[whitesquall]

Hi Zappo,

Yes, you did the right thing by not listening to the people, I always think that the un-explored things in life when explored, bring lot of excitement!!

So, Keep exploring. . .

Originally Posted by Zappo

suren,kutlee... go ahead... take the plunge. And believe me... that 850km is just easily covered in a day though it looks huge. The roads are so inviting that you almost feel the call of the roads... just rush through. Its amazing. In fact i may just plan an encore one day...

@whitesquall i am happy that i could take you back in time. actually lot of old timers suggested against taking that stretch because of their past experiences. i took that road against all advices and i am happy for that. whatever it was then, its a paradise today... for all those who hit the road with a vengeance.

[sys_whiz]

Hey Zappo That was a good write-up man. This weekend we are planning to goa by road. We are 12 of us and planning to drive in one Scropio and in one Baleno. I am very bad at south roads(new to south). If you can post the exact route starting from HYD till Panaji. Total how much time it took to reach Goa without the night halt.

[mobike008]

Sys-Whiz, even i did Hyd-Goa road trip twice last year during Aug and Dec. Here are the route details. I chose Route 1

Route 1: NH9 etc
Hyderabad-Zaheerabad-Umarga-Solapur-Sangli-Kolhapur-Amboli-Savantwadi-Mapusa-Panaji
Route 2: NH7 etc
Hyderabad-Kurnool-Gooty-Guntakal-Bellary-Hospet-Gadag-Hubli-Kalghatagi-Ankola-Karwar-Cancona-Madgaon-Panaji

I really don't think you can do either of these routes under 16 hours, my suggestion would be to start early from Hyd, say around 6am and cover 600kms by 7pm or so and stay overnight and start again early and and reach Goa by afternoon next day. That would be the most safe way to travel and enjoy the drive.

Distance to Goa is minimum 850kms ( Rt.1) and maximum 915kms (Rt.2) depending on which route you finally take.

[condor]

On Route 2 above, you can expect a lot of truck traffic - carrying ore from the mines around Bellary, all the way to the ports.

[Zappo]

Originally Posted by sys_whiz

Hey Zappo That was a good write-up man. This weekend we are planning to goa by road. We are 12 of us and planning to drive in one Scropio and in one Baleno. I am very bad at south roads(new to south). If you can post the exact route starting from HYD till Panaji. Total how much time it took to reach Goa without the night halt.

sys_whiz, Goa by road from Hydbd is really exhilerating. However I think the trick lies in choosing the roads. We started on a weekday (wanted to be in Goa on saturday and sunday), around 2pm, and hence there was no way out but to take the night halt.

If you plan to cover the distance in a day it is immensely do-able. We did exactly that in our return journey. It took us a whole of 15 hours for the 800 odd kms. We started around 5am in the morning from Goa and reached hyderabad by 8pm. Of these the 3.5 hours were spent in negotiating the maddening traffic of hyderabad starting right from Patancheru till we reached home. Else it would have been even lesser. Of course we had a total of 1.5-2 hours of breaks also included in this. About an hour for lunch at Bijapur and various other tea and breakfast breaks on the way.

For Hyderabad to Panaji... I travelled till Humnabad. This is a straight road once you get out of Hyderabad on the Mumbai highway. after 145 kms or so you will reach Humnabad bypass... after a km's drive you take a left towards Gulbarga. This is Karnataka State Highway (I think SH12). Amazing roads. At the outskirts of Gulbarga keep your eyes peeled for a Ape showroom and a Tafe tractors showroom. Both these are on the right side (opposite side to your direction of travel). At the signal take the left turn. This will bypass Gulbarga town. Saves a lot of headache. Cross the rail ki patri and then again keep going till you reach a T-junction. You have bypassed Gulbarga town. Take left and keep driving. You will reach the turn for Jevargi to your right. Take the turn and then again just gun your engines (literally) for another 190 kms. You will reach Bijapur.

Cross across Bijapur and take the road to Athni. From Athni enquire and take the road to Chikkodi. Not much of a difficult thing. Only a T-junction where you take a left. There is a bridge being built over a nallah (drain)... drive this small part a bit carefully. Thereafter once you cross chikkodi ask for the way to sankeshwar. This stretch is a bit difficult (only bad route in the whole journey). From Sankeshwar you catch the highway to belgaum... Its a part of the GQ and is absolutely fabulous. From Belgaum take a left and then cross under the flyover... take right. And then again gun your engines. You will soon reach Ghat sections. This is the route via Amboli and Sawantwadi. From here you catch the NH again and reach the Goa border. After this keep driving straight till you reach a major bridge. There are two of them running parallel. This bridge tells you that you are reaching Panaji now...

