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Hi,

I had taken the Belgaum-Amboli-Baga route while going. Its a superfast road till Belgaum. Road is patchy after that, but you can still manage 40km/hr in a sedan. Ghats will slow you down with its beauty and the narrow roads, but condition is good. Numerous waterfalls gleefuly falling down in this stretch may cause traffic jam during public holidays, we had minimal issues on Staurday noon. After the ghats, the road is patchy in some places before Mapusa, again manageable at around 50-60kms/hr average speed. Overall a decent route to take if you love ghats, falls and greenery and is not in a hurry.

I made a big mistake by returning via Honavar-Jog-Shimoga-Tumkur. The road condition is horrible in this stretch. Should be avoided unless you drive an SUV and has a strong back.

Best route for a fast drive should be Karwar-Ankola-Hubli-Chitradurga-Tumkur route even if one were to start from north goa.

Rgds

VW

Thanks VW for the update, this is encouraging.

Good update, for fast drive Shimoga route is always not advisable. Only during 2005-07 we used to cover Bangalore-shimoga-Jog-sirsi in 8 hours but later on route has more traffic and potholes and badly maintained. But it is still best scenic route for slow drive.

Ravi.

To asdom:

In that area my best favorite beach is near Kumta in Bandar road. it has plain and calm big beach and light house near port.

To reach a beach near Honnavar I suggest you try apsara konda which is 5km after honnavar towards bhatkal. Else between Honnavar - Kumta there are few beaches.

Ravi.

I took two breaks of 15 minutes each or food. Further, I took a 5 minute break once every two hours, just to stretch myself.

The timing was good possibly because I started rather early from Goa (4.00AM), and I had some good Illayaraja songs on my stereo ;-)

Shyam

Hi everyone!
I was planning to do Bangalore - Goa via Belgaum next week. And I was wondering what is the best road?
I did NH4A Belgaum-Khanapur-Londa- Mollem In the first week of july and roads were pretty good. Is it still good?
Thanks!

If you want reach fast then take NH63 Yellapur Ankola route from Hubli.

Just read this news on Ambolim Ghat:

===
Landslide at Amboli Ghat disrupts traffic.

TEAM HERALD
BELGAUM
Traffic along the Belgaum-Goa highway was disrupted for a couple of hours when a minor landslide occurred at Amboli ghat on Wednesday afternoon.
According to sources, the fragile cliff where the landslides have occurred about three times, gave in again as few boulders were seen coming down from the cliff, blocking traffic in the area.
A large number of vehicles were stranded on either side of the road as the police faced difficulties in controlling the vehicular movement.
However, the district administration managed to clear the debris by late Wednesday evening as the slow vehicular movement resumed after 6 pm, sources informed.
Meanwhile, questions are now being raised about the safety of Amboli ghat, which is the only link to connect Konkan with north Karnataka. Moreover, a large number of Goans prefer this route to proceed to Belgaum and Kolhapur.
===

Thanks asdon for your input. Much appreciated.
But any idea how the NH4A's condition is, coz I have to about half an hour's worth of work in Belgaum on my way to Goa. Therefore was looking at a way into Goa directly.

Hi

I had done a road trip from kochi-mysore-tumkur-goa-manglore-kochi in the 2nd week of july 2011. Instead of going all the way upto belgaum i took a turn at a place called kittur onto SH56 which took me to a place called bidi(12 kms). From there it was only 6kms to khanapur and NH4a. I saved hell of a lot of time avoiding belgaum. The downside was that the kittur to bidi stretch took half an hour. From their it was smooth sailing all the way upto ponda. Also a piece of advice avoid this section of going from east to west karnataka in the night during the monsoons, as the ghats are usually very wet. Also the trucks have a tendency to break down. Also there is an alternate route from khanapur to sanquelim, Its actually the shortest route to panjim. The road is in a bad condition upto the goa border, ie anjuna lake/surla. One of the finest sceneries and forest areas are there on this route, as well as a bit of wild life. The negatives are narrow roads and only one resort called wildernest is on the route. The great thing is goa border is only 45 kms from khanapur. If you have a little adventure streak in you, definitely try this route.

Cheers! and safe driving

Please avoid NH 4A, I went to Goa Via NH4A and regret my choice, the road is full of large potholes(I doubt if you see them then you might not use the word) you would ever see anywhere else. Forget hatch or sedans, even SUVs will have tough time on that road.

When did you do this trip? did you take Ramnagar route?

+1. I had recently done a trip to Goa. We opted for NH63 while going in and got back via NH4A. The latter is very time consuming and the roads are in bad shape.
NH4-NH63-NH17 is better.

Asdon

Yes i passed through Ramnagar, but I entered NH4a from Khanapur. I guess the condition have gone bad in the last 2 months. This is the problem in Karnataka and Kerala, come the monsoons and the roads go for a complete toss. The most amazing pot holed road is in between Mangalore and Kasargode. I saw a truck turning turtle while negotiating a 'truckhole'

Cheers and safe driving.

Guys I went through the thread and think more I read, I get more confused.
So there are three routes from bangalore as per google maps-
1. NH4 - BLR- TUMKUR- Davngere- Haveri- Ramnagar- Goa

2. NH-206- NH-17- BLR- TUMKUR- Shimoga- Ankola - Karwar-Goa

3. NH-206 - SH 47 - NH4 - BLR- TUMKUR- Hulliyer - Hosadurga- Davangere- (rest as #1)

One says NH17 is pathetic and other tell to avoid NH4.. Which one is preferable ???

I will be starting on 30th sept.