[khoj]

Originally Posted by KedarJ

Hi guys,
I am Planning a Road trip Pune-Jaipur-Delhi-Agra-Pune. I will be having my entire family consisting of wife, 6 year old son, father and mother.
i am planning NH8. Planning a first overnight stop at Surat. 2nd Stop at Jaipur & then Delhi. I will be the only person driving throughout the trip.

Kedar,

I would pay attention to the matter in bold above as this is what sets your trip factors differently from all of the others. Travelling with family changes the dynamics and factoring in the longer and more frequent stoppages for meals, nature breaks etc. your plan of stopping at Surat is perfect except that the actual city of Surat (hotels) is 18kms away from the NH. Instead you could drive a wee bit longer and stop either at Ankleshwar (lots of hotels just off the highway) or in Baroda.

Further since you are the only driver and as is obvious you would be the most agile person in the group it will bode well for you to have an early evening and a good night's rest before the next day's drive to Jaipur, which will be equally long if not longer than the first day's.

[daredeviljpr]

Originally Posted by KedarJ

Daredavil could you please give me a more insight on trip from Pune to Jaipur. I had initially planned to take the first stop at Udaipur but since all in the family are insisting have decided to take overnight stop at Surat. But after reading your post am feeling little better. I have to furhter drive down to Delhi from Jaipur. However will be staying in Jaipur for 2 days atleast. Please advise...

Pune to Udaipur is a 15hr journey and the roads are in good conditions and I did not encounter heavy traffic except in a few patches. I travelled with speeds of 90-110 but with Safari I believe you can travel faster than this.

My timings for major stops are below.

Pune Start - 05:45AM
Surat - 1:00PM
Baroda - 3:00PM
Ahmedabad - 5:00PM
HimmatNagar - 6:00PM
Udaipur (overnight halt )- 9:00PM (Total of 910Kms)

Udaipur Start - 9:45AM Next Day
Jaipur -4:00PM (Total of 400Kms)

Pune - Ahmedabad : 669KM
Ahmedabad-Jaipur: 722KM
Pune-HimmatNagar: 742KM
Himmatnagar-Udaipur: 177KM
Udaipur-Jaipur: 403KM

I would suggest you to start early which will be good to avoid rush hour bombay traffic and then on the Narmada Bridge. Please go thu the posts by KHOJ they are of extreme help.

A few places to stay:

Himmatnagar
Landmark Hotel
Moti Pura Circle
Himmatnagar
Gujarat, India 383001
011-02-772-22-9180

Ratanpur
Motel - Ratanpur ** Standard (RTDC)
Udaipur - Ahmedabad, NH 8, Ratanpur
Contact Person: Mr. Balbir Singh Nimoria
Mobile: +91 9929497100
Email: ratanpur@rtdc.in

UDAIPUR

Hotel - Kajri *** Standard (RTDC)
Shastri Circle, Udaipur
Contact Person: Mr. G. L. Meena
Mobile: +91 9414163316, 9414407439
Tel: +91 294-2410501, 2410502
Fax: +91-294-2410503
Email: kajri@rtdc.in

Hotel Paras Mahal
Near Paras Cinema, Hiran Magri Sector 11
Udaipur - 313001, Rajasthan - INDIA
Phone : +91 - 294 - 2483391/92/93/94

Chittorgarh
Panna * Standard (RTDC)
Pratap Nagar Road, Near Railway Station, Chittorgarh
Contact Person: Mr. P.S Bhati
Mobile: +91 98290-66086
Tel: +91-1472-241238
Email: panna@rtdc.in


I am copying a post from a fellow bhpian, I don't remember where I got this from.

Pune-Bombay: No problems, use the Belapur-Turbhe-Airoli-Mulund-Thane to bypass the city to Ghodbunder on NH8.
Bombay-Manor: Expect heavy traffic at all times of day and night. Some bad road sections will be repaired by this month-end.
Manor-Vapi: Not a bad stretch
Vapi-Surat: Road widening in progress, lots of flyovers under construction, some deviations, but good roads.
Surat-Baroda: Heavy traffic, but spectacular 6-laned road
Baroda-Ahmedabad: Great expressway, but are mobikes allowed? The conventional NH8 is a messy road.
Ahmedabad: Bypassing the city from e-way is easy. If you have to take NH8 from Baroda, you can still take the Sardar Patel Ring Road and bypass easily.
Ahmedabad-Udaipur: Fabulous run, except for some messy traffic for the first few kms out of Ahmedabad on the way to Himmatnagar, depending on the time of the day. Aravalli ghats are fantastic after you enter RJ. Sections where you can easily do 160-180 kmph.
Udaipur: Bypassed, but on a narrow 2-laned road
Udaipur-Chittorgarh: NH76 is surely the fastest of the lot, 110 kms in under 60 minutes
Chittorgarh-Kishangarh: Bypas Chittorgarh, make some supersonic speeds via Bhilwara to Kishangarh
Kishangarh-Jaipur: Despite being a e-way, the highway to Jaipur can be troublesome with lots of truck traffic
Jaipur Bypass: is awesome

