[narayans80]

Originally Posted by vint

It seems to be near Salem.

There were 3 bridge constructions, I guess this is the last remaining one not completed. I did not lose more than 2-3 min when I crossed at 2pm off season. If you are doing this today, then you'll likely face delay.

[vint]

Originally Posted by narayans80

There were 3 bridge constructions, I guess this is the last remaining one not completed. I did not lose more than 2-3 min when I crossed at 2pm off season. If you are doing this today, then you'll likely face delay.

I'll be traveling next Friday. Plan to leave by 6 AM in the morning. Good enough ?

On the way back, I'm thinking to go to rameshwaram from kk and be back on the same day evening to madurai, halt there for the night and return to Bangalore, the next day. Will this be too hectic ?

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by vint

I'll be traveling next Friday. Plan to leave by 6 AM in the morning. Good enough ?

Start early if you can (4-ish), next Friday would be another bridged holiday week.

I'm thinking to go to rameshwaram from kk and be back on the same day evening to madurai

I am assuming KK means Kanyakumari here. What do you intend to do at Rameswaram? If you intend to bathe in 22 wells and temple, then that is not going to happen (it is a half day affair). Even Dhanushkodi will take 2-3 hours

Kanyakumari-Rameswaram is at least a 6 hour drive and Rameswaram-Madurai is another 4 hours (considering it'll be evening traffic by the time you do this route).

[shifu]

I am travelling to Rameshwaram via Madurai with my family (and extended family) - around 10 of us. Below is my approx itinerary -

Day 1 - Flying from Hyd to Madurai tomorrow morning. The flight lands at 12pm, so will wait for the Meenakshi temple to open at 4pm to do the darshan. Will then start from there towards Rameshwaram. We have booked a Tempo Traveller to take us from Madurai to Rameshwararm. Booked the stay at Park Hyatt at Rameshwaram.

Day 2 - Darshan at Ramanathaswamy Temple in the morning. Few of us might take the extended version of the darshan including the dips in the wells, etc. Will also cover Dhanushkodi, but plan is to relax at the hotel as much as possible.

Day 3 - Start by 10am from Rameshwaram and reach Madurai to take the flight back to Hyderabad. Flight is at 4 40pm.

This is the most relaxed itinerary I could come up with along with the pressure to visit as many temples as possible .

One question - somebody in my extended family is making the arrangements with the Tempo Traveller guy, so I can't question the guy directly. But this guy is claiming that we should factor 5 hours to travel from Madurai to Rameshwaram. Google maps and various threads on TBhp suggest 3 to 3.5hrs should be enough. I don't know why this guy is planning for 5 hours. If it is going to take me 5 hours, it is going to be pretty late in the night by the time I reach Rameshwaram on Day 1. I typically avoid traveling on the road in the night, so little uncomfortable with this.

Do these travel operators generally take some other route other than the highway to go from Madurai to Rameshwaram? A route that doesn't involve tolls and hence cheaper, but 2 hours longer?

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by shifu

But this guy is claiming that we should factor 5 hours to travel from Madurai to Rameshwaram. Google maps and various threads on TBhp suggest 3 to 3.5hrs should be enough. I don't know why this guy is planning for 5 hours. If it is going to take me 5 hours, it is going to be pretty late in the night by the time I reach Rameshwaram on Day 1. I typically avoid traveling on the road in the night, so little uncomfortable with this.

Do these travel operators generally take some other route other than the highway to go from Madurai to Rameshwaram? A route that doesn't involve tolls and hence cheaper, but 2 hours longer?

Google itself shows 3.30 hours to cover the 172 km or so as it points. The much traveled Narayan says in one post just below that it would take about 4 hours.

Usually I notice that if you are a spirited driver, you can reach your destination in about 70% of the time shown by Google Maps.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by shifu

But this guy is claiming that we should factor 5 hours to travel from Madurai to Rameshwaram.
Do these travel operators generally take some other route other than the highway to go from Madurai to Rameshwaram? A route that doesn't involve tolls and hence cheaper, but 2 hours longer?

There are no tolls between Madurai - Rameshwaram, so it should be the same route. However, I guess the TT guy may be adding buffer to factor in the stoppages when travelling for more than couple of hours with a larger group.

