[Su-47]

Hi bhpians,
I am planning to go for a long road trip of about 3000kms. It would be me, wife, our 2-year old and a close friend in Safari. I would appreciate help about the places to stay and eat en-route.

Plan:
Day 1: Bangalore-Hyderabad+
The idea is to start in the morning (about 6:30) and hit Hyderabad before dusk. I intend to cross the HYD city and stay somewhere outside so that we don’t waste time crossing the city traffic next day. Any suggestions on places for a good night’s sleep?

Day 2: Hyderabad-Nagpur-Chhindwara
Again, start in the morning, stop for a couple of hours in Nagpur (to pick up Mom from Airport. She refuses to do BLR-NAG by road) and head to relatives’ place in Chhindwara. Chhindwara is a town in MP and is 120 Km from Nagpur.

At this point I will lose control with Mom and Aunt etc. dictating the travel times etc. On one of the days we would head to Jabalpur and Maihar to visit the Goddess Sharda temple.

Return:
We will start from Chhindwara in the morning and stop somewhere near Hyderabad for night’s rest. We would like to cross Hyderabad, if possible. Any suggestions for places to stay south of Hyderabad. Next day would be the return to B’lore.

Questions:
-Good places to eat on Bangalore-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Nagpur, Nagpur-Jabalpur stretches? I would be with a 2-year old and inputs on clean and hygienic places would be great
-Any inputs on road conditions?
-Recommendations on where to fuel up? I’ve been running mostly on Shell Diesel. Any recommendations or places to avoid in Nagpur. Hyderabad or Jabalpur? I don’t want my CRDi to go kaput in the middle of nowhere.
-Any other inputs.

Many Thanks,
Su-47

[hvkumar]

Road widening is going on at various places along NH7 between Bangalore and Hyderabad. Lots of small eating places on this route.

Some bad sections reported north of Adilabad between Hyderabad and Nagpur. Facilities are very poor, especially after crossing into Maharashtra.

never been on this road beyond Laknadon, which comes after Seoni but before Jabalpur. Road conditions north of Nagpr are good, but good eating places are hard to come by, although you will have no problem with petrol pumps.

Night driivng to be avoided wherever possible after crossing Nirmal, en route Adilabad.

I would ideally refuel at Kurnool, Hyderabad, Adilabad and Nagpur, all of whom have good Club HP-type petrol pumps.

Kurnool may be the best place to halt on the way back, but I have not seen any great hotels on NH7, you may have to go into town. No suggestions, I have never stayed there.

Nagpur-Chindwara road is in good condition as per someone who travelled on it 2-3 months ago.

[Su-47]

Thanks a lot hvkumar for all your inputs.

I am curious why you've advised against night driving beyond nirma. Is it just because of bad road conditions or there is something more...

Do you think there would be any hope of finding a good hotel on outskirts of Hyderabad on the Hyd-Nagpur road?

[hvkumar]

Beyond Nirmal, especially after Adilabad, the road is lonely and there is Naxal activity in these parts. Although I have not heard of any Naxal-related safety issues, it may be better to avoid driving after dark.

Yes, I think you should get acco north of Hyderabad in industrial suburbs like Medchal, but Hyderabadis are best competent to comment on this.

[abhidube]

I drove from Bangalore to Bhopal in Diwali. As you enter Maharashtra, nightmare starts. There is a patch before nagpur which is really really bad.

There are Reliance and HP Petrol pumps all the way so it should not be an issue. HP Dhabas are better in terms of food quality but Reliance ones are cleaner.

I took diversion from Pandhurna/Multai for Bhopal but road from Nagpur was really good. If I remember correctly it's near Pandharkaoda where road is really bad.

[gd1418]

A bit OT & sorry for that..

Ah, the famous Sharada Devi temple in Maihar atop a hillock that has umpteen number of stairs to climb to reach.

Maa Sharada of Maihar adorns a wall in my home. Baba Allauddin Khansaheb used to climb the stairs everyday to worship, according to elders there.

Originally Posted by Su-47

Hi bhpians,
On one of the days we would head to Jabalpur and Maihar to visit the Goddess Sharda temple.

Many Thanks,
Su-47

[gauravdgr8]

I am planning to go for a long road trip of about 3000kms. It would be me, wife, our 2-year old and a close friend in Safari. I would appreciate help about the places to stay and eat en-route.

Have you completed your trip or still pending. Let me know. I have done the Nagpur-Hyderabad stretch a lot of times.

[Su-47]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Beyond Nirmal, especially after Adilabad, the road is lonely and there is Naxal activity in these parts. Although I have not heard of any Naxal-related safety issues, it may be better to avoid driving after dark.

Thanks hvkumar.

Originally Posted by abhidube

I drove from Bangalore to Bhopal in Diwali. As you enter Maharashtra, nightmare starts. There is a patch before nagpur which is really really bad. ....

Thanks abhidude.

Originally Posted by gauravdgr8

Have you completed your trip or still pending. Let me know. I have done the Nagpur-Hyderabad stretch a lot of times.

No man.. Couldn't do it, my son fell sick a day before we were supposed to start. It will take him a while to recover, and God only knows when we will go.

