[lohithrao]

As mcl mentioned shimoga route is very doable... you need to watch for the pot holes apart from the tarikeri stretch, also after shimoga till sagara the road gets rough where but nothing to worry about

I liked the NH 17 aswell Kundapur is bad but improves after that Bindur to Bhatkala you get some nice stretch but near to Bathakal some bad stretches aswell...after Bhatkala till Ankola the road gets really nice reminded me of god old NH17 near to Gokarna again the road gets lil bad.....but compared to last year this is really nice!

[Taz-On-The-Road]

Thanks for that info @mclaren. Will try the Shimoga route on the onward journey when I visit Goa this month. Advised my brother against taking this route when he visited last month as I had read up quite a few reviews about the treacherous roads after Honnavar i.e NH-17.

[sushrutha]

Recently I had been to Goa.
I took Chikmagalur-Tarikere-Shimoga-Sagara-Honnavar-Karwar-Goa route.
The road condition between tarikere-Bhadravathi is pathetic. stretch between Bhadravathi-Shimoga-Sagara-Honnavar is good , scenic.
Now from Honnavar till ankola is just horrible, It's in real worse situation.
While returning from Goa I took
Goa-Karwar-Honnavar-Bhatkal-Kundapur-Udupi-Karkala-Ujire-Mudigere-Home
The road is worse from ankola all the way till Bhatkala-Byndoor.
Road repair is going on slowly on National HORROR-17 all the way from udupi-byndoor.

[laluks]

Originally Posted by sushrutha

Recently I had been to Goa.

The road is worse from ankola all the way till Bhatkala-Byndoor.

I have taken NH17 from karwar till maravanthe on Septemeber 30th.
Ankola Kumta stretch is bad. But after Kumta till Maravnthe was good except for 10 Km near shiroor.

Has it deteriorated in the last one month ? All the way it is bad??

[ravibhat]

They are doing road repair work. So they have removed the layer which they had put few months back. So that has made road not smooth to travel. My best route is:

Bangalore - hubli - Belgaum - Amboli - Swantwadi - Goa(best one for north goa).
Bangalore - Haveri - Sirsi - ankola - goa (Best one for South goa).
Bangalore - Shimoga - Sagari - Siddapura - Sirsi - Ankola - goa (quiet ok but you would loose speed).

Then comes the last choice which I don't recomand:
Bangalore - hubli - Ankola - Goa and Bangalore - Shimoga - Honnavar - Ankola - Goa.

Regards,

Ravi.

[Taz-On-The-Road]

Yeah. I second @ravibhat on his choice of route for North Goa. According to my brother who travelled to Mapusa a couple of weeks back, the Amboli-Sawantwadi route is a fantastic drive and is a driver's delight. So highly confused about which route to take when I am going this month:
Shimoga-Honnavar-Karwar-Goa or
Hubli-Belgaum-Amboli-Sawantwadi-Goa

[ravibhat]

Take Hubli-Belgaum-Amboli-Sawantwadi-Goa you will love it

Around Chitradurga patch work is done last week.

Road between Beerur - Tarikere - Bhadravati (around 30km) still in bad condition and shimoga - sagar - honnavar at least 50km not so smooth road and that ghat section consumes time because of curvey road. honnavar - kumta - ankola nh17 is not so good. Its full of dust and very hot in day time.

I suggest take via Belgaum - amboli.

Regards,

Ravi.

[anainar]

Originally Posted by ravibhat

Take Hubli-Belgaum-Amboli-Sawantwadi-Goa you will love it

I second that. I did Pune-Nipani-Amboli-Sawantwadi route last week and the road is nice, expcept for few patches of bad roads in between. The ghat section is a nice drive. The drive from Nipani to Candolim in North goa took almost 4 hours.

I did see a board saying Belgaum while returning from Amboli, but not sure about the road quality.

Nainar

[sushrutha]

Originally Posted by laluks

I have taken NH17 from karwar till maravanthe on Septemeber 30th.
Ankola Kumta stretch is bad. But after Kumta till Maravnthe was good except for 10 Km near shiroor.

Has it deteriorated in the last one month ? All the way it is bad??

