[tiger_stripes]

Originally Posted by jogidada

1. Sankeshwar - Gadhinglaj - Ajara: Did this route 3 years back. Hope its still doable with 2 kids (8yrs and 3yrs)?
2. Alternate shortcut that leaves Bangalore highway earlier and goes via Rashing - Uttur - Ardal. I was advised to avoid this route previously. Does anyone know if this route has improved, or should I stick with #1?

You can take route #2. It is in good shape. The exit from the highway is just after the start of Tawandi ghat, with hotel goa ves to the right.

Amboli ghat is in average condition. There are quite a few bad patches compared to 6 months back. Rest of the route till Goa is good.

There is also this little shortcut at the end of Amboli ghat which bypasses Sawantwadi and reaches Banda at the MH border. Inquired with a few locals and was advised not to take it as the road was bad.

[suzuki san]

Hi Guys,
Due to a change of plan my friend returned to Bombay via the Gaganbhawda ghat and Kolhapur (where he had to make a stop).
He reports that the road - NH17 - from Goa via Sawantwadi to Talere (where one has to turn right to proceed to Kolhapur) was in good condition.
There was a bad patch with some potholes at the bottom of the ghat which extended about 3 to 4 Kms. However, he was able to maintain a speed of 30 Kmph here.
The rest of the ghat road was in good condition and with very little traffic.
Encountered some more traffic when entering Kolhapur.
All in all he was quite happy with the road.
Distance from Candolim to Lokhandwala Complex via Kolhapur was 625 Kms.
Distance from Lokhandwala Complex (Andheri) to Candolim via Chorla Ghat was 630 Kms.

Regards,
SS

[vivekiyer20]

Did a Pune-Goa trip drive over the past weekend.

While going took the Pune-Kolhapur-Nipani-Sawantwadi route to Ashvem beach in North Goa. Left Pune at 530 am and reached Ashvem by 2pm. End to end 8.5 hours which was not bad at all. I was fearing much worse roads from Nipani onwards but was pleasantly surprised.

On my way back, for some reason decided to try the Chorla route. While it was definitely more picturesque, the drive was a bit tiring what with vehicles coming down at reckless speeds. Had a couple of scares on the way. Left Ashvem beach by 1030 am and reached Pune by 10pm. End to end 11.5 hours. I can understand that the time of leaving would make a difference and made me encounter jams at Goa and also at Belgaum but 3 hours is a bit too much. My vote clearly goes to Nipani route.

[honeybee]

Originally Posted by tiger_stripes

There is also this little shortcut at the end of Amboli ghat which bypasses Sawantwadi and reaches Banda at the MH border. Inquired with a few locals and was advised not to take it as the road was bad.

We went by this 'shortcut', fooled by what I saw on the map. The bad roads slow you down so much it's not worth the distance saved. However it does have a very scenic ambience.

[sukiwa]

Amboli ghat: Resurfacing that was done earlier this year has deteriorated during monsoon, so hopes of Amboli ghat becoming similar to Chorla ghat have vanished. Some patchwork was going on.

[Ketan T]

Originally Posted by vivekiyer20

Did a Pune-Goa trip drive over the past weekend.

On my way back, for some reason decided to try the Chorla route. While it was definitely more picturesque, the drive was a bit tiring what with vehicles coming down at reckless speeds. Had a couple of scares on the way. Left Ashvem beach by 1030 am and reached Pune by 10pm. End to end 11.5 hours. I can understand that the time of leaving would make a difference and made me encounter jams at Goa and also at Belgaum but 3 hours is a bit too much. My vote clearly goes to Nipani route.

Did Benaulim to Pune through Chorla today. Left Benaulim at 7 AM. Reached Pune at 3:30 PM. Total 3 halts - two for tea and one for lunch. As Vivek Iyer said, time of departure does matter. Also, if you are travelling from Pune or Mumbai it makes sense to take the Chorla route only if you are are travelling to South Goa. For travel to North Goa, stick to Amboli route.

[aviat18]

Update on my recent Mumbai-North Goa- Mumbai road trip:

Mumbai- Goa (Nov 11): Left Mumbai at 5.30 AM and reached Hotel at 5 PM with 3 stops totalling 1.5 hours. Took the Amboli route. Apart from 5 KMs on either side of Ajara, the road was fine. Got stuck in traffic on Expressway for half an hour due to a truck breakdown.

Goa - Mumbai (Nov 15): This is where the fun started. Left Goa at 10 AM. Missed the Ajara- Nipani link road and took the Sankeshwar exit for NH4. While the road condition was definitely better, there was a lot of local traffic that slowed us down considerably. But the icing took the Satara-Pune section. Reached the first diversion before Satara at 5.30 PM and reached Pune at 11.30 PM. The traffic towards Mumbai/Pune was insane with very poor traffic management on all the diversions. Reached Mumbai after a 17 hour drive and forgot all about the just concluded holiday in Goa

[ShaileshHinge]

Whole world was trying to get back from vacation yesterday. I was stuck similarly last year on last day of diwali, coming back from Goa.

Getting from Kolhapur to Mumbai expressway was a pain. and i have noticed that this happens on all days where the schools are about to start next day. Like today.

