It was an impromptu decision to go on this trip. I had visited Valparai earlier last year but this time we went with the whole family.
Let home at around 7:30am and took the highway towards Kridhnagiri. Initially we wanted to drive all the way up to Valparai but then decided to leave a day early and do a stop over in Coimbatore and then go to Valparai the next day.
09:00am reached the food court near Shoolagiri. Stopped for breakfast and coffee. Left after around 45 minutes.
11:45am on the other end of Salem town, saw a shop that was selling utensils made of Salem Steel, decided to have a look at buy some.
12:45pm After crossing Salem, stopped at the Cafe Coffee Day for a quick coffee and bio break.
Reached Coimbatore around 4:30pm. Checked in and had an early dinner and then retired for the day.
14-Jul-2024
Checked out of the hotel after 10:30am. We had booked Sinnadorai's Rotti Kadai villa in Valparai and they said that since they were booked the previous day, they might not be able to accomodate an early checkin. So we decided to reach around their checkin time which was 1:00pm
The drive to Valparai is magnifiscent, those 40 hair pin turns make it fun to drive. We finally reached Valparai at just after 1:30pm
15-Jul-2024
We spend the day in the villa itself. It is beautiful property in the midst of a tea plantation. The staff takes care of you nicely. The food is pretty good as well.
16-Jul-2024
We checkout of the property around 11:00am. We were straight away going to Bengaluru.
On the way back, stopped at Waterfall Tea Factory and bought some tea.
1:30pm We joined the Bengaluru Chennai highway.
1:55pm We stopped at the cafe coffee day for a quick coffee break, this was near Avinashi.
3:10pm We saw a McDonalds on the highway. Even though we were not interested in eating anything, we just stopped to check it out.
6:15pm We stopped at the food court near Shoolagiri.
Like many of the recent previous years, this year also. the road trip started with no plan. We decided to drive toawrds north and then figure out what to do. The first day, the plan was to reach Hyderabad since we started pretty late in the day.
We started from home at 9:20 am. Drove towards hyderabad. Arrived in Shell petrol station in Devanhalli after the Airport at 11:00 am. I always topup my car here because after this topup I can safely cross Hyderabad and fuelup again.
Drove for another 40 minutes and stopped at the Big Bay India highway pitstop at 11:45 am. This is a good place to stop because it has multiple restaurants and clean toilets.
Let the place at 12:45pm and drove for slightly more than two hours and crossed Ananthpur. Stopped again at Cafe Coffee Day in Gooty. Arrived in CCD at 3:00pm and stayed there for approximately 40 minutes. This point is almost the midpoint between Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
We drove straight to the hyderabad after this stop. We arrived at our hotel around 8:45 pm. We had our dinner and retired for the day. Here is the video for this segment.
09-June-2024
We had our breakfast, checked out and left the hotel around 8:30am. This was going to be s drive straight to Bhopal. We got on to ORR, exited on road to Nagpur.
We drove for around 2:30 hours and stopped at a Jio-BP petrol station. refueled completely here and then drove on.
Around 3:00pm we saw a Vittal Kamath outlet just after Hinghanghat. Had some snacks there and a tea and then continued on.
We crossed the Nagpur city and got on to highway to Betul. The road from Nagpur to Betul is great but it was raining that day.
We continued driving non-stop and finally arrived in Bhopal around 9:30pm.
10-June-2024
We had to pickup a member of our party from Indore airport and drop some members of our party in Ujjain. This drive was just for that.
Left Bhopal at 6:45am and drove towards Indore. Stopped at Sol Retreat for a small breakfast at 8:10 am. We had our breakfast and tea and continued driving towards Indore Airport.
10:20 am arrived in Indore Airport, picked up members of our party and straight up drove towards Ujjain.
11:50 am arrived in Ujjain. We had to meet some relatives as well that took pretty much the whole day. Left Ujjain at 5:10pm.
Again stopped at Sol Retreat on the way back at 6:20pm . Had a small break there and then continued driving towards Bhopal.
