[praful]

Originally Posted by redcruiser

Hi BHPians,

I am planning for a Vagamon trip in the last weekend of August. In order to have a relaxing journey and reach the Hotel (Winter Vale) at the right time for check in,I am planning for an overnight halt somewhere enroute. Supposedly if I start on a thursday evening(5pm from Whitefield) then which place would be the best for a night halt?

Will be taking BLR-SALEM-Dindigul-Theni-Kumily-Vagamon route. I hope this is ok?
Please let me know if any bypasses that I can take around major towns.

I recently did Kumily at the beginning of last month. Vagamon is doable in a day at a relaxed pace. We started from BLR at around 4AM and were in Kumily by 1.30PM with two food stops (breakfast & lunch) and one stop for fuel, and this was at very relaxed speeds of 70-80 kmph. Considering we were on bikes, we saved some time on tolls and the single lane road post Dindigul, but in a car it will probably be an hour more.

However, if you still prefer leaving the day before at 5PM keep in mind you will end up battling BLR traffic (depending on where you start from in BLR) and then depending on your comfort level with night driving you would need to decide if you want to stop at Krishnagiri (100 kms from BLR) or Salem (200 kms from BLR).

You will be bypassing every town except Salem, so as long as you keep your eyes peeled you won't head into any of the towns.

[luvurride]

Originally Posted by redcruiser

Hi BHPians,

I am planning for a Vagamon trip in the last weekend of August. In order to have a relaxing journey and reach the Hotel (Winter Vale) at the right time for check in,I am planning for an overnight halt somewhere enroute. Supposedly if I start on a thursday evening(5pm from Whitefield) then which place would be the best for a night halt?

Will be taking BLR-SALEM-Dindigul-Theni-Kumily-Vagamon route. I hope this is ok?
Please let me know if any bypasses that I can take around major towns.

You should get to Karur comfortably before 10pm. There are good options closer to the highway. Sivamuruga, Residency are some I can think of. You are probably looking at 4-5 hours to Vagamon from Karur, which should get you there for lunch the next day.

[mpksuhas]

^^ I second what luvride mentioned above. Though I do not have any first hand experience of hotels next to NH, stopping at Salem doesn't make much sense.

Based on your starting time and traffic, you will be reaching Salem in around 3.5 hours considering it is weekday. The same would take only around 2 hours 45 mins with an early morning start.

Stopping over past Salem makes more sense.

[redcruiser]

Originally Posted by praful

However, if you still prefer leaving the day before at 5PM keep in mind you will end up battling BLR traffic (depending on where you start from in BLR) and then depending on your comfort level with night driving you would need to decide if you want to stop at Krishnagiri (100 kms from BLR) or Salem (200 kms from BLR).

You will be bypassing every town except Salem, so as long as you keep your eyes peeled you won't head into any of the towns.

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Based on your starting time and traffic, you will be reaching Salem in around 3.5 hours considering it is weekday. The same would take only around 2 hours 45 mins with an early morning start.

Stopping over past Salem makes more sense.

Originally Posted by luvurride

You should get to Karur comfortably before 10pm. There are good options closer to the highway. Sivamuruga, Residency are some I can think of. You are probably looking at 4-5 hours to Vagamon from Karur, which should get you there for lunch the next day.

Thanks guys, I will be not taking any chances and book hotels in advance for a night halt. I hope to find one enroute and where to stop will purely depend on my starting time.Nevertheless I have a target to start from Hosur by 6:30 taking the sarjapur-attibele route to skip the peak time evening traffic.
Only thing is to mark good and not so costly overnight stay options enroute on Gmaps.

[redcruiser]

Thanks guys.
How about the restrooms in the Toll plazas? Are the restrooms in Toll plazas or petrol bunks any good? Just wanted to know everything beforehand particularly on this before my wife loaths me after the journey.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by redcruiser

How about the restrooms in the Toll plazas? Are the restrooms in Toll plazas or petrol bunks any good ?

Restrooms at most toll plazas are bad. The ones in bigger petrol bunks may be better.
Alternatively, combine restroom breaks with breaks you take for food, restaurants usually have better facilities. That said, some places like the A2B at Shoolagiri and Thoppur are inside Bharat petroleum campuses but the footfalls they see are much higher and the restrooms are also not well maintained.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by NPV

Restrooms at most toll plazas are bad.

Thoppur toll booth infact has a descent restroom.

Its on your right side while driving south, take the walkway which goes inside the toll booth complex just before the booth.

Yes, A2B Thoppur is bit shabby.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Thoppur toll booth infact has a descent restroom.

I think tolls with good restrooms are few and far between, for example Krishnagiri is pathetic, so unless you know specifically that a toll plaza has a decent restroom, it becomes difficult to randomly stop for a break. Some toll plazas also have NHAI amenity plazas nearby so those are an option, like the one at Vaigundam that has a Sree Saravana bhavan or the one closer to Coimbatore that has a Sai Krishna and the one at Perundurai that has A2B, etc.

