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-   -   The art of travelling between Bangalore - Mangalore/Udupi (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/91125-art-travelling-between-bangalore-mangalore-udupi-603.html)

Any latest and greatest update on the NH (Shiradi) route to Mangalore? Road condition mainly and any diversions if at all.

You can bomb through Shiradi, there is no traffic or Road for that matter only a matter of having carbon fiber reinforced backbones :)

But seriously avoid that route, go through Charmadi and you will enjoy the hill roads and beautiful views.

Yesterday, got an opportunity to stop by this place while on a short drive to our ancestral home near Yediyur with my dad.

At first instance, couldnt make out this hole in the wall kind of eatery since there was no name board, had to walk back and forth, to confirm that this really is the place.
But once we went side and had our share of our thatte idlies, there was no more doubts. They are really good, soft and fluffy served steaming hot with spicy chutney, sambar and vada. Coffee is also good. Dosa was ok. Impressive part is the owners interest in maintaining the hygiene - he was insisting everyone to wash hands and pickup the plates sanitized in hot water. Cleanliness of the place and staff was also good.

The deviation of 6-7 km from NH75 is on good, wide road within the Kunigal town. The landmark is the Kunigal police station. The same road further joins the NH-75 after another 6-7kms.

On the return journey in the evening, saw that the left lane (towards Hassan direction) was closed due to road works happening on Kunigal section of NH75 with bidirectional traffic being allowed on the right lane. It will slow down the speeds. Not sure how long the work continues, just thought of bringing it out here.

Also, noticed that there is a small Paakshala outlet coming up between Soluru and Kunigal. They are really taking up to the competition. When it opens, it will be a good option for an earlier breakfast stop since all the famous eateries are centered around Kunigal and further beyond.

It has been that way since the last 2 decades now. No significant name boards, no nothing and same location though he did move to the main highway for few months and returned back to base.
Sambar? He never served with idlies with Sambar. It is the curry that went so well with these idlies and I hope you mean this:



If indeed he served with Sambar, then he has changed his menu. My last visit was in the last week of September.

The specialty with this place including consistency is with thatte Idlies. Anything beyond this is is just pure luck if that tastes good including assorted rice and pooris.

Thankfully this has become better only recently. The road otherwise was undergoing expansion work to make it 4 lane and during these times it was really a tough affair to get to this place. However, we have had plenty of visits during those days only for breakfast and return back to Bangalore so bad roads for few minutes didn't matter much.

What a lovely outlet! Marked it for my next trip that direction (self-goal for me to reach there by cycle).

I'd love to hear a list of such places in and around Karnataka if you had the time to list them and share with us :)

No no, its the same yellow curry that I referred as sambar lol:

Oh ok! I was surprised to see such good road through the town. Initially I was bit skeptical to go inside looking at the maps, since the road passed by the town bus stand, thinking of congestion, parking etc. But my dad was much more interested to check out this place :)

Cycling is a good option ! May be you can also explore the villages nearby by taking one of the rural roads. The rural landscape is not exotic like Malnad region, but it is flat land with plenty of coconut farms, few water bodies here and there, distant small hills.. charming nevertheless on its own. I was visiting my ancestral home after many long years and I really loved it.

Always had heard about this place, but I never wanted to taste it at the cost of entering Kunigal town. I haven't entered Kunigal since the bypass opened.

Now that you have written a Kagga on it, and after hearing that roads have turned into 4-lane, I might try it in my next turn this month. :)

It is not fully 4 lane. It is mainly around the town limits. But what is better is the fact that roads are widened and you don't really feel the irritation of entering into a busy town with slow traffic. Even merging back on the other end is a matter of less than 3-4 minutes. So, do consider this as a worthwhile detour during your next drive and tell us how you liked the idlies.

Also, at noon the same place serves mudde oota, something that I haven't tried it till now.

However, this place was suggested to my dad by his friend who runs a textile shop at Belur and would travel to Bangalore by KSRTC Bus every 15 days. During one such trip the bus stopped here (their locations keep changing) and that is when he discovered this awesome location. All this was in 2000/2001. In fact, I have driven here with my family too as they have a simple set-up to dine while we then continue for another 20 minutes to take a quick stop at CCD Bellur cross for any bio break.

This is now the new Pakashala. I saw this yesterday and realised that they have just picked up an existing set-up and starting Paakashala.

