[sid_deb]

Originally Posted by vredesbyrd

I need to be at least a director/partner to take such luxurious amounts of time to do a full Kashmir to Kanyakumari or to conquer the North East.

While it sounds crazy, you can consider driving long distance one-way and get your car delivered back home using a truck logistics provider.

Many logistics companies have empty car trucks (returning back to plants after delivering cars to showrooms) running on certain routes and offer competitive rates if you are not in a hurry to get the car back.

As they say, time is more valuable than money these days

[Stribog]

While many factors have been discussed at length, one factor missing, that determines how I travel is my family factor.

I love solo drives, upto 1,000 kms one way I ask happily drive. Solo.

But my family? Hell no. My son Hates things like looking out the window and after a gracious 30 min window, starts the " are we there yet, am bored" spiel (even though the Ice gmaps will say that we have another 12 hours left). The missus has motion sickness so for anything more than a 3 hr drive, she takes an emetic, shuts her mouth up and just stays silent till we reach. Mom always positions her seat so that she can see my speedometer moment it hits 60 she seems to get coughing fits. Loo breaks are a nightmare, with more stops than peak hour traffic in Brigade road. Music selection? Wife and mom agree on Ilayaraja, but the wife only likes like 4 songs, anything outside of these, she is like "what a mokkai song" (mokkai = lame), I love edm but I will get chucked out of the car if I listen to it. The son likes listening to his Audible library but listening to Harry Potter or Percy Jackson is not my idea of fun.

The compromise here is, radio. In range of fm radio towers, I just use the radio button and am done with it.

Given all this, 8 hrs is my range. Anything more, we fly.

Solo? I can drive endlessly (fatigue permitting), just me, the road and my favorite podcast or audio book and the time just flies, like I stepped into a time machine. I literally invented a business visit in Bangalore for this Friday just so I can drive solo. Waiting for 6 am Friday!

[mttraveler]

The idea of road trip struck when we were planning our trip DEL-BOM-GOI and return, cost for 3 people was coming out to be very expensive since it was year end.
We had plenty of time so we decided to drive. Took our own sweet time, made stops wherever we wanted. We had our own car in every city to roam around. The best part was we didn't have to stick to a particular itinerary.

[FamilyTraveller]

We are a family of 4 and we love to do road trips. Some of the most memorable ones are
1. Bangalore - Goa-Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Udaipur-Jaipur and then back to Bangalore. Nearly 5000km in 15 days

2. Bangalore - Hyd-Vizag-Puri nearly 4000km

3. Bangalore - Goa - Shirdi -Nashik and back 3500km

4 multiple Bangalore to South India

Most exciting part of the road trips is the road travel itself. Get to spend time with the family. One can see real India which is very beautiful. And off course eating at roadside dhabas is also fun.

We have stopped to visit a few monuments/temples enroute which we would have never otherwise seen if travelled point to point via air

[MaheshY1]

Always. Once I had to visit Goa for work so I asked the company to book tickets between Pune and Goa and I rode to Pune to my sister's place. I only flew a short distance and covered most of the distance by road.

Even for shorter distances like Agra or Jaipur, driving ends up taking about the same time as a flight. Maybe less. Because Delhi airport requires early check-in. Then parking headaches at the airport. And high parking fees for the duration of travel. Driving through the city for the airport also takes up a fair bit of time.
For e.g. I have to drive in the opposite direction if I want to fly to Jaipur. Drive is a much faster and enjoyable way of getting to Jaipur from my place.

Once more I had to visit Pune and I drove with family. It ended up costing about the same as a flight but it's way more fun as we didn't miss the scenic locations along the way.

[tilt]

Originally Posted by Stribog

*SNIP*

I literally invented a business visit in Bangalore for this Friday just so I can drive solo. Waiting for 6 am Friday!

Your entire post had a deeply emotional effect on me. My heart genuinely aches for you.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by Stribog

family factor

It is the most important factor. Infact its my wife's support and her interest in drives that am able to pull off my crazy drives. I found kids are much easier to convince, once the missus is.

