[Lightening-Fast]

Hey Guys,

Planning to take off a week next month and plan on a long road trip with my wife. Our Chevy Spark will accompany us all along the way. I have a rough plan in my mind that i want to put forward and require your opinions on how does it sound. So here it goes:

Day-1: Start early from Bangalore and reach Madurai by afternoon. Stay in GRT, visit Meenakshi temple and spend the night in Madurai
Day-2: Start for Kanyakumari and reach by afternoon again. Spend the evening watching sunset and visit Vivekananda rocks.
Day-3: Visit Kovalam beach and return back to Kanyakumari to spend the night
Day-4: Start early and reach kodaikanal by afternoon. Relax by the lake in the evening.
Day-5: Finish Kodai sightseeings and spend the last night of the journey
Day-6: Start early from Kodai after breakfast and reach bangalore by evening.

Guys, do you think this is possible. Please feel free to comment. Am i too ambitious here?? Not sure of accomodation in Kanyakumari. Will google it for sure, buy any recommendation is gracefully accepted

[ampere]

Very decent plan and doable too. But instead coming back to KK, you can as well drive back to Madurai.



Why? You can see other temples as well around Madurai.
(pillayarpatti).

Also on the way to TVM you can also visit the Suchindram temple

Then from there start for Kodai.

[mykal shoemaker]

for Kanyakumari:

I stayed in Hotel Tri-Sea few months back. Was good for an overnight stay.
They have some good arrangements on the top (most of the hotels have) to see sunset/sunrise and sea facing rooms.

(In most the hotels there you'll get similar type accommodation.1- Non-sea facing and 2.Sea facing.Second one will be little bit costlier)

[gostel]

Vivekananda Kendra too has accommodation at Kanyakumari that you could give a try. But they are at a little distance from the shore.

[ravib]

As ampere said, on Day-3, you can very well drive to Madurai instead of Kanyakumari again. That will give you good amount of time on Day-4 to drive to Kodai & sightseeing.

I doubt on Day-5, how much you can see Kodai in 1 day. Keeping a relaxed trip in mind, if you are not intending to see all the places in Kodai, then its fine, otherwise, it may be hectic for you.

-Ravi

[Lightening-Fast]

@ampere: Thanks for the reply. ampere to the rescue again!! Any idea on the toll. I know that upto Kodai, its about 350 bucks one way

@mykal shoemaker: Thanks for the information mate. Do you think a day and half should be good for Kanyakumari. I also intend to visit Kovalam and if i am not wrong, its 90 kms away

@gostel: Thanks mate. will surely check out the info and reach out to you if i need more info

[Lightening-Fast]

Originally Posted by ravib

if you are not intending to see all the places in Kodai, then its fine, otherwise, it may be hectic for you.

-Ravi

Thanks @ravib for the advice. I have done Kodai before and i managed to cover about 4 or 5 major spots in about a morning and the afternoon combined. I dont really intend to tick mark all the spots and as you said, would like to pace it easy, as there would already be lot of travelling.

[mykal shoemaker]

Originally Posted by Lightening-Fast

@mykal shoemaker: Thanks for the information mate. Do you think a day and half should be good for Kanyakumari. I also intend to visit Kovalam and if i am not wrong, its 90 kms away

You need to plan/move immediately after sunrise, if you want to cover the vivekanada rock trip. When I went last time, only 2 boats were doing the rounds.

first they will start from shore-->vivekananda rock-->thiruvalluvar rock-->back to shore.

You'll have long queue for tickets,waiting time for one of the boat to reach.Then again waiting time @ Vivakananda rock for getting the boat to Thiruvalluvar statue.Then another wait at that place.

So,in season time, there may be very long queues and it may take some time.

In my trip ,Kovalam-Kanyamumari area took longer than anticipated,as there were heavy traffic of college buses in and around Marthandam. So ,plan the start-stop times to avoid the 4PM-6PM time frame.

