[adi58]

Originally Posted by gary

There are small stretches where the roads aren’t the best, but still quite good.

Could you please be specific on the bad stretches throughout that route? I am heading back to Mumbai tomorrow.

[adi58]

Originally Posted by Prat33k

Travelled back yesterday from Cavelossim to Pune using Banda - Otavane - Ajra - Nipani route as my family was reluctant to try new route as suggested by @dvl666

Exact same reason I’m stuck with

Originally Posted by Prat33k

As mentioned by @adi58 , a stretch post Amboli ghat between Ghatkarwadi to Uttur is at worst condition and takes almost an hour to cross.

I’ve seen few videos online where people started using the cemented road on this stretch. Any update?

[gary]

Originally Posted by adi58

Could you please be specific on the bad stretches throughout that route? I am heading back to Mumbai tomorrow.

I wouldn’t say they are bad. It’s a relative thing.
I can’t recall anything on SH150 where I was going slow because of potholes or something like that. Let me be a little specific - around 10 km before Pachal, the road suddenly goes from a well laid two lane(1 each way) to a single lane. It goes like that for 3-4 km IIRC. You are slow because of curves in the ghats or some slow moving vehicle ahead of you. But such vehicles are very few.

Again, on hitting the Mumbai Goa highway, most of it is standard NH quality and you can go around 70kmph or around the speed limit easily. But there are few small stretches where there is construction or repair going on.

I can’t speak of the NH on the return trip but the SH 150 is nothing to be worried about (apart from the motion sickness).

Attaching some pics - just showing how picturesque the drive is.

[Prat33k]

Originally Posted by adi58

Exact same reason I’m stuck with

I can understand that

Originally Posted by adi58

I’ve seen few videos online where people started using the cemented road on this stretch. Any update?

Cemented road will be a wrong side drive, also the road width is quite less so I wont recommend that. Anyways the patch which was open for traffic, it was not more than 2-3 kms stretch.
Just keep your cool for an hour and you will be through . Have a safe trip !

[adi58]

Time is not a problem, just worried about not busting low profile runflats

[suzuki san]

Originally Posted by dvl666

I am used to seeing traffic so I got carried away in my definition of lonely. Really sorry.

Hi DVL 666,

After using the Amba Ghat is there any way to bypass the road construction work at Karad? I don't really want to waste an hour stuck in Karad.

Thanks,
SS

[iamsandeep]

Did a Pune-Goa-Pune trip last week. As per suggestions above took the turn after Karad. For some reason I was routed through Anuskura Ghat. The entire road is done recently and is in excellent condition. There was hardly any traffic and driving was a pleasure and reminded me of my drives to Goa 15 years back. After many years I could reach Goa in 8 and half hours in spite of taking multiple picture stops thanks to the beautiful roads and scenery. Like mentioned above there are no restaurants on this route. We only found one tea shop behind a bus stop along the entire route. The NH-66 is also completely done from the turn till Goa. I did get a speed challan for driving at 95. The speed limit is 80 apparently so please keep that in mind.

[dvl666]

Originally Posted by suzuki san

Hi DVL 666,

After using the Amba Ghat is there any way to bypass the road construction work at Karad? I don't really want to waste an hour stuck in Karad.

Thanks,
SS

If there is a jam, google will suggest a small single lane road thru the village before u end up on the NH48 highway. Follow it religiously. Like I said, its a small road with tractors etc so avg speed is slow (<20kmh) but you will keep moving.

We were surprised to see a luxury bus take that route but the guy must be a regular to navigate it like a pro.

[d_payne]

Originally Posted by iamsandeep

Did a Pune-Goa-Pune trip last week. As per suggestions above took the turn after Karad. For some reason I was routed through Anuskura Ghat. The entire road is done recently and is in excellent condition. There was hardly any traffic and driving was a pleasure and reminded me of my drives to Goa 15 years back. After many years I could reach Goa in 8 and half hours in spite of taking multiple picture stops thanks to the beautiful roads and scenery. Like mentioned above there are no restaurants on this route. We only found one tea shop behind a bus stop along the entire route. The NH-66 is also completely done from the turn till Goa. I did get a speed challan for driving at 95. The speed limit is 80 apparently so please keep that in mind.

