[SanjeevReddy]

After I bought Jetta in September, was looking for a long road trip to enjoy the pleasure of driving it. I recently went to Coorg but couldn't take it as we were total 7. My wife has been asking for Tirupati trip for a long time and I said I only come if it's by road. That's how this tour is started. I wanted to cover Beechupally and Alampur which are on the way to Tirupati.

Before starting , I checked Hyderabad -Tirupati road conditions thread on Team-bhp and decided to take Hyd-Kurnool-Nandyal-Kadapa route as it's the shortest.

We started early morning at 5 AM from my home in Miyapur. We crossed Jadcherla within 1.5 hr.

Early morning shot at Jadcherla.




First halt at beechupally which is 170KM from Hyderabad on the way to Kurnool. It's located on the banks of Krishna river, the river was flowing full when we visited due to recent heavy rains.
A few pics of Beechupally.





Then we headed towards Kurnool. At Kurnool toll plaza we took left to go to Alampur, It's 15Km off from the highway. Alampur is a temple town and meeting point of Krishna&Tungabadra rivers. Visited temple and pushkar ghat.
A few pics of Alampur.








After spending an half an hour we returned back to highway, and had a breakfast in Baba Ramdev Hotel at Toll plaza.

Kurnool-Nandyal road is more pathetic than I expected. I wanted to stop at Orvakallu(which is famous for miniature grand canyon) for a few photo shots but proceeded further to reach Tirupathi before sunset. It took me 1 hour 45 minutes to reach Nandyal which is just 70KM from Kurnool. I really felt sad to drive my new Jetta on this pathetic route, started thinking about other alternative route while return. Nandyal-Kadapa route is okay with a few diversions. You come to see full lush green rice paddy fields both the sides through the entire stretch because of KC (Kurnool Kadapah) canal. Had a lunch at Kadapa haritha restaurent and proceeded further to Tirupati via Rajampeta. Reached Tirupati at 5PM.




Got a good guest house through a reference and completed darshan by 5AM next morning. Due to bad stretch of Nandyal-Kurnool , I decided to take Vijayawada route while going back to Hyd. Except Tirupati-Naidupeta , entire stretch is 4 laned on paper. But due to heavy traffic and too many speed brakers, it took 2 hours from Tirumala to Naidupeta (around 70KM). The drive was good till I reach Guntur district border from then my speed limit was less than 60KMPH till I reach Vijayawada.6 laning work is going between Chilakaluripeta-Vijayawada. I wanted to reach vijayawada early in the evening to visit KanakaDurga temple. Heavy traffic, too many diversions spolied my plan. Reached Vijayawada late in the evening. Without stopping headed towards Hyd. Vijayawada-Hyd drive is pure bliss. Reached Hyd by 10PM.

A few pics of return journey.


Had a lunch at Ongole Gahr Dhaba.





In 2 days I drove 1420KMs. The best part of this journey is visiting Beechupally and Alampur. If you don't want to visit any places on the way to Tirupati such as these two places and others(Mahanandi, Ahobilam) I doubt it's really worth going by road at least till 4 laning of Kurnool-Kadapa/Narkatpally-Addanki is completed.

Hope you are all not bored.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to Travelogues. Thanks for sharing!

[vnabhi]

Nice pictures and good Travelog. Can you post distances and time taken in each route? Which route would you recommend?

Perhaps on the return, you should have taken the left turn at Addanki and then used the Piduguralla- Nalgonda route. That would have been shorter, and saved you the hassle of Vijaywada traffic.

Yet another route is via Madanapalli and Ananthapur, though around 100 kms longer. I read a review a year back that it is in better shape than the other two routes you took.

[SanjeevReddy]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Nice pictures and good Travelog. Can you post distances and time taken in each route? Which route would you recommend?

Perhaps on the return, you should have taken the left turn at Addanki and then used the Piduguralla- Nalgonda route. That would have been shorter, and saved you the hassle of Vijaywada traffic.

Yet another route is via Madanapalli and Ananthapur, though around 100 kms longer. I read a review a year back that it is in better shape than the other two routes you took.

Thanks vnabhi.

Miyapur(Hyd)-Beechupally- 190Km - 2 hours

Beechupally -Alampur-50KM- 1hour

Breakfast at Kurnool Toll Plaza.