Originally Posted by vredesbyrd

Quite surprising sometimes as I see people take 15-30 day leaves. Please tell me which firm you gentlemen work for
I need to be at least a director/partner to take such luxurious amounts of time

Month long leaves are rare. Even in travelogues here, I've rarely seen beyond 3 weeks. 2 week long leaves are doable, if you plan well in advance (3-4 months notice). Don't expect to pull such things in short notice as a short notice. Actually its in the director/partner level that you definitely cannot pull such long leaves

[OffRoadFun]

I love driving. When I was single, I would just take the car out without any particular plan in mind and will drive for 2-3 hours and explore natural beauty and other attractions along the way. Even after marriage, did multipe long trips (1000km plus). In one particular year, I put around 33000 kms on my car, mostly on long drives.

But lately with family, my longest has been BLR-Karwar.
I am tempted to do BLR-DEL but I am not sure if kids will be able to bear that long a journey.

Hopefully, one day I can do BLR-Ladakh but till then thinking of BLR-Goa or BLR-Kanyakumari.
If someone is doing BLR-DEL in October, I may join.

[tazmaan]

I always consider driving no matter what. With 2 kids it's difficult to persuade them to sit in the car for ultra long drives. But I have found a solution to that too. Kids and Wife take the flight to the furthest point and return by flight. I complete the long leg of the journey solo. Win-Win

Examples:

1. Mumbai - Mukteshwar - Mumbai : Kids and wife took the flight to Delhi where I picked them up and on the return dropped them back to the airport.

2. Mumbai - Pondicherry - Mumbai : Family took flight to and from Chennai.

3. Mumbai - Kanha - Mumbai : Family took flight to and from Nagpur.

4. Latest trip Mumbai - Gir - Mumbai : Everyone decided to drive along.

5. Mumbai - Goa - Mumbai we all drive several times a year.

[Stribog]

Originally Posted by narayans80

It is the most important factor. Infact its my wife's support and her interest in drives that am able to pull off my crazy drives. I found kids are much easier to convince, once the missus is.

Different folks, different strokes I guess - I am a born petrolhead (or diesel head I should say), my wife sees it as a very functional thing that gets her from point A to point B and nothing more.

We just work around it by me doing solo drives, and it is a win win I say

Originally Posted by tilt

Your entire post had a deeply emotional effect on me. My heart genuinely aches for you.

Oh boy, if only you could be a fly on the steering wheel during our trips. I missed out on my late father, he added another entirely new dimension to this.

In any city he knew (which is like 15-20), he would insist that we all go only by his routes (he swore that Gmaps was sent by aliens to destroy the spatial abilities of us humans or something and he never used it, ever), pitstops were what he used to do decades ago (in some hilarious causes he took us to places that had been shut and changed into a factory or something).

But, jokes aside, my dad and I did so many 2 man trips, he was another born petrol head. In the 70's he would ride the equivalent of the TVS50 from Tiruchy to Chennai, rode his Bullet and Yezdi to Mumbai and back from Chennai, and in the 80's, as a family we drove all over south India in our car. He loved driving and riding, loved and maintained his cars like they were a loved living person and instilled in me a love for them just the same...just don't talk about Gmaps infront of him.

And yes, Friday 0630 is just 20 hours away now. First solo drive since my Dec Chennai - Sringeri - Udupi - Halebidu - Chennai drive and I AM PUMPED to the skies!

[abhatt]

No flights since March 2020.

2 trips back n forth from Bangalore to Mumbai

1 from Mumbai to Goa, Mumbai to Udaipur

Multiple trips from Mumbai to Lonavala and Daman.

Life is beautiful on the roads.

[pta320]

It's always a pleasure to drive long distances instead of taking public transport unless there is some shortage of time.

I have personally driven Bangalore - Ahmedabad - Jodhpur twice on my '03 Corolla driving almost 1100 km in one day. Also drove Ahmedabad - Manipal - Bangalore once, but the route from Pune to Manipal in between was trash and very deserted. Better avoid it at nights.

Apart from that, have completed many medium haul journeys to Pune, Mumbai, Jaipur, Delhi etc of around 500-1000 km to my 03 Corolla. Till date, was never let down by that car despite of being 18 years old.

[SafariMan]

Going to be a long one....Sorry for the pain to go through the big thread. Drive don't fly comes to mind.

My riding and driving instead of any other mode started with the DCH release. A Mumbaikar, started those Goa, Shiridi, ShaniShingnapur, Ajanta-Ellora, Lonar, Daman, Vajreshwari, Matheran, Mahbaleshwar and MH in an RX100. Graduated to my Dad's 118NE and stopped biking. A Santro LE my first purchase and yes started all over with parents - Saputara, Triambakeshwar, more Goa with the Daman among others.

