[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by unoczar

hi guys,

i was planning a trip to mumbai this 9th, but there's a change in plans. Majority says we should head south. So i have planned..

hyd-kodai-munnar-ooty-hyd

Why would you want to do Kodai-Munnar-Ooty when all three are hill stations and all the three places would begin to see rain by the time you go.I would suggest stick to Kodai & Munnar and back.Nevertheless if you do want to go to all the three places,here is the way:

SALEM-PERUNDURAI-KANGEYAM-DHARAPURAM-PALANI-KODAI

https://maps.google.co.in/maps?saddr...mra=ls&t=m&z=9

KODAI-BATHALANGADU-THENI-BODI-MUNNAR

https://maps.google.co.in/maps?saddr...sz=10&t=m&z=10

MUNNAR-MARAYOOR-CHINNAR-UDUMULPET-PALLADAM-AVINASHI-ANNUR-METTUPALAYAM-KOTAGIRI-OOTY

https://maps.google.co.in/maps?saddr...via=3&t=m&z=10

OOTY-KALHATTY-MASINAGUDI-THEPEKADU-BANDIPUR-GUNDLUPET-MYSORE-BLR-HYD

https://maps.google.co.in/maps?saddr...sz=11&t=m&z=11

Kodai/Ooty/Munnar all have zillions of places to stay depending on your budget.The best at these places would be:Kodai-Carlton(bang on the lake) ,Ooty:Red Hill Resort/Destiny Farm Stay / Sherlock (all belong to the Little Earth Group) ,Munnar:I would reccomend Edasserry East End because of its proximity to the town as well as other places.If you happen to stay in Chinnakanal area then travel would be cumbersome.

Roads are good and excellent all the way.

Day 1:Hyd-Salem
Day 2:Salem-Kodai
Day3:Kodai
Day4:Kodai-Munnar
Day5:Munnar
Day6:Munnar-Ooty
Day7:Ooty
Day8:Ooty-Mysore
Day9:Mysore-Hyd

Add or deduct days as per your itinerary.Let me know in case you need any more details.

As for bypassing BLR,Sriturl has given you a turn by turn explanation on the above post,follow that,its the easiest way.

Hyd-Salem would take you around 12hrs(add or deduct 1hr)

At Salem,you could stay at GRT Estancia at 3k a night with bf on DBL occupancy (http://www.grthotels.com/grtgrandestancia.aspx).Speak to Rajesh at GRT +91 44 665 000 00/ Mobile: +91 96000 00997

If thats out of budget,then you could consider this :: Travellers Inn - Highway Restaurants in Salem To Ernakulam, Highway Restaurants in Salem To Sankagiri,Highway Restaurants in Salem To Ernakulam Bye-pass::
else carry on and stay at Perundurai-Hotel Chennis (hotelchennis.com)

[unoczar]

Thanks a ton for all your inputs, but i must apologise, women power has prevailed and we're going back toward the mumbai route.

conversation:
what will i do in hill stations?
it'll be cool, we'll go trekking, elephant ride etc, etc..
and what will i buy there? what shopping can i do? tea bags?
we can stop for some time in bangalore for shopping..
i don't know anything, we're going to mumbai, that's it!

*silence*

[androdev]

Just returned to Bangalore from Hyd. Fantastic highway.



Only issue was some car drivers would drive in the middle occupying both the lanes and they wouldn't budge even if I honk/flash. Didn't understand why.

I was coming from Vanasthalipuram area so I took the ORR from B N Reddy Nagar to reach BLR highway. The ORR is simply wow! Bangalore has nothing to match it even remotely!!

[Newpunter]

I did a trip from Bhadrachalam to Bangalore last week, via Hyderabad. Started at 4:45 AM at Bhadrachalam and reached Devanahalli by 5 PM and then got stuck in the Bangalore traffic for another hour and half.
Since it was a Saturday, the road was completely empty and we covered a lot of distance in a short time. The road is completely awesome and the ORR in Hyderabad is very good. Took the section from Chowtuppal to Shamshabad. The road work on the Hyderabad-Vijayawada section seems to be completed on one side, so there are not too many diversions and you can do good speed on this road too.

[androdev]

Originally Posted by gajadonga

Which car did you travel.

Mercedes S350 petrol.

Did you not stop for refuel on the way.

I stopped very briefly to refuel.

