[haripg]

Thanks for the suggestions. I took the Nice Rd -> Kollegal -> Chamrajnagar Gundlupet road to calicut, 2pm in the afternoon. I would recommend this over the Mysore road any day. Reached Gundlupet in less than 3.5 hours from the Nice Road entrance. Only issue I dont see any good stop point for a coffee or loo break with family till Gundlupet.

[binand]

Originally Posted by haripg

Thanks for the suggestions. I took the Nice Rd -> Kollegal -> Chamrajnagar Gundlupet road to calicut, 2pm in the afternoon. I would recommend this over the Mysore road any day. Reached Gundlupet in less than 3.5 hours from the Nice Road entrance. Only issue I dont see any good stop point for a coffee or loo break with family till Gundlupet.

Loo break - Nijaguna Residency in Chamarajanagar has very well-maintained bathrooms. The food is not all that great, in my opinion - plus they serve very slowly.

Coffee - I generally drink tea when on the road, which I take from any roadside vendor. There are a few sit-in restaurants of sufficient quality along the route, though. I can't comment on their quality as I either don't stop to eat, or bring home food when driving along this route.

[ajithbr]

Originally Posted by binand

Loo break - Nijaguna Residency in Chamarajanagar has very well-maintained bathrooms. The food is not all that great, in my opinion - plus they serve very slowly.

Coffee - I generally drink tea when on the road, which I take from any roadside vendor. There are a few sit-in restaurants of sufficient quality along the route, though. I can't comment on their quality as I either don't stop to eat, or bring home food when driving along this route.

Another good option would be the hotel opposite Kollegal bus stand. I guess the name of the hotel is 'Hotel Nandini'. The toilets were pretty ok and the food was decent too. Had stopped there in one of our summer trips last year and found it to be a good option to break as it also comes nicely around mid-point between Bangalore and Gundlupet. More recent updates can be asked from recent regular travellers of this route.

[sajidclt]

Originally Posted by binand

Loo break - Nijaguna Residency in Chamarajanagar has very well-maintained bathrooms. The food is not all that great, in my opinion - plus they serve very slowly.

Where exactly is this place? I normally turn towards Gundlupet right after the bus stand through one of the narrow roads - so don't remember seeing this place.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by sajidclt

Where exactly is this place? I normally turn towards Gundlupet right after the bus stand through one of the narrow roads - so don't remember seeing this place.

It is bit ahead of that. You won't see the place if you turn towards Gundlupet, you need to go towards Sathyamangalam side for that.
Location

[FuelInjector]

Originally Posted by sajidclt

Where exactly is this place? I normally turn towards Gundlupet right after the bus stand through one of the narrow roads - so don't remember seeing this place.

Nijaguna is slightly off the Chamrajnagar-Sathyamangalam road. instead of taking right at the last signal to proceed to Gundulupet, take a left for 50 mts.then take another left (there is a big signboard that says Nijaguna residency -- just 2 mins away). drive another 50 mtrs on this raod and you would find it to your left.

Liked the place. restrooms are good for gents and ladies. The food - actually i liked it. Simple one. But the serving time is a little more than what you get in bangalore restaurents. but am OK with spending 10 mins extra. the place also has an "archery" and "target shoot". it wasnt open when we visited. maybe good place for kids too. shall post some pics soon.

[binand]

Originally Posted by sajidclt

Where exactly is this place? I normally turn towards Gundlupet right after the bus stand through one of the narrow roads - so don't remember seeing this place.

I posted directions in another thread here.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post3314936

[kalsu]

Originally Posted by MG1558

Hi,

After one year of no travelling, we are planning to do Bangalore - Calicut - Guruvayur during the next extended weekend.

There are 3 routes to Calicut from Mysore according to my map -
1. Mysore - Gundelpet - Sultan Bathery - Kalpetta - Vytheri - Calicut
2. Mysore - Gundelpet - Bandipur - Gudalur - Pandalur - Vytheri
3. Mysore - Hampapura - Kakankote - Manantody - Vytheri - Calicut

Please advice which is the best route to take currently?
We would be travelling with our 4 month old baby - so do not want to take risks.

Hi I did the route 1 this week, pretty good roads from Calicut to Bangalore, be careful of the nanjungud sulthan bathery stretch has lot of speed breakers in the Karnataka forest side.. roads are tarred..

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

It is bit ahead of that. You won't see the place if you turn towards Gundlupet, you need to go towards Sathyamangalam side for that.

Originally Posted by FuelInjector

Nijaguna is slightly off the Chamrajnagar-Sathyamangalam road. instead of taking right at the last signal to proceed to Gundulupet, take a left for 50 mts.then take another left (there is a big signboard that says Nijaguna residency -- just 2 mins away). drive another 50 mtrs on this raod and you would find it to your left.

Originally Posted by binand

I posted directions in another thread here.

Thanks for these timely directions. I was looking for this place when I returned from Wayanad last week and could not find it. Normally I always stop at the CCD at Gundlepet.

Returned from a 3 day Calicut trip yesterday. Started at 5am and this place was an ideal stop for breakfast. Reached here around 8.45am. I was surprised at the property. From the discussion on this thread I had somehow assumed it was a normal hotel kind of a place. Did not realize it was kind of a mini resort. Nice peaceful location, good rest rooms and nice restaurant to relax and have some food (food was decent enough in my opinion). Spent around 45-50 min there. Left at 9.30 and reached the NICE-Kanakpura Jn at 12pm.

