[hiraj2001]

Harsh,

Me and a friend are planning to go to Goa sometime soon on bikes.

We were also throwing around the idea of driving down from Goa to Mangalore, purely to enjoy the scenic route. Can you please tell me how much time it took, conditions of the road, facilities and safety factor? Would really appreciate your input as it would help us crystalise our trip plans.

Regards, Raj

[Harshavarthan]

Originally Posted by hiraj2001

Harsh,

Me and a friend are planning to go to Goa sometime soon on bikes.

We were also throwing around the idea of driving down from Goa to Mangalore, purely to enjoy the scenic route. Can you please tell me how much time it took, conditions of the road, facilities and safety factor? Would really appreciate your input as it would help us crystalise our trip plans.

Regards, Raj

If you guys maintain speeds of around 70-80 km/h driving safe and comfortable, it might take you 8-10 hrs depending on the traffic. I was in a hurry to catch a train in mangalore and so was really fast and even then it took me 6 & 1/2 hrs. The last 80 kms stretch alone took me more than two hrs because of heavy traffic. Roads was good except around 50 kms and even that wasn't very bad.

[hiraj2001]

Thanks for your input Harsh.

[rohing]

[Mods, this is a question about the best route to Goa from Coimbatore. I chose this thread as it already had the same title - did not want to open a new one]

Hi,

I am planning a Coimbatore - Goa trip with my elderly in-laws, wife and 9 mo son. The shortest route obviously will be along the coast through Mangalore. Based on my reading in T-BHP, I think the following might be best (although longer) route for me:

Day 1: Coimbatore-Erode-Krishnagiri-Hosur-NiceRoad-Nelamangala-Tumkur-Devangiri [Stay at Devangiri]

Day 2: Devangiri - Hubli - Angola - Karwar - Margao

I think the roads are good all the way and should be OK if I leave early on day-1. I am looking for hotels to stay in Devangiri and found three mentioned in T-BHP:
- Pooja international, Sai international, Genesis resort. I don't mind paying extra but want suggestions on a good hotel as I travelling with family.

I need suggestions/input on three areas -
1) Route
2) Hotel
3) Sightseeing spots on the way

Any input is greatly appreciated. I am leaving in 3 days. Will post my road report, log as soon as I reach Goa.

[ampere]

Few corrections:

1. Its Davanegere.
2. Its Ankola (Angola will land you in Africa !
(Sorry for pulling your leg. Could not help it! )

The route is spot on. Nh7/Nh4/Nh63/Nh17.

Places to look:

1. On the Hubli-Ankola NH63, you can go for Magod falls at Yellapur.
2. You can visit the JLR resort at Karwar.

[rohing]

Originally Posted by ampere

Few corrections:

1. Its Davanegere.
2. Its Ankola (Angola will land you in Africa !
(Sorry for pulling your leg. Could not help it! )

The route is spot on. Nh7/Nh4/Nh63/Nh17.

Places to look:

1. On the Hubli-Ankola NH63, you can go for Magod falls at Yellapur.
2. You can visit the JLR resort at Karwar.

Thanks for the corrections

Can you give me little more info on JLR ? I know what it is - but want to know what I can do there?

Any insights into hotels in Davanegere? Thanks again!

[ampere]

Here is a TL on the Devbagh JLR resort at Karwar.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...rt-karwar.html


At Yellapur you can stay at Banana County. You can visit Magod Falls and Kavadi Kere (lake).
http://www.bananacountyresort.com/

Hope this helps.

[rohing]

I am sorry, I should have given the road condition update sooner but things were hectic and it slipped. nevertheless, better late than never. Here is the road update (Coimbatore - Goa) as of Dec 2010.

The Route taken when going :

Coimbatore - Salem - Krishnagiri - Hosur - Bangalore - Davanagere - Hubli - Ankola - Karwar - Madgao

The Route taken when coming back:

Madgao - Karwar - Mangalore - Kannur - Palghat - Coimbatore

I had planned the route (through Bangalore) after asking several T-BHP member and it was near perfect. Here are some pointers (in addition to the several you will find in different threads here):

- Coimbatore - Avinashi road is bad due to construction. Best to take it around 5:00 am when traffic is less. Extremely hard to overtake in traffic.

- You can avoid Bangalore by taking the nice road upto Tumkur road. It is a little expensive (110 Rs toll) but road is great. In the very end the road splits into two: one joins Tumkur road in Bangalore direction and the other joins the same road in Tumkur direction (it is a divided highway). There were no clear signs to say which was which. You have to take the first one (exit before the last exit) and not the very last exit.

- The Coffee day that is on Tumkur road (which is mentioned by several members) is some ways away from the Tumkur road/Nice road junction. I would say about 30 mins - 40 mins drive.

- The road is great after this, no traffic and in great condition. The still some construction going on near Hubli and will cause delays. The divided highway is open only in one direction in many places.

- The road from Hubli to Karwar is ghat section and is in OK condition (normal highway). Try not to do it in the night. I reached Hubli at 9 and decided to continue. It was a bad decision. There were no cell phone signal, fully forest area, no hotels etc. The next reasonable city is Karwar and it takes 2 hours even with aggressive night driving.