Arrived back in Bhopal at 8:30pm
13-Jun-2024
We got some booking in forest rest house in Corbett at Malani so decided to drive to corbett and do few safaris there. The plan was to stay one night in FRH and then couple of nights in some resorts.
06:00am left Bhopal towards Noida. Did not want to stretch so decided to take a night halt in Noida. Drove for around 3 hours and stopped at K2 square highway retreat near Guna for our breakfast.
Left the place at 9:15am and continued driving towards Noida. As I was nearing Gwalior, decided to drive into the city and have coffee at Starbucks in Gwalior. It is a small detour and you end up spending around 15-30 minutes depending on traffic but it is in DB Mall and toilet facilities are nice. Finally arrived at Starbucks at DB City mall. Had the coffee and then left towards Noida.
Reached Agra at around 4:00pm and crossed the town. This time I tried bypass, it is in a better state now because you have to drive less on that canal road. The connectivity to YEW is also much improved.
Stopped at food court in YEW at 4:45pm, had something to eat and coffee and then finally continued towards Noida. I had booked Ginger hotel in Noida sector 133.
6:45pm Arrived in Ginger Hotel Sector 133. The hotel is like a budget hotel but decent for a night stay.
14-June-2024
Checked out and left hotel at 5:45am. Original plan was to have breakfast and leave but the breakfast timings were 7:30am so left early and decided to pickup breakfast on the way.
Took the new expressway towards Moradabad and then finally towards Kashipur.
We did not find any good place for breakfast, finally reached Kashipur and found a food court close to Corbett. Had our brunch there and then continued towards corbett.
11:00am arrived at Bijrani gate of corbett. I had booking in Malani FRH, the entry to that is from Bijrani gate itself. I had to wait for next couple of hours there for the safari driver to arrive.
Finally the driver arrived and we arranged for all the provisions and entered the Bijrani gate and continued towards Malani FRH.
After reaching the FRH, rested for a while and then went for a safari in the jungle. It was too hot and sightings were pretty sparse.
The FRH staff prepared the dinner, had the dinner and then slept off. We had another safari in the morning as part of this night stay at FRH. We had hoped for better luck.
15-June-2024
We got up early and left for safari at 5:30am. Again the safari was kind of a washout. We did not have many sightings but still it was an experience.
We finally got out of the gate around 9:30am. I had booked Corbett River Creek resort for one night in Corbett. Also I had another safari booked in the evening. So the plan was to checkin the resort, have breakfast and then get ready for safari in the evening.
The resort was quite far from Dhela gate from where my next safari was. So to catch the safari at 3:30pm, I had to leave the resort at 2:00pm.
This safari was also a washout, did not have many sightings. Finally came back to resort.
While driving towards resort, found a bunch of restaurants so had my dinner there, reached resort and retired for the day.
Here are some of the pictures from three safaris combined.
16-June-2024
We just decided to chill for a day in corbett, so we checked into Taj Corbett and pretty much did not do anything for the day.
17-June-2024
It was just too hot, so we decided to find some slightly cooler place. The plan was hatched to go to Mussoorie. As usual some members of the party were going to join us in Dehradun. So we decided to leave Corbett and stay the night Dehradun, pick up people from Airport and go to Mussoorie.
10:45am Checked out the hotel and left towards Dehradun. There were occasional traffic jams on the way for some religious functions happening everywhere.
2:45pm Arrived in hotel Re:genta Dehradun. This is a horrible hotel, avoid it at all costs.
Walked around the hotel, had dinner in a Dominos nearby. Finally retired for the day.
18-June-2024
Got up in the morning, had breakfast, checked out from the hotel and left for Airport for pickup.
Arrived in the airport at 9:50am, the flight had alreay arrived, waited for other members to join us and then left for Mussoorie
Arrived Mussoorie town at around 1:00pm, the town was horribly crowded. We spend more than one and half hour to cover last 2 kilometers. Finally checked into Hotel Savoy where we had planned on staying for next two nights. The hotel is pretty good.
In the night walked around the Mall, had coffee in starbucks overlooking hills and did the usual hill things. Finally as we reached back hotel, the weather took a turn to be interesting, complete hailstorm and it became chilly as well. Finally we got to experience the cool temperatures that we had come to Mussoorie for.