This was my fastest drive between Bangalore-Calicut. Normally I always get stuck/delayed at some place or the other due to some reason. This was a smooth drive. The 5am start ensured minimal traffic till Bathery. Bathery-Chamrajnagar-Kanakpura-Bangalore in any case has light traffic and since I was returning on a Tuesday morning, it was even lighter than usual. Excellent roads throughout. A joy to drive.

Only different things noticed.
On the drive to Calicut, at Bathery town, the section from Assumption Hospital to the traffic signal had been made one way. So traffic towards kalpetta had to take a left at the signal and then a right few hundred meters down the road. Not sure if it was some temporary arrangement.

The farmers spreading their crop to be dehusked on the road is a common sight between the forest checkpost and Gundlepet. Noticed this now extensively being done on the Gundlepet-Chamrajnagar stretch also. Had not encountered this on this stretch in my recent drives.

Kalpetta By-pass seems to be getting ready. Any updates on this?

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Kalpetta By-pass seems to be getting ready. Any updates on this?

What I heard last month was that most of work was done only one drainage work is pending. There was a talk of it being inaugurated when CM was visiting kalpetta start of Dec. Not sure why it got delayed.
Hope it will help save some 15 mins atleast once open.

[binand]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Nice peaceful location, good rest rooms and nice restaurant to relax and have some food (food was decent enough in my opinion).

Every time I've eaten here, I've had awful food and terrible service. Am I the unlucky one? :-) My last trip, it was foul-tasting wadas cooked in oil of some unknown origin.

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

On the drive to Calicut, at Bathery town, the section from Assumption Hospital to the traffic signal had been made one way.

Kalpetta By-pass seems to be getting ready.

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

What I heard last month was that most of work was done only one drainage work is pending. There was a talk of it being inaugurated when CM was visiting kalpetta start of Dec. Not sure why it got delayed.
Hope it will help save some 15 mins atleast once open.

In my experience, it can take between 30-90 minutes to cross Bathery & Kalpetta towns during daytime. I am hoping these two measures can cut it down to maybe 30 minutes.

I am likely to go to Calicut during the 11/1-12/1 weekend (Saturday AM out, Monday AM return). Will post an update to this.

[binand]

My Calicut trip for the weekend is almost confirmed. Does anyone know how big a menace fog on Kanakapura Road is? Any website where I can track the condition on the ground? I plan to start at around 3AM so that I'm at the forest crossing soon after the first rush is over, and am in a position to cross both Bathery and Kalpetta before local traffic picks up.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by binand

My Calicut trip for the weekend is almost confirmed. Does anyone know how big a menace fog on Kanakapura Road is? Any website where I can track the condition on the ground? I plan to start at around 3AM so that I'm at the forest crossing soon after the first rush is over, and am in a position to cross both Bathery and Kalpetta before local traffic picks up.

I had left at 4 am on 27th December (although via Mysore Road) and did not encounter any foggy conditions. Prior to that I had gone to Wayanad on 22nd December and had left at 4.30am. There was a slight fog during this trip, but nothing to hamper visibility.

But I guess it can vary day to day

[treadmark]

Originally Posted by binand

My Calicut trip for the weekend is almost confirmed. Does anyone know how big a menace fog on Kanakapura Road is? Any website where I can track the condition on the ground? I plan to start at around 3AM so that I'm at the forest crossing soon after the first rush is over, and am in a position to cross both Bathery and Kalpetta before local traffic picks up.

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

I had left at 4 am on 27th December (although via Mysore Road) and did not encounter any foggy conditions. Prior to that I had gone to Wayanad on 22nd December and had left at 4.30am. There was a slight fog during this trip, but nothing to hamper visibility.

But I guess it can vary day to day

As Rajeev rightly mentioned the intensity of fog will vary from day to day. I did Bangalore ~ Kanakapura ~ Chamarajanagara then to Sathyamangalam and Thrissur on last month 21st at 4:00 AM and the visibility was medium all along till dawn and even less at some places.

Sligthly out of topic, I'm planning to visit Wayanad over this weekend, stay for two nights. Can any you suggest which will be the best location among Kalpetta, Mananthavadi and Sulthan Bathery for hotel accommodation. I can go with Home stay or Hotel but should be able to visit as much as tourist spot as possible in two days. Appreciate if you one can guide me with the best location and the possible spots I can cover.

Assist me if you are known more about Wayanad, thank you in advance.

[binand]

Originally Posted by treadmark

Sligthly out of topic, I'm planning to visit Wayanad over this weekend, stay for two nights. Can any you suggest which will be the best location among Kalpetta, Mananthavadi and Sulthan Bathery for hotel accommodation.

Let us see:

Mananthavady - closest to Tholpetty and Nagarhole sanctuary. I think the smallest of the three towns you mention. I am not very familiar with the place, but I think stay options are lesser here.

Bathery - gateway to Muthanga, nearest to Bandipur and Mudumalai sanctuaries.

(Tholpetty and Muthanga are the two eco-tourism centres of Wayanad sanctuary)

Kalpetta - District HQ, probably has the best stay options. Sujipara, Pookkode and Banasura are nearest from here. Has several resorts in the Kalpetta-Vythiri stretch.

My preference would be to stay at Bathery and access the other two locations, but that is just me (I am somewhat familiar with the town as I have relatives there). The distance between any two of the three will be between 30-35km which in Kerala you should be able to cover in 45 minutes.