I had did this route about a year back, from Rameshwaram it took around 3 hours 45 mins drive time from our hotel near Rameshwaram railway station to Madurai hotel some 15 minutes north of temple.

Since you are traveling in a TT, you can add another half hour and if a tea / bio break then you are nearing 5 hour mark mentioned by the driver.

[sachinpk]

Gents, back on Team-BHP after a long break. Planning for a road trip to the South Eastern parts of India. This would be a solo trip, and idea is close to it in three days. This is the tentative plan I have in mind, and I have linked the Google Maps for the routes to be taken.

Day 1: Bengaluru -> Rameshwaram: Route till Salem is straight forward (and perhaps till Namakkal as well). But wanted to known if the Musiri->Melur->Sivaganga->Paramakudi roads are okay. Google is predicting a 9.5hrs journey, wanted to know if this timings are higher than the usual timings.

Day 2:
Rameshwaram->Tranquebar: Planning to take the east coast road, as these areas are very new to me. Tranquebar bar fort also has been in my TODO list for long time. How are the road conditions? Is it going to be the typical two lane road where any vehicle can pop up from any where? For roughly 300kms Google predicts around 6 hrs of road travel.

Day 3:
Tranquebar->Bengaluru Google predicts a 7.5 hours for covering 417kms.

This being a solo ride I am not expecting too many breaks in the journey, but don't want to rush through either. Keeping that in mind, are the google routes & timings good? I generally prefer to land up at a place by afternoon (max mid-afternoon) and then start the next day early or based on the distance to be covered.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

This would be a solo trip, and idea is close to it in three days. This is the tentative plan I have in mind, and I have linked the Google Maps for the routes to be taken.



Day 2:
Rameshwaram->Tranquebar: Planning to take the east coast road, as these areas are very new to me. Tranquebar bar fort also has been in my TODO list for long time. How are the road conditions? Is it going to be the typical two lane road where any vehicle can pop up from any where? For roughly 300kms Google predicts around 6 hrs of road travel.

I will leave others to answer your other 2 queries. Rameshwaram to Tharangambadi through ECR is a scenic 2 way route. There won't be much of traffic except 2 wheelers and cattle. The road will be narrow and you can't reach triple digit speeds regularly on this.

Google's algo calculates the time taken on the maximum speed allowed in the road. So for a normal highway it assumes that the top speed would be 80/100 and that is the reason why it is always longer than usual - if you are a spirited driver.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by Prowler

I will leave others to answer your other 2 queries. Rameshwaram to Tharangambadi through ECR is a scenic 2 way route. There won't be much of traffic except 2 wheelers and cattle. The road will be narrow and you can't reach triple digit speeds regularly on this.

Thank you . If I can reach Tranquebar in the range of 5-6 hours on a sedantci pace it is more than enough. Was just worrying of Google is actually predicting a lesser drive time (assuming the max speed possible on the category of the road).

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

Bengaluru -> Rameshwaram

There are multiple options:

1. Bangalore-Madurai-Kappalur Othakadai Ring Road-Manamadurai-Paramakudi-Ramnad-Rameswaram
2. Bangalore-Namakkal-Musiri-Number 1 Tollgate-Trichy bypass-Pudukottai-Karaikudi-Devipattinam-Ramnad-Rameswaram

If you want to do high speed driving/riding for more distance, you may choose 1. Kappalur-Othakadai Ring Road is being 4-lane for quite some months, so diversions are expected.

You will still use NH7 till Namakkal for option 2, however Namakkal-Musiri-Number 1 Tollgate will be slow, you'll do 60-80 ballpark.

The sections beyond Trichy and Madurai are written in detail here (Bangalore - Rameshwaram : Route Queries).

Please don't take the oddball route Google is suggesting

Rameshwaram->Tranquebar

Till Ramnad/Devipattinam the road is same as what you drove the onward. Vedaranyam was the prime target of the cyclone in November, so you may not able to visit Muthupettai magroves or Kodikkarai. There was an update here confirming the ECR was still good to drive on.

Tranquebar->Bengaluru

Am not 100% sure on the Chidambaram-Vadalur section. The ECR until Chidambaram is good. Vadalur-Vriddachalam-Veppur-V Koot Road-Salem is in top shape. Beyond V Koot Road it is 4-laned.

