[DieselLover]

Guys,
Can you please help me with these queries. PLanning Kochi to Hyderabad road trip during Christmas week

1. Planning to drive from Kochi to Bangalore on Day1 and stay overnight. Can someone suggest how to bye-pass the city and good hotels which would be on the way? I do not want to enter Bangalore city.

2. Planning to stay at Hyderabad for 3 nights - 24th, 25th and 26th and return on 27th morning taking the same route back. Any suggestions on which part of the city/hotel to stay and some good places which can be covered on 25th and 26th. I would mostly park the car in Hotel and hire a cab for all local commute.

[khan_sultan]

Did a BLR - HYD return on 7th / 9th Dec. It's an absolute delight to drive on this road and barring the few km or so at Kurnool, all the 550+ kms of road is perfectly tarred and well maintained. Plenty of good COCO pumps on the way and fuel is not an issue.

The only grouse is the lack of food joints on the way. If you are doing an early morning start, one can have breakfast at Kamat/BP Bunk after Chikballapur. After that no good places to stop.

If you are new to this route then beware of the unmarked speed breakers near devanhalli (after airport) for approx 5-10 kms. If you miss them, it could be severe for your car.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by khan_sultan

Did a BLR - HYD return on 7th / 9th Dec. It's an absolute delight to drive on this road and barring the few km or so at Kurnool, all the 550+ kms of road is perfectly tarred and well maintained. Plenty of good COCO pumps on the way and fuel is not an issue.

I agree its a nice road but, also the most boring highway to drive as its straight roads with almost zero scenary and biggest issue is there is no shelter through out this entire stretch

Not a single tree where a weary traveller can take rest

[prashkul]

Originally Posted by mobike008

I agree its a nice road but, also the most boring highway to drive as its straight roads with almost zero scenary and biggest issue is there is no shelter through out this entire stretch

I completely agree. I have done this route 6 times this year and struggled to find a place to enjoy the packed food. Only once did I find a big enough tree to enjoy the shade. Lack of greenery almost all along is also sad.

[vina]

Originally Posted by mobike008

I agree its a nice road but, also the most boring highway to drive as its straight roads with almost zero scenary and biggest issue is there is no shelter through out this entire stretch

Lack of facilities is surely true, I'm less sure about the boring part. If you are tempted into doing 130+ then how would you let your eyes wander away from the tar for more than a fleeting second?

My colleage recently recommended that I keep the speed on the lower side of 90, I did and the experience was very different.

Other highways may seem more scenic, after all most of the time they force you to be in less than triple digits.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by vina

Other highways may seem more scenic, after all most of the time they force you to be in less than triple digits.

I have done Hyderabad-Bangalore plenty of times in a car and a few times on my bike ( good portion of the stretch on bike plenty of times again)

Will stick to my opinion. There is no point driving < 90kmph as there is no scenary to check out and its a straight boring road

Comparatively, Nagpur highway is more scenic and has many curves and turns to keep the driving experience engaging

Btw, been riding on these highways almost every weekend from last 2 years

[ak916]

Originally Posted by DieselLover

Guys,
Can you please help me with these queries. PLanning Kochi to Hyderabad road trip during Christmas week

1. Planning to drive from Kochi to Bangalore on Day1 and stay overnight. Can someone suggest how to bye-pass the city and good hotels which would be on the way? I do not want to enter Bangalore city.

2. Planning to stay at Hyderabad for 3 nights - 24th, 25th and 26th and return on 27th morning taking the same route back. Any suggestions on which part of the city/hotel to stay and some good places which can be covered on 25th and 26th. I would mostly park the car in Hotel and hire a cab for all local commute.

Seems like your query was missed. If you plan to wake up early on 24th n leave to hyd, then you can check into a hotel at electronic city (which is at the entrance of Bangalore). Then take the outer ring road before sunrise, reach hebbal/airport n then onto hyd. You don't have to worry about traffic this way.

