Quote:
Originally Posted by sushil.raddi Hi Friends,
I am planning to drive down from Pune to Delhi in my toyota Corolla in December.
Plan to strart from Pune in the evening and take a overnight halt in Mumbai and the next day drive straight from Mumbai to Jaipur... and then onward to Delhi if possible on the same day. I would be travelling witn my family and elder daughter is close to 7 yrs and the younger one is close to 2 so intermittant stops is the rule of the game. Please advise on
1. Route
2. Road Conditions
3. Eating joints
4. Fuel stations(quality of fuel available)
5. other useful information
6. good and not so expensive place to stay overnight at Jaipur (very close to the highway)
Thanks |
Just came back from my Pune-Udaipur-Pune drive.
Here is my $0.02 on the topic. Hope this helps.
Route:
In the last one month I did the Pune-Indore (NH3) and the Pune-Udaipur (NH8) drive. Technically you can take both these routes from Pune; however since you are driving from Mumbai, its the NH8 for you. And trust me you are NOT missing the NH3.
Road Conditions:
Pune-Panvel-Thane - Most of this is the expressway, so no problem. You have probably done this a million times by now.
Thane-Ghodbunder - Four laned all troughout. No worries. This will hit NH8 just after Dahisar. Good road. You will not need this,as you are are driving from Mumbai.
Ghodbunder to Manor - Pain in all the wrong places. The road condition now is full of potholes. To make matters worse you will need to cross the Vasai toll booth, which is truly a crazy experience given the lenght of the line that you can get here. This section has heavy truck traffic.
Manor to MH border - Again heavy truck traffic, road condition is average. This section is really really scenic though.
MH-border to Surat - Quite good roads in Gujarat. This will cross major towns like Vapi, Valsad and Navsari, but no worries, either these are by-passed or you have flyovers all over, so you just go cool
Surat - Vadodra - FANTASTIC!!! No other words here...
Vadodra - Ahmedabad - Expressway. This is a four laned access controlled road. Great, just great.
Ahmedabd bypass: You do not need to enter the city, take the exit on the Ahmedabad ring road. You will need to take the exit and then take a U-turn for Udaipur on the ring-road. Pass two toll booths and take the right for Udaipur/Jaipur.
Ring-road - Udaipur - Four laned road (except for the first 20 kms which is two laned, but wide). Very good road. I did the Vadodra - Udaipur section (340 kms) in 4 hrs 20 minutes. The road in Rajasthan is not as good as in Gujarat, but it is still great. very minimal traffic on this section.
While I write this I have to say "Roads in Gujarat rock". One needs to drive here to experience the sheer pleasure.
I was stopped by the police on the Ahmedabad bypass since I did not have the mandatory yellow sticker on my right headlight. But they let me go after they saw the MH-12 number plate and realised that I was only driving through GJ.
Eating joints:
I stopped at Kamaths restaurant on NH8 just after the Vasai toll booth. Good palce for breakfast. I would recommend it for their clean toilets. They have a small box kept in the toilet for you to tip if you liked the toilets. They were so spik and san, that I was glad to tip.
Decent and plentiful restaurants all the way till MH border. After that the numbers drop, but you will get pretty good food joints near major towns like Vapi etc. You will not need to enter any town or city though. No eateries on the Vadodra-Ahmedabad expressway, but then you hardly need about 50 minutes to cross this section.
My only concern with these places on the highway are the toilets. Generally they do not have clean toilets and that is a big let-down. That is why I liked Kamaths a lot.
Fuel stations:
Plentiful. No worries in this department. I usually stopped at Indian Oil (Extra Preminum) or HP (Power). No issues faced on quality of fuel.
Hope this helps. As my trip was only till Udaipur (probably half-way for you), may not be able to help you post that. Let me know your experience; I am planning a longer trip till Shimla early next year.