[alto99]

I am planning to drive from Pune to Bangalore over a weekend and will be back on another. I dont want to drive directly to Bangalore but want to visit places which are nearby this route. I can start Saturday morning from Pune and plan to reach Bangalore on Sunday evening/night. Saturday night would be a stay at decent hotel (will be with wife and a 3 yr old kid). On the way back too I would be interested in doing the same. I am particularly interested to visit places in Karnataka and not in Maharashtra. What are my options? I searched and found many threads on this route but could not locate one which talks of visiting places near-by this route. If there is already a thread please point me to one. Thanks for reading.

[ampere]

Its too small a time. Lets look at it this way:

You start early morning from Pune. Hit Hubli by noon. If you plan Hubli you can reach by late noon. Not much can be seen that day. Next day you spend half a day and start by noon to reach BLR by evening.

Result: You would stress yourself and also not see much.

Other option: Look for waterfalls/hill=station kind of place. Drive till Yellapur, if you can mangae. Stay over night. Look at places next day start by noon to reach BLR by night. (500 Km drive but very good roads). If you start by 3AM you should be able to make by late noon.

place: Banana County

But again: Very very hectic.

[Fauji]

Day 1

Visit - Mahalaxmi temple in Kolhapur, Gokak falls near Belgaum, Kittur Fort in Kittur on NH 4 (Kittur Rani Chennamma is known as Rani Jhansi of South)

Stay in Hubli. This way you would have done half the distance to Bangalore. Also there are good options for stay in Hubli

Day 2

Visit beautiful Lakkundi temples which is at Gadag which is a small deviation from Hubli, At Chitradurga climb atleast mid point on the fort. The fulll climb requires two hours. At Hiriyur, take a deviation to see Vani Vilas Sagar dam

Google the names for more details.

[kites]

Originally Posted by alto99

I am planning to drive from Pune to Bangalore over a weekend and will be back on another. I dont want to drive directly to Bangalore but want to visit places which are nearby this route. I can start Saturday morning from Pune and plan to reach Bangalore on Sunday evening/night. Saturday night would be a stay at decent hotel (will be with wife and a 3 yr old kid). On the way back too I would be interested in doing the same. I am particularly interested to visit places in Karnataka and not in Maharashtra. What are my options? I searched and found many threads on this route but could not locate one which talks of visiting places near-by this route. If there is already a thread please point me to one. Thanks for reading.

Hi Would suggest you to visit Chitradurga Fort, its just off the highway with clear sign boards guiding you. Also you can plan your lunch at Hotel Aishwarya Fort.

[alto99]

Thanks to all of you.
Here is what I planned (somewhat similar to what ampere has said):
Place: Dandeli - Jungle lodges and resorts - Kali Adventure camp. [Jungle Lodges and Resorts Ltd]-[Wildlife and Adventure Ecotourism Destination]

The programme in short is Checkin at 12, lunch at 1, jungle safari at 4 followed by dinner on day 1. On day 2 breakfast followed by boat ride at 930AM and then checkout at about 11 AM.

Here is how it went:

Plan was to start at 5 am on Saturday and checkin at 12 noon. But as I slept late started at 8am. Reached Belgaum at 1 pm. There was no point in delaying lunch so decided to search for restaurant in Belgaum. It was Karnataka strike on Saturday so had to search for a "open" restaurant. By then it was 130pm. After lunch and refueling started at 2.15pm. Took NH4A and reached Dandeli via Khanapur/Londa/Ramnagar/Ganeshgudi (all names picked from Google).
Reached Dandeli at exacly 4 pm and the hotel staff was kind enough to wait for us for the jeep safari. It went well and we spotted a bison, turtle, boar, barking deer apart from monkeys.

After this all went as planned and started at 11 am from Dandeli. Plan was to reach Dharwad to join NH4. I had GPS to guide me with offline maps but I forgot to download the route from Dandeli to join NH4 near Dharwad.
The road which I took was a underpass to NH4 (This is where offline GPS does not work well) and ended up taking a very bad road to join NH4.)
Next stop was Hubli. Started from Hubli at about 1pm refueled at Chitradurga and reached outskirts of Bangalore (NH4-ORR junction) at 630 where I spotted a occean - a occean of vehicles. Took a bad decision to skip the ORR and was driving in the city for couple of hours more to reach destination (JP Nagar) at 9pm.

I had assumed that NH4 is 4 laned throughout. But quite a bit of it is not and is under progress. Traffic on 4 laned NH4 in Karnataka after Hubli is erratic with lot of vehicles going wrong way inspite of all 4 lanes ready. Reminds me when NH4 was 4 laned in Maharashtra. There used to be lots of dogs hit by vehicles on the road (especially Nh4 bypass in Pune). Probably it took time for them to learn to cross (or there arent any left by now) but now I dont see any. Thankfully I did not see this in Karnataka.

