[floyd.bell]

Driving down to Gokarna from BLR via Haveri - Sirsi - Kumta. Can somebody please suggest good options for lunch between Chitradurga and Haveri or even beyond Haveri on the Sirsi road.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by floyd.bell

Driving down to Gokarna from BLR via Haveri - Sirsi - Kumta. Can somebody please suggest good options for lunch between Chitradurga and Haveri or even beyond Haveri on the Sirsi road.

Between Chitradurga and Haveri you can bet on Apoorva Resorts before Davanagere Bypass and Kamat Upachar at the start of Ranebennur Bypass.

Both of these are separated by 30 minutes max.

I am not sure about a good place between Haveri and Sirsi other than Sirsi town itself.

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by abirnale

I will be departing from Bangalore tomorrow as said earlier - 7am! I will update about the route in couple of days.

It was mess on the road today! The queues at every tollbooth was around 500 mtrs or more. Minimum 7-10 minutes at every booth we spent. People driving like crazy and pissing you off every now and then! Welcome to holidays travel on road 😬

As mentioned earlier, I took Mugad-Alnavar-Ramnagar-Anmod-Molem-Ponda route. The roads are fantastic. A bit narrower and twister than Chorala but nothing to worry other than traffic density. Absolutely no brainer for South Goa, Ponda and areas.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by abirnale

A bit narrower and twister than Chorala but nothing to worry other than traffic density. Absolutely no brainer for South Goa, Ponda and areas.

Sure? Anmod Ghat when you compare that to Chorla feels less twisty. Wide as well. Was it the traffic here today that makes you say this?

In fact, Chorla and Amboli are almost similar but Anmod is a "fast Ghat" as you never know when it started and where it ends.

[vivek95]

Originally Posted by abirnale

As mentioned earlier, I took Mugad-Alnavar-Ramnagar-Anmod-Molem-Ponda route. The roads are fantastic. A bit narrower and twister than Chorala but nothing to worry other than traffic density. Absolutely no brainer for South Goa, Ponda and areas.

Thanks for the update. Don't mean to nitpick, but just on a lighter note - Take Chorla route on return if possible, you will correct yourself regarding your views on Anmod ghat Twistier in the ghat per se, fine, but it's definitely much wider than Chorla ghats. Chorla, Amboli , Anshi ghats are similar i.e narrow whereas Anmod is as wide as say Amba, Kumbharli, Lavasa, Arebail ghats etc.

[abirnale]

Yes - it may be traffic or I am just used to Chorala. I agree that anmod is a small section of ghat but rest of the route is plagued with curves and buttons on the median. Add to it narrower roads - I couldn't average more than 30 kmph today. May be due to traffic overtaking was too riskier, so had to stick to snails pace. May be just psychology but I am used to making door to door in around 9 hours. My truck on the barrier routs with smaller and regular curves too feels throwing sideways. Never felt like that before on Chorala and have averaged 50+ kmph on worst days too.

Chorala has some straights that help cover up on time that Anmod route lacks a little I felt.

[nitinr30]

Originally Posted by abirnale

It was mess on the road today! The queues at every tollbooth was around 500 mtrs or more. Minimum 7-10 minutes at every booth we spent. People driving like crazy and pissing you off every now and then! Welcome to holidays travel on road 😬

As mentioned earlier, I took Mugad-Alnavar-Ramnagar-Anmod-Molem-Ponda route. The roads are fantastic. A bit narrower and twister than Chorala but nothing to worry other than traffic density. Absolutely no brainer for South Goa, Ponda and areas.

I swear. It was frustrating to keep waiting at every toll booth and people just doing zig zag to jump to any fast moving toll lane and creating even more chaos. I stayed back at Hubli and will start tomorrow, on same route but head to North goa..

[aravindkumarp]

Originally Posted by nitinr30

I swear. It was frustrating to keep waiting at every toll booth and people just doing zig zag to jump to any fast moving toll lane and creating even more chaos. I stayed back at Hubli and will start tomorrow, on same route but head to North goa..

I plan to do the same trip in Jan, Could you please share details about the accommodation in Hubli and feedback.

[Develish]

Originally Posted by abirnale

It was mess on the road today! The queues at every tollbooth was around 500 mtrs or more. Minimum 7-10 minutes at every booth we spent. People driving like crazy and pissing you off every now and then! Welcome to holidays travel on road 😬

Amen. I was on the same road. Left Bangalore around 5am. It was a horrid experience till the toll gate beyond Tumkur. Tweeted to the Honourable Minister Nitin Gadkari.

