[dealer]

As many may agree around here, spirited driving in a straight line gets quite boring after a while. Seeing reviewers slide and enjoy cars in the Swiss Alps and on the beautiful side roads of Europe really leaves me wanting. I believe to truly enjoy our cars and bikes, we need to push them into twists and turns. While India may not have the Transfăgărășan highway of Romania, we still have our fair share of good roads to enjoy driving on. I hope this thread acts like a guide for those looking to enjoy their cars in India on roads unlike the usual straight expressways/highways. Please share your favorite bits of our road network that leave you grinning as you navigate through them
I have found one such road as of now -

Jaipur - Road upto Nargarh Fort
This particular stretch of road although narrow, is well paved and a dream to drive on. It has multiple hairpin bends and corners that need to be dealt with in a precise manner. The road needs to navigated carefully though as visibility around corners can be low but if you take the road before dawn, you are treated to a great driving experience and later a great view of the sun rising over Jaipur.

[Thermodynamics]

Team-BHP is an encyclopedia. There are mammoth threads that’ll bombard with information on the most beautiful roads of our country.

Originally Posted by dealer

While India may not have the Transfăgărășan highway of Romania, we still have our fair share of good roads to enjoy driving on. I

A correction, India may not have Transfăgărășan, but has much better ones than that. I don’t know how to start, where to start. Shall I start with the East coast road, or Dhanushkodi, or raw beauty of Gavi or the eerie darkness of Valparai-Athirappalli or the green carpet of Kudremukh, or the coastal roads from Muzhappilangad, Maravanthe, Gokarna to Goa to Ratnagiri, or all the Ghat roads that criss cross western ghats, Charmadi, Agumbe, Amboli, Malshej to name a few or shall I mention the holy grail of all road trips of the world, the Himalayas, or shall I mention the Sandakphu and North Sikkim or the pristine beauty of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal, or the NH1 of Kashmir, or the breathtaking vistas of Ladakh and Spiti. I don’t know where to start and where to end. The list is endless. But surely we got stuff you won’t find anywhere else, stuff that’ll bring internal organs stuck up your throat as you drive along.

Here are a few threads that address the topic.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route...ads-india.html (The Best Roads In India)

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route...-monsoons.html (Most Scenic Drives during monsoons)

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route...ive-india.html (Most scenic drive in India)

[Abhinav V]

The Best twisting roads I have experienced are
1. Thamarassery Churam in Kerala. This is the highway that connects Calicut and Wayanad. It has fast sweeping bends, some really narrow stretches and blind turns here and there.
It's basically a game of rabbit and tortoise. It tests your patience levels when
you are held up behind a queue of vehicles waiting to overtake a truck. After what feels like eternity, when you finally overtake a truck, a view point beckons you to stop and take in the scenery. You come back to the car all fresh and cool only to see the truck you just overtook, with all your might, ahead of you, again holding up a long queue of vehicles. That's why it's of the best driving roads in India for me.

2. Jolly Grant Airport to Mussoorie
This was the first time I had been to the North of India. I prefer driving myself all the time, but this time, that was not to be. It was a trekking trip and that meant being confined to the last row in a Tempo Traveller. This prospect was quite upsetting me because the moment you exit the airport, it was all butter smooth, flowy curvy roads and a tiger reserve to top it. I had to enjoy it from a window seat sadly. Once out of hustle and bustle of Dehradun it's again pretty much the same as I have mentioned about Thamarassery Churam. It is like the Wayanad Ghats of the North.
Tempo travellers and taxis alike competing with each other for space. I wanted to be a part of that game as well. Henceforth, I have decided against flying to Uttarakhand and instead, land in Delhi and take a self drive rental car.

[Fordlover88]

From twisting and turning roads i could remember Zuluk in East Sikkim. Zuluk is a small hamlet located at a height of around 10,000 feet (3,000 m) on the rugged terrain of the lower Himalayas in East Sikkim. There's a view point above Zuluk named Thambi View Point which offers spectacular views of the zigzag road as well as Mt. Kanchenjunga.

[Samba]

Quite a few!

Sharing a few stretches, I can remember.

WestBengal- The single lane roads around Purulia/Bankura & few portions of NorthBengal (Dooars, the Lave road from Damdim.)

Jharkhand- Patratu valley

North East- Guwahati- Shillong highway, Sohra (Meghalaya), SelaPass to Tawang (Arunachal)

Karnataka- The western Ghats

Goa- South Goa ghat roads

Maharashtra- Amboli/Swantwadi ghat, the Lonavala Stretch

Kerela- The Wayanad ghat section

TamilNadu- Few sections of the Nilgiri

Sikkim- East Sikkim (Though it's full of hairpin bends, still one can drive fast here)

Himachal- Jispa to Keylong

What I personally feel is, too much of steep hairpin bends slows down the speed. To enjoy cornering we need twisty widening corners with lesser blind spots. Getting a chance to ride/drive a good bike or a car which handle well is always an icing on the cake.