Is it possible for you to detail a bit more about this route? More waypoints so I can follow them all along.
Am looking to do this in a low slung coupe in August, and just want to ensure I am not hitting terrible patches. Plus the kind of road you are talking about sounds like a dream!

My drive is going to be Mumbai-Pune-Candolim.

[vinaydatla]

I did the Hyderabad - Goa - Hyderabad last week for Bakrid long weekend. The route taken was Hyderabad - Solapur - Miraj - Nipani - Amboli Ghat - Calangute for the onward and return journey.

The onward journey was 12 hours of driving time excluding breaks. We started at 11AM from Kukatpally, Hyderabad and reached our hotel in Calangute by midnight. The return journey was longer by an hour or two due to traffic jams near Amboli waterfall along with rain and fog and Sunday rush for the waterfall. Solapur to Humnabad stretch had water logging all along on NH65 on Sunday night reducing our average speed.

Roads were good all along. A few kms in the Amboli ghat were under repair just as we enter NH 548, these stretches have slush and patches due to rain. NH166 from Solapur to Miraj was excellent, that 165kms stretch can be done in 1.5 to 2 hours with sparse traffic. Watch out for ugly expansion joints on the bridges and flyovers which will unsettle the car at high speed (when will our highways fix this)

Itinerary followed

Day 1 - Wed - Start at 11am from Hyderabad and reach Calangute, Goa by midnight. Lunch at Khan Chacha on the NH before entering Solapur - decent non AC hotel. Liked their Mutton Dalcha Khana and Apricot Delight

Day 2 - Thu - Mangueshi temple, Tirupati Balaji temple, Basilica of Bom Jesus, SE Cathedral, Mandovi sunset river cruise followed by dinner at The Fisherman's Wharf at Calangute - food is great as always

Day 3 - Fri - Upper Aguada fort, Lower Aguada fort, Chapora fort, Baga Beach, Calangute beach. Dinner at our IBIS hotel

Day 4 - Sat - Cabo de Rama fort, Cola beach with Kayaking - 500 per Kayak (seats 2) - Palolem beach with some food at Cafe Silver Star. Tried wood fired pizza at midnight from Baked in Joint, Anjuna

Day 5 - Sun - Started at noon and stopped in Amboli ghat at few locations to enjoy the fog, roadside waterfalls and views. Late lunch at Amboli, tasted the Maharashtra fish thalis. Reached home early morning

Our ride was my 3 month old Skoda Slavia 1.0 Style AT. It was fully loaded and was driven hard all along returning around 11-12 kmpl on the entire trip. Filled XP95 for most of the trip but had to settle for regular fuel on the return journey as we couldn't find 95 Octane or even petrol in most of the filling stations between Naldurg and Humnabad.

One of my friend took the Hyderabad - Solapur - Miraj - Belagavi - Chorla ghat - Varca route and he mentioned similar observations.

[suzuki san]

Hi Guys,

I have just driven up from Goa to Poona and then on to Bombay.

Below is the route I followed and the road report.

Basically, I followed the route suggested by DVL666 and my sincere thanks to him for discovering this route.

Departed Mapuca at 07.00 and went all the way to Rajapur on NH66. We stopped for breakfast at Rajapur.
The roads were good all the way to Rajapur (2 laned concrete road on each side) bar a couple of diversions / service roads which are yet to be completed.
After Rajapur we passed Oni and about 3 to 4 Kms after Oni we took the slip road off the highway to head for Dabhole.
Once you leave the highway you are on SH 175 and this stretch of road is, without a doubt, the best State Highway I have ever driven on in India.
The Company / Contractor who built this road deserves a medal.
The only way to describe this road is "Excellent".
The surface, the road markings, the gentle speed breakers, everything was perfect. Even the scenery was spectacular.