Other option is to take a room at hosur itself n halt the night. Then follow this route to reach Hyderabad highway at devanahalli. I take this route always. Roads are good though you may find a stray pothole here n there but nothing to worry. There are also a couple of hideous XXL humps after budigere. Patiently cross them!! If you notice, you are largely following NH207, except at bagalur you go straight, cross some small checkpost, n then take a village road to reach chikka tirupati. You will need GPS device to find this road though. Else stick to the regular NH207 via Sarjapur.

At Hyderabad, take a hotel near Tankbund/Birla temple area. Take the PV Narsimha Rao flyover after hyd airport to reach this area. Its about 4-5 kms away from where the flyover ends.

[pgupta]

Dasmesh Punjabi dhaba after Ananthpur near Pamidi offers some very good Punjabi food. Tandoori roti and dal preparations are super. Paneer preparations are also good but priced very high. They don't serve curd rice. I guess there were no rice items available.

While going to hyderabad from bangalore after Ananthpur Bharat Benz dealership on the left, you should find this place.

Please note there is a board stating -Pamidi - 4 Kms - when you see this you know you have already passed the dhaba 😄 you need to take a U turn and come back a bit and you should see this place in the other side of the road. but it's worth doing this.

[sriturl]

Tried the re-opened A1 plaza between Dhone-Gooty on left side coming from Hyderabad. A decent option.
Yes, Dasmesh has a couple of other places as well. One after Gooty toll on the by pass left side going to hyderabad. That is also a decent place, but no proper toilets.

Caught up with NBK(Balakrishna)'s convoy of Telugu film fraternity with a volvo and few cars. Finally managed to overtake when they stopped to piss

Originally Posted by pgupta

Dasmesh Punjabi dhaba after Ananthpur near Pamidi offers some very good Punjabi food. Tandoori roti and dal preparations are super. Paneer preparations are also good but priced very high. They don't serve curd rice. I guess there were no rice items available.

While going to hyderabad from bangalore after Ananthpur Bharat Benz dealership on the left, you should find this place.

Please note there is a board stating -Pamidi - 4 Kms - when you see this you know you have already passed the dhaba 😄 you need to take a U turn and come back a bit and you should see this place in the other side of the road. but it's worth doing this.

[Caffeinated]

Did a Blr-Hyd-Blr trip over the Christmas weekend. Journey took around 8 hours with two breaks, one at the A1 plaza near Gooty. Got a decent mileage of ~22 Kmpl in my Ritz Vdi.

Trip was good, except for the two unpleasant incidents below:

1. I was going at ~110 when all of a sudden, I see a man strolling in middle of the highway. Braked quickly and on nearing him, found that person to be mentally-challenged who was not even responding to horns. He did not get out of my way and I had to turn and go around him.

2. Two tractors were chugging along behind one another. As soon as I started overtaking, the rear tractor decided to cut right and overtake the first one, without any kind of signal and ignoring my incessant honking. Fortunately, I was able to brake in time and avoided scraping the side of the tractor. Gave him a piece of my mind and drove on, but was shaken and stuck to speeds below 100.

[JoseVijay]

Originally Posted by Caffeinated

Trip was good, except for the two unpleasant incidents.

However good the road may be, keeping the speed limit in control is always good. Last sunday, I took ORR (Hyderabad) while returning from my in-laws' town (Nalgonda) and I never crossed 100kmphs on such an inviting road. IMO, anything above 100/110 kmph is fatal on our roads.

[sandeepmohan]

