[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by ankan.m.blr

I am reaching Hyd on 10-Nov afternoon (will start from Blr in the morning) and will leave from Hyd on 13-Nov early morning. That leaves me with 2 whole days (Sunday & Monday)and a few hours on Saturday. I'll be staying at Kachiguda. The places I am planning to visit are Golkonda Fort, Salarjung Musuem, Charminar, Hussain Sagar Tank and if possible Hyd Zoo. Can all these be fitted in 2 and a half days?

If you have time and energy you can finish off Hussain Sagar on the evening you reach itself.
You can plan for Charminar and Salarjung Museum together since both are near by. However Museum will take minimum of 3 hrs, better plan Charminar early that way you can beat the crowd.
Golkonda fort will take ~3 Hrs to complete including light & sound show, which is in evening. From Kachiguda and the drive from Kachiguda will take minimum 1 hour. You can plan Zoo for morning and visit Golkonda in evening.
However, do check before if all places are open on Mondays. Since many tourist places have Monday as weekly off.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by ankan.m.blr

I am reaching Hyd on 10-Nov afternoon (will start from Blr in the morning) and will leave from Hyd on 13-Nov early morning. That leaves me with 2 whole days (Sunday & Monday)and a few hours on Saturday. I'll be staying at Kachiguda. The places I am planning to visit are Golkonda Fort, Salarjung Musuem, Charminar, Hussain Sagar Tank and if possible Hyd Zoo. Can all these be fitted in 2 and a half days?

The day you reach,you can go to Hussain Sagar in the evening,do the boat ride to the Buddha Statue,Eat Street,NTR Gardens,Lumbini Park,Paradise restaurant for biriyani (go to the one near IMAX).

Day 2:you can head to salarjung after breakfast.park your car at the museum and take a rick to charminar,shopping at Laad Bazaar,you could also see Chowmohalla Palace which is in the same area.In the evening by 4 you can head to Golconda on time for the Light and Sound which starts by 6pm

I am not sure where you would fit in the zoo as the zoo would take a lot of time.

[ankan.m.blr]

I am planning to start at 5:30 am. For families (ladies & kids), please suggest options for snacks break with toilet facilities on the way to and from Hyd. In an earlier post, I saw that re-fueling will not be a problem. I hope the situation is same, as I would need to refuel some where in between (petrol).

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by ankan.m.blr

I am planning to start at 5:30 am. For families (ladies & kids), please suggest options for snacks break with toilet facilities on the way to and from Hyd. In an earlier post, I saw that re-fueling will not be a problem. I hope the situation is same, as I would need to refuel some where in between (petrol).

No places to eat enroute.You can try your luck with the petrol pumps for washrooms-almost all of them would be dirty and unusable.

[cool_dube]

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

No places to eat enroute.You can try your luck with the petrol pumps for washrooms-almost all of them would be dirty and unusable.

I believe there are 3 BP Ghar dhabas b/w BLR-HYD. Is that not correct?

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by cool_dube

I believe there are 3 BP Ghar dhabas b/w BLR-HYD. Is that not correct?

The Chikballapur one has Kamat Upachar open from 7am to 1130pm(its too close to Bangalore though).Dirty washrooms.

After that there is one at Gooty which is not accessible in the BLR-HYD direction as there is no break in the median and is bang next to the Gooty toll gate,so if you need to go to this pump you need to pay INR 80 three times.The GHAR at this pump has closed down ages ago.Only the pump is functional.

The 3rd GHAR is after Kurnool at Manavpadu-not accessible in the HYD-BLR direction unless one is prepared to take a U some distance down the road.GHAR was shut for a few months,now reopened.

There is a new drive in Motel called Hill View in the HYD-BLR direction which has a CCD attached to it.It is approx 80kms from Hyderabad city,not any great shakes but compared to the BP GHARs,this place is the Taj hotel!

Washrooms at none of the places are good.Use the natural environs for ladies as well as kids as well as guys.Not worth anything using those washrooms.They were built with good intent and thats where it ends!

[hyd_traveller]

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

Washrooms at none of the places are good.Use the natural environs for ladies as well as kids as well as guys.Not worth anything using those washrooms.They were built with good intent and thats where it ends!

KURNOOL
There is one "Holiday Inn" garden restaurant (not to be confused with the international hotel chain), a stand alone venture at Kurnool proper next to a HPCL fuel bunk on the service road on your right side when travelling from BLR to HYD.

Decent food, A/C, clean restroom.

A perfect halt being half way. No idea when it opens in the mornings but is certainly open for lunch and dinner.

