[devilking]

Drove from Mumbai to North Goa on the 27th (Monday).

Due to certain reasons we did not want to cross the MH KA border so instead of going up till Nipani and Sankeshwar we took a turn from Kagal towards Nidhori. The road was narrow but smooth though there was a lot of rural traffic (tractors and bikes).

After Nidhori the road was bad in patches but manageable. We had planned to take the SH179 through Khanapur and Gargoti, and the road improved after we hit SH179. After Gargoti we took the Ajara-Gargoti road but instead of going till Ajara, we took a shorter route through the ghats to hit the Ajara-Amboli road at Gavse. The roads were narrow but okay though it is advisable to cover this stretch before sunset.

From here it was the Amboli ghat road but instead of going till Sawantwadi, we again took a shorter route after consulting Google Maps. This time Google Maps got it wrong because though this road through Vilavade was shorter, the road was completely missing in some stretches. After Danoli, there was a fork and we took left for this shorter route but on hindsight we should have gone straight till Sawantwadi. We hit NH66 after subjecting our car to an unnecessary torture test.

At Goa border, we were asked for vaccination certificates (RT-PCR not required). Coming to Goa for the first time after the pandemic and was disappointed to find that NH66 has worsened due to a lot of construction related diversions.

[PGNarain]

On the way to Goa, we took the below quoted route via Chorla but decided to check out the Anmod Route on the way back and glad to have made that choice.

[/QUOTE=PGNarain;5221472]So we did the Mumbai to Goa trip and arrived yesterday afternoon. Took the usual, Belapur - Pune - Satara - Belgaum - Chorla - Utorda Route.
[/quote]

We drove down today from South Goa - Ponda - Mollem - Anmod Ghat - Bhimgad WLS - Khanapur - Belgaum (driving back to Mumbai tomorrow). Glad to report that the road all the way from South Goa, till the turn-off into Bhimgad WLS is very very good and for the most part are butter smooth tar roads. Steep road shoulders at Anmod Ghat, which were a concern the past few years, too have now been fully filled and are hardly any concern at all barring a small section right before the Anmod Ghat check-point

The initial few kms into the Bhimgad WLS too are fair to good, with the very bad stretch only lasting about 10kms just before Rangarok Village and upto the turn at Bhimgad Nature Camp Gate inside the WLS. This stretch has parts with roads almost completely broken and very narrow at places, with no option to have to go through the pothole / crater or take your car off the shoulder. Good thing is that all sections are clearly visible if your are driving at decent speeds. It also helps that truck and bus traffic is minimal and you need to only navigate and contend with other 4 wheeler / two wheeler and private cars, which is much easier. After this, roads improve again and are slightly bad only for a 3-4 kms right before the exit from the WLS before the turn off into Khanapur. Took this photo just after the turn at Bhimgad Nature Camp



Check points at Goa Border and then again at Anmod Ghat had traffic back up for 5-10mins, with checks only for Alcohol which were far more thorough than any of the past years. The Anmod Ghat checkpost police had us open our packed bags and rummage through clothes and saw few cars detained and passengers haggling over bottles discovered. No checks with respect to Covid or Vaccinations.

Do note that we saw several Check posts and police shaking down cars entering Goa and two-wheelers riders - be careful and carry all docs!

Considering everything and having driven both Chorla and Anmod, would surely recommend using Anmod Ghat which is by far the better option. For one, the bad sections in Chorla are in the Ghat roads which slows down progress and is also far more dangerous, Anmod Ghats are smooth all the way till the top! The bad stretch through Bhimgad WLS is bad but still navigable by even Sedans/ Low GC cars if you just take it r e a l s l o w l y. Once through, you would still have a blast driving the rest of the way and not worry about potholes etc, which is not the case with Chorla Ghat.

Hope this helps, take care, drive safe and happy new year!!

