[rameshnanda]

Guys,

Can you suggest me for stay in Guruvayoor and Munnar? I prefer resort kind of stay at Munnar.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by rameshnanda

Guys,

Can you suggest me for stay in Guruvayoor and Munnar? I prefer resort kind of stay at Munnar.

Guruvayur: Kanoos Residency. Very Good Place.

Munnar: Sienna Village. (Costly but good. Note that it is located at Chinnakana, which is 22 km from Munnar towards Bodil).

So if you are coming from Bodi side, you hit this place first.

[ranjitp1]

The other option at Munnar is the Edasserry East End which is bang in the town and an excellent place.At Guruvayur Krishna Inn is also a reccomended place with easy access to the temple.The only down side for Kanoos is that it serves non veg food so for the true blue vegans this might be a problem.I have stayed at both places and both are equally good.

[rameshnanda]

Originally Posted by ampere

Guruvayur: Kanoos Residency. Very Good Place.

Munnar: Sienna Village. (Costly but good. Note that it is located at Chinnakana, which is 22 km from Munnar towards Bodil).

So if you are coming from Bodi side, you hit this place first.

Thanks Amp. I will check this out.

No. I would be coming from the Kerala side. It would be better for me look at on that route or in Munnar town.

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

The other option at Munnar is the Edasserry East End which is bang in the town and an excellent place.At Guruvayur Krishna Inn is also a reccomended place with easy access to the temple.The only down side for Kanoos is that it serves non veg food so for the true blue vegans this might be a problem.I have stayed at both places and both are equally good.

Thanks ranjit. I will try to connect with them (Edasserry East End).

[ampere]

I have also heard decent reviews about KTDC (Munnar Team County).
You can check that as well.

[rameshnanda]

Now, here goes my final plan.

21/04/2011
Start from Chennai late afternoon (by 3.30 to 4.00 PM possibly) and reach Salem and I will break here.
Sholinganallur - Thoraipakkam - Pallavaram - Kunrathur - Sriperumbuthur -Vellore - Krishnagiri - Salem
Total Kms for the day - 369

22/04/2011
Start from Salem by 8 AM and reach Guruvayoor by 2 or 3 PM. We will stay in Guruvayoor at Kanoos Residency.
Salem - Perundurai - Kangeyam - Palladam - Pollachi - Vadakkencheri - Thrissur - Guruvayoor
Total Kms for the day - 315

23/04/2011
After early morning Darshan at temple start early by 7 AM. Plan to reach Munnar before noon. We will retire here at Forest Haven Resorts.
Guruvayoor - Thrissur - Perumbavoor - Kothamangalam - Munnar
Total Kms for the day - 176

24/04/2011
Start from Munnar after the lunch. I need the quickest route to reach Chennai.
Munnar - Bodi - Madurai bypass - Trichy - Chennai.
Total Kms for the day - 583

Thank you all for your suggestions. I will soon write a Travelogue

[ampere]

@Narayan was mentioning, that even Dindigul-Trichy section is much better now.
Since I mentioned about going via Madurai, now I am not sure which is a better route.
Both are equally good. (Just that Madurai-Trichy is fully 4Laned.)

[narayans80]

Ramesh,

If possible try to push to Avinashi on 21st (which is another 120 kms down), leaving early the next day will save you some hassles of the Avinashi-CBE bottleneck. Advantages would be covering more distance on first day and you have 4-lanes till Perumanallur (15 kms ahead of Avinashi).

I did Guruvayur in Jan end, crossing Sriperumbudur at 845pm, I was in Salem by 1245am. Started from Salem at 7am and reached Guruvayur at 140pm. I did encounter painful traffic next day morning from Avinashi all the way to Thrissur.

Am not aware of hotels in Avinashi, but from the looks, it is a highway town where you should be able to find a place to crash on the main road.

If you are insisting on Salem stay, leave Salem as early as possible (like 330-4am). Leaving Salem at 8am will land you in peak traffic in Avinashi-CBE stretch.