Location : Point B on the map. Point A is where one needs to take a right turn and access the service road, once on the service road continue in the direction towards Hyderabad on the service road parallel to the highway to reach this place and the fuel bunk.

Caution : Do not follow the google map directions as they are wrong but the ones mentioned by me above.

Map : https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=B...1,0&sz=18&z=14

[ankan.m.blr]

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

The GM route is correct that is the easiest way to get there.Bear in mind NOT to take the PVN Rao elevated expressway from NH7,instead keep to the left and go via the Zoo and you should be ok.Expect heavy traffic from the zoo onwards.

A last minute confusion: to avoid PVN Rao expressway, should I keep left & go below the flyover?

P.S. : Kindly suggest if I need to take any document other than DL, Reg, Insurance & PUC to avoid harassment from AP/Hyd Traffic Police for being a KA number plate.

[smsrini]

The Dashmesh Dhaba on the Gooty byepass has reasonably clean wash rooms. Usually locked. ask the owner to open.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by ankan.m.blr

A last minute confusion: to avoid PVN Rao expressway, should I keep left & go below the flyover?

Keep left and go straight.The flyover curves to the left,while you need to keep straight at the junction.Do not go right at the junction-takes you to the Vijayawada road.Just follow directions for Charminar/High Court/Zoo and you would be ok.

Originally Posted by ankan.m.blr

P.S. : Kindly suggest if I need to take any document other than DL, Reg, Insurance & PUC to avoid harassment from AP/Hyd Traffic Police for being a KA number plate.

As such Hyd Traffic cops are very reasonable as opposed to their BLR counterparts.No cases of undue harassment.Just preserve the toll receipts to show them in case you are stopped.Make sure you are carrying originals of all those documents-RC,DL,PUC & Insurance.Yes no sunfilms absolutely-Operation Blackfilm is still very active within HYD city limits.

[cool_dube]

Another last minute check - the Nehru ORR is not yet complete beyond the NH7-NH9 section (Patancheru) and Gachibowli-Miyanpur-Medchal route is still the best option to bypass HYD, correct?

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by cool_dube

Another last minute check - the Nehru ORR is not yet complete beyond the NH7-NH9 section (Patancheru) and Gachibowli-Miyanpur-Medchal route is still the best option to bypass HYD, correct?

Yes correct,you cannot connect from Gachibowli to NH7(Nagpur side) via the ORR.Complete only between Gachibowli & NH9 at Muthangi.

[ankan.m.blr]

Went to Hydearbad for a Diwali weekend trip from Blr. I got a lot of information on routes, food-stops & travel itinerary from fellow BHP-ians, esp. salutes to ranjitp1, smsrini, hyd_traveller, mpksuhas. My main concern on the trip was breakfast & restrooms availability. I saw a lot of Dhabas on the way but was not sure if they are family friendly, so didn't stop. While going to Hyd, stopped at Holiday Inn as mentioned here Holiday Inn, Kurnool . The place is very nice, with a nice garden & AC restro. The restro opens for business at 10-30 AM; we relaxed for sometime as we reached early. The cook prepared nice poori-sabzi. On our way back, we stopped at KV Garden restaurant (attached to an IOCL bunk) ; this is on the LHS on the way to Blr, just before entering Kurnool. 2 Kms before Holiday inn. Hyd weather is hotter than Blr. I missed visiting Charminar, as there was a curfew in that locality due to communal tension.
time taken for travel : both 2 and fro 8 hrs with 1 hr breakfast break

[trishul]

Back from Hyd trip for Diwali. Left on Friday around 1PM to Hyd from HSR layout, took the outer ring road and regretted the decision. Took me over 2hrs to reach Kamat, chikballapur and around 9 hours to reach Hyd with 1.5 hrs break. Stopped at Holiday Inn kurnool restaurant for dinner and the food was decent though the place was close to empty at 7pm.

Return leg was much better, started from Gachibowli, Hyd at 1PM Wed and reached HSR layout at 8PM. Stopped for less than 20mins total. This time avoided Hebbal, KR Puram and drove through Budigere, Hope Jn, Marthahalli ORR and HSR. Enjoyed the return drive, our Ertiga ZDi handled great and is a fine highway cruncher.

This thread was immensely helpful. Thanks to all who have contributed to this fine thread. I would definitely second the advice on this thread: watch out for oncoming traffic in wrong direction, slow down on corners for surprises and pack your snacks as few good options for food on this route.

[lazyrider]

I am driving to Bangalore tonight, have to reach JP Nagar by around 8-9 AM, which route will have lesser traffic, via Hebbal-Sheshadripuram or via the Nice ring road. And will the city route have a lot of traffic on a saturday morning?