[NPV]

Originally Posted by ankitsharma

Has anyone taken this route ? Any suggestions for this route ?

Please look at the Bangalore-Shimoga thread for details, it has lots of recent posts.
You can do Bangalore-Tumkur-Hiriyur-Turn off towards Hosadurga-Ajjampura-Tarikere-Shimoga-Sagar-Honnavara where you merge onto the NH 17 and turn right towards Kumta-Ankola-Karwar-Goa (closest to the border are Canacona, Agonda, etc).

Alternatively, you can also do Bangalore-Tumkur-Turn off towards Gubbi-Tiptur-Arsikere-Tarikere and rest of the route is same as previous one. On this route, Tumkur bypass is bad and can be avoided and instead you can go inside the city.

Would not recommend night driving on these routes. The NH 17 does have road widening works in progress between Honnavara-Karwar but it is manageable in daylight.

[yamraj]

I just returned via Karwar-Yellapur-Kalghatgi route yesterday. There are several bad ruts in the road in and around Arbail. Otherwise the roads are pretty good. A stretch of about 2-4 km before the road joins the Pune-Bangalore NH is pretty bad. After that it's the standard set of diversions all the way up to Chitradurga. Not too bad but just not fun to drive. After Tumkur, the traffic just swells up.

Please keep an eye out for the turn towards Hubli while on the Karwar-Mangalore highway. We missed this and didn't realise till another 10km! The turn is under an under construction over bridge and may be easy to miss.

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by ankitsharma

Has anyone taken this route ? Any suggestions for this route ?

I was filling fuel in an Essar Pump in Hosur amd the guy told me he just went to Goa amd came bavk via the Shimoga route. Asked me to takw this one when he learnt that am going to ride to Goa. Told me we can reach Goa by this route much faster than Hubli-Hoa route.

I ended up taking the Hubli route since it was night and I wasnt sure on Shimoga route. Am in Goa now, will take the Shimoga route on my return.


PS: The roads are pretty good till close to Chitradurga or so and them becomes average to bad. Had a horrible time doing the WIP stretches will the deviations and undulations every now and then. With the stiff suspension of CBR, it was quite painful.

[SatishBalaram]

Greetings BHP-ians,
This is my / our (joint effort with my wife) first attempt at travelogue post here, hence please excuse if this write-up is not up to the usual standard seen here. Feedbacks are welcome for refinement and posts.

I usually refer to this forum for seeking travel driving information and recently was reading up on the BLR – GOA – BLR road routes for our first ever long (> 600kms) road trip. Hence, once this 1,100 kms trip was completed, I thought I would contribute back to the forum with my travel experiences. So, here it is..

The mission – Road trip to Goa and back for two, in our 2-year young Creta (SX Petrol)

The schedule –
• BLR – Hubli – Wed 18th Dec 2019
• Hubli – Anmod – Goa – Thu 19th Dec 2019
• Goa – Chorla – Hubli – Mon 23rd Dec 2019
• Hubli – BLR – Tue 24th Dec 2019

The constraint – Long road trip could re-trigger back pain and so mandatory stop over at some appropriate place

The Route contenders –
Option 1) Bangalore – Shimoga – Karwar – South Goa – North Goa  Too long a drive and didn’t make sense for a N.Goa trip to enter from S.Goa
Option 2) Bangalore – Hubli – Anmod Ghat – Goa  Shortest route and hence shortlisted
Option 3) Bangalore – Hubli – Chorla Ghat – Goa  Second shortest route and hence shortlisted too
As we did not know about the road conditions of the Ghat sections, we decided to check once more whilst in Hubli and choose the further route

The Preparation –
1. Thanks to the free Hyundai service camp that was ongoing, I was quickly able to get a free basic car check-up and top-up of essential fluids (they did charge Rs.100 though)
2. Got Nitrogen filled up in all 5 tyres
3. Got fuel tank filled up to brim at Shell
4. Offline Google map download of entire geography from BLR to Goa
5. Emission certificate renewed
6. Verified existence of all required driving documents in hard copy and soft copy (digilocker)
7. Got top-up of FASTTag done from app on Play Store.
8. Downloaded online music playlist just in case connection was bad on the way

The Travel –
Started at around 3 pm on 18-Dec-2019 from Bangalore after Lunch. Since we stay in North Bangalore, moving out of the city was faster. We took the Bangalore- Tumkur-Chitradurga-Hubli route. Road was really good till Chitradurga and we could cover longer distance quickly.

Took a 30 min break at Vinayak hotel located on the service road which is on the left of the highway. The place is quite basic and ok for a beverage/loo/drive break. From Chitradurga to Hubli there were lots of diversions (road work) which made our driving progress slow but we still reached Hubli by 9 pm. Total time taken from Bangalore was about 6 hrs.