I have been staying at Koppa with my sister for the past few months. I always try to find small but clean and not-so-famous restaurants on the way. This is one of those findings:

Hotel Renuka about 4 kilometres from the Kudremukha checkpost while going towards Padubidri.
Neat place and good food. The people running this place apparantly left their jobs in the IT field and started it. This hotel is right opposite to another hotel called Hotel Tourist which always looked crowded. I had idlis, poori, pulao, buns on multiple occasions. Everything tasted good. They even had authentic Konkani items like patrode. A word of caution to people: I experienced itching in my throat when I tasted it.

Road condition between Hassan and Sakleshpur:

On the weekend that passed by, I happened to drive to a location between Hassan and Sakleshpur to attend a personal work. I had no other choice but to take the regular road connecting Hassan and Sakleshpur till Byrapura checkpost but that alone helped me realise why one must still stick to other alternate routes till this is fully repaired.

The road condition is indeed disastrous to say the least. There are dangerous dips as soon as concrete sections get over and you land on the old surface. At nights this can knock your front bumper off even in a car with good ground clearance.

If you are stuck behind a truck, chances are that you may never be able to overtake that till you get a clean stretch which itself is wishful thinking.

Here are some images from the dreaded stretch although there were a lot more bad stretches which I failed to capture right on time.







I presume that there won't be any quick respite from this soon. The contractor who was originally awarded this work went bankrupt with another one who took over is struggling with equipment to run the show. This is the information I got from the locals here who I interacted with.

Took the Anemahal-Harle-Marnahalli route while returning back. It's about 8-10KM roundabout and takes about same time or slightly less. The roads are good and goes between coffee estate. Some section, roads are very narrow and you will have to reverse quite a bit to make way for oncoming traffic, though I did not encounter any. Taking this route skips 95% of bad section of ghat road.

Last year this road was undergoing quite a lot of work in terms of concretization, mainly due to the powerplant project here and this stretch became roadworthy this year.

It passes through some very picturesque vegetation of western ghats unseen on Shiradi and also closer to the Yettinahole project. This was in Sept 2020 on the same road when monsoon was in full glory.



We got stuck ahead due to slush (roads were work in progress then) and had a tough time getting out of it. Also, as you mention, roads around here are narrow that most irregulars may not like it and complain too.

Had to visit Puttur last weekend and decided to take the Bisile ghat after considering all the options. What a peaceful and enjoyable drive it was. I took Channarayapatna - Shanivarasante - Bisile - Kukke Subramanya - Puttur. The roads are good throughout except for a few short stretches of rough surfaces between Channarayapatna - Holenarasipura. The few bad stretches between Mallipatna - Shanivarasante are being relaid and should be completed in couple of weeks going by the pace of the work. Took the same route back yesterday. Considering it was a Sunday, I was expecting some delay at Nelamangala but it wasn't the case.

We had parked our car next to the road under a tree near Arakalagudu for having packed food. A local was passing by and informed us about a park nearby which would be a great location to have packed food. It turned out to be a great suggestion. The park is called Saalumarada Timmakka Sasyodhyana and is located just off the road (https://goo.gl/maps/8KzX3bovcip6VToP7). Its maintained very well and is a great place for having packed food or to take some rest if traveling with kids. The entry fees is Rs.5/- per person. The place also has a rest room but was closed for maintenance. But the nearby Nayara fuel station has very well maintained rest rooms (https://goo.gl/maps/SdmnYvvP31zAJpHz8).

Few pics from Saalumarada Timmakka Sasyodyana near Arakalagudu:

is there a post giving list of restaurants on the Bangalore- Mangalore route? Particularly important to have a list of decent rest rooms for ladies and children.

I searched but could not find any. We are travelling 21st Dec '21 to Mudigere with half a dozen senior citizens five youngsters and three kids, so I want to arm myself with a list. What I have identified so far:

Annapoorneswari Veg Restaurant- 50Km from Hebbal fly over
Swati Delicacy, Kunigal 87Km from Hebbal fly over
Paakashala, Yeliyur. 88km from Hebbal fly over
Anagha Grand. 150Km from Hebbal fly over
A2B Udayapura 153Km from Hebbal fly over
Hotel Rama, Thannerhalla, Hassan. 183Km from Hebbal fly over
Ibbani Cafe,Holike 257Km from Hebbal fly over

Would appreciate a rating stars 1 to 3 ( to keep it simple) on food and toilets

Thanks in advance for your tips