Sadly after Dabhole, SH 175 changes to SH 166 and the story changes as well. On this stretch of road there are several bad stretches and potholes but not as bad as the Ajra to Amboli road. You can still maintain an average speed of about 50 Kmph.

Further on, SH 166 changes to SH 150 and thankfully the road condition improves again. Pretty good road but not as good as SH 175. For people who enjoy driving, please do the SH 175 stretch just once for fun. I guarantee you will love it.

We finally joined NH 48 about 5 Kms before Karad so we missed out on all the Kolhapur traffic.

At Karad, we were on the service road and were making slow but steady progress. Once past the mess that is Karad, we were able to make up some time.

Stopped at Manas Restaurant for a tasty Mutton lunch but, it being Sunday, the place was packed and we lost an hour here.

From Satara to Poona the road was good with stray potholes that you have to watch out for. Heavy traffic meant that we lost time again and we finally turned off the highway to the Katraj Ghat at 16.30 hrs.

I did not exceed the speed limit at any time and had "RadarBot" on all the way to warn me of speed cameras and mobile speed traps. Honestly, I did not find it very useful as it was warning me every 5 to 10 minutes and was getting annoying. Also the GPS function on "RadarBot" is not accurate at all compared to GMaps.

Spent a couple of nights in Poona and then proceeded to Bombay on the12th. Pretty straight forward run. Nothing to report. "RadarBot" was warning about cameras before every overhead bridge and more so finally turned it off.

Regards,
SS

[HalfOctave]

Coming on to this thread and asking which route will be best to take seems like a yearly ritual for me.

I am planning to travel to Candolim from Pune in with family in my Verna during 2nd week of August. I understand that road conditions can change drastically till then but wanted to get some route suggestion purely based upon the current road conditions.

Google suggests me 3 route option, and I went through the one mentioned by dvl666. So here are my 4 options. Appreciate some suggestions please.

1. Pune-Satara-Karad-Kolhapur-Nipani-Ajara-Amboli-Banda-Mapusa-Candolim

2. Pune-Satara-Karad-Kokrud-Malkapur-Nandgaon-Kasal-Kudal-Banda-Mapusa-Candolim

3. Pune-Satara-Vita-Sangli bypass-Kagwad-Nipani-Ajara-Amboli-Banda-Mapusa-Candolim

4 (variation of #2, from dvl666). Pune-Satara-Karad-Kokrud-Malkapur-Amba-Pachal Phata-Oni-Kudal-Banda-Mapusa-Candolim

[armumbai]

The Oni to Karad roads were very good via Anuskura ghat.

Another poster has said even the locals advised against using Anuskura ghat route. What was your experience on the road conditions on this route

The requirement on this route is an experienced driver only to navigate the ghats.

Would you please elaborate on exactly what is an “experienced driver” in relation to navigating this ghat. How different is it from being experienced to navigate say the Amboli ghat

I am travelling to Pune from North Goa in the morning of 22/07/23, your reply will help decide on the route to follow

Originally Posted by Anim8349

Thank you so much for putting up this post. I was traveling from South Goa to Pune.

This route helped so much to bypass Kolhapur when the NH-48 was blocked because of riots. The highway was blocked for 50 kms while crossing Kolhapur.
The Oni to Karad roads were very good via Anuskura ghat.

The requirement on this route is an experienced driver only to navigate the ghats.

DVL666 in post #3988 has said even the locals advised against using Anuskura ghat route. What was your experience on the road conditions on this route

Also you have mentioned “The requirement on this route is an experienced driver only to navigate the ghat”

Would you please elaborate on exactly what is an “experienced driver” in relation to navigating this ghat. How different is it from being experienced to navigate say the Amboli ghat

I am travelling to Pune from North Goa in the morning of 22/07/23, your reply will help decide on the route to follow

[traveller_riz]

hey @armumbai,

Hope you reached Goa safely. Can you please let me know how was your journey and the route taken ?

Thanks

[daredemon]

Hi All,
Need an urgent help. My uncle has passed away and we need to reach goa in a day or two. Kindly advise if the road conditions are better to travel from Mumbai to Goa in a safe way. My uncles place is near Karwar.