Our overnight stay was in Hubli - we checked-in at Hotel Naveen. Large hotel adjoining beautiful large lake and hence a great view from room, good food, nice lobby and restaurant ambience, ample parking space, good walking path between lake and mini hotel garden. It cost us around Rs.3920/night for a double bed with breakfast which was on higher side of our budget - but it was so worth it as we enjoyed the place. Since we directly checked into the hotel without any online booking, they gave us a 24hr checkin- checkout option. So, we stayed a little late than the ideal morning check out time and started out to Goa the next day only by 1pm (I know it was late, but hey we were on holiday and driving and so could afford small time luxuries like these!)

For our travel from Hubli to Goa, we decided to go ahead with the Anmod Ghat route as we had heard from hotel front desk (who got input from regular drivers) that the route had been opened for travel. Google map estimated the trip to be around 5 hours but our actual travel took longer.

Compared with the Bangalore-Chitrdurga route, the Anmod Ghat route was bad. It was mostly mud road with traces of tarred roads, if at all. JCBs, trucks, and other road laying machines were seen throughout the stretch. I doubt if cars with lower ground clearance would have a good experience in passing through this route. Apparently its the shortest route from BLR but as work is still going on, the road condition is bad (in my opinion). There were brief stretches of picturesque road passing through forest on either side, but this was only briefly. Here are some pictures of the route on the day of our travel.













Post Anmod Ghat, we took a brief recovery break at some non-descript hotel and then proceeded on the path as dictated by the Google lady. Passing through Ponda, Panaji, a wonderful bridge, and some more roads (that made us more impatient – destination so near, yet so far away), we finally finally reached our Baga hotel at 6.45pm.

After enjoying 4 nights in warm and happening North Goa, it was time to head back to Namma Bengaluru.

Due to the bad road experience of Anmod Ghat, we decided to try out the Chorla Ghat route on way back home. It was slightly longer route as per Google maps (About 30 mins more). We started from Baga at around 1pm and navigated to Hubli via Chorla Ghat which we felt is a more beautiful route relatively. The whole route seemed like passing through a dense forest area and gave a more pleasant homecoming feeling.




Barring a couple of Kms spread over the entire route where the road was a little bumpy, the whole Chorla Ghat travel was good to drive and we regretted not taking this route while going to Goa. The route we drove by was Goa- Chorla Ghat- Jamboti-Belgavi-Khanpur-Hubli. While passing through the Ghat we found a place to eat lunch right in the middle of nowhere. It was called Delta hotel - a small place having lots of monkeys around, but food was ok. Reasonably priced and decent loos.
(This place apparently has a stay facility and its own website as well – just saw this after reaching Bangalore)





After lunch at Delta, we started towards Hubli and reached around 6-45 pm. We stayed overnight at Clarks Inn which turned out to be a very ok hotel. Priced at Rs 3920 with breakfast, it was a little expensive based on the maintenance/service provided in the place. Curiosity of wanting to stay at another Hubli hotel got us here. The breakfast buffet spread was good though. There was a car wash facility bang opposite their entrance, which was a plus point for getting my Creta bathed.

Next day we started towards Bangalore from Hubli at 1pm. The route was Hubli- Haveri- Chitradurga- Tumkur- Bangalore.

We made a lunch stop at Kamat hotel at BYADAGI. Loo was not maintained well, probably the Coffee Day outlet’s loo next door might have been better (in hindsight thinking). Kamat Hotel was very busy with limited seating and people sharing all empty spaces. Food was good and reasonably priced.



Again roads till Chitradurga were not great with lots of diversions but after that phase, the drive till Bangalore was a breeze. We reached home by 8pm.

The Summary
1. Creta is a great car for long drives!
2. Bangalore to Goa via Chorla Ghat seems to be good option as of Dec 2019 when compared with option of Anmod Ghat

[shamanth]

I am going to South Goa Palolem in Train from Bangalore, Getting down at Madgao, which is 35 kms away. Any idea how good or frequent buses from Madgao to Canacona ?

[anand_saraf]

Hello

We just returned from a 5-day trip to Majorda. On the BLR-Goa outward journey, I took the khanapur - jamboti - chorla ghat route. The route was fine except for a fairly long stretch near jamboti where there are very narrow stretches with almost no road. More than that, it took us almost an hour extra to reach Majorda by this route.

On the return, I took the Karwar-Ankola-Kumta-Sirsi-Haveri route. This route worked out very well for us. The stretch from Varca to Cancona has some sharp bends. Cancona to mashem has a new bypass section. The road till Kumta is also quite manageable with some diversions.

Kumta to Sirsi has some bad stretches and potholes. But Sirsi to Haveri has excellent roads all the way through.

This route also avoids part of the six-laning diversions on Hubli to Haveri section.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by shamanth

I am going to South Goa Palolem in Train from Bangalore, Getting down at Madgao, which is 35 kms away. Any idea how good or frequent buses from Madgao to Canacona ?

Pretty frequent, especially during season time. But will be a slow journey. Depending on when you reach Madgaon, you can also look at trains passing through Madgaon Jn. and stopping at the Canacona station which is pretty close to Palolem Beach.