Originally Posted by gd1418

Ah, the famous Sharada Devi temple in Maihar atop a hillock that has umpteen number of stairs to climb to reach.

GD bhai, abhi bulawa nahin aaya. So couldn't go :(

[Su-47]

Repeat post. Mods please delete.

[At_blatantly]

Howdie to all fellow road romanticists.

I live and work in Bangalore (thanks for the sympathies) and as we all know that driving scene here is bad as there are far too many cars and way lesser roads. I belong to a small city in MP called Jabalpur and I have to reach there by coming Sunday noon, i.e. 23rd Apr. This is not just any other visit....This time I am traveling to get married. Yes after a long fought dual between my and her parents thankfully and finally I am tying knots on 29th Apr and my mother has threatened to disown me if I don't reach at least 6 days in advance. Usually I always fly home but this time it just came in as a sudden desire that I want to drive down. 1400 odd Kms not a big deal....The love for the road and my car made it easy for me to decide. So I am driving down these 1400 kms and I am leaving day after tomorrow night i.e. 21st Apr.

I was discussing this roadtrip in my office sometime back and surprisingly my team members expressed their interest in joining for the trip. As usual it looked more of a gas talk and I anticipated it to boil down to nothing however I was up for a shock. Late in the night the same day I got a text which contained the full plan of the trip, 6 of them were joining me and how they would take a bus / taxi back from Jabalpur to Nagpur and a flight from Nagpur to Bangalore to be in office on Tuesday. i.e.25th Apr. I couldn't neglect a misplaced sense of pride that I felt seeing the immaculate planning by my team. Anyways before I knew their return tickets from Nagpur were booked and now we are in this together.
(one of them had to leave the job sometime back and we cancelled his ticket, so now its 5 plus me)

My car - I have a New Age XUX 500 W10, which is almost an year and half old. I have a habit of naming all my wheels - so this one is called "Zeus".

I was planning to carry all my luggage in the boot earlier however ow with the addition of 5 passengers (4 guys and a gal) I was left with no option but to get a rooftop carrier fitted. Many other alterations have happened ever since in the plan and the car, which I will talk about in my next post.

P.S - Please feel free to suggest any detours (small ones) or a worthy pit stop on the Bangalore-Anantpur-Hyderabad-Nagpur-Jabalpur highway, please fell free to pitch in.

Zeus

[ssjr0498]

To begin, Congratulations for your marriage! Have a blessed life ahead!

Jabalpur! Hmm, its my wife's hometown! Have done this route a couple of times in my Honda city. Last trip being way back in 2008-9. I remember the roads being good till the exit of AP, AP-MH border it was a little bad and then okay-ish till Nagpur. Post which I believe its still a dual carriageway till JBP.

Have fun, drive safe and keep us posted, am planning to do it this winter!

Cheers
Shrey

[Zappo]

Fantastic! From the looks of it this will be a ride worthy of its cause as much as for the experience of it. I think your thread is more about route related questions rather than this being a travelogue in that sense. So I have moved you to the route and travel queries section where you should be able to get better suggestions.

[arun_josie]

Congratulations and best wishes on your marriage!

Originally Posted by At_blatantly

P.S - Please feel free to suggest any detours (small ones) or a worthy pit stop on the Bangalore-Anantpur-Hyderabad-Nagpur-Jabalpur highway, please fell free to pitch in.

Zeus

For Pit stops between Bangalore - Hyderabad, you can consider,
1) Blue Moon Restaurant(around 250 Kms from Bangalore and its after Anantpur)
2) Suraj Grand, Kurnool
3) Food Pyramid, its around 80Kms from Kurnool

Regarding roads, From Nagpur if you are taking the Seoni route, then be prepared for a bad stretch of 25-30 Kms due to construction work. The 2L stretch through the forest is also average only.

[autorahul]

Congratulations and fantastic idea. How many drivers are going to be there? Depending on that you can cover more km in a single day.

Originally Posted by At_blatantly

P.S - Please feel free to suggest any detours (small ones) or a worthy pit stop on the Bangalore-Anantpur-Hyderabad-Nagpur-Jabalpur highway, please fell free to pitch in.

A detour I would take is to got Nanded. You can reach there in a day easily from Bangalore. A wonderful spiritual place where you can get cheap good quality accommodations (been to NRI complex opposite Gurdwara and felt it was great value) or you could even stay at the highly revered Huzur Saheb Gurudwara at no cost. Langar food and seeking blessings at the shrine are another plus. It would add roughly 100km of decent roads to your entire itinerary.

More information on Hyderabad-Nanded has been covered here.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...e-queries.html

[At_blatantly]

Originally Posted by Zappo

Fantastic! From the looks of it this will be a ride worthy of its cause as much as for the experience of it. I think your thread is more about route related questions rather than this being a travelogue in that sense. So I have moved you to the route and travel queries section where you should be able to get better suggestions.

Thanks. however just felt like saying out loud that this will be a travelogue only, as it will talk about pre, during and post trip :-) seeking interests enroute is just a bonus.

Originally Posted by ssjr0498

To begin, Congratulations for your marriage! Have a blessed life ahead!

Thanks Shrey. Lot has changed since 2008-09, however, road conditions might still be the same. Thanks for the wishes and Yh I will drive safe.