[ampere]

Originally Posted by airguitar

Is this is the Yeracaud - Kuppanur - Harur stretch that is bad or just the Kuppanur - Harur part ? I did Yercaud - Kuppanur - Salem - Bangalore a month couple of months back, it was still enjoyable despite the odd stretches where roads were being laid. The road though is certainly narrower.

This is the Harur-Kuppanur section, which goes through the Kalrayan forest range for some length. That section near the forest is broken for some construction work.

[sandeepmohan]

Stuck to the standard and direct route via Salem.

I was driving on the Bangalore - Salem road after a long time. Something really needs to be done about the toll booth madness. It was not a long weekend and I was stuck in a 10 car queue at Attibele Toll, while leaving Bangalore. On the way back, I got stuck at Thoppur Toll for 20 minutes. Fortunately it was not so bad for the subsequent toll booths. The traffic on this highway is high to the point that staying at the ton for a period of time is impossible. It is either a parallel race between trucks, one at 40Kmph and the other at 41kmph trying to get ahead of each other, vehicles occupying the fast lane and too many cuts in the road.

Fast Tag is a solution but for someone like me who does not hit the highway too often, its not very useful. The worst part is regular users occupying the Fast Tag lane. The strict fine has not been implemented. I made the mistake myself. I did not notice the Fast Tag board.

The Salem - Yercaud climb is on a very well laid road. One does need to be careful, cause at several points, the road does get quite narrow and if you have on coming traffic, it is better to pull over early to avoid a close call.

[vipulbatta]

Planning to travel to yercaud tomorrow, from Indiranagar. Is there a route recommended to avoid the toll booth? Also, what is a good time in the morning to leave to avoid much traffic, especially the electronic city traffic?

Also, if I take the E-city flyover, does it exit into electronic city only or can I exit onto the highway and continue further on the NH? Thanks in advance!

[ampere]

Originally Posted by vipulbatta

Planning to travel to yercaud tomorrow, from Indiranagar. Is there a route recommended to avoid the toll booth? Also, what is a good time in the morning to leave to avoid much traffic, especially the electronic city traffic?

Tomorrow being a Friday, do we expect high traffic? I think it should be OK. (Any other reasons for surge?)

Also, if I take the E-city flyover, does it exit into electronic city only or can I exit onto the highway and continue further on the NH? Thanks in advance!

Electronic City and the Highway have separate exits. So that should be OK.

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by vipulbatta

Planning to travel to yercaud tomorrow, from Indiranagar. Is there a route recommended to avoid the toll booth? Also, what is a good time in the morning to leave to avoid much traffic, especially the electronic city traffic?

Also, if I take the E-city flyover, does it exit into electronic city only or can I exit onto the highway and continue further on the NH? Thanks in advance!

On the E-City flyover, keep going straight and it will take you to Hosur Road.

Regarding the route to yercaud. Best is going through Salem. But you can check the route in the below post as well which is through Harur.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/team-b...ml#post3495225

[NPV]

Originally Posted by vipulbatta

Is there a route recommended to avoid the toll booth? Also, what is a good time in the morning to leave to avoid much traffic, especially the electronic city traffic?

Which toll booth are you trying to avoid ?
If you start early in the morning, you can avoid the elevated tollway (BETL) and instead go on the ground level road.
Next toll is at Attibele (KA/TN border). To avoid this you can turn right (go below the flyover before the toll plaza) and go via the TVS factory to reach Hosur. I don't think this is worth though.
Other tolls at Krishnagiri, Thoppur, Omalur are again on your route to Salem on the NH7 and not worth skipping for alternate routes. Once you reach the 5 roads junction in Salem, you need to to turn left to go towards Yercaud. I'm not sure about the route via Harur, don't know the road conditions.

[vipulbatta]

@NPV - Trying to avoid the Attibele one as I heard its pretty harrowing with long queue and undisciplined driving.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by vipulbatta

@NPV - Trying to avoid the Attibele one as I heard its pretty harrowing with long queue and undisciplined driving.