An alternative is Tranquebar-Karaikal-Kollumangudi-Kumbakonam bypass-Jayamkonam-Vriddachalam bypass-Veppur-V Koot Road-Salem.

Karaikal-Kollumangudi- Kumbakonam bypass is in decent shape except for few sections near TN-PY bypass and one near Kollumangudi.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by narayans80

If you want to do high speed driving/riding for more distance, you may choose 1. Kappalur-Othakadai Ring Road is being 4-lane for quite some months, so diversions are expected.

I plotted the points you mentioned on GoogleMaps. It is adding upto 640kms and google predicting a time frame of 11 hrs. Also the Kappalur-Othakadai ring road detour seems to be to byepass the big city of Madurai, am I correct? . Was just wondering if it is better to split this journey into two days. Kind of leave Bangalore late afternoon, halt some where near Salem and then make an early morning sprint to Rameshawaram.

Till Ramnad/Devipattinam the road is same as what you drove the onward. Vedaranyam was the prime target of the cyclone in November, so you may not able to visit Muthupettai magroves or Kodikkarai. There was an update here confirming the ECR was still good to drive on.

I may not be visiting these places with my primary aim being to see the Tranquebar fort only.

The ECR until Chidambaram is good. Vadalur-Vriddachalam-Veppur-V Koot Road-Salem is in top shape. Beyond V Koot Road it is 4-laned.

Plotting this route in GoogleMaps I am getting a journey time of 7hrs 48 mins and 428 km to cover. And looks like Virudhachalam town also has a neat byepass.

Thank you for the detailed information .

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

time frame of 11 hrs. Also the Kappalur-Othakadai ring road detour seems to be to byepass the big city of Madurai, am I correct?

Yes it would take 11 hrs, regardless of the route you take. Kappalur-Othakadai ring road is as busy as Chennai bypass, and this was the case it was thrown open to public in Diwali '99. I'll wait for the 4-laning to complete to see how it fares. It is better than going through Madurai city ofcourse.

If you do decide to split by starting afternoon. I'd suggest to extend your drive/ride to Madurai and stay in the northern part of city. This way you can easily get out of town next morning. Salem-Madurai is a breeze compared to Bangalore-Salem.

And looks like Virudhachalam town also has a neat byepass

IIRC Vriddachalam bypass is just a semicircle north to south. Not sure it does a east to west, the direction you will use.

[sachinpk]

On a quick run towards Dhanushkodi and Tranquebar. Could leave Bangalore only by yesterday (29th Jan) late afternoon and so decided to camp at Salem. I also had some "courier duty" to be done for a couple of Amateur Radio Operator friends. I could leave Salem bang on time at 0600Hrs today (30th Jan). The tolled highway between Salem & Madurai seems to have less road traffic and the drive was really smooth. FasTag worked at every toll booth on the way. I was looking for the familiar sounding hotel chains to have my breakfast, but could not find any. So had breakfast at Hotel Annai which was near Karur (at around 0730Hrs).

I had to get into Madurai City as I had to hand over some stuff to a friend there. In return he was willing to "pilot" me out of the city . Reached the city suburbs by around 0920Hrs and via Fatima College entered into the city proper. There was some confusion on the rendevouz point. But by around 1030Hrs my work was done and I took a small (but busy) road just on the banks of River Vaigai. Madurai city reminded me of London which has Thames running in the middle and very many bridges connecting both the banks. I was out of the city limits by around 1050Hrs.

From Madurai till Rameshwaram the roads are a mix of four lane highways and dual carriage-way roads (similar to district roads). Four laning is now complete for the first 20-25kms beyond Madurai. At Manamadurai the directions were confusing so I actually got out of the highway and had to enter through some narrow streets (thanks to Google Maps) to join the highway on the other side of the town. At Paramakudi town the four lane highway actually meanders away from the normal road to the town. I drove on this four lane road for a very long time only to find that the byepass is incomplete. At one point there was a board asking to use a narrow road which takes the vehicle back onto the dual carriage way road just after the town. I may have saved some time, if I had actually drove through the town.

