[Lukeskywalker]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Planning of a Bangalore - Badami- Pattadakal - Aihole - Hampi trip in Aug mid. The duration of trip will be 3 days which due to work related constraints can not be increased.
Tentative plan as follows -
Day 1 -
Start from Bangalore at 4.30 AM
Cross Hubli at 09.30 AM
Take NH 218 Navalgund - Nargund - to reach Badami - 12:30 PM
Lunch break and Badami sightseeing till 03:30 PM
Finish off Pattadakkal and Aihole by around 6 PM (Before it gets dark/ Entry closes) and start to Hospet.

Concerns :
- Is it possible to reach Badami earlier than my planned time of 12:30 PM after a 04:30 AM start from Bangalore.
- How long will the Badami - Pattadakal - Aihole circut take including sight seeing.
- How good is condition of NH 13 from Aihole - Hospet, I am aware it is a two lane highway, apart from the same road quality and safety wise please let know.

Day 2-
Hampi Sight seeing.
Also heard about night seeing of the ruins, anyone here who has gone for the same? I was thinking of covering as much as possible on Day 2 and then taking the night sight seeing also.

Day 3 - Anegundi, Anjanadri Hill visit in morning. Return to Hospet have lunch checkout and start back to Bangalore.
Reach Bangalore by around 8PM.

Iam concerned about the Day 1 since the total distance to be covered is around 700 KM and almost 300 of those are on two lane highways meaning time taken will be more. Also this way I will not be able to visit Tungabhadra dam. Since the trip duration can not be increased from 3 days I guess there is no option for the same.

Please let know if this will be feasible.

If you leave Bangalore by 4.30 am, you should reach Hubli latest by 9 am, another 3 hours to Badami (very very sedate driving), the entire Pattadkal, Aihole and Badami takes almost the entire day, half a day is too rushed, suggest night stay at Badami and leave the next afternoon post lunch to Hampi.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Thanks ampere, yes I was going through lukeskywalkers thread before. Actually I got the idea of doing Badami first and then going to Hampi from his thread. My concern was condition of NH 13 between Aihole and Hospet since as per plan I will be driving that road after dark and ride is an Alto.
Also, day 1 route is around 700 KMS combined, I wanted to finish Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal before it gets dark and start to Hospet. I was not sure about the feasablity of the same.

You can do Aihole Hospet in approx 3 hours. Its a single lane undivided highway with steep height difference between the road and the kerb at some places. Be careful.

But i feel the whole idea of finishing Badami,Aihole,Pattadkallu in a single day will be too tedious. And you won't be able to enjoy them to the fullest. It will be a hurried visit and you will definitely wont be able to cover all the places. It will be a visit for the sake of visiting. My 2 paise

[julupani]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Planning of a Bangalore - Badami- Pattadakal - Aihole - Hampi trip in Aug mid. The duration of trip will be 3 days which due to work related constraints can not be increased.
Tentative plan as follows -
Day 1 -
Start from Bangalore at 4.30 AM
Cross Hubli at 09.30 AM
Take NH 218 Navalgund - Nargund - to reach Badami - 12:30 PM
Lunch break and Badami sightseeing till 03:30 PM
Finish off Pattadakkal and Aihole by around 6 PM (Before it gets dark/ Entry closes) and start to Hospet.

Concerns :
- Is it possible to reach Badami earlier than my planned time of 12:30 PM after a 04:30 AM start from Bangalore.
- How long will the Badami - Pattadakal - Aihole circut take including sight seeing.
- How good is condition of NH 13 from Aihole - Hospet, I am aware it is a two lane highway, apart from the same road quality and safety wise please let know.
......

I did the exact same thing as your plan, in late March.

Day 1 was Bangalore-Badami. The following route was taken from Bangalore to Badami.
http://goo.gl/maps/rWQX3

It took me 8 hours, but that was with a 9am start from Bangalore. So you could do it a bit faster than 8 hours, with a 4-5am start. In the above stretch Bangalore-Chitradurga and Hospet-Hungund is 4/6 lane.

Day 2 was Badami, Pattadkal and Aihole sight seeing, and onwards to Hampi. Following route was taken.
http://goo.gl/maps/MOCCP

We started the sight seeing in Badami at 8am, and were in Hampi by about 6.30pm. We left Aihole at about 4pm and took 2.5hours to get to Hampi. I think you wont be doing justice to these 3 locations in your whirlwind day 1.

We spent day 3 in Hampi, as well as part of Day 4. We left Hampi at about 11am, to reach Bangalore by 7pm.

I will suggest only one change in the itinerary. You may think about doing Aihole-Pattadkal-Badami on day 1, and stay back in Badami. Leave early next day morning, reach Hampi by 8.30am, have breakfast and start the sightseeing.

As for route, I found the route I took to be very comfortable, and roads were good in most areas, except for the region around Pattadkal.

[condor]

Originally Posted by julupani

.. roads were good in most areas, except for the region around Pattadkal.

How were the roads from Hubli - Navalgund - Nargund - Badami ?

[julupani]

Originally Posted by condor

How were the roads from Hubli - Navalgund - Nargund - Badami ?

Check the route that I have attached. I took the Bangalore-Chitradurga-Hospet-Hungund-Badami route. Road condition section wise is:

1. Bangalore-Chitradurga: 4/6 lane. Quite a few diversions and a few humps but not too bad overall. Should take about 3hours.