[akkiman]

Here's the report from the way back from South Goa to Pune. On the way back, we decided to take the chorla ghat to see how that fares compared to anmod. We left in the morning at 09:00

The roads within goa are really good throughout without any potholes and you can drive at a fair nip. The problems start after entering Karnataka. The chorla ghat has some really bad potholes especially at hair pin corners. These potholes are interspersed with good roads which is why most of these craters come all of a sudden. These potholes continue right until sometime before jamboti. Having said this, with a car with good ground clearance and bigger tires, most of the stretch can be done quite fast as compared to anmod. Traffic was also quite less in the mornings.

We reached Kolhapur at around 1:45 and decided to have lunch there. Dehati as recommended by most had waiting times of an hour so we skipped the plan and decided to go to Opal. I've probably been there after a decade but taste was good.

We left Kolhapur at around 3 and the roads afterwards were generally good. The only problems are the toll plazas, especially khed shivapur, where I spent a good 20 minutes. Even with fast tag, there has been no improvement seen in the long serpentine queues.

Anyways we reached Pune at around 6:45 and I'm sure if things were better at the toll plazas, we would have reached even earlier.

So given the choice between anmod and chorla, I would probably choose chorla over anmod but to be honest, both are at the same level now. The good thing is that I saw some trucks carrying tar planning to repair the chorla stretch so that'll be good.

In terms of border checks, I wasn't stopped anyways except at Kolhapur to check my vaccination certificate. Another word of caution is that I could see cops across goa doing vehicle checks throughout my stay there although I was lucky never to be stopped once.

[devilking]

Drove back from North Goa (near Baga) to Mumbai yesterday.

Took the Sawantwadi-Amboli Ghat route. There was some delay at Goa-MH border checkpost because they were checking the vaccination certificates of vehicles coming in to Goa and had stopped the traffic going the other side as well.

Did not want to cross into KA so I had planned to go till Ajara and then take the Ajara-Gargoti road. Just after the left turn inside Ajara town market, there is a fork in the road. The road straight is the State Highway that goes to Gandhiglaj and then crosses into KA. There is a narrow road on the left that is the Ajara-Gargoti road which is the one I took.

Gargoti is 23 kms from Ajara whereas Gandhiglaj is 26 kms. However, the Ajara-Gargoti road is not a SH unlike the Ajara-Gandhiglaj road. Instead it is a narrow rural road passing through hamlets, farms and ghats. The road surface is okay but the road itself is narrow and a bit secluded. The plus point is that there is not much traffic and one can easily maintain a speed of 40-50 kms. This is a good option for those who don't want to cross into KA and are not too hard pressed for time.

The one interesting thing that happened on this stretch was that I came upon 2 groups of boys (total around 18-20 youngsters) fighting with each other in the middle of the road just after Phanaswadi. Folks on bikes had stopped to try and talk some sense into them. I honked my car and they politely allowed me to pass before resuming their sparring. I knew that passing through rural stretches would offer glimpses of life in these parts that city dwellers like myself would otherwise not get to see, but reliving my childhood days of watching WWF Royal Rumble was something totally unexpected.

There is another longer route between Ajara and Gargoti through Nitawade, Karadwadi and Kumbharwadi. This is SH179 but I had already taken this route while coming to Goa. There were some bad patches and under construction stretches on this route and it is not much better than the shorter route. However if one wants to avoid driving through secluded areas that one is a good option.

In Gargoti need to take left at the end of the road and then take a right. One would now end up on the SH179. From here it is straight for a few kms till Mudhal Titta. The road is butter smooth and if one goes straight one would end up in Kolhapur. But from Mudhal Titta, I took a right for Adamapur and Nidhori. A few kms of rural road again and from Nidhori instead of going straight one can take left which is the Murgud-Kagal road. The Murgud-Kagal road is again butter smooth and double lane but there is a bit of rural traffic (tractors and bikes). At Kagal, it hits NH48.

