[ampere]

You can get all your updates here.

Originally Posted by AmazeGuru

Day 1: Bangalore - Davanagere via NH4 (I believe it is 4/6 lane throughout)

Smooth. Opens up after Tumkur.

Day 2: Davanagere - Mangalore - Plan to take Channagiri-Shimoga-Thirthahalli-Sringeri-Karkala-Moodabidri-MLR route. Need help from experts on the road condition.

Davanagere-Chitradurga-Channagiri-Shimoga and there onto what you mention

Day 3: Mangalore sight-seeing
Day 4: Mangalore - Udupi and stay in Udupi. (Visit the temple and St Mary island)
Day 5: Udupi - Goa: stops at Maravanthe-Murdeshwara-Gokarna. Destination is Colva beach

Decent NH17 with moderate to some what heavy traffic. Thins out once you move up North KA.

Day 8: Leave Goa and head to Bangalore via NH4A and SH34 and join NH4 @ Dharwad (Borim-Mallem-Gharli-Honnapur-Dharwad)

Since its more south Goa, I would say stick to Madgaon-Karwar-Ankola-Yellapur-Hubli-Bangalore.

[Sangre]

I drove from Bangalore to Udupi and back last weekend and took different routes for onward and return journey.

Onward journey : 2nd October, '15

Route taken: Bangalore (6 AM, 0 Km) - Nelamangala - Hotel Mayura ( ~8 AM near Bellur Cross for breakfast) - Hassan bypass - Sakleshpura (stopped at Hotel Surabhi for coffee) - BC Road - Mangalore bypass - Suratkal - Udupi ( ~ 2PM, 408 Km)

Roads were excellent throughout including the Shiradi Ghats. It started out a bit patchy but had nice concrete section for 13 Km. The curvy roads after the Ghats till BC Road were a real pleasure to drive on !

Return Journey : 4th October, '15 - Decided to take a more scenic route and I also wanted to touch Kudremukha along the way just to enjoy the views. Didn't know about the price I was about to pay until later !

Route Taken: Udupi (12.30 PM, 0 KM) - Manipal - Karkala - Bajegoli - Kudremukha - Kalasa (4PM, Stopped for Tea near the Kalaseshwara Temple) - Kottigehara - Belur - Hassan (7 PM, Stopped for Dinner at Suvarna Regency) - NH 48 - Nelamangala - Bangalore (11 PM, 425 Km)

Two laned roads all the way from Udupi till Kalasa were lip-smacking good. Nearby Kalasa the roads are a little potholed for a couple of Kms only. Then again excellent roads with occasional potholes till Belur. Also remember lot of speed breakers on this section. I going very carefully since it was dark. I remember the place where we entered Belur as having horrible roads for a Km or so. After that never faced bad roads again.

Was driving in a pretty relaxed way hardly crossing 80 most of the way till Hassan by which time it was already dark. Then it was raining throughout from Hassan till I reached Bangalore. Sometimes pretty heavily too. And I was having some trouble with the wiper becoming greasy and obscuring my vision. Stopping three times near toll booths and cleaning it was not sufficient but did waste my time as I took nearly 4 hrs even on this excellent road to cover 180 Kms!

Now the price I paid for taking this route was the extra 3 hrs of travel time. Not because of the route as such but because of driving slow enjoying the views in the beginning and because of the darkness, heavy rains and windshield problems I mentioned earlier. I don't regret taking this route at all

By the way, I was driving a 2011 Ford Figo TDCi which allowed me to enjoy the curvy roads to the fullest extent on this route. I did fill Diesel in Udupi at Geetanjali (for those who know) and got a mileage of 18.7 for the onward journey. Yet to check how much (bad) it was during the return journey.

[Klub Class]

Originally Posted by ampere

Davanagere-Chitradurga-Channagiri-Shimoga and there onto what you mention

Road repair and widening works going on in Chitradurga - Holalkere stretch and few diversions. So, I would stick to Davangere - Sulekere - Channagiri -Shimoga (takes around 2 hours with sedate driving)

Since its more south Goa, I would say stick to Madgaon-Karwar-Ankola-Yellapur-Hubli-Bangalore.

Agree

AmazeGuru, you may take the Mundgod Route (Yellapur - Mundgod - Bankapur). Faster, scenic two lane roads, minimal traffic with small speedbreakers near villages

You can the Tibetan settlements and monasteries near Mundgod and Siddis of Karnataka (descendants of African slaves brought to India during Portuguese colonisation) on the Yellapur route

[AmazeGuru]

Originally Posted by ampere

Decent NH17 with moderate to some what heavy traffic. Thins out once you move up North KA.

Thanks @Ampere. This helps a lot. Couple of follow up questions:

NH17 - Udupi to Colva: I am planning to leave Udupi @ 9AM and stop at Marvanthe, Murdeshwara and Gokarna for temple visits. Can I cover this distance before it gets too dark (let's say before 20:00 to reach Colva)?

I can even stay overnight either at Murdeshwar or Gokarna if this is too much of a tight schedule given the road and traffic conditions.

Also, regarding Sringeri-Karkala-Moodbidri-MLR road, is it in good condition? Read in other threads that the condition between MLR, Moodabidri & Karkala is not so good.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by AmazeGuru

Thanks @Ampere. This helps a lot. Couple of follow up questions:
NH17 - Udupi to Colva: I am planning to leave Udupi @ 9AM and stop at Marvanthe, Murdeshwara and Gokarna for temple visits. Can I cover this distance before it gets too dark (let's say before 20:00 to reach Colva)?

