[buz]

Hi all,

I am planning a trip down south from Mumbai to Kanyakumari and back during the Christmas-New Year's break this December. Purpose is to Drive! :-) Any sightseeing along the way is welcome as well. Tentative itinerary is as follows:

25 dec – Mumbai to Goa (Expressway, NH4, Nipani Ajra Sawantwadi Goa)
26 – Spend a day in Goa
27 – Goa to Cochin (NH 17 all the way)
28 – Spend a day in Cochin
29 – Cochin to Munnar and spend the day and overnight in Munnar (NH 49)
30 – Munnar to Kovalam (NH 49 and NH 47)
31 – Spend the day in Kovalam
1 jan – Kovalam to Bangalore via Kanyakumari and Madurai (NH 47 and NH 7)
2 jan – Bangalore – Mumbai (could take a pit stop in Pune and start for Mumbai next day morning to reach office ). (NH 4, Expressway)

I understand that there are many route/travel threads that talk about this circuit in bits and pieces but found few recent updates on them. Will request members to kindly help me on the following:

1. Apart from Mumbai - Goa (which I am familiar with), which route looks unreasonable from a doability point of view

2. Any watchouts to keep in mind? (bad road stretches, widening delays, lonely/windy roads, safety/security issues, etc.) I will not be night driving mostly.

3. Short stops/off route interesting sightseeing opportunities along the way (other than the popular ones)

4. Good/recommended eating places and clean restroom availability along the circuit.

5. Any alternative routes anyone would like to suggest

Will really appreciate pointwise responses even on intermittent stretches respectively from members who frequent those routes.

Looking forward to your responses.

Cheers.

[hvkumar]

Quick comments:

EXtremely difficult to do Goa-Kochi in a day. Why not? Terrible roads in many places in NH17, horrible traffic and slow progress through North Kerala. However, you may make it if you leave eraly morning and are content with gettingt o Kochi late evening.

I would reduce time spent at Kochi and have more time for Munnar.

LOts of hotels and facilities en route, too numerous to be listed.

[ampere]

The schedule seems too jam packed to me. I would rather break at one place enjoy more rather than go see many places and stay for a only a day.

In stead of Kovalam, I would say you can spend time at Munnar and Thekkady. Not much far off and you will get good time to spend.

HVK has already mentioned about horror story of NH17. So need to take care.
Again one day in Goa? Will that achieve some thing unless you have already seen it before and are just using it for a break.

[v&v]

My advice will be to Goa while returning. You will be hitting Goa on peak. Hotel stay too will be expensive.

Alter you plan like - Mumbai - Blr - Munnar - Thekkady - Kochi (if required) or head to Tvm then to mangalore - goa - mumbai.

[buz]

@v&v @ampere - Goa is just a pit stop as we go to Goa enough to miss it this time :-) I agree the schedule is jam packed, but as I mentioned - the idea was to drive through than relax and enjoy each place.

I see that the general consensus on NH17 is not very positive. Do you think it would make more sense to go to Bangalore from Goa and next day proceed to Kochi from Bangalore? It does eat up another day of ours but we could figure out something on that.

Will be great if anyone call fill me in on the Madurai - Munnar road/traffic condition. Might look at entering Kerala from Madurai - Munnar and exiting from Kochi back to Bangalore.

[hvkumar]

The best way to go to Munnar from Bangalore is the Madurai road (NH7). But unless you wish to visit Madurai, please turn off NH7 at Dindigul & go via Vathalagundu, Periakulam, Theni, Bodinayakanur, Bodi medu & Poopara to Munnar.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

The best way to go to Munnar from Bangalore is the Madurai road (NH7). But unless you wish to visit Madurai, please turn off NH7 at Dindigul & go via Vathalagundu, Periakulam, Theni, Bodinayakanur, Bodi medu & Poopara to Munnar.

And you can get down on the other side from Munnar through Adimali-Kothamangalam-Muvattupuza-Ernakulam on the NH49.

You can make your plan around NH7/Madurai. If you are driving all the way to KK, you can come back the same and divert from Madurai also.

[buz]

Thanks all. Really appreciate your help. NH 17 is off the radar now. Maybe a more relaxed trip sometime will see us traversing that route. I am now concentrating on figuring out where to spend more time. So the 4 touchpoints for sightseeing are Munnar, Kochi, Kovalam and Goa (skipping Thekkady this time). So we can either give 1 whole day each to 3 out of these 4 locations or give 1 whole day to 2 locations and 2 half days (i.e. post lunch 1st day and before lunch 2nd day) to 2 locations. Planning to give the 2 half days for Kochi and extending the trip by a day to give the other locations 1 full day each. My wife finds Kochi quite interesting as she had a sales stint there for an extended period of time and has been able to find enough points of interest there. Regarding Munnar, I figured that a whole day is enough - I myself am more of a beach person than a hill person so wouldn't be on a 'soak in' mission to Munnar. From all the recent posts on the routes, I can summarize the road conditions as follows:

1. Bom - Blr: 4laned all throughout. Road ok till Haveri, patchy (under-construction, pot-holed etc.) till Chitradurga and back to ok till Bangalore.

