[roadracer]

Guys,

I know that this should be quite a straightforward route but I still want to get an opinion on the best route to travel from Chennai to Nagercoil.

I think that the below route should be the preferred option.

1. Chennai to Trichy - NH-45
2. Trichy to Madurai - NH45-A
3. Madurai to Nagercoil - NH-7 & NH47-B

I expect NH-45 and NH-7 to be reasonable good but what about NH45-A and NH47-B. Are these 4 lane highways or just 2 lane roads?

Also,how long would it take to cover this distance if I take 4 breaks in between for food and coffee/tea?

Cheers

[MX6]

Start from chennai at 4 am. You can have breakfast in Trichy. Leave Trichy by 9:30, you can reach Madurai after a leisurely drive. Have lunch in Madurai.
Leave Madurai by 1:30 pm, and you can have tea in Tirunelveli.
You should be in Nagercoil by 6 pm.

[roadracer]

Originally Posted by MX6

Start from chennai at 4 am. You can have breakfast in Trichy. Leave Trichy by 9:30, you can reach Madurai after a leisurely drive. Have lunch in Madurai.
Leave Madurai by 1:30 pm, and you can have tea in Tirunelveli.
You should be in Nagercoil by 6 pm.

:-).I may have to follow this in the reverse direction as we might be starting in the afternoon around 4:00 P.M. Ok,so I presume that the roads are good/reasonable till Nagercoil?

[MX6]

Roads are excellent.
If you are starting around 4 pm, then you will reach Tiruchy by 10 pm. There will be traffic. Also watch out for vehicles coming in wrong direction.
Do you intend to stay overnight in Trichy or proceed after a break?
Because it will easily take 7 - 8 hours from Trichy to Nagercoil.
If you can brave the Trichy Dindigul road, then I'd even suggest you to drive NH7 from Dindigul to Nagercoil non stop.
I drove from Karur to Tirunelveli in 3 hours and 20 mins flat.

Road from Chennai to Trichy is terrific. So is NH7 all the way till Tirunelveli.
So based on what time you want to leave from Trichy, you can either go through Dindigul - NH7 (trichy - dindigul is not so good but can keep 80 - 100 easily) or Take the Trichy - Madurai - NH7 from there. Trichy Madurai can be done through virali malai - melur.

[ElantraGT]

Roadracer, I have done the Chennai - Kanyakumari trip 3 times in the past 2 months. The roads are good all the way. A couple of things that you need to be aware, Till Thindivanam watch out for morons coming in the opposite side of the lane. Expect the same when you near trichy. Try to take the Viralimalai, melur route from Trichy to madurai (NH45 B). This road is newly laid and has less traffic. It will connect you to Madurai outer ring road (the old Madurai by pass road). This road will take you to NH 7 after Thirumangalam.

The new Thirunelveli byepass from Shankar nagar is ready, if you take this route you will completely byepass thirunelveli and join after the thirunelveli engineering college road. This is not like the old bye pass road, which goes in to the town bisecting it at washermanpet. The road at kavalkinaru is still under construction so expect oncoming traffic on your lane.

[ph03n!x]

Well, well, well! I did this run last weekend - check this for a few pictures and driving experience.

You will reach Trichy comfortably in 3.5 hours if you start early in the morning (I started at 3 AM), and reach Madurai in another 2 hours. Madurai - Nagercoil would be another 3 hours max, 8 hours of total driving time. I took less than 9 hours including 3 breaks and a breakfast stop.

[roadracer]

Guys, Thanks for the response. It looks like starting early morning might be a good idea compared to starting late evening. If we start early morning then we may not require a break. If we start late evening then we would have a halt at Trichy.

Cheers

[ampere]

Originally Posted by roadracer

Guys, Thanks for the response. It looks like starting early morning might be a good idea compared to starting late evening. If we start early morning then we may not require a break. If we start late evening then we would have a halt at Trichy.

Cheers

Its always a very good idea to start early (I have always followed that). Getting out of the city is very easy and within no time you are on the highway. Late evenings, its not a good idea, unless folks like night driving (but for that you need to start even later).

As said earlier NH45B is very nice.

[hvkumar]

The last 18 kms into Nagercoil is narrow twisty 2-laned road.

[ph03n!x]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

The last 18 kms into Nagercoil is narrow twisty 2-laned road.

Yup, from around Kavalkinaru, the roads are the good ol' two lanes. From my house in Besant Nagar, we have exactly 650 KM of 4 laned bliss - the remaining 18 KM are not bad, but are not 4 lane.

[roadracer]

Thanks guys for the response. I have noted all key details.

[benzbala]

@MX6, the road between trichy and dindugal is undergoing the 6lane widening process, so is horrible. the best would be for him to take the chennai-trichy-madurai-tirunelveli-nagerkoil route which is 99.9% four laned throughout
@ ph03n!x i'd prefer starting at anytime after 5 am cos i believe that between 3am and 5 am, our responses would be very less than how fast we actually respond and anyways, thats my style just wanted to share
if he starts at 5 am, he should be reaching trichy for breakfast and should be able to reach tirunelveli for a not so late lunch around 2, 2.30 which should be nice if ur travelling with ur family too

[ampere]

As per another thread NH45B has also been almost fully four-laned all the way till Tuticorin.
So its worth doing Trichy-Madurai.