[deepv]

Need to travel from Solapur to Satara in a couple of weeks.
'Solapur - Pandharpur - Mhaswad - Koregaon - Satara' route looks like the obvious choice unless suggested otherwise.
Any inputs considering recent experiences??

[deepv]

Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD

Right now, option 1 is better than option 2.

Thread seems to have been sparsely used, hence pinging Ashish for my query in #16 above.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

Don't take pandharpur route for next 15 days. Pandharpur is chocked due to Varkaries and it will be really pain to cross pandharpur at this hour. Take another route of Solapur - indapur - baramati - nira - lonand - satara. This is longer route compared to pandharpur route.

[deepv]

Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD

... Take another route of Solapur - indapur - baramati - nira - lonand - satara. This is longer route compared to pandharpur route.

Thanks Ashish for your timely input!!
Noticed in 'Hindu' as well about the Pandharpur festivities reported yesterday.
I suppose there might be a bit of traffic on NH9 too after Solapur.

On the other route, I believe it is supposed to be more scenic but mostly people take Pandharpur route due to distance.
This might thus be a bit of blessing.

[deepv]

Took the mentioned route from Solapur to Lonand/Khandala/Panchgani through Indapur/Baramati last weekend.
Solapur to Indapur is anyway a breeze.
The following SHs from Indapur are good and the surroundings especially from around and after Baramati are just so picturesque and green.
Especially so was the case with monsoon rains around every once in a while.

[paharino1]

Originally Posted by deepv

Took the mentioned route from Solapur to Lonand/Khandala/Panchgani through Indapur/Baramati last weekend.
Solapur to Indapur is anyway a breeze.
The following SHs from Indapur are good and the surroundings especially from around and after Baramati are just so picturesque and green.
Especially so was the case with monsoon rains around every once in a while.

how much time did it take from Hyd to Mahabaleshwar via this route ?

[deepv]

Originally Posted by paharino1

how much time did it take from Hyd to Mahabaleshwar via this route ?

I drove till Panchgani, took around 11hrs (with above an hour of breaks).
That was 10hrs of drive time for ~600kms.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

Originally Posted by deepv

the surroundings especially from around and after Baramati are just so picturesque and green.
Especially so was the case with monsoon rains around every once in a while.

Surroundings around Baramati is always green, 24x7 365 days. The 65 km road from Junction to Nira via Baramati is agri belt flourished due to water from veer + bhatghar + nira devghar dams. Its always pleasure to drive on this route.

[jits_1998]

I am planning to do this trip in Oct. This would be my first long distance travel and have a 3 year baby with us.

Will be driving our i10.

Please advice on where to stop (or not stop) on the way, and is google map reliable all the way?

Thanks.

[deepv]

There are two main routes as I pointed out in post #16 and #24 above.
On either of them, I think the best option would be to take a break around Solapur.

There are not many eateries before Solapur (except for one decent one - would be on right side about 15-20kms from Solapur), but after it you keep finding many.

[jits_1998]

Google maps also recommends #2. So will take that.

My long drive trips have been from chandigarh to shimla and amritsar routes. There is hardly a patch of no man's land.

How much of this route is uninhabited?

[deepv]

Oh .. NH9 is fairly busy highway ... you will get lots of traffic, and towns keep coming fairly regularly.
There are stretches possibly around Karnataka/Maha border where you have some stretches where not much happens.
Hope this is relevant to your concern

[jits_1998]

The must carry list is pretty scary with a rod, nylon ropes etc. Is that all needed on this route?

How about on the ghat roads?

I am taking a break in Solapur, so its max of 6 hours drive on one side.

[deepv]

Originally Posted by jits_1998

The must carry list is pretty scary with a rod, nylon ropes etc. Is that all needed on this route?

Oops .. Didn't quite the background on this?

How about on the ghat roads?

Ghat roads are quite good, however they are quite a bit zig-zag, better to be done in daylight (though should not be much of a problem later as well).

I am taking a break in Solapur, so its max of 6 hours drive on one side.

Yepp .. that should be enough.

[jits_1998]

Originally Posted by deepv

Oops .. Didn't quite the background on this?

The points #1 and #12 here:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...html#post44098