[veeru27]

Best option is to drive from BLR is 4 lane via Hosur, Krishangiri, Dharmapuri , Salem - Yercaud. The road is smooth and you should be able to do the drive in 4 hrs ( sedate driving). There are some minor road works going on on the ghat section, but nothing to hinder the traffic. Do make sure to horn amply on the curves and watch out for the weekend bikers.

PS: On the hotel front, Lake forest offers you good ambience.

Am based in yercaud, do let me know if you need any help here,

- Murali

[ankan.m.blr]

Guys, from earlier posts it seems to me that the best road to Yercaud is via Salem town. Is the following route correct? (Google map shows the route bypassing Salem, so I had to tweak it)

P.S. : I'll be traveling in Ritz Petrol with 4 adults. Also if I return on the same evening [no hotel reservation], can I cover most of the places?

[ampere]

Originally Posted by ankan.m.blr

Guys, from earlier posts it seems to me that the best road to Yercaud is via Salem town. Is the following route correct? (Google map shows the route bypassing Salem, so I had to tweak it)

I cannot fully make out the route. If you can post the Google link for the route that
would help. For yercaud, the easiest way to remember:

1, Look for Hotel GRT on your left as you approach Salem.
2. Get out of 4L. The first signal is the 5-roads junction.
3. Turn left (you will by Cenney Hotel).
4. Turn off at Yercaud road.

Here is the route link:

Route Link.

I dont know If you referred to the same route.

[ankan.m.blr]

Thanks Ampere. The link you posted is the exact same one I mentioned in my earlier post.

[ankan.m.blr]

Any idea about the road condition to Kurumbapatti Zoological Park? Last I heard, it was in terrible condition. Found this link in net :

The Hindu : NATIONAL / TAMIL NADU : Battered roads lead to Kurumbapatti Zoological Park

[gkrishn]

just a note on eating options available in yercuad.

there is a "saravana bhavan"( not to be confused with the chennai one), some where on a bylane next to the lake. its a worthy place to eat. ambiance is pretty much like the stand and eat sagar hotel of karnataka. taste and food pretty much like any vegetarian hotels of TN. the kitchen is pretty clean and price are reasonable. on both the days of stay, we had our lunch and dinner, there.

[bdutta]

Any recent updates on this route ? Is the road condition good ?

I plan to take my Logan GLX 1.3 up there, but am a bit worried about the hair-pin-bends. I've no issues in driving, but it's the car (rather it's weight-to-power ratio) that worries me. I had a very tough time taking this baby up the Masinagudi 36 hair-pin bend route, when I visited Ooty 2 years back. Is the gradient of the 20 hair-pin bends, any worse or same as that route to Ooty ?

[bdutta]

Originally Posted by bdutta

Any recent updates on this route ? Is the road condition good ?

I plan to take my Logan GLX 1.3 up there, but am a bit worried about the hair-pin-bends. I've no issues in driving, but it's the car (rather it's weight-to-power ratio) that worries me. I had a very tough time taking this baby up the Masinagudi 36 hair-pin bend route, when I visited Ooty 2 years back. Is the gradient of the 20 hair-pin bends, any worse or same as that route to Ooty ?

Just back from Yercaud (i.e. back yesterday night). Had booked hotel for 2 nights, but with a 6 mo infant and the unexpected weather, had to cut short and return a day earlier.

Weather.com told me that the weather in Yercaud was supposed to be warmer than Bangalore, but reality was definitely otherwise. It felt 4-5degs cooler than Bangalore during evenings/night. Add to it the terrible power situation there. Apparently, the hill station gets some 10-12 hours of power, and given very lean occupancy the hotel refused to switch on the 5KVA generator for more than 1hour in morning and 1hour in the evening... which is yet another story. However (& thankfully) they do have inverter, on which a 9W CFL and a fan (if needed) runs in the room, and a 5W CFL operates in the bathroom. So, it turned out to be quite a damp squib.

The drive however was pretty smooth. I did stick to the recommended route via Hosur -> Dharmapuri -> Krishnagiri -> Salem, and barring the section of about 40Kms odd between Hosur and Dharmapuri, rest of the route was quite nice. Especially the NH44 maintained by L&T is simply amazing.

The 20 hairpin bends, are lot easier than the 36 hairpin bends of Masinagudi. These hairpin bends are much better tarred (although the inner berms can do with some new cementing), the bends are lot wider, and the incline less steeper.

Yercaud itself, I've say is probably seeing such rapid commercialization that, once you reach the hill-top, there's hardly any hill visible. The resemblance to Ooty is indeed there, but Ooty -- IMHO, is an order-of-magnitude cleaner, especially around the lake area. We skipped all the traditional view-points, but the drive up/down offer ample views of the valley below.

Back to the hotel bit, well, it is one of those reminders that booking hotels that do not have 20+ reviews on places like TripAdvisor.in, online is bad idea. Luckily for us, the original hotel we booked didn't ask for advance, and after looking at the rooms, we decided to venture into neighboring alternatives, and gladly found a hotel which has relatively better reviews. Of course, this hotel room was much better, but clearly management itself was clearly non-serious about running the business (or so it seemed), and understaffed.