I have a Fastag pass, and none of the operators till Sira had the Fastag lane dedicated. Sira and beyond Sira it was 30 seconds per toll gate.

To fellow BHPians, I would strongly recommend getting the Fastag pass. The BETL office in Electronic City is one place I am aware off. One time PITA, then everything is online.

I was shocked that Goa charges Rs 250 entry tax at Mollem.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by Develish

I have a Fastag pass, and none of the operators till Sira had the Fastag lane dedicated. Sira and beyond Sira it was 30 seconds per toll gate.

This unfortunately is the case with most of the Fastag lanes across every toll booth especially during rush time. Hope this will be solved only once more Fastag enabled vehicles hit the road.

However, positive informartion from your post is that all toll booths are accepting Fastag.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by drhoneycake

Hope this helps.

Thanks so much for all the help

We had a great trip, we did not have enough time on such a short trip for visits to Gokarna and Yana given that there was a function to attend at Kumta that needed half a day.

Onward journey we started at 4pm, stopped for a coffee break at Mysore Cafe, Chitradurga (on the service road near the Nijalingappa Memorial). Would recommend this place, decent food (snacks) and restrooms.

Dinner break was at Deol Punjabi Hotel on right side near Haveri. We reached Kumta few minutes past midnight.

Posted details of the route, tolls, etc on the Sirsi thread here

We visited the Idagunji temple, couple of beaches around Kumta and the Mirjan Fort - all nice places.

Return journey - stopped for lunch at the Kamat next to IOC petrol bunk and CCD near Haveri.

[null]

Originally Posted by floyd.bell

Driving down to Gokarna from BLR via Haveri - Sirsi - Kumta. Can somebody please suggest good options for lunch between Chitradurga and Haveri or even beyond Haveri on the Sirsi road.

Check Vaishnavi Restaurant at Harihar (tagged in google maps now) if you are yet to travel . I have mentioned it a few posts earlier here.

Edit: Looks like the tag has disappeared. This restaurant is opp to the "Harihar Police Station". I confirm that the policestation tag exists in Google maps :P

[rbp]

I did the Goa drive and back. I did

Blr - Chennrayapatna - arsikere - Shimoga (halt).

Next day

Shimoga - Sagar - Talaguppa - Siddapur - Sirsi - Kumta - Karwar - Goa. This route is wow, brilliant to drive I could hardly spot any potholes. Roads are wide and less traffic, I did this route in less that 5.5 hrs. If you like driving this is the route to opt for.

[airbus]

Did Bangalore - Goa trip on 27 Dec. We took Bangalore - Hubli Bypass - Anmod - Mollem - Ponda - Colva. Started at 6 am and reached at 5 pm with couple of breaks. There were some queues in the first few toll plazas, but after Tumkur queues in toll plazas were normal.

We will be returning on 1st January. If we start at around noon from Colva, are we expected to get huge queues in toll plazas? Planning to return via Karwar.

[foxtrot]

I did Bangalore to Goa on 18th and returned on 22nd of December 2016.
As decided took the Anmod route both for going and coming.
The roads have been patched up/repaired(last year it was horrible). It was a smooth drive till the destination.

I agree with "abirnale" this time I felt the route a bit too twistee(may be psychologically or I don't know), infact my 5 year old daughter threw-up 2-3 times in the ghats, which has never happened before either on Ooty/Coonoor or Coorg routes(not even on Anmod or Chorla routes in my last year drives).

I left Bangalore at 6:19am, and reached Goa(Candolim), in around 10 hours and 30 minutes with around 60-70 minutes of total break time(including stopover at Kamat Upachar).

While returning started at around 9:45am from Candolim and reached Bangalore at 8:40pm, with multiple stops as my daughter was uncomfortable on the ghats(a bit too much).

While returning we stopped at Hill View Resorts, and we found the toilets very unclean, and food below average(rather bad).

Total toll while going costed around 800/- rupees and interestingly while returning little less than 600/- rupees.

While coming back we also took a small evening tea break at Athithya, somewhere around Sira. Place was much better than Hill View though not as good as Kamat.

We stayed at Santana Beach Resort. Got a good deal, and was good bang for the bucks, as it was right on the beach, and crowd was good too. Neither over crowded nor too aloof, it was perfect.

Another plus point was that, it had its own shack the famous "Kalamari".
Though this time I found the food wasn't upto the class it was last several years. Yet, much better than the most of the shacks.

After coming back, I am again feeling like, to go back to Goa...ASAP!