20-June-2024
Checked out from the hotel after breakfast, the next stop we had planned was to visit Agra. We had visited Agra multiple times, but this time we wanted to see the Moonlit viewing of Taj and the fort. We did not really want to do a regular day time taj.
While coming down the Mussoorie hills, there was signifiant traffic jam. We realized that was weekend and there was significant traffic that was going to and coming from Mussoorie.
We reached Dehradun and stopped in Mall of Dehradun for a bio-break and coffee at around 1:00pm
We took EPE and cross Noida and joined YEW. Finally stopped at YEW starbucks for coffee and bio break at 5:50pm. We had booked for Taj viewing at 8:30pm slot, so we decided to drive to Taj directly. The Taj viewing was a flop show since it was clowdy so it was nothing but a bunch of dark.
After taj viewing, we left for our hotel which was ITC Mughal. We checked in and had our dinner and retired for the day. Originally we had planned on staying only for one night, but we decided to extend it by another night. Next day we did nothing.
The following day, we had planned to going to the fort and then leave Agra for Bhopal.
22-Jun-2024
We got up, had our breakfast and left for the fort. There is sufficient parking near the fort. We also realized that in Agra, traffic lights don't mean anything.
We arrived in the fort and had a walk around the fort. It is really and magnificent place and not very crowded.
We were finally ready to leave Agra at around 11:15am. We left the place towards Bhopal.
We reached near Gwalior and again decided to stop in DB Mall. A quick coffee in Starbuck and something to eat was really needed. We were done with this around 2:30pm.
We arrived in K2 Squared Highway Retreat near Guna at 5:25pm. We stopped there for a tea and some snacks. We left the place at 6:10pm.
We finally arrived in Bhopal at 9:45pm.
We spend few peaceful days in Bhopal and then our return journey started. At the last moment we decided to take a different route. Since we had decided to go via Mumbai, we also decided to go to Goa before returning Bengaluru.
25-June-2024
Since Bhopal to Mumbai seemed little longer in the light of Monsoon which was at full strength at this time, rather than taking risk, we decided to leave a day early and stop over in Indore for the night so that the journey gets reduced.
06:35pm We left from Bhopal to Indore. 08:40pm arrived near Astha. This time rather than stopping at Soul Retreat, I stopped at NH86 Retreat which is just opposite Soul Retreat. Did not find this place good. I think I will stick to Soul Retreat from now on.
10:00pm Finally arrived in Sheraton in Indore. The hotel was expensive and average. I would not recommend it. The only saving grace is its location.
Anyway, had dinner and retired for the day.
26-Jun-2024
Got up, got ready, had breakfast and checked out. I was on the road before 07:00am. Took the A-B Road towards Mumbai.
11:00am topped up near Dhule. There were couple of traffic police stops. It my all travels, I have found that you are most likely to be stopped in Maharashtra even on national highway.
2:00pm Found a food court type of stuff with McDonalds, dominos and bunch of other restaurants. Facilities were pretty clean. This place was around one hour after Nashik.
04:00pm Reached pretty much outskirts of Mumbai near Bhiwandi. Lots of road construction and rains impeded the progress. In India large metros are always difficult to enter.
Also I had booked Taj Mahal Towers and because of that I had to pretty much drive into middle of the city.
05:05pm Found a traffic signal where there was green light for right turn but straight was not allowed. Got completely confused and ended up paying a fine.
06:15pm Finally arrived in Taj Mahal Towers, checked into the hotel.
Walked around the hotel, walked around the Gateway of India. Finally had dinner in the hotel and retired for the day.
27-Jun-2024
08:45am We were ready to leave mumbai and breakfast in Taj Mahal Towers. Got on to Atal Setu, exited Mumbai and got on to Mumbai Pune expressway.
09:50am stopped on food court in the middle of Mumbai Pune expressway. Continued driving towards Satara, karad. We were advised not to take NH-66.
1:30pm stopped in a McDonald's on national highway in Satara. It took too long, there was some issue with payment so the order took really long time. Finally left the place around 2:30pm
This road is pretty scenic but there are large portions of road that are very narrow and you have to drive carefully.