Thought of sharing for other fellow travelers.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by rameshnanda

Yes. You are right that the route will lead to Harur. I haven't taken this route recently and have no idea of the condition but heard that the condition is horrible.

Its not bad. Its good. In fact brilliant !

Originally Posted by addyhemmige

Ramesh, If you had posted this a couple of weeks earlier, I would have been elated.

Guys the route one should try is : Karimangalam-Morappur-Harur-Kuppanur-Yercaud.
Now why I am answering to this year old posts from you ? Because I tried this last week and was glad I took it !

Ramesh,

As you mentioned, Harur-Salem is busy with trucks. But for most cases its empty and one can easily maintain 60-80 on this SH.
Add to it the beautifull ghat section around Kalrayan forests. The winding roads from Karimangalam-Morappur to Harur are a different fun of their own.
A road surely worth taking for people going to Tiruvannamalai from Bangalore. Harur has a bypass too and its very decent.

But what folks need to note about climbing the ghat from Kuppanur to Yercaus is the following:

- The exit to Yercaud from Salem-Harur highway is not at all marked. Its a very narrow exit point, which can easily be mistaken for a village road.
- The ghat road is very narrow and one needs to keep vigil for on coming traffic. (Though its hardly there)
- It meanders though coffee and pepper plantations and makes for nice views, but parking is difficult.
- Very few hairpin bends, but the route through the ghats is longer.
- Overall a very nice option, but one needs to take care as the road is very narrow.

[naveenroy]

Guys, whats the best route to reach Yercaud from Bangalore by bike? The usual sounds better since I will be riding with a pillion who is not used to riding long distances. And how is the road condition of the ghat section?

[rameshnanda]

Originally Posted by naveenroy

Guys, whats the best route to reach Yercaud from Bangalore by bike? The usual sounds better since I will be riding with a pillion who is not used to riding long distances. And how is the road condition of the ghat section?

Bangalore-Salem-Yercaud.

Nothing to worry about the road condition. The ghat section from Salem to Yercaud is good. I always tell this to many people, if you like to have a scenic journey, try out Salem-Ayodhyapattinam-Kuppanur-Yercaud. This is an alternate ghat road to reach Yercaud from Salem.

Route - http://maps.google.co.in/maps?saddr=...via=1&t=m&z=12

[ampere]

Originally Posted by naveenroy

Guys, whats the best route to reach Yercaud from Bangalore by bike? The usual sounds better since I will be riding with a pillion who is not used to riding long distances. And how is the road condition of the ghat section?

Originally Posted by rameshnanda

Bangalore-Salem-Yercaud.
Nothing to worry about the road condition. The ghat section from Salem to Yercaud is good. I always tell this to many people, if you like to have a scenic journey, try out Salem-Ayodhyapattinam-Kuppanur-Yercaud. This is an alternate ghat road to reach Yercaud from Salem.

Guys see my previous post.

Naveen,

For biking try the Harur-Kuppanr-Yercaud route. Its awesome and you would love it !
As I said earlier
- Kuppanur route is nice but very narrow. So need to be careful
- The exit at Kuppanur is hardly noticeable. Its very very easy to miss it.
- I had a GPS. So I knew where to expect it.

[skdking]

Originally Posted by ampere

Its not bad. Its good. In fact brilliant !




Guys the route one should try is : Karimangalam-Morappur-Harur-Kuppanur-Yercaud.
Now why I am answering to this year old posts from you ? Because I tried this last week and was glad I took it !

Ramesh,

As you mentioned, Harur-Salem is busy with trucks. But for most cases its empty and one can easily maintain 60-80 on this SH.
Add to it the beautifull ghat section around Kalrayan forests. The winding roads from Karimangalam-Morappur to Harur are a different fun of their own.
A road surely worth taking for people going to Tiruvannamalai from Bangalore. Harur has a bypass too.
..........
- Overall a very nice option, but one needs to take care as the road is very narrow.

Hi,

Very interesting.

How about people coming in from Chennai?

How is the route to Yercaud via Vaniyambadi and Tirupattur?

[ampere]

Originally Posted by skdking

Hi,

Very interesting.

How about people coming in from Chennai?

How is the route to Yercaud via Vaniyambadi and Tirupattur?

It is very decent. Vaniyambadi-Tirupattur road is the same which one takes for Yelagiri. Beyond Tirupattur it cuts the infamous NH66
(Krishnagiri-Tiruvannamalai) at Uthangarai and continues to Harur. The road is quite busy as a SH and has bus and truck traffic.

Its a classic SH with trees on both sides. I dont know if Uthangarai has a bypass, but Harur has a good bypass.
No good hotels I could spot. But I think Harur town should have some decent hotels. But need to get into the town and need to explore.

[rameshnanda]

Originally Posted by ampere

I dont know if Uthangarai has a bypass, but Harur has a good bypass.
No good hotels I could spot. But I think Harur town should have some decent hotels. But need to get into the town and need to explore.

No bypass at Uthangarai. Also, there are no good/average hotels at Harur/Uthangarai. Even hotels at Tirupattur are average.