It is not bad all the way from Ankola to Marvanthe, but the stretch between Ankola-Kumta-Honnavar makes one feel like the whole of NH - 17 has gone for a toss.
Repair work has started from kundapur till Shiroor.
FYI - My date of travel on this route was 25th October 08

[Taz-On-The-Road]

Thanks for all those notes. Planning to do Hubli-Belgaum-Amboli-Sawantwadi when I visit later this month.

[goandude]

Originally Posted by whitemm550

i personally feel that the Goa- Belgaum-Hubli-Bangalore route is the best

how is the hubli chitradurga stretch? it was bad a year ago with so many diversions. incomplete work etc. Has any work been done since last year?

[filcord]

This a question to the mods.
since there are so many threads on route queries and the info supplied changes from month to month, is it possible to have a road-map link, which gets updated with comments on particular sections. For example, to this thread could one have a road-map, with latest comments from members on the condition of specific sections?

[lancer_rit]

Originally Posted by ravibhat

Take Hubli-Belgaum-Amboli-Sawantwadi-Goa you will love it

Around Chitradurga patch work is done last week.

Road between Beerur - Tarikere - Bhadravati (around 30km) still in bad condition and shimoga - sagar - honnavar at least 50km not so smooth road and that ghat section consumes time because of curvey road. honnavar - kumta - ankola nh17 is not so good. Its full of dust and very hot in day time.

I suggest take via Belgaum - amboli.

Regards,
Ravi.

Well here's my take :
Shimoga - Sagar is perfect roads, no problems at all. Less traffic means you can make fast progress for an undivided highway. I am told Sagar to Jog is quite fine too.

NH17 does have its large problems. I recently did Karwar -> Mirijam -> Sirsi -> ... twice.

The NH206 drive is very scenic and with low traffic, so I am partial to it :-)

Here's a summary of my trip about a month back :

* BLR -> NH4 -> Haveri -> SH2 -> Sirsi -> SH69 -> Mirijam -> NH17 -> Karwar
* Karwar -> NH17 -> Mirijan -> SH69 -> Sirsi -> SH48 -> Banavasi-> SH48 -> Sorab -> dist road ?-> Sagar ->
NH206 -> Shimoga -> SH48 detour through Bhadra dam (bypass Bhadravati) -> Tarikere ->
SH57 (bypass 6km of very bad stretch to Birur) -> Lingadahalli -> dist road ? -> Birur -> NH206 -> Tumkur bypass -> NH4 -> BLR

On BLR -> Karwar,
NH4 bad roads/pot holes /diversions from Chitradurga to Davangere, around Rannebennur, and to Haveri.
Haveri -> Sirsi, some rough surfaces with odd potholes / speed breakers, otherwise largely good
Sirsi -> Mirijan, butter smooth, beautiful ghat roads largely
Mirijan -> Ankola, periodic huge craters, potholes, bad road surfaces on NH17 (on/off for 30+km) - take care, esp @ night
Ankola -> Karwar, smooth NH17

On Karwar -> BLR,
Sirsi -> Banavasi - good to very good road
Banavasi -> Sorab - bad patches, rough surfaces (avg 30-40kmph) but no big potholes
Sorab -> Sagar - largely good with few bad stretches of rough surface (scenic drive)
Sagar -> Shimoga - great
Shimoga -> Bhadra dam -> Tarikere - first part is very good. Nearing Bhadra dam, bad surface stretches with odd pothole starts, and persists more or less on/off to Bhadravati
(not really sure the additional distance and current road surface makes it better than taking NH206 to Bhadravati directly and onwards to Tarikere) ?
Tarikere -> Lingadahalli (SH57) - very good
Lingadalli -> Birur - good to very good with odd rough surface
Birur -> Tumkur bypass - good to very good ( a few bad patches)
Tumkur bypass -> NH4 - ok to bad to worse ! Big craters come unannounced, and its a challenge in the night - drive slow

Cheers,

[reignofchaos]

I see two routes that go from Belgaum towards goa - The NH4A route via Londa and the other route via Amboli. Which one is better out of the two?

[laluks]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

I see two routes that go from Belgaum towards goa - The NH4A route via Londa and the other route via Amboli. Which one is better out of the two?

Take Amboli - sawantwadi - mapuca - Panjim.
Good scenic route, and can have break here at amboli waterfalls.
Vittal Kamat is also on the way for food!!