[jacobsamu]

Hi,

Till a couple of years back, I used to prefer the over night drives. The reasons were:

1 could capitalise on the next day activities.

2 kids department would be peaceful with rare breaks.

3 Actually very peaceful.

But shifted now to early morning schedules. Reasons:

1 Preciously there have been junctures where towards the drives particularly into dawn would feel sheepishness which was dangerous.

2 Better half felt it’s not safe to drive in nights.

3 Sleep would be better after the drives.

Regards

Jacob

[AtheK]

Although I am a night person but for long drives I usually prefer day time, it's a stretch to get up early, but since it's just once in couple of months it's managed. With wife and a small kid in tow, night drive can be a little anxiety inducing, with constant tension of any breakdowns or even a trivial thing as a puncture.

When I drive or ride for a short burst alone I prefer nights, a drive/ride to shoolagiri or kolar ccd for late night coffee and chit chat with buddies is preferred at night.

[Raghav96]

Early morning always. No matter how good are the headlights, visibility is limited as compared to daytime.

95% of my highway journey is on chandigarh - gurgaon route which takes 5.5 hours at max. Start at 5:30-6am and reach gurgaon at 10-10:30am. No unnecessary adventure.

Joy ride with friends: depends upon at what time the plan is made.

[BLACNWYTE]

Early mornings for me.

My reasons are the following;

• Fresh from a good nights sleep
• Fresh morning air. You don't get the same in late night drives.
• Very less traffic on roads and no unruly/stunt/drunk drivers.
• You can see the sunrise. It's such a beautiful view to drive with.
• Everything seems better in the early morning, the chai from that roadside tea stall to the smell of air sweeping your hair.
• Best time to drive with windows rolled down.

[embee]

I prefer early morning trips. Be it for business or leisure. Also its much more comfortable when travelling with kids. I have a good night's sleep and prefer to start early around 6 to 6:30 a.m approx when traffic in city is minimal. Being comparatively fresh I can concentrate more on the roads and maintain decent speeds during daytime. I have done a few late night drives as well but they were more hectic than pleasure.

[tristis2008]

If one can manage a good night's sleep, then early morning drives will be more enjoyable.

The weather would typically be pleasant.
One can always tick a new year's resolve of getting up early, at least on one day:-)
Visibility will be better.
Less number of trucks and buses on highways, buses typically will be on the other side of the road entering cities.
One can have a nice breakfast and coffee on the way.

On the other hand,

There is hardly any visibility at night, be it for the judgement of traffic ahead or the roads.
Those high beam and higher powered headlights cause visibility issues. And they will end up straining the eyes as well.

And above all, its unsafe as some of our roads can have nasty surprises be it a pothole that one never saw or stones left over on the roads by those broken down trucks, or a fallen barricade, a sudden divider and so on.

[kadanaJ]

I prefer early morning drives.

Visibility is much better, and in a city like Mumbai, there is plenty of traffic even till late night.

The problem with morning drives is that no one I would go on a drive with is capable of waking up early morning, hence I would just end up driving alone

[starter]

Originally Posted by GTO

Early morning for me! Reasons:

Early mornings for me as well..
However, I've noticed one too many accidents in the early mornings.
Most of the tired and sleep less drivers tend to fall asleep in the early morning hours.

[RahuKetu]

I prefer both depending on mental state & physical freshness. Sometimes I feel sleepy during early morning drives as I am used to wake up at 7 AM. So when I start at 4 AM, then I feel sleepy at around 9-10 AM. I have tried both cases. Once I started at 9 PM in night and drove till next evening from Vadodara to Kolhapur visiting Panhala Fort & Jyotiba Temple en-route . At night, due to poor visibility, I prefer to drive below 100 KMPH speed. I drove over a dead dog in night once. In daytime visibility is more and I feel more safe. Second point is that I can cover more distance while driving in night as I take less breaks since I start after dinner so no breaks for food etc. Both have pros & cons. But for me driving is ultimate pleasure, day or night doesn't matters much.

[₹itzylove]

Voted for early morning!

Whenever I have to drive for more than 5 hours, I pick early morning drives. Leave home by around 4 am with a Tea and first pitstop around 7:30 for a good breakfast. Luckily in South India the restaurants start serving from 5:30 - 6:00. You can get hot Idly and Vada with 4 types of Chutneys to fill your stomach and ofcourse a Filter coffee as topping!

Generally for me the 1st One hour would be to set a good rhythm for the drive and from 5:30 (when Sun comes out slowly) to 7:30 I usually don't stop the car for anything. Thats when I push the car to its limit and cover as much distance as I can.

[1.2TSI7DSG]

I personally prefer driving pre twilight in the morning. I usually turn off at 830-9 if I have to drive the next day. Love the cool air, allows me to drive window down for miles. also helps me cover a lot of distance with a purpose. If its Mumbai Pune/Mumbai Nashik, I can hack a yummy Misal pav on the way. Elsewhere it's usually truckwala dhabas who give yummy parathas.

For the night, I have always restricted to city limits/emergencies. I hate navigating the traffic esp weaving through the truck walls stuck outside city limits for entry permissions. Or somewhere to grasp a chai, kebab or filter coffee

[Sandeep500]

Voted for early morning. The distance you can cover during mornings before sunrise is nearly double than compared to during night and you feel fresh when you arrive at destination. The most irritating thing about night drives is people blinding you with high beams of there vehicles. The only positive aspect of night drives is that ambience and lighting in the car interiors makes listening to music more pleasurable.

[KiloAlpha]

Whenever I can, I prefer starting a drive early in the morning. Early for me implies 3am - the circadian low. Roads are emptiest 3am-6am, and driving in this time window results in some pretty spectacular average speeds without having to resort to speeding.
On the flip side, I absolutely hate driving on highways between dusk and 10pm, when all and sundry are out on the road creating mayhem AND visibility is poor.

[Sree]

Voted for early morning.

You are looking forward to the sun coming out and more light after a few hours on the road. Not darkness increasing.
The only night drives I do are strictly within the city.

[Thermodynamics]

100% early morning

Bhpian SUBRU and myself are early hawks. We usually set out before sunrise on our scooters to explore the wilderness of Kenneth Anderson. The cold breeze, chirping birds, shimmering sun, fuming lake, it is pure euphoria on a motorcycle. We have been thinking of penning down our travels but that's for another day. Here are a few snaps from our journeys.