I think it's not worth trying to avoid this by going via TVS factory.
Start early say 5am at least, that is the key
If you have Fastag, you can take extreme left lane at Attibele and avoid being in the queue.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by vipulbatta

@NPV - Trying to avoid the Attibele one as I heard its pretty harrowing with long queue and undisciplined driving.

Originally Posted by NPV

I think it's not worth trying to avoid this by going via TVS factory.
Start early say 5am at least, that is the key
If you have Fastag, you can take extreme left lane at Attibele and avoid being in the queue.

@NPV He is leaving tomorrow (Friday). Should be OK I guess. There is no long weekend. I dont expect that long a queue (Unless I am missing a holiday!)

No need to hurry up in this case.

Yes there will be a line-up of trucks at the state border which he needs to wade through.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by vipulbatta

Planning to travel to yercaud tomorrow, from Indiranagar. Is there a route recommended to avoid the toll booth? Also, what is a good time in the morning to leave to avoid much traffic, especially the electronic city traffic?

Also, if I take the E-city flyover, does it exit into electronic city only or can I exit onto the highway and continue further on the NH? Thanks in advance!

If you wish to void toll Plazas enroute to Yercaud, my suggestion is to go via Attibele, TVS Factory, Hosur by pass road, Rayakottai, Palacode, Vellichandai, Karimangalam, Kambainallur, Morappur, Harur and Kuppanur. From Harur ask people the road to Salem (SH18).

The above route i mentioned is completely toll free and I have done this before.

[vipulbatta]

Thanks everyone for the help so far on the route.
Traveling to 2 small kids, can someone recommend good clean eateries on the way? Good for breakfast (not particular on the cuisine, though would live a good Tamil breakfast!) and of course clean loos if possible... Thanks once again .

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by vipulbatta

Thanks everyone for the help so far on the route.
Traveling to 2 small kids, can someone recommend good clean eateries on the way? Good for breakfast (not particular on the cuisine, though would live a good Tamil breakfast!) and of course clean loos if possible... Thanks once again .

Sree Saravana Bhavan, this come 1-2Kms after the Chennai exit(Krishnagiri) towards Salem and on the left side.

A2B, Thoppur - This comes on the right side. You will have to take a "U" turn just before the thoppur toll.

If you are starting early, then you can stop in Salem for breakfast. When my kids were very young, we used to stop at Grand Estancia.

[vipulbatta]

Left home at 7 and there was continuous rain while we were in Karnataka. Attibele checkpost was empty! Got out of Karnataka by 7:50. The moment we entered TN the road became absolutely fantastic. Stopped at Sree Saravana Bhavan for some awesome breakfast. Absolutely a must stop place. Remaining toll booths were smooth as well and reached Yercaud by 12. Traffic all along was good and road conditions are very good. Only bottleneck was town traffic of Salem taking about 30 mins. Thanks everyone for the tips and guidance. Will update return trip details when back. Heading to Sweet Rascal for dinner now

[mpksuhas]

Did a weekend trip to Yercaud on 16/17 July. Road conditions remains good, climate is good and rush was less thanks to it being non peak season.

Budget 4 hours of drive for Bangalore - Salem - Yercaud.

Once in Yercaud do take the 'Loop road' this is a circular road of around 32 KMS passing through plantations around Yercaud. On Google Maps this road is marked as SH 563.

Do note that there are few reviews online which has wrongly mentioned Yercaud - Salem ghat road as loop road.

Loop road surface is good throughout and traffic thin.

Short video of loop road -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl8cFtLWu5k

[arun_josie]

Last week, we took the Yercaud - Kuppanur - Harur - Karimangalam route and I would say that this is a nice alternate for people who have done the Salem - Yercaud route already.

Its a nice, narrow, curvy, road till Kuppanur and then its a 2L SH. at least 80-90 percentage of the road was good.

Salem - Yercaud was good all through.

Yercaud - Kuppanur - Harur - Karimangalam



This is the narrow stretch till Kuppanur,



And then the SH till Karimangalam,





At Karimangalam, we will join the highway towards bangalore.