A Job in Muscat and the Dubai, Salalah, Sohar, Sur, Jebel Akhdar and others in mouth watering company cars Mazda 6, Suzuki Vitara and Mitsubishi Magna.

Move over to UK, get a used VV Golf and see through Scotland, Redcar, Suffolk, Brighton, Bournemouth and the East Anglia region for Work instead of Buses trains or Ryanair/Easyjet.

Move on to Kolkata job and the holidays to Digha, Bakkhali, Diamond Harbour, Birati and Basanti Highways, Sundarban, Puri, Darjeeling, Sikkim done in used WagonR, Honda City Type2, Ford Ikon TDCI, Cedia Sports and Safari. Cedia twice to Bangalore and Mumbai for deputation from Kolkata. Took parents and a relative in the Cedia to Wai, Panchagni, Poladpur - Mahabaleshwar. A Tavera with captain seats to Goa, Ganpatipule and Konkan trips. Three business trips to New Jersey, once during the US independence long week holiday took an Enterprise Hyundai Elantra 'Boat' for a trip around the east coast. A weekend visit to a childhood friend in Chantilly, VA and an I-95 drive to Lake Mary, Florida to cousin sisters place. Flights were full and expensive, forget Amtrak. BIL said never heard anyone driven from NJ since he moved in 91. Crossed Places such as Baltimore, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia. Drove with cousins family to Orlando, Cape Canaveral, Universal Studios and Florida Keys for sight seeing. It's amazing that driving some 3000 kms from NJ to Lake Mary, FL took some 32 hrs with some rest in between. A West coast drive from NJ to a friend's place at San Jose visiting Las Vegas and Yellowstone Park via I-80. That's till 2014.....to be continued.

Continued ....2015. A family big road trip with two kids Kolkata-Rameshwaram via Chennai stay at relatives place ECR to Rameshwaram via Velankanni and Madurai,to Coimbatore for a relatives marriage, Palani, Kodaikanal,Ooty, Coonor, Bangalore, Tirupati, Naidupeta to kolkata.

2016. Moved back to Mumbai from kolkata for a year with The 2.2 Dicor Safari taking Dad for company seeing Sungaghra waterfalls, Hirakud Dam, via Gopiballabpur-Hatbari Road, Tadoba Andhari, Umred Tiger Reserves. Took the road trip with Dad to my Dad's native Thrissur Pooram 2016 via Goa, Kumta, Kundapura, Udupi Mangalore, Ullal, kannur, Kozhikode, Guruvayoor and back.

Took An October 2016 end road trip to a friends house warming ceremony in Chennai seeing Kolhapur Mahalaxmi Temple, Bangalore and return to Mumbai exactly on November 18 demonitization paying my last 500 note toll at Pune Mumbai Expressway. Vacation drive to company guest houses in Lonavala, Pune and Goa...Continued

2017 Jan 2 drove from Mumbai to Kolkata in a Tata Indigo for getting over wife to Bangalore. Yes a Mumbai to Bangalore Transfer. Since we had time stayed in Jhargram, Puri, Konark, Chilka OTDC Panthanivas, Gopalpur, Vishakapatnam, Arakku valley and Caves, Tirupati and Bangalore. Since my transfer formalities were taking time again went to Mumbai by a boring flight to ge the Safari We had to leave the Indigo at Bangalore. The return was amazing staying at Arambol, Gia seeing the Goa festival, the Arpora Market, Gokarna, Murudeshwar, tibetian settlements near Shimoga coming back to Bangalore via Gersappa an amazing wonderful drive. My project was on hold and hence we covered Coorg, Wayanad, Attapadi, Marayoor, Mannarkad, my mother's native Pallakad, Nelliampathy, Valparai. Should say would have covered each and every place In Kerala you name it in that period. Luckily can do with elementary malayalam, tamil, bengali and fluent hindi, marathi and English. Karnataka, Kerala, TamilNadu covered. We must have crossed the Bandipur-Mudumalai forest road via Mysore Nanjangudu atleast 12 times. Yes a surprise Honda Activa trip with wifey from Bangalore to Mysore during Dasherra to see the Mysore Palace lit on a Saturday and Sunday. Continued.....