The total distance from North Goa till Kagal on the routes that I took was exactly 200 kms and it took a little over 4 and a half hours including stoppages at Goa-MH border checkpost and at Amboli ghat to stretch my legs and take my dog out for a walk.

At Kolhapur on NH48 had brunch at Burger King drive thru. There is a McDonalds drive thru 1-2 kms ahead as well and I would have preferred McDs over BK but BK has displayed signs more prominently so if one is coming from the KA side one would be tempted to stop at BK if one is not aware of the McDs drive thru.

Its a good thing to see these drive thru restaurants which are especially useful for pet owners like myself because I cant take my dog inside proper restaurants and she creates hell if I leave her alone in the car even for a few minutes.

The one final thing I want to mention is that if one has experienced the serpentine queues at toll plazas in Khed Shivpur and Khalapur one would agree that Fastag should be renamed to 'Slowtag'.

[livewire]

Just finished Mumbai-Goa trip today (Dec 25-Jan 2). Here is my experience:
1. We broke the journey both ways as I was with family and wanted to take it easy. While going to goa, we stayed overnight at Satara (Ferns Residency). Very nice, clean hotel with attentive staff. We wanted to do Kaas plateau but got late arriving to Satara.
2. Way back we stayed overnight at Kolhapur (Nisarg Hotel). Good property, but a weird check out time of 10 am!! We requested a mild extention (Jan 2) but we’re denied and literally followed up every 5 minutes to check out on time.

Route taken and Road conditions: took amboli ghat and it’s my top recommendation. lots has been discussed on this, so here’s a brief break down:
1. Mumbai-Pune expressway: lotsa construction till lonavala. But traffic keeps moving. Toll plazas a mess.
2. Pune - Satara: Pune stretch till outskirts a mess. Improves after that. Overall good, lookout for random football sized potholes on an otherwise smooth road.
3. Satara-Kolhapur: butter
4. Kolhapur-Nipani-Amboli ghat: newly surfaced roads. Very small stretches that are patchy. Ghat stretch almost spotless. Take right from goa ves hotel. Newly surfaced road. Do NOT go via Sankeshwar.
5. Amboli ghat-sawantwadi-Goa: good roads. From sawantwadi (moti lake) cut across to NH66 (sonurli) and take a left on NH66 to get to goa. From there you can decide where to exit for north goa or continue further south.
I took the same route on the way back from south goa (palolem) as I didn’t want to take BWL sanctuary route and chorla and amboli was showing a 15 minute difference. I decided to stick with a known devil.
6. NH66 condition. From sawantwadi it’s still faster than internal roads. Really good in most places and under construction in some. With elections near, goa section picking pace.

RT-PCR: believe it or not we did not get stopped anywhere (double vaccinated and had negative reports anyways). But friends who came a day later got checked. Best to follow state govt advisory.

All Toll plazas are a mess. Fast tag still moved faster I’d like to believe.

Hope this helps.

[barunb]

I completed Mumbai to Goa yesterday. I started my journey on 25th(Saturday and came back on 2nd of Jan(Sunday). I faced no such problem on this route - Mumbai>Pune>Satara>Kolhapur>Nipana Ajara>Amboli>Sawantwadi>Candolim.

I traveled with my wife and two dogs. My first priority was clean bathrooms and my second was restaurants with open parking spaces(shadow). While traveling I did a pit stop in Kolapur. I started from Thane at around 11:30 am.

11:30 am - Thane
1 pm - Stop over @expressway food court(The one just after Lonavla). It has a clean washroom and good eating options. Please do not stop at the food court after pune toll, that one doesnt have good washroom for ladies(dirty most of the time, not recommended during pandemic).
5 pm: Vithal Kamats Satara.
7:30 - Hotel Sai international (Good washroom with good food option)
9 pm: Kolhapur (Karkare holiday homes).