Let me know if you want even more granular details. Maybe you can PM me or call me up as well. And do take photos... lots of them and post them as well.

So happy motoring.

[akroy]

Originally Posted by sys_whiz

Hey Zappo That was a good write-up man. This weekend we are planning to goa by road. We are 12 of us and planning to drive in one Scropio and in one Baleno. I am very bad at south roads(new to south). If you can post the exact route starting from HYD till Panaji. Total how much time it took to reach Goa without the night halt.

A small suggession, whenever u plan to do a longer distance in a single day & whatever route u take, try to start by 3AM (I literally mean starting ur engine at 3AM), you can do a lot of distance in a day and also less tiresome....
Basically you should be 100-150km from your home when the sun rises, try that u will enjoy the long drives in a single day and also the ladies & kids will not crib....

Abhi

[sys_whiz]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Sys-Whiz, even i did Hyd-Goa road trip twice last year during Aug and Dec. Here are the route details. I chose Route 1

Route 1: NH9 etc
Hyderabad-Zaheerabad-Umarga-Solapur-Sangli-Kolhapur-Amboli-Savantwadi-Mapusa-Panaji
Route 2: NH7 etc
Hyderabad-Kurnool-Gooty-Guntakal-Bellary-Hospet-Gadag-Hubli-Kalghatagi-Ankola-Karwar-Cancona-Madgaon-Panaji

I really don't think you can do either of these routes under 16 hours, my suggestion would be to start early from Hyd, say around 6am and cover 600kms by 7pm or so and stay overnight and start again early and and reach Goa by afternoon next day. That would be the most safe way to travel and enjoy the drive.

Distance to Goa is minimum 850kms ( Rt.1) and maximum 915kms (Rt.2) depending on which route you finally take.

Thank You Mobike for the help.

[sys_whiz]

Originally Posted by Zappo

sys_whiz, Goa by road from Hydbd is really exhilerating. However I think the trick lies in choosing the roads. We started on a weekday (wanted to be in Goa on saturday and sunday), around 2pm, and hence there was no way out but to take the night halt.

If you plan to cover the distance in a day it is immensely do-able. We did exactly that in our return journey. It took us a whole of 15 hours for the 800 odd kms. We started around 5am in the morning from Goa and reached hyderabad by 8pm. Of these the 3.5 hours were spent in negotiating the maddening traffic of hyderabad starting right from Patancheru till we reached home. Else it would have been even lesser. Of course we had a total of 1.5-2 hours of breaks also included in this. About an hour for lunch at Bijapur and various other tea and breakfast breaks on the way.

For Hyderabad to Panaji... I travelled till Humnabad. This is a straight road once you get out of Hyderabad on the Mumbai highway. after 145 kms or so you will reach Humnabad bypass... after a km's drive you take a left towards Gulbarga. This is Karnataka State Highway (I think SH12). Amazing roads. At the outskirts of Gulbarga keep your eyes peeled for a Ape showroom and a Tafe tractors showroom. Both these are on the right side (opposite side to your direction of travel). At the signal take the left turn. This will bypass Gulbarga town. Saves a lot of headache. Cross the rail ki patri and then again keep going till you reach a T-junction. You have bypassed Gulbarga town. Take left and keep driving. You will reach the turn for Jevargi to your right. Take the turn and then again just gun your engines (literally) for another 190 kms. You will reach Bijapur.

Cross across Bijapur and take the road to Athni. From Athni enquire and take the road to Chikkodi. Not much of a difficult thing. Only a T-junction where you take a left. There is a bridge being built over a nallah (drain)... drive this small part a bit carefully. Thereafter once you cross chikkodi ask for the way to sankeshwar. This stretch is a bit difficult (only bad route in the whole journey). From Sankeshwar you catch the highway to belgaum... Its a part of the GQ and is absolutely fabulous. From Belgaum take a left and then cross under the flyover... take right. And then again gun your engines. You will soon reach Ghat sections. This is the route via Amboli and Sawantwadi. From here you catch the NH again and reach the Goa border. After this keep driving straight till you reach a major bridge. There are two of them running parallel. This bridge tells you that you are reaching Panaji now...

Let me know if you want even more granular details. Maybe you can PM me or call me up as well. And do take photos... lots of them and post them as well.

