Hello travellers,
It is festive season again, the time to Rev up your engines and head off for a long drive from the hustle and bustle of city life and I know the Numero Uno destination in your list is Goa. So here is a list of routes that I have taken to travel to Goa from Bangalore.
This information will be helpful to all the folks planning for a long drive to Goa. I have also mentioned about available routes to Udupi and their present condition. Hope this piece of information will be useful for you all.
Bangalore to Goa routes
Route :- Bangalore - Hassan - Chikmagalur - Shimoga - Sagara- Panaji
Distance :- 673 KMS
Roads are good till Sagara after which you need to calm down your adrenalin and drive slowly :) since there are few unexpected potholes after Sagara. I had flat tyres on this very stretch and it was a night mare. These roads never completely heal from the monsoons.
Route :- Bangalore - Hubli - Karwar - Panaji
Distance :- 700 kms
This is one of the best available routes to Goa. Great roads, 120km/hr - 150km/hr can be done easily for most part of the road till you reach the Hubli-Karwar junction ( NH63 - NH17 junction). NH17 is good till Goa border and amazing from the Goa border. The only disadvantage about this road is that it is 80kms longer than the other available routes to Goa.
Route :- Bangalore - Kittur - Ponda - Panaji
Distance :- 613 kms
This is the shortest route to Goa. As usual it has its own positive and negative points.
as most part of this route is NH4, one of the best available roads in India, you can easily cover 500kms in 6 hrs till Kittur. However the road leading from Kittur to Ponda is in a very bad state, huge potholes and mud roads. Even then I prefer this road over the other routes as this route will take you to Goa in less than 10 hours and the bad stretch of road is minor compared to the great NH4. Also the mining near Ponda, which was one of the major drawbacks in this route, has stopped and there are no iron ore trucks on this road anymore.
Bangalore to Udupi/Manipal routes
Route :-Bangalore- Sakleshpura - Dharmasthala - Karkala - Udupi/Manipal
Distance :-401 kms
Good roads till Sakleshpura then bad roads then again good roads from Dharmasthala
Bangalore - Sakleshpura - Mangalore - Udupi (Bangalore Mangalore Highway)
Distance :- 407 kms
Good road till Sakleshpura after that it is a nightmare.
Bangalore - Sira - Belur - Mudigere - Charmadi ghats - Karkala - Udupi
Distance :- 451 kms
Happy Driving!!
Have a safe journey :)