Btw, the trip meter doesn't include the time when the engine is switched off - so the typical trip meters on most cars don't show journey time but only the "driving time"

[vnabhi]

Guys

What are the options for food on the route to Bangalore from Hyd if one starts at 9 am from Hyderabad, after breakfast. I am asking as I have no chance of starting at 6 am as originally planned.

I guess Gooty comes too soon (around noon), so is there any other food joint between Gooty and Bangalore?

As I plan to drive to Mysore via Hebbal , NICE Rd and Kengeri, I guess those parts would be reached beyond 3 pm, which is too late. Anything between 1 to 2 pm would be great.

[sriturl]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Guys

What are the options for food on the route to Bangalore from Hyd if one starts at 9 am from Hyderabad, after breakfast. I am asking as I have no chance of starting at 6 am as originally planned.

I guess Gooty comes too soon (around noon), so is there any other food joint between Gooty and Bangalore?

As I plan to drive to Mysore via Hebbal , NICE Rd and Kengeri, I guess those parts would be reached beyond 3 pm, which is too late. Anything between 1 to 2 pm would be great.

Gooty may be around 4+ hrs from hyd. I guess Gooty should be a good option, else Anantapur.
After that, there is a AP tourism restaurant at the border where there are check posts. Quality is average to less.
But if you are okay with Dhabas, there is a dhaba where APSRTC buses used to stop, not sure about quality now. previously it was average. This is on left side after the AP tourism restaurant on left side towards Bangalore.
After that Kamat Chikkaballapur is better.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by sriturl

Gooty may be around 4+ hrs from hyd. I guess Gooty should be a good option, else Anantapur.
After that, there is a AP tourism restaurant at the border where there are check posts. Quality is average to less.
But if you are okay with Dhabas, there is a dhaba where APSRTC buses used to stop, not sure about quality now. previously it was average. This is on left side after the AP tourism restaurant on left side towards Bangalore.
After that Kamat Chikkaballapur is better.

Thanks. But where is the border? How long does it take to reach it from Hyderabad?

[sriturl]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Thanks. But where is the border? How long does it take to reach it from Hyderabad?

Border is after Penukonda, which takes around 6+ hours for me.
There is a turning for Puttaparthi, at the junction of which there are a couple of small food joints. Never tried them, but I see some people stopping there.
After that there are boards where you find RTO checkpost etc., AP tourism restaurant is at the place where there are check posts, there are extra lanes separated by barrier at this place. You will find a lot of small shops etc. Place name is Kodikonda.
But, I wouldn't recommend this restaurant. Tried a couple of times, but not happy.
This time, tried a dhaba at Gooty by pass, at the far end coming from Hyderabad, (Dashmesh Punjabi dhaba), this was on right side while going to blr, just before the end of by pass. I wouldn't say great, but decent.
I used to stop at A1 plaza before, but didn't see crowds there off late.

[hyd_traveller]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

What are the options for food on the route to Bangalore from Hyd if one starts at 9 am from Hyderabad. Anything between 1 to 2 pm would be great.

9am ex your place means approx 9:45am at Hyderabad Airport which also means you will reach Kurnool only around 1pm.

A km or so after the Kurnool toll and the "bridge over the river", on your left, you will see an IOC bunk and also a board of some "garden" restaurant besides and just before it.

To reach the bunk/restaurant, you need to go another 0.5 km ahead and take a left U-Turn to the service road.

Okay food, pretty decent biryani though a wee bit oily, clean loo, A/C place, attracts quite a bit of local crowd on sundays for lunch and also all the NHAI officials.

[spadix]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

I guess Gooty comes too soon (around noon), so is there any other food joint between Gooty and Bangalore?

Unfortunately you will reach too early at Haritha Kurnool.

The best option would be after crossing the border (Bagepalli us another border town, by the way).

Somewhere near Chikballapur you'll find Brindavan and a couple of other restaurants (including a Kamat too, now, I think). All the Hyd-bound Volvos from Blr used to stop here for dinner, and I've lost count of the number of Volvo trips which included this stop. This will be on the right side as you drive down to Blr. IIRC it'll come after you cross Chikballapur, but please get this confirmed.

Regards,
spadix

[vnabhi]

Many thanks guys. Owing to a tragedy in a close pal's family, I can leave only in the afternoon, or Monday early morning. I shall keep all your suggestions in mind.