Kurnool-Nandya- 70KM - 1 hour 45 minutes

Nandyal- Kadapa- 120Km- 2 hours

Lunch at Kadapa Haritha restaurant.

Kadapa-Tirputi-190KM-2 hours 30 minutes.

While return

Tirumala-Naidupeta - 100KM-2hours

Naidupeta- Ongole - 192 Km-2 hours

Ongole to Vijayawada- 140KM- 2 hours 30 minutes

Vijayawada to Miyapur- 293KM-4 hours

Since I'm traveling with family and in a new car that too in the night,wanted to take well known Vijayawada route. For the same reason I didn't try Kadapa-Gooty and Anantapur-Madanapally routes.

Before going to the trip I enquired about Narkatpally-Addanki route through my friends they all said NO for now as 4 lanning work is still going on.

Importantly I see no work progressing on Nandyal-Kurnool 4 laning. And I think Narkatpally-Addanki route 4 laning will be completed before Kurnool-Kadapa. So I advise you to wait at least any 4 lanning way is completed.

If you want to cover some places on the way then you can prefer Kurnool Nandyal route . You can visit Beechupally and Alampur before Kurnool and Orvakallu, Mahanandi and Ahobilam between Kurnool-Kadapa.

[SanjeevReddy]

A few more photos..

@Near Kothakota



@Beechupally



On the way to Alampur



@Tirumala



While returning from Tirumala.



After Ongole



Map of my drive.

[vnabhi]

Thanks @sanjeevreddy for the information. I've done Hyd Tirumala 4 years back via the Kurnool Kadapa route. At that time it was quite ok, though 2-laned.

My recent trip was by train, as I'd not heard good things about either route.

By the way, no TL on this forum is complete without a brief writeup about the car, fuel efficiency, features, etc. Do post that information.

[SanjeevReddy]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Thanks @sanjeevreddy for the information. I've done Hyd Tirumala 4 years back via the Kurnool Kadapa route. At that time it was quite ok, though 2-laned.

My recent trip was by train, as I'd not heard good things about either route.

By the way, no TL on this forum is complete without a brief writeup about the car, fuel efficiency, features, etc. Do post that information.

Hi vnabi,

I'm going to post my Jetta initial ownership review very soon on this forum.

I simply love this car... before this I used to own Santro for almost 8 yrs. I jumped from Santro to jetta that's a very interesting story , will explain in detail how I end up with Jetta.

[Inquilab28]

Very beautiful snaps indeed. I have been to these places too but only up to Nandyal.

One place, if I may take the liberty, you, could have added to your list could have been Yaganti. Its a beautiful place about 15kms from Banaganapalli. This falls on a little detour from your plan.

Eagerly waiting for the travel report statistics and the over all car behavior. The road to Nandyal is not as great as the Highway connecting Kurnool, how did the car fair?

[SanjeevReddy]

Originally Posted by Inquilab28

Very beautiful snaps indeed. I have been to these places too but only up to Nandyal.

One place, if I may take the liberty, you, could have added to your list could have been Yaganti. Its a beautiful place about 15kms from Banaganapalli. This falls on a little detour from your plan.

Eagerly waiting for the travel report statistics and the over all car behavior. The road to Nandyal is not as great as the Highway connecting Kurnool, how did the car fair?

Thanks Inquilab. In addition to Yaganti, there are three more interesting places places Mantralayam,Belum Caves and Gandikota. But as you know they are slightly far off from the kurnool-Tirupati road. If you have two days, then you can cover all these places.

Jetta can take bad roads pretty well. The only problem is you have to drive very slow for a long time that's what irritate us.

[Inquilab28]

Originally Posted by SanjeevReddy

Thanks Inquilab. In addition to Yaganti, there are three more interesting places places Mantralayam,Belum Caves and Gandikota. But as you know they are slightly far off from the kurnool-Tirupati road. If you have two days, then you can cover all these places.

Jetta can take bad roads pretty well. The only problem is you have to drive very slow for a long time that's what irritate us.

Yeah, probably in your scheme of things, when the plan is to Tirumala hills, the detour might not have been possible. To cover these places, Kurnool night halt would be a must.

The first time I had been on the Kurnool to Nandyal stretch was after 2000 Hrs on a rainy dark evening with my family, while I was trying to make it to Mahanandi. It was very difficult with some more than ordinary truck traffic and pesky bikers trying to cut through between the cars and the trucks..