[shamanth]

Originally Posted by am1m

Pretty frequent, especially during season time. But will be a slow journey. Depending on when you reach Madgaon, you can also look at trains passing through Madgaon Jn. and stopping at the Canacona station which is pretty close to Palolem Beach.

Thank you, I am reaching madgao around 6am. Also next train to Canacona is at 1-30 PM, so that option is ruled out. Google shows bus every 20-30 mins. So will take bus which might take 2 hours as I don't have urgency to check-in which is after 11am.

[shamanth]

Originally Posted by shamanth

Thank you, I am reaching madgao around 6am. Also next train to Canacona is at 1-30 PM, so that option is ruled out. Google shows bus every 20-30 mins. So will take bus which might take 2 hours as I don't have urgency to check-in which is after 11am.

Reached Madgao junction at 5-15Am, so took Goa Miles app based taxi, similar to Uber, cost around ₹900. Comfortable 40 mins ride for around 40kms..

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by anand_saraf

Hello

We just returned from a 5-day trip to Majorda. On the BLR-Goa outward journey, I took the khanapur - jamboti - chorla ghat route. The route was fine except for a fairly long stretch near jamboti where there are very narrow stretches with almost no road. More than that, it took us almost an hour extra to reach Majorda by this route.

On the return, I took the Karwar-Ankola-Kumta-Sirsi-Haveri route. This route worked out very well for us. The stretch from Varca to Cancona has some sharp bends. Cancona to mashem has a new bypass section. The road till Kumta is also quite manageable with some diversions.

Kumta to Sirsi has some bad stretches and potholes. But Sirsi to Haveri has excellent roads all the way through.

This route also avoids part of the six-laning diversions on Hubli to Haveri section.

Which route is better for North Goa? After reading all previous posts below is what I could conclude on best route to Goa at present, please correct me if wrong.
BLR-North Goa: khanapur - jamboti - chorla ghat route
BLR-South Goa: Karwar-Ankola-Kumta-Sirsi-Haveri route.

[anand_saraf]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

Which route is better for North Goa? After reading all previous posts below is what I could conclude on best route to Goa at present, please correct me if wrong.
BLR-North Goa: khanapur - jamboti - chorla ghat route
BLR-South Goa: Karwar-Ankola-Kumta-Sirsi-Haveri route.

Depending on where in North Goa - I believe the Amboli ghat route is also an option, but earlier messages have some details on how to pass Belgaum which has lots of construction. I haven't tried this route this year though. On the Jamboti route, it's only the Jamboti section that has construction/bad road and so has slower driving time. I was driving an E-class which has low GC but didn't suffer any major hits to the underbody.

[nareshtrao]

Just got back from Goa. Took the alternative route thanks to advice of the folks here.

Left Bangalore at 5.00 sharp, went through City and hit the Tumkur road through Yeshwantpur. Reached Chitradurga by 7.30. All toll booths were empty and Fastag worked. Took left to Shimoga. Stopped at Adigas by around 9 for breakfast. The took the Honnavar, Karwar route into South Goa. After Karwar, narrow Goa roads made the last 40 kms quite slow. Reached ITC Grand by 2.45 pm.

Return same road. Left Goa at 8.30 am crossed Tumkur by 5.00 pm and then got stuck in the traffic all the way. Reached home only by 8.30 pm.

Absolutely fine roads all along. Not even a km of bad stretch all the way. Did this trip in Endy but the road is suitable for even a low slung car. Some speed breakers to watch out for otherwise a very smooth road all along.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by nareshtrao

Absolutely fine roads all along. Not even a km of bad stretch all the way.

Thanks for the update.
How are the diversions due to road widening work on the NH 17 between Honnavar and Karwar - last I traveled that side there were work in progress sections around Kumta and Ankola en route Karwar and again between Karwar's Tagore beach and the Goa border, are these sections complete ?

[nareshtrao]

Originally Posted by NPV

Thanks for the update.
How are the diversions due to road widening work on the NH 17 between Honnavar and Karwar - last I traveled that side there were work in progress sections around Kumta and Ankola en route Karwar and again between Karwar's Tagore beach and the Goa border, are these sections complete ?

Those stretches have minimal diversions and some places traffic goes on one side only. But overall smooth. No hurdles or slowdowns.

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by anand_saraf

Depending on where in North Goa - I believe the Amboli ghat route is also an option, but earlier messages have some details on how to pass Belgaum which has lots of construction. I haven't tried this route this year though. On the Jamboti route, it's only the Jamboti section that has construction/bad road and so has slower driving time. I was driving an E-class which has low GC but didn't suffer any major hits to the underbody.

I am planning to stay in Candolim/Arpora area for 2-3 days. Looks like Amboli will be longer? Later plan to drive down to South Goa and stay fro 2 days. Considering Shivamogga route for return leg. I will be driving in Innova, guess GC won't be an issue via Chorla.