[KedarJ]

Thanks a lot guys for a very detailed and useful information. Infact I was bit worried since taking the whole family along. But after going through the advices am feeling much better. Daredavil thanks a lot for the details info provided. Khoj I fully agree with you & infact I had thought the same thing that probably it would be prudent to take a hault at Surat or Baroda and then start the journey the next day. Deky & libranof, could you please provide me more details on the road NH76 from Udaipur. I have always been carrying the mapmyindia navigator and unfortunately it is showing me NH8 from Udaipur onwards. But I would certainly follow NH76 as its much faster. I hope I wont miss a turn to NH76 while driving out of Udaipur???

[KedarJ]

guys,

One more confusing thing. What is it about the Ahm'dbad to Udaipur expresshighway. Is there any possibility to miss the turn for the e-way. How Sardar Patel Ring road comes in the picture. Kindly elaborate.

[hvkumar]

KedarJ, exact details of how to get off the expressway before Ahmedabad onto NH8 towards Udaipur (via Sardar Patel Ring Road) and the exact details of the point on Udaipur bypass where you turn off into NH76 are elaborated in the log book link that I posted earlier. Maybe you should check it out there. It is written in very simple language.

And I suggest you switch off your Navigator if you want to be on the right road!

[daredeviljpr]

Originally Posted by KedarJ

guys,

One more confusing thing. What is it about the Ahm'dbad to Udaipur expresshighway. Is there any possibility to miss the turn for the e-way. How Sardar Patel Ring road comes in the picture. Kindly elaborate.

Refer to Post #8 for the file attached and the images in Post#16. I believe these should give you a better idea, I got off the e-way before Ahmedabad to Udaipur with the help of these posts and they are quite detailed. Believe me, with the document and images in hand you will take the right turn to exit e-way. Just make sure that you take a print of these with you and your navigator (person sitting in the front passanger seat and not the electronic device) understands these.

When You exit Udaipur ask for the Road to Chittaurgarh and that is NH76, if you ask for Jaipur you may be directed thru NH-8.

The navigator will take you thru each city en-route and only on NH-8, right upto Jaipur. The Navigator was helpful to get me out of Bombay and after that it was just a device to trace my route. I relied more on the posts by fellow bhpians than the navigator.

[KedarJ]

Kumar & Daredavil,

Thanks for the link. Actually I had missed it before. The logbook is in detail and nicely elaborated. Will carry it along for the reference.
Have taken printouts of these posts for easy reference. Thanks for everything.

[khoj]

Originally Posted by KedarJ

I hope I wont miss a turn to NH76 while driving out of Udaipur???

To make this simple, when moving out from your hotel in Udaipur ask for directions to the Airport which is in Dabok, this itself is located on NH76, no confusion there. Once you get to Dabok/Airport just continue straight on.

[daredeviljpr]

I am preparing for my second journey from Pune to Jaipur. The plan is to start on Tuseday Dec 20, 2011 evening from Pune and stay somewhere in Mumbai. Start early the following morning on Wednesday 21, 2011 from Mumbai and reach Jaipur the same day if possible else take a night halt at Udaipur.

This time I will be travelling with a 3 months baby in addition to my wife and 6 years old kid, so there are speed restrictions.

Any suggestions on route, travelling conditions are welcome.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by daredeviljpr

I am preparing for my second journey from Pune to Jaipur. The plan is to start on Tuseday Dec 20, 2011 evening from Pune and stay somewhere in Mumbai. Start early the following morning on Wednesday 21, 2011 from Mumbai and reach Jaipur the same day if possible else take a night halt at Udaipur.

This time I will be travelling with a 3 months baby in addition to my wife and 6 years old kid, so there are speed restrictions.

Any suggestions on route, travelling conditions are welcome.

Instead why dont you split your travel times into equal parts and leave on Wednesday morning and reach Baroda in 10-11hours.At Baroda,just before the expressway begins,you could stay at Hotel Plazzo onto your left.Reported to have good rooms.Depending on your time of arrival at Baroda,you could stretch it to Ahmedabad or even to Himmatnagar and stay at Hotel Landmark(again a basic place)on NH8 itself.Baroda to Himmatnagar should take you around 3-3.5hours.Himmatnagar to Jaipur should take you around 9-10hours.

