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NH17 is bearable between BOM & Panjim I guess.From Panjim,come to Karwar,Ankola, and then take the NH63 and come via Yellapur-Hubli-Gadag-Hospet-Bellary-join nh7 after anantpur and onwards to hyd.Beware that this route is a haven for mining trucks going to the goa ports,so roads can go from bad to worse quickly.

Either which ways,your route selection to reach Hyd even if its for experiencing the western ghats is a bit too tiring IMO.

I recently have a review from a biker who did Nh-17 till Panjim. road is bad close to MH-Goa Border otherwise the stretch is good. It is the rest of the NH -17 that I am clueless about. But looks like the later stretch is bad. I am planning to do all this distance spread over 10 days. No Hurry to reach home. just want to capture the beauty of the western Ghats.

Bellary route is strict no no. I have done that a few years back and the road literally has craters. I wanna touch Bangalore so that I can catch up with friends. It has been more than a year since I was there.

mate in bwteen sorry for hogging your thread. I will start a new one when I finalise my dates

hvkumar/ vprabhu and all other cool BHPian, thanks a lot to all of you for so much information. I am now so overwhelmed that I am no longer sure if I want to do this. Let me give you a little background. I come from norht india and have lived in Mumbai only for 3 years. I was able to do Mumbai Chandigarh cause once I crossed Gujarat and entered Rajasthan, it felt like my home zone. Have never been near any south indian cities and wanted to try somehting different this December. Goa or mahableshwar is too predictable.. Please suggest me a good vacation spot withing 1000 kms radius from Mumbai.

Waiting to hear from all you wonderfule people..

Is driving the primary part of the fun quotient? If not, I suggest you can take a train to Madurai and hire a cab to Munnar.

You have the following trains:

1. Mumbai-Nagarcoil Expr 6339/6340 and 6351/52
2. Kurla-Madurai (1043/44)

@vrprabhu: I exactly do not understand what do you want me to elaborate on? Is it the route or the places to visit in Wayanad District itself? I am sorry if you got my words in wrong way. I meant there are many places to visit in Wayanad District.
I do not exactly remember the route details. However, I remember taking a detour at Madappally.We went to Mananthavady and stayed at some random place there :) due to budget constraints. The places that I recall visiting were Kuruva Island, Banasura Dam, Lakkidi. Some falls near Kalpetta etc. There we caught hold of some villagers near Kuruva Island and those people made us taste some fruits which I never heard off and now I dont recall the names as well. (Sorry about that)
We did not follow the usual route through Kozhikode - Puduppadi - Kalpetta - and then other places within the district as we wanted to go through the village roads. But the detour at Madappally will lead you through village routes and roads were pretty bad back then. The most used route is the highway through Kalpetta - Puduppadi - Kozhikode and this is a also beautiful road.
If you want more information on Wayanad, there is tons of information on internet. If you want my experience, well all I can say is you have to be there and do things by instinct without planning, to enjoy the beautiful village roads. Interacting with locals, (Not guides) , you will get to know other lesser known places. Below are a couple of links that you might find useful
official web site of wayanad
official web site of wayanad
Vyithri resort seems a good place to stay (I personally did not stay here but heard from friends). But its quite expensive.
Vythiri Resort Wayanad - Nature Resorts North Kerala - Eco Hotel India

himavath, thanks for the names of the places. That is exactly what I was looking for. In fact, Lakkidi rings a bell - I remember in brother-in-law mentioning it. What I had in mind was the names of the villages you passed through, and the diversions taken - think you have covered them.

OT - I am supposed to have my roots in Calicut (Kozhikode), but haven't really had the time or opportunity to visit any places in Malabar / Wayanad. Hence the query.

W.O.W., don't mistake me - I think south is a lot safer to travel - you need not have any apprehension on the road.

Think I have already mentioned two places nearby Bangalore you can visit - which will be just on the 1000 km limit.

Otherwise, follow the tip given by Ampere.

And, there is a different kind of place pretty close to Mumbai. The Dahanu forest ranges and Saputara mountain ranges (close to Maharashtra / Gujarat border) will make a wonderful holiday trip from Mumbai by car. Why don't you check it out? You can do it this way - Mumbai - Thane - Dahanu - Saputara - Nasik - Mumbai.

As per jeevmenon. NH17 between Bombay and Goa is now fully restored to its former glory and road conditions are good throughout.

Very much. The cribber that I am :) I did not find anything worth crying about. And I can vouch for Panvel-Mahad-RaigadFort-Mahad-Ganpatipule-Hathkumbe-Pali-AmbaGhat-Kolhapur. Pali-Pernem, I dont know. Iridium did Sawantwadi-Amboli into Belgaum after Poladpur-Dapoli and south and he did not mention of many bad sections (I mean long painful sections) till Amboli. So a thumbs-up for NH17.