2018. SIL and family wanted to see Kerala with her daughter joining a well known IT company in Mysore. Picked up Family from Kempegowda airport and straight went to Mysore to pick up the daughter and straight drive to Allepey boat house. Stay in the house boat for a night and next day the boat takes us all over the Allapuzha backwaters, Car parked Inland. Start from Allepey go to Kanyakumari stay night see the Vivekanada rock memorial and other places nearby. Take a detour to Munnar, Thekaddy, Kumily - Ayurvedic massages, Hill stations along the way, drip family at Mysore and return to Bangalore.

August 2018 take work from home and travel to Singapore meet sister and flyover for a month trip to Bali and Lombok, Indonesia. Bali was completely covered with a Honda Scoopy. Stay at Kerabokan, Near Kuta. Drive clockwise to Amed, See Mount Batur, Kintamani Highlands, Luwak Coffee estates , Mount Agung, Livina, West Coast, Downtown Kuta, Rice hills, Walks, etc. Leave the bike. Move over to Lombok see the Mount Rinjani, Scuba dive with basic PADI training, a wonderful experience. Continued....

2019 Move over the ageing Safari and Indigo both sold get a Nano and travel by road from Bangalore to Hyderabad for a month's work. Covered the Hampi Ruins, Lepakshi, Anantapur Satya Sai Baba. Stay in A hotel for company work with family for a month with a new member the Nano at Gachibowli, Hyderabad. Return back to Bangalore

Single Business travel to Eagan, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Not going to leave the Great Lakes, Chicago and Niagara waterfalls road trip for anything, though some luggage landed in Atlanta from JFK, NY Again Enterprise self drive cars to the rescue A Honda CRV.

A Maldives trip with Family via Kochi by flight. Stay at Fulidhoo see all nearby Islam's, Male, Snorkeling, Scuba dives, but no cars. The island Fulidhoo is so small that the entire island cam be covered walking in an hours time. There was no roads neither even a cycle in that island. The only place we took self drive was in Make City but not very pleasing to drive. Forgot....a year back we had taken a self drive Nissan Tiida and covered entire Phuket from Phang Nga to the islands other end. A month from the Maldives trip and I convince my wife for a North Thailand trip. We land in Bangkok take a Isuzu Max self drive and drive to Chiang Mai via Ayutthaya, Lamphan. Stay at Holiday Chiang Mai Outer Space. Do the Mae sot Circuit towards Pai and the Chiang Mai Chiang Rai, Laos burma border circuit in the Isuzu Max. Continued...

2019 to 2020 New year time man and wife visit Vietnam and cover Darang and neighbourhood in a Yamaha R15 V2. Yes you heard that right. Full marks to wifey for the discomfort it gave. We were already seeing face masked people and face masks being offered everywhere. Feb 2020 we are in St Petersburg, Russia for a project kick off but nothing much on Road. Work see the church finish the work in hand and back we were in India. All airports full of people in masks. A cough or a sneeze giving weird looks. March 6, 2020 we take the Nano from Whitefield Bangalore to parents home in Chembur, Mumbai for mother's knee replacement surgery. Excepting at times many diversions and road work near rae bennur after Chitradurga till somewhere near Hubli, it was a joyful ride. The Fortis Mulund hospital stays the surgery due to impending Covid and we return back to Bangalore in the Nano. The big two trips post UnLock1 and Unlock 2 in North India and Sikkim, Jharkhand,Purulia, WB, Simlipal and Satkosia, Orissa coming up .....continued.....

[unoczar]

I do all travel (almost) by road. My point is that I hate to put my life in someone else's hands. Unless there's a time constraint I prefer the road and I trust myself and my car.

Pandemic or not I've always driven and will continue to do so.

I've already covered almost all the great Indian states except ladakh and the North East.

[Moontan]

Since the pandemic kicked in and enforced a WFH dictum, I've used this to work from anywhere. The only flights I've taken are between Bangalore and Delhi. I have the F30 328i in Bangalore that I've used to workation all over the South and I've bought a LR Freelander 2 facelift in Delhi that I've used for workationing in the awesome Himalayan range. I'm right now getting it ready for an October drive and workation in Sikkim.

Here's a few pics from a workation in Rajasthan a week ago.