Ramnad/Ramanathapuram had a proper byepass and I decided to break for lunch at around 1300Hrs. I had taken a quick break of around 10 mins in between Paramakudi and Ramnad. The roads (even though dual carriage way) was well laid, and the vehicular traffic was also less. I had to watch out for goats loitering around the road side, who some times decides to make a quick charge across the road. By 1410Hrs (30th Jan) I was at the hotel lobby.

Should I drive down to Dhanushkodi now, or should I wait for sun rise time tomorrow? What more to do at Rameshwaram? Those are the questions in my mind now.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

Should I drive down to Dhanushkodi now, or should I wait for sun rise time tomorrow?

You shouldn't have thought, but done both . Now I think is a little too late, there'll be a choc-a-bloc exiting town towards Dhanushkodi which alone will take 15 min to pass.

Other than visiting the temple, you can head to Pamban and wait for Boatmail (departs RMM at 1700) to pass through the rail bridge.

[sachinpk]

Drove up from Rameshwaram all the way to Tranquebar/Tharagambadi this morning. Google predicted 5 1/2 hours to cover a distance of 297kms, and this was via Devipattinam-many *.pattinams-Thondi-Muthupet-Pandi-Nagapattinam-Velankanni-Karaikkal. I left Rameshwaram by 0920hrs and with the usual set of moving in wrong directions and detours reached Tranquebar/Tharagambadi by 1600 Hrs (7 hrs approx, with total breaks leading to an hour). This was my first road trip in the south eastern Tamil Nadu districts and take my observations FWIW.

1. The roads (it is dual carriage way) were good all through out. That is, they were well laid and no potholes and nasty surprises. Only in very few sections (especially in places where road crossed railway level crossings) there were small patches of untarred roads. Looks like rail lines in the area are undergoing guage conversion. Hats of to TN PWD/H^D who maintains these roads.

2. The road goes through many small towns and villages which means that the driver should be alert and high speeds cannot be achieved. But this road also has a "life" to it; i.e it shows the rural and town life in Tamil Nadu. The drive is certainly not as lifeless as driving through the four lane express highways. A sedantic drive with halts pretty much every hour, observing the "not so busy" life of people was a good experience. This may also be one of the few journeys in which I took many short breaks, at locations I found interesting. The road goes very close to the bay of bengal and in few place the sea can be seen.

3. Animals (especially goats) in this part of the world seems to have really high hopes on human beings. May be they know that no driver would make a mistake of driving over them, as local folks may "deal" with such offenders. So they stroll around the roads in a leisurely pace and if in a mood would also make quick crossings on the roads. For the driver it is better to anticipate such moves and take evasive action. My observation is that two wheeler drivers also make ride on the road taking much more space than usual (considering four lane highways). In four lane highways two wheeler riders generally tend to keep to the extreme left and consider the higher speed of other vehicles using the road. That is not the case on ECR.

4. I also could not see any "branded" hotels/restaurants on this route. But I did spot many small eateries and way side hotels (the "trukker" variety). With no high visibility sign boards I missed many of them. Finally I spotted a small mess after crossing Muthupettai byepass, and had a simple tasty vegetarian meal. For toilets etc. people may have to rely on petrol pumps. So this may have been one road trip, which I may have been uncomfortable if I was with my family.

Originally Posted by narayans80

Now I think is a little too late, there'll be a choc-a-bloc exiting town towards Dhanushkodi which alone will take 15 min to pass.

I drove down to Dhanushkodi this (31st Jan) morning, and felt that it was the best time to drive down. I was out of the hotel at the right time (consider that Dhanushkodi is around 24 kms away from Rameshwaram), and reached the last point when the sun had just risen to the right level. This morning Dhanushkodi was not at all crowded, and I guess the visitors were mainly the pilgrim crowd. Though I did spot a couple of bike riders. And the funny part is that as I was sitting on the parapet at the last point, I got an SMS from Airtel Sri Lanka with instructions to enable roaming .

Other than visiting the temple, you can head to Pamban and wait for Boatmail (departs RMM at 1700) to pass through the rail bridge.

Are you sure that the railway line to RMM is still open and not under maintenance? I checked the NTES application this morning and found out that for the next 8 hours there are no train movements at RMM. The daily MDU-RMM passenger too is returning from Mandapam Camp station. The Mandapam to Rameshwaram leg is shown as "cancelled".