Summer 2024

 08-June-2024

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.