[prasad14]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

The temple-hopping trip plan sounds exciting. I wonder if you have seen the website where someone has made a GPS map, marked all the temples in South India (especially TN).

I have seen this definitely in the forum and found it very useful, but didn't bookmark. Need to spend some time searching and surely bookmark.

Thanks,

Prasad

[LongDrive lover]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

NH49 between Madurai & Rameswaram is good.
ECR between Ramanathapuram & Tuticorin is fantastic.
South of Tuticorin, upto Tiruchendur, the road sees lots of traffic but road is good.
After Tiruchendur, road is decent but in between has some bad sections and the road is also twisty, but traffic is light. I think it is not a bad idea to continue on ECR all the way to KK instead of taking a detour back to NH7 at Tirunelveli since NH7A is also being widened.

During our 20 days family south road trip in last summer, for Rameswaram-KK, we took the route mentioned above by HVK sir i.e. via Tuticorin on ECR. We enjoyed the drive. As mentioned above, after Trichendur, road is very curvey, little bumpy at times, little narrow in width then normal 2lane road, but, with very little traffic. We passed this stretch in dark after sunset. We started from Rameswaram at 4.35 pm and reached KK at 10.30 pm with a fuel and tea break. So total 6 hrs.

Prior to that, for Madurai-Rameswaram, NH49 is very good, we left Madurai at 5.05pm and reached Mandapam at 8.05pm. So for Rameswaram, it'd take 3.5 hrs from Madurai.

Details of this stretch can be found at our travelogue (following link) on pages 6-7.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...tigress-6.html

[polopm]

Hi All

Am planning a trip from Chennai to Thiruchendur and possibly Kanyakumari and want to include ECR in the mix of things.
Questions:
1. How many days required
2. What can be covered on which day - would like to cover many temples.

Cheers !

[ramanan.skr]

If your target is temples in Southern TN, 3-4 days is enough
Day 1 - Chennai to Tirunelveli via Trichy, Madurai + Tirunelveli Temples
Day 2 - NavaTirupathi Temples + Tiruchendoor Temple + Take ECR to Kanyakumari
Day 3 - Kanyakumari Sightseeing + Back to Chennai

If you have more budget, other places worth watching are
-Suseendram near Kanyakumari
-Uvari/Manapad Churches on ECR between Kanyakumari & Tiruchendoor
-SankaranKoil, Papanasam, Kutralam, Tenkasi, Srivilliputhur to the west of Tirunelveli

[saugdas]

@Sumanth, Have you already done your trip? I am planning to do a similar one from Trichy to Rameshwaram to Kanyakumari and back this friday. If you are back from your trip, pl advice on the road conditions and what should be followed, will be a great help for me.

[sdp1975]

I'll be doing the Bangalore-Rameshwaram-Tiruchendur-Kanyakumari stretch next month.

Any latest updates on the Ramnad-Tuticorin-Kanyakumari stretch ? I've read that Ramnad-Tuticorn is good but Tuticorin-Kanyakumari is not in good shape.

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

Tuticorin-Kanyakumari is not in good shape.

If you don't have Tiruchendur in your plans then the best option is via Tirunelveli. This is a 4L stretch all the way.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

I'll be doing the Bangalore-Rameshwaram-Tiruchendur-Kanyakumari stretch next month.

Any latest updates on the Ramnad-Tuticorin-Kanyakumari stretch ? I've read that Ramnad-Tuticorn is good but Tuticorin-Kanyakumari is not in good shape.

Route mentioned by Arun will be the fastest for sure. However, I had taken the above mentioned route in Nov last year and found it fine. There were few small sections which was bad, else overall no issues.

You can find the pics here.

[sdp1975]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

If you don't have Tiruchendur in your plans then the best option is via Tirunelveli. This is a 4L stretch all the way.

I'll be staying at Tiruchendur for a night.

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Route mentioned by Arun will be the fastest for sure. However, I had taken the above mentioned route in Nov last year and found it fine. There were few small sections which was bad, else overall no issues.

You can find the pics here.

Thanks. Road conditions of this stretch were hard to find so your thread was very helpful. I took this stretch about 8 years back, wasn't aware of the latest conditions. Will post updates after I return.

[Shubz]

Bumping up an old thread.

Any update on the road condition between Kanyakumari & Rameshwaram?

[Innysta]

You've two options. I would suggest Option2 if you prioritize comfort and stress free drive.

Option1: Go through East coast road, 2 lane without divider, will go through towns. Can drive avg. 60kmph, Google map shows 6hrs for 308km

Option2: Go through the NH via Madurai, excellent roads and is a breeze all the way from Kanyakumari to Rameswaram, can drive avg. 80-90kmph easily, Google map shows 6hrs 45min for 411km

[masterChief007]

Originally Posted by Innysta

Option1: Go through East coast road, 2 lane without divider, will go through towns. Can drive avg. 60kmph, Google map shows 6hrs for 308km

In my Rameswaram-KK trip, I took option 1. It was scenic and ran through some desolate beach side empty roads through small desert forest (I mean babool type tree). But not to be done at night as the roads are deserted and empty.