[canonguy]

Originally Posted by Lightening-Fast

I also intend to visit Kovalam and if i am not wrong, its 90 kms away

Kovalam from Hotel Sea View in Kanyakumari is 65 kms approx. Had been to KK in June this year. NH47 in Kerala is two laned, full of traffic and doesn't bypass any town/city. The going is tough with all kinds of vehicles vying for space. It took me about two and a half hours to cover this distance. Started from KK at 12:00 pm and reached Kovalam at 2:20 pm. Most of the time you are stuck behind slow moving traffic with very few safe opportunities to overtake. The drive can get tiring and boring too. Since you've been cautioned in advance, take a deep breath, listen to good music and try to relax while you're stuck behind a slow moving truck belching black, black fumes.

[ampere]

@LF, I have no idea about the total amount of toll. Though I have driven to all these places, never kept an idea of the toll!

I keep about 500-1000 /- in change for the GQ in general!

[Lightening-Fast]

Originally Posted by ampere

@LF, I have no idea about the total amount of toll. Though I have driven to all these places, never kept an idea of the toll!

I keep about 500-1000 /- in change for the GQ in general!

Thanks @Ampere. I think thats the minimum one can think of. If i am not mistaken, NH7 all the way till kanykumari is 4 laned and complete right.

Originally Posted by canonguy

Kovalam from Hotel Sea View in Kanyakumari is 65 kms approx. Had been to KK in June this year. NH47 in Kerala is two laned, full of traffic and doesn't bypass any town/city. The going is tough with all kinds of vehicles vying for space. It took me about two and a half hours to cover this distance. Started from KK at 12:00 pm and reached Kovalam at 2:20 pm. Most of the time you are stuck behind slow moving traffic with very few safe opportunities to overtake. The drive can get tiring and boring too. Since you've been cautioned in advance, take a deep breath, listen to good music and try to relax while you're stuck behind a slow moving truck belching black, black fumes.

@canonguy. Thats some very good info. thanks a lot. I had heard about this stretch being a frustrating one, but never thought this one could take 2.5 hrs. In that case i am having second thoughts on visiting Kovalam. May be i should do this on a dedicated Kerala tour.

Originally Posted by mykal shoemaker

You need to plan/move immediately after sunrise, if you want to cover the vivekanada rock trip. When I went last time, only 2 boats were doing the rounds.

first they will start from shore-->vivekananda rock-->thiruvalluvar rock-->back to shore.

You'll have long queue for tickets,waiting time for one of the boat to reach.Then again waiting time @ Vivakananda rock for getting the boat to Thiruvalluvar statue.Then another wait at that place.

So,in season time, there may be very long queues and it may take some time.

In my trip ,Kovalam-Kanyamumari area took longer than anticipated,as there were heavy traffic of college buses in and around Marthandam. So ,plan the start-stop times to avoid the 4PM-6PM time frame.

@mykal shoemaker: Thanks for the info. I had been to KK when i was a kid and i remember standing in long queues to get to the memorial. Evidently things have not improved much

[ampere]

Yes NH7 is completely 4Laned all the way till KK with all the by-passes in place.

[Lightening-Fast]

Thanks @Ampere. Just waiting for the leaves to get approved and then HOLA!!! Oh i just remembered, i should start saving too!

[Fauji]

Though doable, will be hectic. It will be a realxed trip if you can delete Kodai. That will leave you to explore Kanyakumari, Suchindram as well as Trivandrum. It will also give you time to realx in Kovalam.

[Lightening-Fast]

@Fauji, thanks for the reply. As people have suggested, Kovalam, though is less than 80kms from Kanyakumari, takes close to 2.5 hrs. And i dont want to return through Kerala. Would be longer and more time consuming. So i am thinking of dropping kovalam for the moment. But i agree with you, that this will be a hectic trip. Planning to do this in 2nd week of december. Let me see if i can pull this one off