I love corners like these-

[arun_josie]

Drive to Kolli Hills in Tamil Nadu is via a scenic and fun filled stretch for enthusiasts with 70 hairpin bends.



Aerial view of hairpin bends on Kolli Hills



PC: https://telanganatoday.com/aerial-vi...lls-goes-viral

[Fx14]

Listing a few travelled on :

1. Ambenali ghat - (near Poladpur) on the Mumbai - Goa highway. The longest ghat on the route. By bus, it would always take almost an hour for the climb itself, with constant twisting. Numerous accidents observed here.

2. William Nagar to Shillong - The internal highway through Meghalaya itself without having to go via Guwahati. You would barely get more than a half kilometre stretch in a straight line for approximately 6 hours of journey. A very scenic drive, sparse traffic alongwith good road surface where some stretches felt like you were not in this country. The last 40-50 kilometres while approaching Shillong were in bad shape though with lot of traffic.

3. Kalimpong - the climbs up from Rangpo (soon after the border exit) as well as from the Siliguri highway side. Twisting, scenic and tremendous altitude change over a few kilometres from along side the Teesta river to the high mountains.

[Leoshashi]

Twisties nearest to my house :





Patratu Valley Jharkhand

Pic source: Google

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by Samba

Maharashtra-

Not as spectacular or thrilling as Kolli or Zuluk but Kashedi ghat in MH is quite some fun as well. A couple of pics from a few years back.

[HKap]

A few that I've driven on

1) Road to Lavasa - absolute gem. Not very busy and you can absolutely gun it here.

2) NH4 A from Belgaum to Goa. Again, not very busy.

3) Old Mumbai Pune highway - the ghat section.

[DicKy]

Love this thread's idea.

Usually the 'best driving roads' list will have like touristy stretches.
Unlike straight stretches with speed limits or in our case animals and zombies crossing the highway making them dangerous, no one will question us on taking a corner hard or testing the vehicle's cornering limits.

Ofcourse head-on collisions is a real danger, but nothing connects us more to a car than curvy ghat roads.

Can't contribute much to the list from personal experience, other than Ponmudi drive, Thamaraserry hairpins and Valparai drive.
Though personally, since my district is like sandwiched between beaches and mountains, I am a 5minute drive away from the nearest 'twisties'

Help me identify a road
Kottayam district, Kerala.
Lost my way, no GPS nothing
Lots of WIP, guess extension of MC road, but then in between like 5kms of bliss. Wide roads cutting through hills, my only regret I was in my uncle's KUV100

[Rachit.K.Dogra]

Of the places I have been, I regard this stretch between Una and Bhota in Himachal Pradesh as one of the best stretches of twisty mountain roads to drive/ride on. Its roughly 65 KMs of every kind of turn, from fast to mutiple U-turns and everything in between. The road was newly laid I think 5-6 years back so it might be off its a prime a bit now. Then it was just bliss. It is a fairly wide but undivided road and generally does see some truck traffic. But you can still get plenty of stretches to enjoy your moments.

This is 1 of the routes to my hometown and every time I would drive on it with family, I would just wish to be able to ride on it. This year finally the plan was made, but COVID came. Hopefully someday I would enjoy the CBR here.

[TwinAlco]

The road between Bannari, Tamil Nadu and Chamarajanagar, Karnataka has many hairpin bends in Dhimbam Ghats.

The rise is steep and I have done this stretch on KSRTC and TNSTC buses. Even Volvo buses do this stretch even at night which is scary since some bends are very narrow. The absence of any railing at the edges also freaked me out in my first trip!

[Hayek]

For a twisty with light traffic and fabulous views, there is nothing to beat the roads around Pawna Dam, near Lonavala. These roads have highly variable conditions - but drive on them when freshly paved and it is one of the most pleasurable drives I have done anywhere.

Lots of our hill roads are twisty - but plagued by poor surfaces, dangerous corners and too much slow moving bus or truck traffic. Pawna avoids all of that.

[fhdowntheline]

I would like to add the following:

i) Small ghat but a highly involving, even borderline dangerous one : Neral-Matheran. This one will definitely bring some sweat drops to even the most experienced brows. Not recommended for the newbie car driver.
ii) Another ghat that is somehow lesser utilised ,is the Phonda (Radhanagari) ghat from Kolhapur to Kankavali in Konkan.
iii) Gudalur-Ooty route.