Belgaum to Dandeli and Bangalore ouskirts to JP Nagar were the most hectic parts of the journey. The first because had to reach Dandeli at 4 and second because of...

Have to plan return journey. kites - with a kid along with me dont think I will opt for Chitradurg. Also its too near to Bangalore on the return journey. Mostly it will be options laid by Fauji in reverse order.
Should I take NH13 from Chitradurg to Hospet and then NH 63 to Gadag, should I go to Hubli and then take NH63 or is there any other way?

[ampere]

If its Hampi, then take the SH from Hiriyur. Avoid NH63 and NH13. It would be about 150 Km to Bellary from Hiriyur.

[Su-47]

Originally Posted by Fauji

Day 1

Visit - Mahalaxmi temple in Kolhapur, Gokak falls near Belgaum, Kittur Fort in Kittur on NH 4 (Kittur Rani Chennamma is known as Rani Jhansi of South)

Stay in Hubli. This way you would have done half the distance to Bangalore. Also there are good options for stay in Hubli

Day 2

Visit beautiful Lakkundi temples which is at Gadag which is a small deviation from Hubli, At Chitradurga climb atleast mid point on the fort. The fulll climb requires two hours. At Hiriyur, take a deviation to see Vani Vilas Sagar dam

Google the names for more details.

Planning to do BLR-MUM in a day or two, and have a couple of questions:
1. Do you know how would be the water level at Gokak falls at this time of the year?
2. How is the condition of road from Hubli to Gadag (NH67), and how much time would it take for a sedate driver to cover the distance?

Many thanks!
Su-47

[Fauji]

Originally Posted by Su-47

Planning to do BLR-MUM in a day or two, and have a couple of questions:
1. Do you know how would be the water level at Gokak falls at this time of the year?
2. How is the condition of road from Hubli to Gadag (NH67), and how much time would it take for a sedate driver to cover the distance?

Many thanks!
Su-47

There will not be much water. It will not be glorius to see now.

I understand the road condition from Hubli to Gadag is pretty decent.

[Su-47]

Ended up including Hampi in my trip (talk about taking a detour!), and enjoyed it thoroughly. On the way from Hospet to Hubli, thanks to Fauji's advice visited Brahma Jinalaya in Lakkundi. Was running very late, so couldn't see other temple(s).

However, finding directions to the temple can be a little confusing. If you a coming from Hospet it is the first left after you cross Lakkundi town on NH63. (No guarantees, but this is the location of the small road that branches off the highway: 15.390539,75.709255). Brahma Jinalaya is located 0.5-1kms on this road.

If you are coming from Hubli, the road condition is generally good.

Now, time for some badly composed photos.

There is nice heritage center and other than some school children on an educational trip, hardly any crowd:


One of the ASI employees was kind enough to open the temple and show us the inner sanctum:

Statue of Brahma:


It seems there are local houses which are built upon old temple sites and ASI is trying to get hold of those as well. See a lady putting cowdung cakes next to a thousand year old carvings.

Some more temple shots:

[neo45007]

I am planning to drive down to Pune from Bangalore.

1) Early morning start from Bangalore and reach Kolhapur by lunch time.
2) Finish darshan and have lunch.

Then what ?? I plan to reach Pune next day afternoon.
So, what places can I cover? Have 2 yr old daughter hence don't want to make it too hectic.

Thinking of following options :-
1) Raigadh fort (ropeway)
2) Panhala (if we can drive up to the fort)
3) Ratnagiri
4) Ganapatipule

I would prefer places in Maharshtra. So, please suggest and help me with route plan.

Thanks in advance.

[atulpj]

This is very old post and not sure if people are still active on this.. Alto99 - do you if the hotel/resort in Dandeli is good? Is this safe.. I am traveling with my two kids and wife on this xmas holidays to Bangalore and would like to follow the route which you had taken for Bangalore.

[cool_dube]

Originally Posted by atulpj

This is very old post and not sure if people are still active on this.. Alto99 - do you if the hotel/resort in Dandeli is good? Is this safe.. I am traveling with my two kids and wife on this xmas holidays to Bangalore and would like to follow the route which you had taken for Bangalore.

Atul - the resort mentioned by alto99 is one of the best nature resorts in Karnataka. However, it is highly recommended to stay at least 2 nights there, to be able to enjoy the environs.

[alto99]

Originally Posted by atulpj

This is very old post and not sure if people are still active on this.. Alto99 - do you if the hotel/resort in Dandeli is good? Is this safe.. I am traveling with my two kids and wife on this xmas holidays to Bangalore and would like to follow the route which you had taken for Bangalore.

Yes the resort is safe (jungle lodges - ka govt managed). There is another private equally/more expensive resort as well.