On the NH4, Haveri to Chitradurga is a bit painful, quite a few diversions from 4L to 2L but properly marked, not that bad.

I'm planning to do the Goa-Mumbai-Goa drive on my Alto LXI later this month. Now, I will be using the Goa-Belgaum-Kolhapur-Pune-Mumbai route while proceeding from Goa to Mumbai. On our return, we plan to use the NH17, Mumbai-Kankavli-Sawantwadi-Goa route, so that we can experience the beauty of these two different routes.

What I wanted to know is the condition of the NH17, especially during the monsoons. I have been told that the NH17 near Kankavli is quite bad with large potholes. Could someone confirm this? Is the NH17 route advisable during this part of the year or should we return by the same Pune-Bangalore highway?

Any advice on this will be much appreciated.

Thanks, Melvyn

Drove from Ratnagiri to Sindhudurg to Sawantwadi last week.

NH 17 has plenty of potholes. Some of them are filled with mud. Some patch work is in progress.
In an Alto, I wouldn't advice you to take this route.

Some of the interior roads are in better shape.

My suggestion would be to go back on the Belgaum Kolhapur road since thats in great shape.

Regards
Ravi.

Thanks for the info. Going by your advice and other views regarding the condition of the NH17, it's best that I avoid the route. I now plan to travel by the Panjim-Sawantwadi-Amboli-Ajra-Sankeshwar-Kolhapur-Mumbai route on my onward journey and return by the Mumbai-Kolhapur-Belgaum-Khanapur-Ramnagar-Mollem-Ponda-Panjim route.

Melvyn

Hi guys,
Been following you guys for a long time(passively) .. but now is when i am finally losing the baggage and hitting the road.

we are attempting a road trip to munnar (from mumbai) and back. while going we are taking the faster route via belgaum / bangalore. While coming back i was going to take the NH17 through kochi. i know it wud be slow with bad roads and traffic but safer i believe. i was tempted by the route 500modder ( http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorb...ed-advice.html) took. i.e. coimbatore/ nagarhole / mudumalai / coorg / udupi and then continue through the coastal route to goa. my questions are.
1. will it be a good idea to consider your route to come back considering we are attempting to do this in mid of july? Are the roads tarmac or wud their be stretches of sludge? also few of the drivers with me are inexperienced to such terrains.
2. can i reach udupi the same day on that route?( want to avoid night driving though)
3. Do the reserves like nagarhole mudumalai etc which fall on the route have some timings or restrictions to pass through? are there any noticeable fees for the same?

Any other route? or quick tips would be great too. ( i will be reading through the other posts on the topic till then)
The vehicle i am driving is a Pajero Diesel. Any suggestions would be great coming from you guysclap:

Cheers!
Naveen

Bad idea to take NH17 in July with rains & possibilities of bad roads, especially the rough sections in Suratkal-Udupi-Kundapura which are being widened.

Nagarahole & Mudumalai do not fall on the route if you take NH17 route, which is Munnar-Angamali-Trissur-Kunnamkulam-Edapal-Kuttipuram-Kozhikode-Kannur-Kasargod-Mangalore-Udupi.

Doing it the same day is going to be a big challenge considering the chaos of Kerala - especially Kozhikode-Kannur - roads, but do try. Leave very early morning from Munnar though.

f you wish to consider coming via Nagarahole, etc, then you can try either Munnar-Angamali-Trissur-Palakkad-Nilambur-Manathavady-Kutta-Nagarahole route (bad in some places), and you will find this a long day too.

Most of the info has been provided by HVK,just to add to it I usually drive Thrissur to Karwar on NH17 in one day (5am to 8pm)and it is an exhausting drive.Dont think type of vehicle would make a big difference as it is the traffic which is a killer and NH17 is yet to see a monsoon July-Aug where it hasnt broken up!

Munnar-Thrissur-4hrs
Thrissur-kozhikode 3 hrs
Kozhikode-mangalore 6hrs
Mangalore udupi 1.5hr

Avoid NH 17 in the Konkan section at any cost during July. With the rains in full force in the region, this route is best avoided. I did Ahmedabad - Trichur and back last July 2011 and had taken the Pune - Belgaum - Hubli route and then turned on to NH 17 at Ankola. Till Kundapura the roads were fine. From Kundapura, it starts getting bad due to the road widening work. From HVK's post, I understand that the work is still not over in this section. Once in Kerala, you have to not only face a chaotic traffic but also an absolutely bad road almost till Kanoor due to the heavy rains. After Kanoor, the road is better but the traffic is still a pain. As rightly mentioned by Ranjit, dont expect a smooth and comfortable drive.


ALternately, you could consider Munnar-Pollachi-Coimbatore-Mysore-Bglr-Chitradurg-Belgaum-Pune route. However I have no idea about the route condition between Munnar-Coimbatore. Also this will be a much longer route though far better and much more comfortable than the NH 17 route.