Team-BHP - Family Trip to North India in a Baleno

Great travelogue ! Sorry to hear of the poor experience you had with OYO. Their quality has taken a hit with rapid expansion.

I recently did a family trip to Gujarat from Bangalore , and we used Treebo hotels at several places and our experience was quite good . Their network is smaller than OYO's but they are available at most popular destinations.

Thank you Akib. Drive safe and have a great time. Will wait for your travalogue and pictures.
All the best....:thumbs up

Quote:

Originally Posted by Akib Khan (Post 4396430)

Many good wishes on completing your memorable trip. Went through the whole travelogue word by word and the way you narrated the trip along with pictures and videos is superb.
One thing which caught my attention in the first video is the clean roads and market around your place of residence. The streets are litter free.
Its already 2.50 am and me and my family are taking a road trip from Mumbai to Rajasthan early morning and here I am glued to your thread.
Subscribed to this thread :thumbs up

I was not very conversant with the good apps in India. That is the reason why wanted to discuss with you all before making the trip. Unfortunately, my initial enquiry post got deleted by the admin for some "violation".

Anyway, thank you for the input. Will surely use this app next time..:)

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdp1975 (Post 4396488)

I purchased Garmin DriveAssist 51 to use in Dubai before planning the trip. It's for my daily use here. It comes with the dashcam, lane assistance, forward collision warning and few other features. so no need for a separate cam.
For the trip, in particular, I bought the India Map.
My opinion, for navigation in India, Garmin is not a very good option. However, for its multiple alert features, and recording drive for a long time with coordinates and speed, it's a good option.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hok kolorob (Post 4396533)

Wonderful writing with some great photographs. Just out curiosity, Google maps works better than the most paid maps, at least in India. Any particular reason to buy Garmin DriveAssist 51?

Great trip!

Sad to note your terrible experience with the hotels en-route. Being the peak holiday season, most of the good properties get booked well ahead of time. I have so far never booked a hotel through these apps for the same apprehensions - that you had to endure. I always try to prebook by speaking to the guy at the front desk. If I can't speak to anyone from the hotel, I don't usually book. Have also dropped a few places after speaking to the guy, as I could make out they won't be too co-operative.

I am not sure, but as far as I know, Garmin doesn't sell DriveAssist model in India yet. I bought it from Dubai, and yes it does comes with Life-Time Map update. But that's only for MENA (Middle-East & North Africa) region. For India Map which I bought separately, only one-time update are permissible.

It also gives live traffic update once connected to mobile via Smartphone Link app.

Family Trip to North India in a Baleno-screen-shot-20180507-2.47.27-pm.png

Quote:

Originally Posted by prithm (Post 4396770)

Thank you for the wonderful trip report Milind. Loved the way you designed those collages. Looks very efficient and crisp.

I have one question about Garmin, why do you need to "buy" maps for it ? I heard that it comes with life time map subscription. Did you buy this abroad ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by milindajp (Post 4396400)

[b][u]

her voice, how can I deny.

Found a couple of hotels in OYO, but none of them were comfortable enough. And most of them were not having a proper parking place. Its surprising how Hotels can advertise ‘with parking facilities' and the guest was given space on the open road.

Hi Milind,

Nice travalogue. Look forward to the rest.

Good to see you in pics at least after a long gap. And also your family.

With OYO my experience has been more misses than hits to say the least. In my opinion, one needs to be very careful about hotels listed in this platform than many of the other international ones.

But, then I think the whole aggregator platform based hotel booking in itself is a gamble if you are not going in for properties operated by reputed & branded operators.

Best Regards & Drive Safe

Ram

Thanks Ram,
My experiment with Hotel apps in India was mixed. Delhi and NCR seems to be worst, whereas at other places are not so bad. Anyway, next time, will take prior precautions.

Will talk to you soon. Have a good time, bro.

Best regards
Mili

Quote:

Originally Posted by r_nairtvm (Post 4396992)

Great travelog coupled with good pictures. I too had bought a Gamin navigation set from Oman (which used to work like a dream there), but unfortunately found google maps far far better to use in India. Hence the garmin set is packed in its box resting in peace. Last year, I did Kol - Del - Kol drive. On the return, we stayed at Hotel Kaushik, Varanasi (which is bang on the highway (Del - Kol flank). We were keen to see the evening Ganga aarti. You have very correctly mentioned, with two groups performing the aarti at the same time, the mixing of various sounds on the loudspeakers was not a very good experience. The manager at hotel Kaushik marked a route on my phone which lead us through BHU campus and to a mall where we parked our car in the underground parking. From there we took an erick to the ghat.

Rating a well deserved 5*.