Walayar should be a breeze for you anyway.
~~~~~
Question for the guys who've visited Munnar (from Ramesh's plan): Is 1 day enough for Munnar ?

[ampere]

@Narayan, he has a logical break at Salem. (Needs to pick his parents).
1-day is surely not enough for Munnar. One does not go to Munnar to just "see" it and come back. Ramesh, you will need to stay at least 2-night and 3 days minimum to soak it in!

Going by the roads through Palladam/Kangeyam/Pollachi, I felt it is very good alteranative to Avinashi/CBE/Walayar mess. But yes I dont know about Pollachi-Vaddakancherry section. (Never driven on that section)

[rameshnanda]

Originally Posted by ampere

@Narayan was mentioning, that even Dindigul-Trichy section is much better now.
Since I mentioned about going via Madurai, now I am not sure which is a better route.
Both are equally good. (Just that Madurai-Trichy is fully 4Laned.)

Hmm. In that case, I will take a call on taking the Dindigul route once I reach Bodi .

Originally Posted by narayans80

Ramesh,

If possible try to push to Avinashi on 21st (which is another 120 kms down), leaving early the next day will save you some hassles of the Avinashi-CBE bottleneck. Advantages would be covering more distance on first day and you have 4-lanes till Perumanallur (15 kms ahead of Avinashi).

I did Guruvayur in Jan end, crossing Sriperumbudur at 845pm, I was in Salem by 1245am. Started from Salem at 7am and reached Guruvayur at 140pm. I did encounter painful traffic next day morning from Avinashi all the way to Thrissur.

Am not aware of hotels in Avinashi, but from the looks, it is a highway town where you should be able to find a place to crash on the main road.

If you are insisting on Salem stay, leave Salem as early as possible (like 330-4am). Leaving Salem at 8am will land you in peak traffic in Avinashi-CBE stretch.

Walayar should be a breeze for you anyway.
~~~~~
Question for the guys who've visited Munnar (from Ramesh's plan): Is 1 day enough for Munnar ?

Narayan, I need to break at Salem to pick my parents. But, I will think about your idea of starting very early from Salem on 22nd.

I know 1 day is not enough in Munnar . I have done Munnar couple of times earlier too. I am not going to go for any sight seeing this time. Munnar did not have in my earlier plan and I just squeezed some time to make a day's stay there.

Originally Posted by ampere

@Narayan, he has a logical break at Salem. (Needs to pick his parents).
1-day is surely not enough for Munnar. One does not go to Munnar to just "see" it and come back. Ramesh, you will need to stay at least 2-night and 3 days minimum to soak it in!

Going by the roads through Palladam/Kangeyam/Pollachi, I felt it is very good alteranative to Avinashi/CBE/Walayar mess. But yes I dont know about Pollachi-Vaddakancherry section. (Never driven on that section)

Amp, I heard that Pollachi-Vaddakenchery section is decent. Let me take this route and I will update the status of this section. I don't want to get into the traffic mess between Avanashi-Walayar.

[ranjith.rajaram]

Originally Posted by rameshnanda

Amp, I heard that Pollachi-Vaddakenchery section is decent. Let me take this route and I will update the status of this section. I don't want to get into the traffic mess between Avanashi-Walayar.

Its decent, single lane road. But definably doable. Less traffic in daytime.

Amp correct me if I am wrong.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by ranjith.rajaram

Its decent, single lane road. But definably doable. Less traffic in daytime.
Amp correct me if I am wrong.

Hey I have no idea about that section. Never driven there!
But how I came to know about it? Google Maps, where else?

But then Ranjit mentioned about it more exhaustively. Maybe he can explain better.

Ranjit? HVK ?

[ranjitp1]

Vadakkencherry=Pollachi is good roads,but cant do great speeds as its the typical state highway,you would do better speeds if you stick to NH47.Walayar is no longer a mess,as there is strict policing on now a days.The quickest way to reach Gvr from Salem,is NH47 inspite of the avinashi mess.I see that you intend to leave Salem very early in the morning,and that should help you navigate avinashi very easily.

I left Salem GRT at 630 in the morning and I was at Thrissur at 11am with a breakfast stop at Saravana Bhavan on the L&T bypass at CBE.Thrissur GVR would take you 40mins at your slowest best.

[rameshnanda]

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

Vadakkencherry=Pollachi is good roads,but cant do great speeds as its the typical state highway,you would do better speeds if you stick to NH47.Walayar is no longer a mess,as there is strict policing on now a days.The quickest way to reach Gvr from Salem,is NH47 inspite of the avinashi mess.I see that you intend to leave Salem very early in the morning,and that should help you navigate avinashi very easily.

I left Salem GRT at 630 in the morning and I was at Thrissur at 11am with a breakfast stop at Saravana Bhavan on the L&T bypass at CBE.Thrissur GVR would take you 40mins at your slowest best.

Thanks Ranjit. This leaves me think again about the route change. I may do a following route changes.

Chennai-Salem
Sholinganallur-kelambakkam-vandalur-chengalput-kanchi-vellore-krishnagiri-Salem.

Salem-GVR
Salem-CBE-Thrissur-GVR

[rameshnanda]

For the Salem to Guruvayoor drive, how about using the following route? As I can bypass the 4L conversion mess between Perumanallur and Coimbatore.

Salem-Perundurai-Kangeyam-Palladam-Sulur-Coimbatore bypass-Palakkad-Thrissur-GVR.

This increases the total distance by 19 Kms but, I will not go through the road conversion pain in Avanashi.

Guys, any suggestions?