[1lokesh]

Came back today from goa. Started at 1230hrs and reached home at 2330hrs. 3 breaks of about 30 mins each. Not much of traffic, even the tolls were ok.
Seems that my decision to extend the stay for a day was good ;-)

Road update:
While going, took belgaum chorla route with a night halt at belgaum. 9 hrs of drive from mumbai to belgaum and another 3 hrs from belgaum to candolim. Great road conditions everywhere except the ever immortal diversions between Pune and satara. I wonder why do they even charge the toll? It's daylight robbery.
Returned via sawantwadi amboli ajra nipani route. A lot of potholes have been patched up except a couple of kms stretch before that always crowded waterfall on the ghats section.

[vinit.merchant]

Returned yesterday from Goa, Candolim.

Till the point of reaching Kolhapur the traffic was ok. But my bad that I reached the Kolpapur - Sangli stretch at 6:30. There were more 2 wheelers than cars on the NH. Took a good couple of hours to clear that stretch of 50 odd kms. Add to that the never ending diversions.

Started 13:00 from Candolim and reached Pune 23:30. A total of 2 hours in breaks and another 40-45 mins of headache from the Cantonment tax collection agents (they have hired goons for the job). So net net a tiring drive + an episode with the cantonment collection goons which turned the good holiday a little sour at the fag end.

Had taken the Sawantwadi/Amboli/Nipani route both ways.

[freedom]

Originally Posted by vinit.merchant

40-45 mins of headache from the Cantonment tax collection agents (they have hired goons for the job).

Was this Pune Cantonment? What tax? Private vehicles don't have to pay anything to pass thru cantonment area.

[vinit.merchant]

Originally Posted by freedom

Was this Pune Cantonment? What tax? Private vehicles don't have to pay anything to pass thru cantonment area.

I was in a Zoomcar swift. The guy does not wave to stop me, chases me on a bike and stops me just 100 meters ahead of their booth and asks for 200 instead of 30, else take it to their booth. I take there and tell them I will pay 30 since he too forgot to wave and stop me. 3 more guys appear from nearby, talk crap like "tu driver hai na, me senior hai" blah blah, 10 min in the argument, my younger kid wakes up and starts crying in the car and one of my lady family members loses her cool, comes out and starts shouting at them. Things heat up here and that so called senior says he will seize the car. I lost it here and ask for his I card. 3 out of the 4 guys there could not produce one. A police car was going by, we shouted but I will assume they did not hear, though highly unlikely. Then the "senior" who could not produce an id said, tu ruk me dikhata hu tereko I card" I said abhi dikha, those guys started their bikes and went. I waited for few more minutes, thought there is no point in spoiling an otherwise great trip for a mere 150 bucks and not worth the risk while I had my family along. I am also not the type to handle a fight well. Paid the 200 and left.

In between the arguments, I asked them to come to the police station and there they can have their 200. But you can guess.

I could have just left without paying but that idea dint appear too good at that point.

This was in Pune at golibar maidan, just after coming down the swargate bridge, going towards camp. Time was between 22:30-23:15

Please bear with me for this OT, it should have been a separate thread.

[honeybee]

Off topic, but you shouldn't have gone back to the booth. You can ask your passenger to dial 100 and, whenever it connects, report the incident to get help from the police. Even if the cops don't turn up the goons should back off.

[suzuki san]

Hi Guys,

Have just driven up from Goa to Bombay.
Used the Chorla ghat road.
The Chorla ghat road is in excellent condition and nothing special to report.
The road from Mapuca to Sanquelim is OK. Has deteriorated since I last used it. Some rough patched and potholes but one can swing around them.

I was glad that we decided to wait a couple of days till the holiday traffic cleared. However, we still wasted a total of at least 45 minutes at the toll booths.
Total time from North Goa (Mapuca) to Santa Cruz Airport was 9 hours and 15 mins.
Left Goa at 0600 and was passing the airport at 1515.
This includes three stops for breakfast (the usual Sai International at Kolhapur), fuel and Mc'D's on the expressway.

I noticed that on some of the Karnataka stretches, they have installed large rumbling strips before a curve or a break in the divider (crossing) in the road. This itself is OK but it has also been done on the Tawande Ghat and if you are not ready for it and come speeding down the long sweeping curve, it can catch you off guard.

There is re-surfacing of the north bound section of the highway going on at Karad so traffic is being diverted onto the service road. Distance of about 2 to 3 Kms.

The "immortal" (as member 1lokesh aptly put it) diversions between Satara and Poona are still there though there does seem to be a little activity going on. I wonder if these will be finished in our lifetime. However it should be mentioned that the "service" roads have been recently tarred and some even painted with dividing lines so that's an improvement.
However, beware of the speed breakers some of which are really "car breakers"!!

Regards,
SS

[vinit.merchant]

Originally Posted by suzuki san

Total time from North Goa (Mapuca) to Santa Cruz Airport was 9 hours and 15 mins.
Left Goa at 0600 and was passing the airport at 1515.
This includes three stops for breakfast (the usual Sai International at Kolhapur), fuel and Mc'D's on the expressway.

You managed a brilliant time. I left Goa on 17th at 13:00 and reached only at 23:30. Took me almost 11 hours, and I travelled approx 160 lesser kms than you.
Maybe daylight on NH would be much faster than in the dark.