[luvurride]

Originally Posted by condor

Folks, any suggestions for hotels in Tiruvannamalai ?

( have checked Ramakirshna & Akash Inn).

Personally, I've stayed in both Aakash Inn and Himalayaa. Himalayaa is new and good, but a bit away from temple. Aakash is just opposite to Ramanashram and in the vicinity of the temple. Aakash will be cheaper. I've heard Athena Hotel and Arpanaa Hotel to be also good, but haven't stayed there.

[ravib]

Originally Posted by condor

Folks, any suggestions for hotels in Tiruvannamalai ?

( have checked Ramakirshna & Akash Inn).

Couple of months back i stayed at Arunaalaya Residency, which is decent and well maintained. This is just next to Agni Lingam. Will recommend this good place for a night stay.

https://goo.gl/maps/CcmpV9TAfS72

-Ravi

[condor]

So staying @ Hotel Ramakrishna. About 1760 a night for a double deluxe. The room is about 9x18 feet. The WC is in a 20-21 inch wide "cubicle".

On the positive side, the rooms are ok clean. Bathrooms clean.

Had to park on the road. Couldnt get wifi working.

[Mafioso]

Planning to do Bangalore - Tirchy & Thiruvanamalai over a weekend drive.
as I can see the best route to Thiruvanamalai seems

Bangalore - Krishnagiri - Bargur - Tirtupattur - Singarapettai - Thiruvanamalai

any idea on the road conditions between Tirchy & Thiruvanamalai

Google is suggesting https://goo.gl/maps/Cr4USEE9Yz42 (NH38)

Any suggestions on this route?

Is it advisable to do Bangalore - Tirchy - Thiruvanamalai - Bangalore , with night halt at Thiruvanamalai or the other way around?

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by Mafioso

Planning to do Bangalore - Tirchy & Thiruvanamalai over a weekend drive.
as I can see the best route to Thiruvanamalai seems

Bangalore - Krishnagiri - Bargur - Tirtupattur - Singarapettai - Thiruvanamalai

any idea on the road conditions between Tirchy & Thiruvanamalai

Google is suggesting https://goo.gl/maps/Cr4USEE9Yz42 (NH38)

Any suggestions on this route?

Is it advisable to do Bangalore - Tirchy - Thiruvanamalai - Bangalore , with night halt at Thiruvanamalai or the other way around?

Tiruvannamalai - Tirukkoilur stretch is a very good 2 lane road. You can even take the Tirukkoilur by pass road. Blore to Tiruvannamalai by the route you mentioned should take about 4 hrs considering early morning start. I see no reason why you have to halt at Tiruvannamalai before proceeding to Trichy unless you have a specific reason to stay back for the night in Tiruvannamalai.

[Mafioso]

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

Tiruvannamalai - Tirukkoilur stretch is a very good 2 lane road. You can even take the Tirukkoilur by pass road. Blore to Tiruvannamalai by the route you mentioned should take about 4 hrs considering early morning start. I see no reason why you have to halt at Tiruvannamalai before proceeding to Trichy unless you have a specific reason to stay back for the night in Tiruvannamalai.

Thank you. I was intending to cover Srirangam temple & Arulmigu Arunachaleswarar Temple over two days. So one option was to start early on Saturday Morning and reach Tirchy, finish the temple and head to Thiruvannamalai for night halt and then on Sunday morning finish the temple and leave back to Bangalore. Was not sure of the temple timings/rush and how long would it take to cover these two places.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by Mafioso

Thank you. I was intending to cover Srirangam temple & Arulmigu Arunachaleswarar Temple over two days. So one option was to start early on Saturday Morning and reach Tirchy, finish the temple and head to Thiruvannamalai for night halt and then on Sunday morning finish the temple and leave back to Bangalore. Was not sure of the temple timings/rush and how long would it take to cover these two places.

In srirangam, you have the special entrance ticket of Rs 250. That should not take much time. If time permits, try to visit Samayapuram as well.
The better option would be to go to Srirangam first, halt for the night and then leave for T V malai the next day
I had been to Srirangam in the last week of Dec 2018. Left Bommanahalli by 11 AM and reached Srirangam by 4 PM non stop

[trivediravi]

Originally Posted by condor

Folks, any suggestions for hotels in Tiruvannamalai ?

I have stayed at Arpaana hotel, and it was a good one for family. Nice rooms, and food in restaurant was also good. Also, it is close to bus stand on the Girvalam route. Slightly expensive for Tiruvannamalai, but liked it.

[kavensri]

I am planning to do a weekend trip to Thiruvannamalai in August (10-11). Planning to start by 7 in the morning (on 10th) and to be back in Bangalore by 6 in the evening (on 11th)
Couple of questions:
1) What is the best route?
2) Are there any other places/temples to visit on the way? Do not want to deviate much and also want to keep this trip relaxing.
3) I am planning to stay at Hotel Tamil Nadu (after experiencing their hotels at Rameshwaram and Kanyakumari last year). Has anyone stayed at this hotel in this place? If so, how is it?
4) What about the car parking near temple? Do i need to take an auto from hotel if I do not have good parking options near temple?
5) Apart from main temple and ashram, anything else to see at this place?

Thanks in advance.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by kavensri

I am planning to do a weekend trip to Thiruvannamalai in August (4-5). Planning to start by 7 in the morning (on 4th) and to be back in Bangalore by 6 in the evening (on 5th)
Couple of questions:
1) What is the best route?
2) Are there any other places/temples to visit on the way? Do not want to deviate much and also want to keep this trip relaxing.
3) I am planning to stay at Hotel Tamil Nadu (after experiencing their hotels at Rameshwaram and Kanyakumari last year). Has anyone stayed at this hotel in this place? If so, how is it?
4) What about the car parking near temple? Do i need to take an auto from hotel if I do not have good parking options near temple?
5) Apart from main temple and ashram, anything else to see at this place?