This would be an easier paced drive as opposed to the Mumbai-Jaipur drive in one stretch with a 3month old.With a 3month old,I dont think it is a great idea to do a drive of more than 9-10hours at a stretch,the little one might tend to get cranky and restless.Mumbai-Jaipur will take you nothing less than 17-18hours of driving.

[jealousdiamond]

Originally Posted by daredeviljpr

take a night halt at Udaipur.
Any suggestions on route, travelling conditions are welcome.

A sensible solution to your circumstances would be leaving Pune early morning and driving up till Baroda / Ahmedabad , for an over-nighter there and continue the next stretch the following day .

By no means , the journey is feasible in a single day ( given your circumstances ) . I had been doing this stretch for almost 5 yrs now and hence say , with family and kids , have a overnight break .

As you would be aware , duck the Narmada bridge to avoid the traffic jam out there , use the Golden Bridge instead .

Road conditions mostly are excellent now (3 weeks back) , except the regular jams @ Narmada Bridge , heavy truck traffic post Vapi and a moderate number of diversions in the Thane - Vapi Strech (be watchful of these ) . Try leaving Pune by 4 AM so that you cross Godhbunder flyover before the heavy annoying truck traffic starts .

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

Instead why dont you split your travel times into equal parts This would be an easier paced drive as opposed to the Mumbai-Jaipur drive in one stretch with a 3month old.With a 3month old,I dont think it is a great idea to do a drive of more than 9-10hours at a stretch,the little one might tend to get cranky and restless.Mumbai-Jaipur will take you nothing less than 17-18hours of driving.

Very well said !! Mumbai Jaipur would take you approximately 22 hrs min ,again depending on traffic conditions .

[daredeviljpr]

ranjitp1 and jealousdiamond your suggestions sound reasonable. My plan was to keep driving until it is dark and take a halt wherever I reach by that time. I was relying on my last trip where I reached Udaipur from Pune the same day at 9 PM (started pune at 5:45 am) , so I thought if I might as well make it to Jaipur if I start from Mumbai a little early.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by daredeviljpr

ranjitp1 and jealousdiamond your suggestions sound reasonable. My plan was to keep driving until it is dark and take a halt wherever I reach by that time. I was relying on my last trip where I reached Udaipur from Pune the same day at 9 PM (started pune at 5:45 am) , so I thought if I might as well make it to Jaipur if I start from Mumbai a little early.

Life takes a huge turn once you have a child on board!That "child on board" sticker that you see on most cars,means a lot many more things than just that

Your best bet is to do Pune-Baroda or maybe till Ahmedabad on Day1.
Day2 Ahmedabad-Jaipur.Mumbai-Jaipur in a single day is a bit too much.If you do the option of drive till dark,you might end up being caught in the middle of nowhere and then you would end up keep pushing to find a hotel and then food and milk and all other things would begin to get crucial.The 2 equal day journey should be your best bet to do this drive.

[jealousdiamond]

Originally Posted by daredeviljpr

I reached Udaipur from Pune the same day at 9 PM (started pune at 5:45 am) , so I thought if I might as well make it to Jaipur if I start from Mumbai a little early.

Pune - Mumbai - approx - 2.5 hrs
Mumbai - Surat - approx - 5/6 hrs
Surat - Ahmedabad - approx - 4/5 hrs
Ahmedabad - Udaipur - approx- 5 hrs
Udaipur - Ajmer - approx - 3/5 hrs
Ajmer - Jaipur - approx - 1.5/2.5 hrs

Plan accordingly , all times are @ sedate speeds of 80-100 (likely to be your course of action )
Moreover the monotonous drive ( same 4/6 lanes ) makes you feel tired much early than usual .

BTW, what vehicle you plan to drive ?

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

Life takes a huge turn once you have a child on board!That "child on board" sticker that you see on most cars,means a lot many more things than just that

Aboslutely

[daredeviljpr]

Originally Posted by jealousdiamond

Pune - Mumbai - approx - 2.5 hrs
Mumbai - Surat - approx - 5/6 hrs
Surat - Ahmedabad - approx - 4/5 hrs
Ahmedabad - Udaipur - approx- 5 hrs
Udaipur - Ajmer - approx - 3/5 hrs
Ajmer - Jaipur - approx - 1.5/2.5 hrs

Plan accordingly , all times are @ sedate speeds of 80-100 (likely to be your course of action )
Moreover the monotonous drive ( same 4/6 lanes ) makes you feel tired much early than usual .

BTW, what vehicle you plan to drive ?

Aboslutely

Thank or the breakup of hours between cities. Looking at the breakup I might be staying either at Himmat Nagar or Ratanpur. I plan to drive @ sedate speeds of around 80 and will be driving Fiat Punto 1.4 E+.