2. Chitradurga-Hospet: 2lane, mostly good roads, with a few bad patches. Traffic is a bit high, but still not too bad. About 2 to 2.5 hours.

3. Hospet-Hungund: Brand new 4lane road, not very high traffic. About 1.5hours.

4. Hungund-Badami: 1/2lane. Mostly good, but some really narrow and potholed sections. About 60 to 70mins.

[sumannandy]

We were in Hampi last week. Chitradurga to Hospet is in good condition except for the last 20 kms or so, which was not that bad. Take a deviation after dam to avoid NH63 if you are going to Hospet.

[condor]

Originally Posted by julupani

I took the Bangalore-Chitradurga-Hospet-Hungund-Badami route.

Ok. So you didnt go via Hubli .. I have been on BLR- Chitradurga-Hospet (and further to Bijapur), so am kind of familiar with that route. I wanted to know the section from after Hubli

Originally Posted by sumannandy

Take a deviation after dam to avoid NH63 if you are going to Hospet.

Suman, can you pls mark it on a map ? AFAIK, there is one road to right, immediately after where the new tunnel is being constructed. The entry into Hospet is further up. And IIRC, the dam is after the city ?

This point can be confusing.

[motorpsycho]

Originally Posted by condor

How were the roads from Hubli - Navalgund - Nargund - Badami ?

Till Nargund the roads are pretty good, but not sure what the condition is now with the rains and all.

My last trip to Badami Pattadkal was about an year ago on a bike, route chosen was,

Hubli>NavalGund>Nargund>Kulgerei > Badami

the roads were pretty good we could maintain decent speeds.

[sumannandy]

Take te road to te right immediately after the new tunnel is being constructed. This will lead you to the road to Hampi directly. There is no traffic as such on this route.

[dass]

We are planning to do a 3 day trip to Hampi, Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole.

Leave early morning by around 6am and reach Hospet around 2pm with couple of breaks in between for breakfast and refreshments. In the evening, visit Daroji national park, question though is that if this would be worth it.

Day 2 - Hampi sightseeing, with TB dam in the evening.
Day 3 - Head to Badami, pattadakal and Aihole
Day 4 - If possible, see kudalasangama and then return to Bangalore by 8-9pm.

Is this possible, if so then what are the best routes and the current route conditions please. We have already made bookings at hotels in both the places and hence the sequence has to remain as is.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by dass

We are planning to do a 3 day trip to Hampi, Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole.

You will need at least 4-5 days to visit Hampi, Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole. I mean if you really plan to explore it in detail.

[dass]

Originally Posted by ampere

You will need at least 4-5 days to visit Hampi, Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole. I mean if you really plan to explore it in detail.

The plan is to visit them and not necessarily explore them in detail, as we will have two small kids along and hence may not be able to spend too much time at one place.

So, IF we are just looking at the places and not going into the finer details is this doable?

[mvp]

I did Bangalore - Hubli- naval gund - badami during the month of March and road conditions were good. It takes you about half an hour to cross Hubli city and another two hours to reach Badami.

Of, course you are going to Hampi first.

If you have to go to Kudala Sangama also, it might be better to travel from Hampi and then go to Badami. But, wait until the experts comment.

I returned back via Gulbarga

[sswaroop]

Planning a trip to Mantralayam, Badami, Aihole and Pattadkal. The whole trip is for 4 days, but the first day and a half will be spent driving to and in Mantralayam. This is route suggested by Google Maps - http://goo.gl/tpw86P . Any suggestions and or idea about about recent road conditions will be much appreciated.

Planning to reach Badami at the end of the 2nd day. I was looking at hotels to stay. Is the KSTDC hotel in Badami good or are there any other good options to stay?

Also is it possible to finish Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal in a single day? The focus will be more towards photography on this trip. If it is indeed possible, I would like to explore the possibility of driving down to Hampi at the end of Day 3 and stay there for the night and explore Hampi on Day 4 before driving back to Bangalore.

The drive will be a Fiesta petrol and I don't have too many issues driving at night but would prefer not driving on undivided highways too much at night if I can help it mainly because of the high-beam lights from oncoming drivers .

[jasonblr]

Originally Posted by sswaroop

Also is it possible to finish Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal in a single day? The focus will be more towards photography on this trip.

Single day for Badami, Pattadakal & Aihole is totally doable. I have done this circuit staying at Hyatt (considering it is in the JSW Township away from Hospet) on a single day. Only thing is that we did it in the reverse order of Aihole first and Badami last.

Took till mid afternoon for Aihole & Pattadakal and reached Badami @4p.

The only issue we found was any good restaurants in the Aihole & Pattadakal circuit for lunch - not sure if that is changed now. There was a KSTDC restaurant in Pattadakal but it was closed when we visited.


As for the route, I did the Hiriyur - Tumkur - Bangalore stretch only this Sunday and you can zip through in 2hrs at 100+Kph, excellent highway!!
P.S: The first toll of Nelemangala ticket can be used at the 2nd toll, it's Rs. 35 but though I had taken a full day one - while coming back I was again charged Rs. 35 (which again worked for both the toll booths). Putting this info here incase anyone wasn't aware of this (I didn't know this when I first took the trip several years back and purchased twice ).