Its about 300km. So should take about 6 hours. So I would say it depends on how much spend you take at the places you visit. In case you get delayed, you can have a plan to stay at Kumta

http://hotelpanduranginternational.com

Also, regarding Sringeri-Karkala-Moodbidri-MLR road, is it in good condition? Read in other threads that the condition between MLR, Moodabidri & Karkala is not so good.

I think you should get much more current info on thread. Every day one member or the other drives on that section! They can update much better than me!

[roamingrao]

New one joins the expanding food court

Adyar Ananda Bhavan, Next to Adyas, Udayapura.

Will there be another breach in the median ?

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by roamingrao

New one joins the expanding food court

Adyar Ananda Bhavan, Next to Adyas, Udayapura.

Will there be another breach in the median ?

Saw this getting ready when I drove last Monday to Belur. Certainly a relief for techies who are brand conscious minus tastebuds.

This is another good "rest room" now ☺.

Breach on the median here will be a dangerous affair. Mayura made sure NHAI bent the rules for him and now that cut in the median there is "official".

By the way - Very few here know Aadyas.It has been my favorite since past 4 to 5 years though. Very good food (yes, better than Mayura for sure and at Par with Swati), Clean rest rooms, lovely staff and better options to eat too. They now are an "Andhra Special" joint. My last meal here was in May.

To make things easy - The new A2B will be on the left hand side and just before Kamat at Udyapura and diagonally opposite to it.

[Sandy28]

I travelled Bglore-Udupi-Mookambika and back from Oct 2-4. Onward route was Bglore-Neelamangala-Hassan-Sakleshpur-Jannapura-Kotigehara-Kalasa-Kudremukha-Karkala-Udupi-Kundapura-Mookambika. Initially I planned to take the Hassan-Belur-Gonibeedu-Kotigehara route; but at the last moment changed my mind as I wanted to try a different stretch on my onward and return journeys. So took the Hassan-Sakleshpur-Jannapura-Kotigehara route. The Sakleshpur-Jannapura stretch is a narrow single lane road that goes thru many villages. Half the route is in bad to worse condition and when I was just beginning to think whether it was a blunder to have taken this off-beat route, suddenly the road turns excellent all the way till Jannapura where it meets the Belur-Kotigehara route. Although the entire stretch is a single lane, there is near-zero traffic. However there are no fuel bunk or eateries on this stretch.

[samaspire]

Originally Posted by ampere

Decent NH17 with moderate to some what heavy traffic.

Its called NH 66 now (mangalore to goa), unless you are talking about some other road.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by samaspire

Its called NH 66 now (mangalore to goa), unless you are talking about some other road.

Yes I am referring to the same road. I understand its quite confusing. But for almost all of us the old numbers makes it easy for reference. Its difficult to cross-reference to Google no doubt with these changes.

And that NH66 is also synonymous with one of the worst National Highways in south India!

Originally Posted by paragsachania

By the way - Very few here know Aadyas.It has been my favorite since past 4 to 5 years though. Very good food (yes, better than Mayura for sure and at Par with Swati), Clean rest rooms, lovely staff and better options to eat too. They now are an "Andhra Special" joint. My last meal here was in May.

Look at the brighter side of things. Now thanks to them you should find Swathi and others less crowded!

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by samaspire

Its called NH 66 now (mangalore to goa), unless you are talking about some other road.

New nomenclatures don't spoil us. Most of us here will continue to refer NH17 as "NH17" for a very long time despite the new numbering like how we refer NH48 and NH4 today.

Mangalore Goa (or Edapally- Panvel) is so synonymous with the NH17 Tag that it would be too difficult to get rid of the practice at least for couple of years to call it with a different number ☺.

[samaspire]

Originally Posted by ampere

And that NH66 is also synonymous with one of the worst National Highways in south India!

I didn't know NH 66 carried that much bad baggage. Which is the original NH 66?

Originally Posted by paragsachania

New nomenclatures don't spoil us. Most of us here will continue to refer NH17 as "NH17" for a very long time despite the new numbering like how we refer NH48 and NH4 today.

Mangalore Goa (or Edapally- Panvel) is so synonymous with the NH17 Tag that it would be too difficult to get rid of the practice at least for couple of years to call it with a different number ☺.

I thought as much. Even I refer to it as NH 17 in conversations - NH 66 just doesn't sound nice

[ampere]

Originally Posted by samaspire

I didn't know NH 66 carried that much bad baggage. Which is the original NH 66?

OT.

NH66 is the infamous Krishnagiri-Tiruvannamalai-Tindivanam-Pondicherry.
The stretch around Tiruvannamalai is the worst!

[Samurai]

Now on NH17/NH66 you can see a very rare signage. Speed limit markers saying 100!!! It is there in many places. I had never seen a 3 digit speed limit until now.

[cool_dube]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Now on NH17/NH66 you can see a very rare signage. Speed limit markers saying 100!!! It is there in many places. I had never seen a 3 digit speed limit until now.

On a related note, what is the 4-laning status of NH17 from Mangalore towards Udupi / Karwar?