[racer_ash]

Did a to and fro run to Bangalore during 30th May-2nd June 2012. Left Begumpet in my i20 at around 145pm and reached hebbal by around 10pm. Stopped a couple of hours for refreshments/dinner/fuel. Amazing highway. Can do 3 digit speeds quite easily. Need to watch out for autos and tractors coming in our fast lane in the opposite direction. This happened mostly near gooty and ananthapur. Also noticed a couple of unmarked speed-breakers near anathapur. Need to be little careful as they could cause significant damage if taken in speed. Apart from this no problems whatsoever. Had decent dinner at Kamat near chikballapur.

The real shocker came after Hebbal. Thanks to google maps, we took one wrong turn somehwere and ended up going round and round through a maze of one-ways. Finally reached JPnagar by around 12am with guidance from a helpful relative

During the return trip, the relative escorted us upto Hebbal. We were at Hebbal at 3pm. Reached Begumpet at 1130pm with the usual refreshment/dinner/fuel break. Dinner at a hotel between Jadcherla and Shadnagar (forgot the name of the hotel, saw a number of RTC and pvt buses that had stopped at the same place). This place comes to the right.

The i20 (P) returned a mileage of close to 18kmpl. I am pretty impressed with this since in city I hardly get over 12kmpl.

[vnabhi]

Here is an update on my trip. Left IOC bunk at Somajiguda at 315 pm on 17th June. Passed Shamsabad Jn at 345 pm.

Was glad to note that the 2 km bad stretch of undivided carriageway is now bump-free, and one can drive at 50 to 60 kmph.

There was very heavy rain between Jadcherla and Kurnool, with strong cross-winds, forcing us to drop speeds to 80 kmph, with wipers on at full speed. The wind at times was so strong that I had to hold the steering from turning to the left. Those were the times I remembered the 'pull drift compensation' feature that the new Fiesta has, and my car does not! Overtaking from the rightmost lane was risky owing to water accumulating near the divider. My son learnt his lesson quickly after just one experience of mild aquaplaning!

It took us a little under 3 hours to cross Kurnool. Had pakoda and anda burji with coffee at Reliance A1 plaza near Dhone, which took us 30 minutes. It was dark by then. Filled up at a BP bunk near Gooty and drove at triple digit speeds till Yellahanka.

Best part was tailing a Beemer at 140 and reducing speeds to 80 whenever he did so, as he seemed to know the road very well. This was very helpful in avoiding hitting those massive speedbreakers that come up without warning at Ananthapur, Chickbellapur and numerous ones after that till Devanahalli, which we passed around 1045 pm.

As it was late, my pal at Koramangala advised me to drive straight through Hebbal, which I did. I put my Garmin GPS on at Hebbal and followed its advice, which was 99% accurate. Stopped for 20 minutes at McD on Brigade Rd for a quick burger, before reaching Koramangala at 1145 pm.

Overall, it took 8.5 hours from Somajiguda to Koramangala, with around 50 minutes of breaks for snacks, fuel, and dinnner.

[spadix]

Originally Posted by racer_ash

Also noticed a couple of unmarked speed-breakers near anathapur. Need to be little careful as they could cause significant damage if taken in speed.

Where exactly were these? Were they at either end of the bypass or somewhere in the middle? It would help others to know, because I don't remember encountering speed-breakers on the AP section of the new NH7 except for one or two just after Gooty (while driving to Blr). But this was almost 2 years back.

Originally Posted by racer_ash

Dinner at a hotel between Jadcherla and Shadnagar (forgot the name of the hotel, saw a number of RTC and pvt buses that had stopped at the same place). This place comes to the right.

Could be Hotel Munawar. This is the most popular dinner halt for all buses. Earlier there was only one outlet on the left side, but after 4-laning + divider they have perhaps opened another outlet on the other side of the road.

Originally Posted by vnabhi

As it was late, my pal at Koramangala advised me to drive straight through Hebbal, which I did. I put my Garmin GPS on at Hebbal and followed its advice, which was 99% accurate. Stopped for 20 minutes at McD on Brigade Rd for a quick burger, before reaching Koramangala at 1145 pm.

In fact at this time of the day the ORR would be busier (lots of truck traffic) than town roads. At least this was the case when I was living in Blr. On a Sunday it simply doesn't even make sense to take the ORR. Driving through the city would be just fine.

Regards,
spadix