[luvurride]

Originally Posted by redcruiser

Thanks guys.
How about the restrooms in the Toll plazas? Are the restrooms in Toll plazas or petrol bunks any good? Just wanted to know everything beforehand particularly on this before my wife loaths me after the journey.

Here are your options:
1. HP plaza that houses McD and CCD few kms after Hosur.
2. Hotel Saravana Bhavan after Krishnagiri toll. (There are two, the second one).
3. Hotel Sai Sangeet just after Thoppur toll on the other side.
4. Hotel Sharvesh Inn just after descending Thoppur ghat on your side.
5. Hotel Aasai Dosai Saravana Bhavan on Salem Byepass second signal but on the other side.
6. Hotel Sivmurugaa under Karur flyover on the other side.
7. Ponram Food Plaza under Dindigul flyover.

Past this, you have very limited options like Thalapakatti restaurant in Batlagundu, Meenakshi Bhavan in Theni, etc. But they are a hit or miss as far as restroom hygiene goes.

Besides these, I've found Reliance pumps to have fairly ok restrooms. If I remember correctly, there are only 2 in this stretch - one after Hosur and another near Vedasandur just before Dindigul.

Hope this helps.

[ravib]

Originally Posted by luvurride

3. Hotel Sai Sangeet just after Thoppur toll on the other side.


Hope this helps.

Minor correction. Hotel Sai Sangeet is about 3 kms before Thoppur toll which comes on your right side while travelling from Bangalore towards Salem. There is a U turn exit which you need and you can see Sai Sangeet right in that intersection itself. If you slow down the speed, you can easily spot it.

Further down in another KM, you will see A2B & BP COCO Pump on your right side. Again you have to drive down another 500 metres to take a U turn and come back to A2B.

-Ravi

[luvurride]

Originally Posted by ravib

Minor correction. Hotel Sai Sangeet is about 3 kms before Thoppur toll which comes on your right side while travelling from Bangalore towards Salem. There is a U turn exit which you need and you can see Sai Sangeet right in that intersection itself. If you slow down the speed, you can easily spot it.

Further down in another KM, you will see A2B & BP COCO Pump on your right side. Again you have to drive down another 500 metres to take a U turn and come back to A2B.

-Ravi

Yes, my bad. Thanks for pointing out. The reason I didn't include Thoppur A2B is because their restrooms aren't that clean.

[gadadhar]

I am driving from Munnar to Bangalore on Sunday, 27th Aug with a 9 am start and planning to stick to my regular route on Marayur, Udumal. Considering the long weekend crowd at the Toll Plazas, I am thinking of taking Avinashi, Chamrajnagar, Kanakpura road than coming through Salem. I do have fasttag, but past experience at Thoppur, Krishnagiri and Attibelai during long weekends are simply horrible even with Tag.

Looking for suggestions based on your experience

[NPV]

Originally Posted by gadadhar

Considering the long weekend crowd at the Toll Plazas, I am thinking of taking Avinashi, Chamrajnagar, Kanakpura road than coming through Salem. I do have fasttag, but past experience at Thoppur, Krishnagiri and Attibelai during long weekends are simply horrible even with Tag.

I think this is a good idea, on these long weekend/holidays, it makes a lot of sense to avoid Thoppur, Krishnagiri and Attibele.
During the Independence day holiday we wanted to avoid the holiday traffic, so chose to drive on Sunday from Bangalore and return on Monday from Palakkad.

Luckily, we only got stuck for 15 minutes at Attibele (and the Fastag lane was closed for repairs).

[procrj]

Originally Posted by gadadhar

Looking for suggestions based on your experience

Dont think there is an easy way to bypass Thoppur toll but after that you can take Dharmapuri - Rayakottai - Kelamangalam - Attibele to bypass Krishnagiri & Attibele tolls. Check here for latest update

[gadadhar]

Originally Posted by NPV

I think this is a good idea, on these long weekend/holidays, it makes a lot of sense to avoid Thoppur, Krishnagiri and Attibele.
During the Independence day holiday we wanted to avoid the holiday traffic, so chose to drive on Sunday from Bangalore and return on Monday from Palakkad.

Luckily, we only got stuck for 15 minutes at Attibele (and the Fastag lane was closed for repairs).

Originally Posted by procrj

Dont think there is an easy way to bypass Thoppur toll but after that you can take Dharmapuri - Rayakottai - Kelamangalam - Attibele to bypass Krishnagiri & Attibele tolls. Check here for latest update

Thanks, will skip toll route and use either of this. Sad state, basic purpose of having 6/4 lane highways getting beaten due to the toll plazas