So happy motoring.

Thanks Zappo for the detailed one. I am planning with 12 of my team membrs and no ladies and no kids. So we all will take a half day off from office and will start from HYD around 2 PM. We are planning to drive in night too, so that we can reach in Goa by morning. I hope highways here safe to drive in night. We are also hiring two professional drivers for the night driving. Please suggest whether night driving is safe or not.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by sys_whiz

Thanks Zappo for the detailed one. I am planning with 12 of my team membrs and no ladies and no kids. So we all will take a half day off from office and will start from HYD around 2 PM. We are planning to drive in night too, so that we can reach in Goa by morning. I hope highways here safe to drive in night. We are also hiring two professional drivers for the night driving. Please suggest whether night driving is safe or not.

IMO, you can cover more ground during night driving and i personally prefer night drivings but, a couple of recent incidents ( including one of mine) as completely put me off night driving. Especially when your off on a vacation and spirits are high, a lot can tend to go wrong. Plus, your working half day and starting for the trip, so its a big NO for the night driving.

Please drive from 2pm to 10pm latest and make a night halt ( you can halt at solapur---during that time getting out of city itself will take couple of hours until 50km out of city) and start early and reach Goa by next evening, it would be the most safe way to travel and you can also enjoy the drive, else you would be in hurry to reach goa that could prove fatal.

So my suggestion is make the night halt wherever you feel comfortable and take on the journey forward accordingly. Rest, i can only hope and wish you for a safe and happy journey

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by Zappo

For Hyderabad to Panaji... I travelled till Humnabad. This is a straight road once you get out of Hyderabad on the Mumbai highway. after 145 kms or so you will reach Humnabad bypass... after a km's drive you take a left towards Gulbarga. This is Karnataka State Highway (I think SH12). Amazing roads

I agree with you completely, i often go to Gulbarga and this particular stretch from Humnabad to Gulbarga reminds you of a foreign road for the curvy roads and landscape view et all.

Only thing that put me off are the number of speed breakers, whewww..never saw so many on a highway type of road in my life.

[amip]

True - 16 hours is what it took me as well - have done this trip thrice now, though its most rewarding in August/September when the monsoons lend their power to the dozens of waterfalls in the Amboli ghats.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by amip

True - 16 hours is what it took me as well - have done this trip thrice now, though its most rewarding in August/September when the monsoons lend their power to the dozens of waterfalls in the Amboli ghats.

You bet. I did one trip during last year during monsoon ( Aug 15th) to be precise and by mistake took the ponda ghat and it was the most nightmarish experience of my life. I covered 25kms in 4 hours of continous driving in an OHC, with rains continously lashing, thick and dense forest on the ghats and the most caverouneous roads that i ever saw in my life, and further to that downhill of ghats completely covered with thick fog, my my i wouldnt want to repeat that drive ever in my life.

so monsoon drive to goa has some of its demerits

[sys_whiz]

Thank You Guys for all the info. What about the following route?