09:50pm We finally arrived in Goa. We had booked Taj Aguada Fort Resort for next three nights and the plan was just to chill.
28-Jun-2024
This day was just for chilling around. We walked around the property and also took a stroll on Fort. Here are some highlights.
30-Jun-2024
Finally this was the last day of the trip. We checked out of the hotel and left for Bengaluru. We topped up our vehicle just outside Goa and then pretty much kept of driving with out stopping.
We had usual couple of stops by Karnataka cops and Goa cops related to Liquor where they checked our luggage etc.
02:00pm We joined the Bengaluru-Pune national highway at Dharwad.
We stopped at Hotel Guruprasad on the highway around Chitradurga at 5:00pm. Had a south indian thali and then continued on to our journey.
We arrive in our home at around 10:00pm.
This trip was around 7,000 kilometers and I have really stopped counting tolls and fuel money. You just have to pay, what is the point in counting it.
Summer was upon us and we had planned on visiting few temples of South India for quite some time. Since we had some family visiting us, we decided to synchronize and visit few of the temples of South India on this trip. This visit was very unplanned but eventually we following following route.
25-May-2024 We started on Hosur Road around 11:45 AM and stopped at the McDonald's in Krishnagiri for our lunch.
2:50 PM Drove for another two and half hours and after Salem stopped in Cafe Coffee Day in Namakkal.
Another three and half hours of drive and we arrived in Madurai. Since we were two families, we had booked Viswa Service Apartments. We checked in for the night.
The only limitation with this place is that they don't have lunch or dinner service so we had to walk out and find something to eat. They serve breakfast and if you let them know in advance.
26-May-2024 We got up and had the breakfast provided by the hotel. We had requested them previous night to arrange breakfast.
We directly went to temple using a local rickshaw. Madurai has these souped up rickshaws that can accomodate six people easily. Since we were not sure of parking in temple area, we decided to take the local transport.
Temple was quite busy so we took one of those VIP tickets and had our darshan. After paying for VIP ticket, it was comparatively fast. We spent around one to one and half hour for complete darshan. There is no photography allowed anyway near temple.
Temple in the background
Once done with darshan, our next stop was Remeswaram. We immediately checked out from hotel and left towards Rameswaram.
Approximately two hours drive later, we reached the Pamban bridge. We stopped here for a while and walked across thr bridge to see how the new bridge is being constructed.
Here is a video of our drive through the Pamban Bridge.
Here is a video of our drive through Rameswaram town.
After darshan, we had dinner at Sarvana Bhavan and retired for the day.
27-May-2024 The morning plan was to visit Dhanushkodi. Originally we had planned on visiting Kanyakumari but ast the last moment we decide to change our plan and go towards Thanjavur.
Here is our video of scenic drive to Dhanushkodi.
We left Dhanushkodi around 2:45 PM and drove towards Thanjavur. It was an eventless drive and we arrived in Thanjavur around 9:00pm. We checked into Hotel Sangam, There was nothing much to be done, we had our dinner and called it a day.
28-May-2024 We got up early, had our breakfast. checked out from the hotel and went to Brihadeeswara Temple.
It was a short drive to the temple. As temples go, it is really a remarkable temple. The main sanctum sanctorum still is in use actively.
We spent around an hour and half in the temple. We did make a mistake of going there little later. You have to take off your shoes pretty much at the entrance of the temple and whole complex was burning with hot stones.
After temple visit, we left towards Pondicherry,
We arrived in Pondicherry around 4:45pm.
We had some fun in resort, walked up to the beach and chilled for the rest of the day.
29-May-2024 The plan was to have breakfast and drive back home. On the way we wanted to visit Auroville. We had visited Pondicherry multiple times but never had chance to go to Auroville. So that's what we did. We started from the resort around 12:20 PM and arrived in Auroville around 1:00pm. We were done with Auroville by 4:00 PM.
Finally it was time to start back. We drove till just after Krishnagiri and stopped there to have our dinner. We left that place by 9PM and were back home by 11 PM.
