Route Query: Planning a 15000km road trip across India in a Skoda Fabia

The entire trip is said to take around 7 - 8 weeks to complete.

BHPian thirugata recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hi fellow forum members. As the heading suggests, this is a route/travel query for a drive across India.

I am sure part of my answers will be hidden somewhere in multiple threads here.

However, it would be very difficult to screen through them for what I need. Hence this thread.

I am starting an All India road trip probably in the 3rd week of March. A tentative date of 20th March has been chosen as of now.

The plan is to drive to all state capitals and 7 UTs. Following is the route plan that has been drafted.

The drive starts from Bangalore.

Just in case the map does not give clarity, I am writing down the route here.

Bangalore - Panjim - Mumbai - Dadra - Daman - Diu - Gandhinagar - Bhopal - Jaipur - New Delhi - Chandigarh - Jammu - Srinagar - Leh - Shimla - Dehradun - Lucknow - Patna - Gangtok - Guwahati - Itanagar - Kohima - Imphal - Aizawl - Agartala - Shillong - Ranchi - Kolkatta - Bhubaneshwar - Raipur - Hyderabad - Amaravati - Chennai - Puducherry - Thiruvananthapuram - Bangalore.

(Yes I have added Leh here being stupidly optimistic, a final call about Leh will be taken once we reach Srinagar depending on the weather condition. It's more of a hope)

Though I have done a lot of travel across South India in the last few years, cities were never the destination.

So apart from the first day's drive to Panjim, all will be a new route for me to explore/experience.

This query is to gather details on road conditions, stay options and food options (we are veggies) along this route. This is going to be a drive-through kind of a trip with intention of driving to all states rather than exploring places. So not looking for recommendations on places to see. Please do share the information you have in line with this. Also would like to hear your experiences with long trips in terms of what to expect and how to go about it.

In terms of how I have decided to go about it:

Plan one day at a time in terms of booking hotels. Have never done this. All my trips have been booked well in advance. This would be new to me, would love to hear regarding their experience from people who travel like this. Consider this as a marathon than a sprint.

Do not drive more than 8 - 9 hours in a day between 7 am - 6 pm.

Will be driving Skoda Fabia 1.2 TSi which has done 98,000 km so far. The approximate distance that would be covered in this trip is 15,500 km. The estimate is to complete this trip in 7 - 8 weeks.

Edit: Just noticed the route to Leh from Srinagar is wrong on the map. Maybe there was some roadblock on the day I did this map. Please ignore that bit.

Here's what BHPian ampere had to say on the matter:

Quite an ambitious plan indeed!

On a high level, all states covered can be easily planned:

• Bangalore-Goa-Mumbai-Daman-Gandhinagar: Planned good roads.
• Gandhinagar-Indore-Bhopal-Jaipur: Is Bhopal a must? Else you can do Indore-Ratlam-Jaipur. Gandhinagar-Indore needs to be planned.
• Lots of details on the Delhi-Leh-Jammu-Shimla sector
• I also see you don't plan to take the 4-lanes/expressways from Shimla to the Northeast. Something to think about.
• Kolkatta-Bangalore: Either Coromandel expressway (Vishakhapatnam-Tirupathi-Bangalore) or Central India? That's again an open discussion and thing to plan.

Here's what BHPian blackwasp had to say on the matter:

I personally don't have such an experience, but my friends are just about to finish a 101-day road trip pan India.

Here's their website and Instagram.

I have asked them to pen a travelogue as well so that they can share their experiences.

Here's what BHPian am1m had to say on the matter:

Mizoram is the only place where you'll need an ILP (or state permit or whatever they call it)...and where they'll actually make a big deal about checking it! I remember taking a permit for Eastern Arunachal, but I think for Western Arunachal that is not required, and I guess they have done away with it for the east too, but not sure, check. Imphal pretty much shuts down post-sunset, so get there pretty early. Finding acco was also not easy, from what I remember from 2016. Apart from that, Gangtok and Aizawl have narrow, steep roads, so parking is going to be a pain.

(What about the Andamans and Lakshadweep?)

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.