Start out going Southwest on OSMANIA MEDICAL COLLEGE ROAD towards PUTLIBOWLI ROAD 0.42
1:Turn RIGHT onto PUTLIBOWLI ROAD (Northwest) 0.72
2:Turn LEFT onto MJ MARKET ROAD (South) 0.42
3:Road name changes to BEGUM BAZAR ROAD (South) 0.43
4:Turn RIGHT onto OSMANIA GENERAL HOSPITAL ROAD (South) 0.25
5:Turn RIGHT onto NAYAPOOL ROAD (South) 0.61
6:Turn RIGHT onto HIGH COURT ROAD (West) 0.79
7:Turn LEFT onto CITY COLLEGE CIRCLE (South) 0.04
8:Turn LEFT onto HIGH COURT ROAD (West) 1.12
9:Turn RIGHT onto PURANAPUL JUNCTION CIRCLE (Northeast) 0.06
10:Turn RIGHT onto PURANAPUL ROAD (North) 0.22
11:Road name changes to DHOOLPET MAIN ROAD (Northwest) 1.25
12:Road name changes to SABJI MANDI ROAD (West) 1.04
13:Road name changes to LANGAR HOUSE ROAD (West) 1.82
14:Turn LEFT onto IBRAHIMBAGH ROAD (South) 1.85
15:Turn LEFT onto AP POLICE ACADEMY ROAD (Southwest) 7.92
16:Road name changes to FOREST DEPARTMENT ROAD (West) 1.21
17:Turn LEFT onto CHILUKURU ROAD (Southwest) 1.23
18:Road name changes to AZIZNAGAR ROAD (Southwest) 1.46
19:Road name changes to VIKARABAD ROAD (West) 37.27
20:Turn LEFT onto PARGI-VIKARABAD ROAD (South) 19.06
21:Turn RIGHT onto PARGI-TANDUR ROAD (West) 28.33
22:Road name changes to GURMATKAL-PARGI ROAD (Southwest) 41.69
23:Road name changes to YADGIR-GURMATKAL ROAD (Southwest) 34.02
24:Road name changes to HATTIGUDUR-YADGIR ROAD (Southwest) 33.88
25:Road name changes to SHORAPUR-HATTIGUDUR ROAD (Southwest) 16.83
26:Road name changes to LINGSUGUR-SHORAPUR ROAD (Southwest) 8.68
27:Turn RIGHT onto TALIKOTA-SHORAPUR ROAD (West) 47.79
28:Turn LEFT onto MUDDEBIHAL-TALIKOTA ROAD (Southwest) 23.76
29:Road name changes to ALMATTI-MUDDEBIHAL ROAD (West) 21.22
30:Road name changes to ALMATTI ROAD (West) 6.24
31:Turn LEFT onto HUNGUND ROAD (South) 2.95
32:Turn RIGHT onto BAGALKOT-ALMATTI ROAD (West) 28.09
33:Turn RIGHT onto BAGALKOT ROAD (Northwest) 38.06
34:Turn RIGHT onto LOKAPUR ROAD (Northwest) 0.65
35:Turn LEFT onto GUDGOP-LOKAPUR ROAD (Southwest) 27.89
36:Road name changes to YARGATTI-GUDGOP ROAD (West) 14.61
37:Road name changes to BELGAUM-YARGATTI ROAD (West) 57.44
38:Turn RIGHT onto RAMGHAT-BELGAUM ROAD (Northwest) 32.45
39:Road name changes to RAMGHAT-MAPUCA ROAD (South) 47.97
40:Turn LEFT onto NADORA-BICHOLIM ROAD (Southeast) 0.89
41:Turn RIGHT onto MAPUCA-BICHOLIM ROAD (Southwest) 15.02
42:Turn LEFT onto MAPUCA-PANAJI (NH-17) ROAD (Southwest) 11.4
43:Turn RIGHT onto PANAJI ROAD (West) 1.35
Arrive PANAJI ROAD
Total Distance: 620.41 Kilometers
Total Estimated Time: 945.6 minutes

[mobike008]

I suggest 1-17 from Mehdipatnam, Langarhouz road towards Police academy, Chilkur and thereafter till Vikarabad. We had a team-bhp drive till vikarabad ( about 75km) from Hyd in Feb'07. Very good road until there.

1-17 as depicted from your GPS device is too crowded route and does not make sense since you will be travelling from Hitec city onwards. So the mehdipatnam road is the extremely shortest route to get on the highway if you decide to take this route.

Sorry, about the remaining route, never heard about it till Belgaum, after Belgaum, then again its fine. Just make sure after belgaum, do not take the PONDA GHAT SECTION.

[Zappo]

I too am not too sure of this route. But one thing took me by surprise. Mobike, did you see that chart he plotted? 620 odd kms to Panaji, Goa from Hyderabad!!! I mean, he shaved off more than 200kms from his journey.

Well Sys_Whiz buddy, I was going to suggest you not to take this route. Particularly since you are planning to travel all night and there is no documented status available for this route. However looking at this distance (and if it is really true) I am tempted to say do travel on this route and let us know how good it is.

However if I were to sound responsible I will still suggest not to travel at night. But then its your decision... If I were to decide, I would have even booed at the suggestion to take drivers... half the fun is gone that ways. Its only when you drive yourself on those silky terrains and absorb the vista... fight amongst yourself to wrestle the control of the steering with your pals... yeah thats what a drive like this is all about. Of course even a stay at night at a place like Bijapur with its quaint hotels... and still more wierd habit of every denizen of the city getting sloshed by the time evening falls also made my journey! haaa haaa haaaa.

P.S. Btw, I just noticed that inspite of the shorter distance (heck, make that minuscule distance, maybe...) you still require more than 15 hours. What is the point then? In fact that may mean that the road conditions are not so good. Most probably you will travel mostly on village interior roads. Not a very good thing to do buddy.