2. NH 7: 4 laned excellent condition all the way till just before Kanyakumari where construction is in progress for completing the 4 laning

3. NH 49 and NH 47: Single carriageway well laid out roads but traffic is an issue.

Please do let me know if this reading is ok. Have changed the route to Mumbai-Goa-Bangalore-(Madurai: Meenakshi temple)-Munnar-Kochi-Kovalam-Bangalore-Mumbai.

One more question: Goa to Bangalore, should I re-traverse Sawantwadi road to get back to NH4 or is there an equally good route that gets me further down south on NH4 in approximately the same time?

[hvkumar]

I would suggest that from Kovalam, you go to Nagercoil and take NH7 via Madurai back to Bangalore, that is much faster than taking N47 via Kochi & Coimbatore.

To get to NH4, I would suggest you take either the road from Goa (NH4A) to Khanapur-Kittur (NH4) or further south to Ankola (for connecting to NH63 for Hubli) or Honavar (for connecting to NH206 via Shimoga, without touching NH4).

[buz]

The trip is done. 9 days and 4250 kms of pure exhilaration Took tons of pics as well. Will put up a travelogue soon and add in bits and pieces for people who want to take up the route again. Have quite a bit to share with fellow BHPians. Again, thanks a lot for the useful advice. I could almost expect what to encounter on every stretch of the trip. A basic routemap is attached here. Will place the reference to the travelogue thread once I come up with it.

[IMG]D:\Documents and Settings\322000474\My Documents\My Pictures\untitled.JPG[/IMG]

[buz]

Adding picture. Didnt figure in my last post.

[buz]

All. Just completed the travelogue. Please do visit http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...n-sojourn.html

[ac 427]

Hey Guys,

Posting after quite a long time. My friend and me have decided to do a road trip. I live in Mumbai, he lives in Delhi. I like calm and quite, he likes loud. I like structure, he thrives in chaos. I prefer winding roads, he prefers the solid straights. My preferences are towards European bikes, he the Americana. But both love Charles Bukowski. And both love the road.

Our bike choices reflect our personalities. Ive got myself a nice new Bonnie and my friend has got himself a Solid street bob. We want to do a coastal run considering that the mountains are off limits and Rajasthan/Gujarat has already been done. And hence we want to do a coastal run. We have around 15 days for our round trip from Mumbai to KanyaKumari. And we need all the help we can get to sort this ride out. We have a rough itinerary planned out, but it would be great to get road recommendations and places to stay.

here is what we have in mind.
Day 1: Mumbai to Chiplun – day one - 250 kms – 6 hours of riding.
Stay at dongarmath resort. Either rest there or continue.

Day 2: Chiplun – Goa 332 kms – 7 hours of riding.
Stay anywhere – we can do a rest day here.

Day 3:
Goa – Udip – 302 km – 6 hours or riding

Day 4: Udipi to Thrissur – 400 kms – 9 hours of riding
Or Udipi to Idukki – 544 KM – 12 hours of riding (but we can score some Idukki Gold here)

Day 5: Relax

Day 6: Idukki to Rameshwaram – 328 km – 8 hours of riding.

Day 7: Rameshwaram – Kanyakumari – 309 km – 6 hours of riding

Day 8: Kanyakumari to Bengaluru – 666 km – 12 hours of riding

Day 9: Bengaluru to Belagavi – 505 km – 8 hours of riding

Day 10 – Belagavi to Mumbai – 482 km – 10 hours of riding.

Attached is a map of the same.

Let me know what do you guys think about this. All recommendations are welcome.

cheers,
ac

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by ac 427

Day 3:
Goa – Udip – 302 km – 6 hours or riding

Day 4: Udipi to Thrissur – 400 kms – 9 hours of riding
Or Udipi to Idukki – 544 KM – 12 hours of riding (but we can score some Idukki Gold here)

I don't have the update on the recent road conditions for this stretch - but last I heard - the roads were bad. You might want to cross check the road conditions and viability of the plan for these days, particularly Day 4.

Other days sound good and easy for bikes of such calibre.

[ac 427]

Hello,

A friend and me wish to do a road trip on our bikes from Mumbai to Kanyakumari in the next week (nov 10th onwards). Considering the current mosoon, could you all help us with the conditions of the roads and also the best way around? Below is the planned route.

Day 1: Mumbai to Chiplun – day one - 250 kms – 6 hours of riding.
Stay at dongarmath resort. Either rest there or continue.

Day 2: Chiplun – Goa 332 kms – 7 hours of riding.
Stay anywhere – we can do a rest day here.

Day 3:
Goa – Udip – 302 km – 6 hours or riding

Day 4: Udipi to Thrissur – 400 kms – 9 hours of riding
Or Udipi to Idukki – 544 KM – 12 hours of riding

Day 5: Relax

Day 6: Idukki to Rameshwaram – 328 km – 8 hours of riding.

Day 7: Rameshwaram – Kanyakumari – 309 km – 6 hours of riding

Day 8: Kanyakumari to Bengaluru – 666 km – 12 hours of riding

Day 9: Bengaluru to Belagavi – 505 km – 8 hours of riding

Day 10 – Belagavi to Mumbai – 482 km – 10 hours of riding.

Do this sound like a doable plan? or is this ambitious. Also its critical to know we will be on bikes and hence we wont be allowed on expressways.

looking forward for all help.

cheers,
ac