There was too much traffic on the way, hence took lot of time. Other than that I didnt find any issue with patchy roads. I have a 7-year-old Swift, it handled the journey pretty well. For those who are taking their furry friends along and not ready to put them in boarding houses, you can refer to my post. I had a comfortable stay in Karkare holiday homes(its a dog-friendly guest house, serving mouth-watering local kolhapuri food). Please contact Vibhav Karkare for booking(8796308778). The guest house is quite spacious.Mods can delete the number and reference to the guesthouse if required, but I am not advertising, just appreciating their hospitality .

For others who are looking for clean washroom and good parking spaces. You can also opt-in for food option at Vithal Kamat's(Satara) or Hotel Sangam. I read these recommendations while searching for pit stop options with clean washroom.

2nd day itinerary:

10:30 am - Left Kolhapur.
Took the turn towards Goa Ves for Amboli route.
12:15 pm: stopped at Hotel Sai Bliss(again good food with great washroom).
1:30 pm - Hotel Minerva Paradise(lunch, great food with good washroom), also bring in your furry friends while having lunch, it has open spaces where you both can have lunch together), the owner is welcoming. Its one of those places, where the owner himself waits at the table to take your order, so the food and experience is satisfying.
There is another pit stop which you can take(Hotel Ankita Classic, which comes later in the journey).

While descending from Amboli ghats, there is a fork road. Please take the right option(you can see a policeman standing over there asking people to take the right road). We weren't asked for covid certificate and nothing was checked, probably because they saw two dogs and they were afraid to talk to us, similarly none of the cops stopped us in the entire 7 days stay in goa - Perks of traveling with two dogs).

One good thing about Goa is most of the restaurants are dog-friendly, including beach shacks. For example: Jamming goat(Uttorday beach), Art Resort(Palolem), Baba Au Rhum(Anjuna), Artjuna(Anjuna), Bean me up(Vagator), Curlies(Anjuna), Brittos(Baga). We stayed in Coco Inn(Candolim), this is also an option for people who are looking for dog friendly stay, the beach is just 100m walking distance(kind of private beach).

While returning from Goa, GPS routed us to some village internal road thankfuly I retraced the route, since the road was broken in most parts. Please pin your maps and location on the road, GPS for some reason has a weird habit to make you travel the country roads.

While returning back we faced quite a lot of traffic near Satara and Pune, due to road construction. It took us about 15 hour to reach home(yes ofcourse we took ample lot of pit stops along the way).

PS: Always keep your dogs hydrated all the way. Take chicken popcorn(KFC),bananas, Apple which they can munch en route to your destination. They dont like to eat normal food while traveling. I have two dogs, one is a labrador another is a street dog. I even brought them to Mumbai in Car(from Delhi).

[kontinuity]

Anybody done this trip in the last few days? We are travelling from Goa to Pune tomorrow and was wondering:
* Should we take the NH66?
* We are fully vaccinated, will we need a negative test?

Thanks!

[Rustom]

Originally Posted by kontinuity

Anybody done this trip in the last few days? We are travelling from Goa to Pune tomorrow and was wondering:
* Should we take the NH66?
* We are fully vaccinated, will we need a negative test?

Thanks!

Though not completely relevant, we travelled from Vengurla to Pune on Wednesday, Jan 5th. We took the Vengurla - Sawantwadi - Amboli - Ajara - Uttur - Nipani route. As mentioned in recent posts, the road is now almost completely patched and was a pleasure to drive. There is a police checkpost after Ajara where they were interested in the vehicle papers and if we had been to Goa. (Liquor checks most likely) Thankfully we hadn't been to Goa and they let us through after checking the drivers license, insurance and PUC.
There weren't any other checks for the rest of the journey and being a weekday, we breezed through the toll booths.

Hope this helps.

[Ertigiat]

This Saturday took a day’s trip to Nippani from Margao. Started at 6.50 AM from Margao and crossed Belgaum at around 9.35. Took Margao – Anmod – Hemmadaga – Khanapur – Belgaum route. I had a brief meeting with my friend at Belgaum and ended up spending more than hour at Belgaum. Reached Nippani around 11.30 AM.

