.

Parasala-Poovar-Vizhinjam-Kovalam-Bypass-Kazhakkoottam-Attingal: Clean surface with high traffic. Excellent for night driving.