- The stayed overnight in the resort in Karwar (Lotus resort) and it was very good. Pretty decent for the price and you can NEGOTIATE. I was able to reduce room rent by 50%.

Pointers on return route:

- DO NOT TAKE IT

- Kerala roads were very bad and in place ( 50 kms after Managalore) there were no roads at all.

- Traffic was heavy and jams in many places. It took me atleast 6-8 hours more to come back than to go to Goa.


Time taken when going: Started at 5:00 sharp in Coimbatore, reached karwar at 11:00 pm after having three 1 hr stops and 1 0.5 hr stop.

Time taken when coming back: As mentioned before, 8 hrs more than time taken when going.

PM me if you have any questions. Thanks to all the people who helped me plan the route.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by rohing

- The stayed overnight in the resort in Karwar (Lotus resort) and it was very good. Pretty decent for the price and you can NEGOTIATE. I was able to reduce room rent by 50%.

Yes Lotus Resort is a very good place to stay a night,excellent parking,bang on the highway after the Kali River Bridge and pretty good service as well.Its doing well after the Kamat group took over.We stayed there ourself during our drive from Kerala to Mumbai and like you said,we too managed a 50% discount on their published rates.Nice and huge modern rooms as well.Was a steal for their rate of INR 1300

[agbenny]

Friends,

This would be my first drive through this road. I have not been to Calicat or Mangalore or Goa before, and many suggested the coastal road NH17 would be scenic and good to drive.

How is the stretch between Calcut to Mangalore? Is the road four-laned? I would like to stay at a night somewhere in Managalore. Is it good plan to have a break?

Any advice is helpful.

Also, While coming back I like to see some hill stations in Karnataka. Any suggestions?

[agbenny]

Originally Posted by agbenny

Friends,

This would be my first drive through this road. I have not been to Calicat or Mangalore or Goa before, and many suggested the coastal road NH17 would be scenic and good to drive.

How is the stretch between Calcut to Mangalore? Is the road four-laned? I would like to stay at a night somewhere in Managalore. Is it good plan to have a break?

Any advice is helpful.

Also, While coming back I like to see some hill stations in Karnataka. Any suggestions?

MODS: Could you please merge this with my prior post?

I consider This route: https://maps.google.co.in/maps?saddr...ra=ltm&t=m&z=7

[Sandy28]

Originally Posted by agbenny

Friends,

This would be my first drive through this road. I have not been to Calicat or Mangalore or Goa before, and many suggested the coastal road NH17 would be scenic and good to drive.

How is the stretch between Calcut to Mangalore? Is the road four-laned? I would like to stay at a night somewhere in Managalore. Is it good plan to have a break?

Any advice is helpful.

Also, While coming back I like to see some hill stations in Karnataka. Any suggestions?

NH 17 will surely be a scenic drive though a bit more tiresome. I had done this stretch last year on my way to Kerala from Abad (had taken NH4 till Hubli and then joined NH 17 near Ankola and driven down straight to my home town via Mangalore, Udupi, Calicut).

Calicut- Mangalore last year was a total mess but that could have been due to the monsoon time then. Things could have improved since then. Mangalore to Ankola was quite good. There is a place about 13 km after Kundapura (towards Karwar side) were the sea runs parallel to the road for few km. It was an absolute beauty.

As regards staying at Mangalore, it depends what time you intend to start and from where?

[differential]

the roads in the route you have mentioned are a bit suspect with regards to the condition but high on scenic value. you would have to go via palaghat. roads in kerala near palaghat and thrissur are quite bad. i had been through in january.

if you are planning to reach goa without detours i would suggest via bangalore NICE road, tumkur, chithradurga, davangere, hubli and take a detour out of the GQ to go to goa via khanapur and ponda.

i have travelled through thid road in dec. about 1000 km but you can make good time if you are used to long road trips. it takes about 13 hours.

[B.R.S.Rao]

Hi,
Too much of traffic, narrow road from Calicut to Kasaragod. Even though it is double road, you will encounter heavy traffic during day time. From Kasaragod to Mangalore road is good and Mangalore to Kundapur road widening work is going on but easily you can maintain 80+kmph. You can try this following road in which I usually travel to Coimbatore. Coimbatore - Annur -Sathy-Chamarajanagar-Mysore- Bilikere cross -Krishnarajanagara- Bherya -Holenarasipura - Hassan-Sakleshpura - Uppinangadi - Mangalore ( total 450km) You can stay at Mangalore in good hotels like Hotel Deepa, Hotel Srinivasa, Hotel Shaan Plaza, etc. From Mangalore you can cover places like Chickmagalur, Kemmannagundi, Mercara ( Mangalore to Sampaje road is horrible on the way to Mercara which is also known as Coorg),Kuduremukha.
Take care!

[mayankjha1806]

Summer in Goa on vacation, or is it a family visit?

As someone who had been to Goa recently suggested that Summer in Goa is not a good idea and based on that advise i was able to influence my daughters school summer travel plans to exclude Goa from their list of places they can go.

If possible avoid Calicut to Mangalore, its 2 lanes highway on which you will not be able to exceed speed if 40Kms/Hr as its almost bumper to bumper, on both sides of road.