Started at around 3.45 PM from Nippani to Margao and Since I was driving back alone thought of checking Amboli ghat route. Reached Arambol at around 6.45 PM. Picked a up friend who was supposed to meet me at Airport (I was supposed to meet my friends at Airport for dinner as they were flying back home). Took me around an hour to reach Airport from Arambol (Thanks to Atal Setu and newly opened Agassaim- Goa Velha flyover).

Road condition for first route is excellent barring 6 to 8 kms of bad patch (I would say road is non-existent) inside Bhimgad Wildlife sanctuary.

Road condition for second route, I picked, is average. I can say I did not enjoy driving. The route was very busy. The roads are narrower compared Anmod ghat route. Sugarcane tractors moving at snail’s pace added to the frustration of driving on narrower road. This was my preferred route to Kolhapur some 5 years back. Guess usage of wider Anmod ghat route has made me enjoy the Amboli route lesser.

Verdict – Take Anmod or Chorla route in case you are driving to South Goa. Take Chorla route in case you are driving to North Goa from Pune/Mumbai. Keep Amboli ghat as last option, unless you intend to do super leisure driving and are in no hurry to reach Goa.

[distiller]

Dear Bhpians,
Was planning a trip to Goa in coming week. I'm unable to find current Covid guidelines or restrictions, all the information available is dated atleast a week back. I'll be very grateful if anyone can share his recent experience crossing the state borders & traveling in Goa.
Thanks in advance!

[psbali]

Originally Posted by distiller

Dear Bhpians,
Was planning a trip to Goa in coming week. I'm unable to find current Covid guidelines or restrictions, all the information available is dated atleast a week back. I'll be very grateful if anyone can share his recent experience crossing the state borders & traveling in Goa.
Thanks in advance!

Same. Travelling to Goa(work with holiday) from Pune with a halt in KA for work next week. Interested in finding out if the rt pcr is mandatory for fully vaccinated people. 2 fully vaccinated adults and a 3 yearr old.

[adi.mariner]

Originally Posted by distiller

Dear Bhpians,
Was planning a trip to Goa in coming week. I'm unable to find current Covid guidelines or restrictions, all the information available is dated atleast a week back. I'll be very grateful if anyone can share his recent experience crossing the state borders & traveling in Goa.
Thanks in advance!

Originally Posted by psbali

Same. Travelling to Goa(work with holiday) from Pune with a halt in KA for work next week. Interested in finding out if the rt pcr is mandatory for fully vaccinated people. 2 fully vaccinated adults and a 3 yearr old.

Checked with a couple of Hotels in Goa. They said that a Double Vaccination Certificate or RT PCR Test is enough. I am also planning to travel in the coming week.

[psbali]

Originally Posted by adi.mariner

Checked with a couple of Hotels in Goa. They said that a Double Vaccination Certificate or RT PCR Test is enough. I am also planning to travel in the coming week.

Actually entering GOA is not an issue. Entering Karnataka is an issue. They are not accepting double vaccination certificate. They want even vaccinated folks to get a RT PCR test for crossing over from MH, GOA and Kerala. I wanted to check if that is really the case.

[humm]

Can any of the recent travelers confirm if there's a compulsion for RTPCR from Mah-Goa Route at Karnataka Border? & Visa-Versa..? (Even if Double Vaccination completed)

Any route recommended for the trip? How are the road conditions?

[distiller]

It looks like a few of us are having similar plans. @psbali- if you're planning to be in KA then I think you'll need negative RT-PCR report irrespective of your vaccination status.
My concern was whether we need the negative report to travel through KA, otherwise we'll need to stick to MH route. Of which I don't have any experience. As my destination is South Goa for me taking Belgaum route will be easier.
I also checked Indigo website, for Goa as destination you need either of double vaccination or negative RT-PCR report.
If any of our members have recently undertaken the route, the information will be of immense help to all of us who've planned a trip in coming days.