It was Christmas day when out of the blue, my wife and I decided to drive down to Hyderabad. I was super excited. We left around 1230 in the afternoon, took a detour to Siddlaghatta to check on some property and finally hit the road at 230pm. We did not have lunch. Apart from being able to maintain triple digit speeds, I like the fact that the toll booths are spaced far apart. This is the exact opposite when you drive towards Salem. You get the feeling of toll booths spaced every 50km. The only toll booth that caused problems was the first one out of Bangalore. They were doing some road maintenance on the approach to the two rightmost toll gates and this caused quite a jam. All the traffic was squeezing towards the left. Apart from this, it was a smooth run. Stopped at the A1 plaza in Gooty at 5pm for lunch. Excellent food. Though this food joint is tied to a Reliance gas station, the gas station is non operational. Even the kitchen seems to be operated by some local folks. After this, it was a non stop run to Hyderabad. At Kurnool town, there is a small diversion for a bridge that is a long way from being done. It did not appear that any work was happening at all. Though the road remains smooth after Kurnool, I did notice a considerable increase in truck traffic. Enough to bring down your average speed. A little bit of annoyance was the disappearance of road markers (white paint) after Kurnool. They were intermittent. As I was driving past sunset, it got a little difficult to judge where I was on the road. Still, I think this highway offers the best average speed of any highway out of Bangalore. The one to Bombay is another good contender. We pulled in to Hyderabad at 930pm and then lost another one hour finding the house cause we missed the Exit on the ring road. Man, what a road. Hyderabad's ring road is over twice the width of the NICE road we have in Bangalore. Super impressed.

We spent a couple of days in Hyderabad and turned back on 28th. This was a much better drive. Door to door, 576km was covered in 6 hours and 41minutes. We started at 6 am and this time around we got out of Hyderabad in no time. We stopped just before Kurnool town for breakfast, then again at Gooty outer for fuel. Speeds hovered around 120-130kmph where possible. The average speed turned out to be 90kmph based on the trip computer. We did good time for this run. Was home at sharp 1pm. I was worried about long queues at the toll gates but there was none all the way. This is one stretch of road you need to drive fast else it gets super boring. There is nothing to really see on this highway. Thin traffic keeps it safe too. I don't know if I got my math a little wrong, the up and down rates were slightly different for the toll. Towards Hyderabad was around Rs. 572 and on the way back it was a shade over Rs. 600. This includes the toll ticket for using Hyderabad's superb ring road. As many have mentioned, finding a decent spot to eat and for a toilet break, its not an easy find.

I found the toll attendants to be super polite too. I do not know if this is always the case. A couple of toll booths with rates at Rs. 85 and Rs. 95 had a notice requesting for change. I had five bucks in hand so it was okay.

All in all an excellent drive and a wonderful stay in Hyderabad.

[sriturl]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

A little bit of annoyance was the disappearance of road markers (white paint) after Kurnool. They were intermittent. As I was driving past sunset, it got a little difficult to judge where I was on the road.

That is being re-painted. While coming back you would have noticed most of them is done. The L&T stretch was a little lazy in finishing the lane painting.

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

We pulled in to Hyderabad at 930pm and then lost another one hour finding the house cause we missed the Exit on the ring road. Man, what a road. Hyderabad's ring road is over twice the width of the NICE road we have in Bangalore. Super impressed.
...
Towards Hyderabad was around Rs. 572 and on the way back it was a shade over Rs. 600. This includes the toll ticket for using Hyderabad's superb ring road.

The difference in toll may be because of the missed exit on ORR. The toll is point to point depending on where you enter and where you exit.

Depending on which place you want to go to in Hyderabad, there is an option of using a toll free express way(PV Narasimha Rao Exp Way) to get into city straight.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

. We pulled in to Hyderabad at 930pm and then lost another one hour finding the house cause we missed the Exit on the ring road.

I bet that was the Gachibowli exit, and you continued towards Patancheru and Mumbai. I missed the exit myself a few times, despite living in Hyderabad. It is often missed because around half a km before it the signboard says Gachibowli is 6 kms away. But the exit towards Gachibowli is less than a km away from that spot. I wish the board is updated.

Good to know you had fun on one of the best highways in the country. I agree with you that driving in double digit figures is super boring.

[venuvedam]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

I bet that was the Gachibowli exit, and you continued towards Patancheru and Mumbai. I missed the exit myself a few times, despite living in Hyderabad. It is often missed because around half a km before it the signboard says Gachibowli is 6 kms away. But the exit towards Gachibowli is less than a km away from that spot. I wish the board is updated.

Good to know you had fun on one of the best highways in the country. I agree with you that driving in double digit figures is super boring.

Even if you miss the Gachibowli exit, you have the Financial District exit in a couple of kilometers that is essentially another gateway to Gachibowli. You might lose about 10 or 15 minutes max.

If you miss that exit, then God help you