Thanks in advance.

If time permits, try to visit Adhi Thiruvarangam near Manalurpet. This temple is supposed to be older than Srirangam. Idol is also bigger than the one at Srirangam and this temple does not close for lunch
About 34 kms from Tiruvannamalai is a place called Thirukkoilur where we have the famous Ulagalandha Perumal temple. Here one foot of the lord is on the ground and the other foot in the air.

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

If time permits, try to visit Adhi Thiruvarangam near Manalurpet. This temple is supposed to be older than Srirangam. Idol is also bigger than the one at Srirangam and this temple does not close for lunch
About 34 kms from Tiruvannamalai is a place called Thirukkoilur where we have the famous Ulagalandha Perumal temple. Here one foot of the lord is on the ground and the other foot in the air.

The way you have described these two temples, I will definitely visit both. Thanks for recommending.
Any inputs on route or hotel?

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by kavensri

The way you have described these two temples, I will definitely visit both. Thanks for recommending.
Any inputs on route or hotel?

On the route you can try via Hosur, Krishnagiri, Bargur, Tirupattur, Singarapettai, Chengam to T V Malai.

People who have traveled recently to T V Malai can comment please.

[strawhat]

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

On the route you can try via Hosur, Krishnagiri, Bargur, Tirupattur, Singarapettai, Chengam to T V Malai.

This is currently the best route to Tiruvannamalai. I had travelled a month back, it was great till Singarapettai. Present condition is unknown. Although I don't expect it to have deteriorated. Surface is horrible, in patches, after Singarapettai.

There is another alternative via. Karimangalam, Harur, Naripalli which is also in decent condition, but longer.

[strawhat]

Returned from Tiruvannamalai yesterday by bus. Onward journey was by train.

After a 5:30pm start, we reached E-City elevated tollway at 9:45pm. Route taken was standard bus route (via. Chengam, Utharangai, Mathur, Krishnagiri).

Road condition:
The update after my last trip is that Tiruvannamalai-Chengam-Singarapettai was relaid with fresh black top most recently. The surface throughout was excellent unlike the craters we encountered previously. Patchworks have been done at various points until after Utharangai. This means Tiruvannamalai-Samalpatti is now no more a headache. One can now smoothly cruise their way. Between Samalpatti and Mathur though, there are multiple bad sections that need to be negotiated very carefully. All fine from Mathur.

So except for a ~20km stretch where the top surface is broken, the rest is good enough. I would still recommend the route via. Bargur, Tirupattur as vehicular movement is lesser and it has a much more scenic backdrop.

[NPV]

Made an unplanned day trip to Tiruvannamalai and back to accompany a friend.
Onward:Bangalore-Krishnagiri-Bargur-Tirupattur-Tiruvannamalai
Started at 5:30am and reached Tiruvannamalai at 10:15am with a 30 minute breakfast break.

• Roads are fine all the way till Bargur. Since we passed through the town early morning, it was easy and quick to reach the Tirupattur turn off.
• Turn off at Tirupattur towards Singarapettai maybe confusing since it is a right at an acute angle and then it meanders through the outskirts of the town with a couple of turns and a short stretch of bad road, but easily manageable.
• Overall, Tirupattur-Singarapettai has new top layer tarmac at many places and a few culverts without tarmac but nothing to damage your vehicle and if I remember correctly there was one small muddy patch without tarmac, easily manageable
• Once you merge onto NH 77 at Singarapettai, mostly good all the way to Tiruvannamalai.
• There is an unfinished Chengam 'Bypass', please avoid this. There is a fork where road on left has lane markings and fork on right is tad wider, but don't take it! My friend was bit adventurous and then we found that there is an unfinished bridge so you have to get down off road into a muddy path and then up (looked like a dry lake bed/water body) to merge back after Chengam town, just not worth it, quite easy to pass through via Chengam as we realized on the return
• Not many towns to cross en route

Return:Tiruvannamalai-Singarapettai-Uthangarai-Mathur-Krishnagiri (NH 77 route all the way). Again, my adventurous friend wanted to try this route.

Started at 2:30pm and reached Bangalore by 8:30pm, took Attibele-Sarjapur Road-Varthur Road-Old Airport road and braved Bangalore traffic taking about 75 minutes to reach near HAL museum

• Upto Singarapettai road is decent, after that almost all the way till Krishnagiri, it is a mix of very good new tarmac, lightly chipped top layer, sudden twists in the road alignment due to one incomplete bridge, short, bad sections of destroyed tarmac, good patched up sections, bad potholes either on left edge or in the middle, it has them all
• Way too many towns to cross, schools and colleges en route, easily lose a lot of time in local traffic jams
• It is definitely not as bad as it was a few years ago when I took it, but overall you can't maintain a constant speed and after good sections encourage you to pick up speed, you end up with a bad section, just catches one by surprise.
• Not sure if this probably the effect of recent rains ?

Conclusion
Avoid the NH77 route till further updates by other members on any resurfacing, it is a shame that it's still a National Highway.

Originally Posted by strawhat

This means Tiruvannamalai-Samalpatti is now no more a headache. One can now smoothly cruise their way. Between Samalpatti and Mathur though, there are multiple bad sections that need to be negotiated very carefully. All fine from Mathur.

So except for a ~20km stretch where the top surface is broken, the rest is good enough. I would still recommend the route via. Bargur, Tirupattur as vehicular movement is lesser and it has a much more scenic backdrop.

More like ~40+Km of good and bad roads interspersed, better to avoid and stick to Bargur-Tirupattur. The interstate buses and trucks continue to take this route though.