Planning your Roadtrip to Gokarna, Hampi in Karnataka
Year end as always should have some amount of travel associated with it and here i am to share my Travelogue of the Road-trip i have recently completed from Hyderabad.
This time around it was a debate between Goa / any other beach destination, and we zeroed in on Gokarna in Karnataka which i have been hearing from a lot of friends around the secluded and pristine beaches that it has to offer.
Now that Gokarna is finalized as our destination, we wanted to look at places of interest nearby and we had ScoutMyTrip also help us in planning our Itinerary.
We added on Gokarna, Jog Falls, Hampi to this exciting road-trip of ours.
Having included everything to the itinerary, we also decided to compare our road-trip planning with Google and below is a snapshot of how this looks in Google.
The total distance of this road-trip comes to around 1568 kms as per the google maps and below is the road conditions that i am going to detail for your ready reference.
Road Conditions for the entire trip is as follows:
Start time : 0500 hrs from Hyderabad and hit ORR at around 05:25 hrs. ORR in Hyderabad is by far the best road and was a smooth ride as we went closer to the Bengaluru Highway and started cruising at a comfortable speed.
Leg One: Hyderabad to Gokarna
Route that we took:
[revec2t text=”#Roadtrip to #Gokarna: #Hyderabad (ORR) – Jadcherla – Bhootpur – (Mahabubnagar – Raichur) Rd – Raichur Bypass – Manvi- #Sindhanur – Kustagi – Ron – #Hubbali – Yellapur – #Gokarna” hashtags= “Travel, TraveldiariesHY, ttot, AageseRight”]
Leg One Road Conditions:
Hyderabad – Bhootpur : excellent 4 lane toll road
Bhootpur – Mahabubnagar (you skip Mahabubnagar by turning right to a village called Tadikonda & Telugu Gudem) with good narrow roads and merge onto Mahabubnagar – Raichur (State Highway) which has roads under construction with frequent diversions with relatively OK stretches.
Mahabubnagar (State Border) – Deosugur – Raichur Bypass: Single lane roads with potholes and frequent speed humps.
Raichur Bypass – Manvi – Sindhanur (entrance): good roads comparing the previous stretches.
After crossing Raichur, we stopped at a place called Neermanvi for breakfast at Sri Veerabadhra Khanavali (this place is before Manvi town). The breakfast here is good with the traditional idly, wada with chutney and sambhar as accompaniments.
Sindhanur (Entrance) to Exit route: Rod under construction and this stretch will take anywhere between 10 minutes to 60 minutes to cross depending on peak times.
You can go straight from Sindhanur (via Gangavathi – Koppal – Gadag) or turn right at the junction after crossing the bridge (towards Kustagi) to reach Hubbali.
Sindhanur Junction – Kustgi: Roads are good (newly laid with speed humps) however you will find farmers drying grains on the road which may impact traffic and movement and this might be seasonal.
Kustgi – Rona Rd – Hubbali: Bad patches of road and you need to struggle at least in a few patches.
Hubbali: Be prepared to lose time in the traffic which is a mix of tourists, locals and heavy vehicles.
Hubbali – Khalghatgi – Yellapur – Arbail Ghat Road – Ramanguli – Madangeri – Gokarna: Once you cross Hubbali, the roads are under construction and you will have diversions but with decent roads, nicely laid roads of course with speed humps in Arbail Ghat with 1-2 bad patches and the roads from here on to Gokarna we’re good however were two lane roads.
Lunch stop was at Khalghatgi at a hotel beside a fuel station.
Food was relatively Ok however, the service took time which gave us time to stretch after a long journey from Hyderabad.
Reached Gokarna at 1630 hrs (with one 20 minute breakfast break, 30 mins Lunch break) with the total travel duration of 11:30 hrs with breaks totaling 45 minutes.
Leg Two: Gokarna – Murudeshwar
The distance is 78 kms which takes between 90 – 100 mins depending on traffic.
You will find narrow but decent roads until you exit Gokarna and the Highway is under construction with good two lane on one side with the other side under construction. You will encounter frequent diversions due to this.
Once you enter Murudeshwar, you will have cops direct you to parking depending on the vehicle you are reaching here. Cars are allowed until the temple.
You might encounter village traffic in Kumta enroute.
We started at around 1100 hrs from Gokarna and reached by around 12:25 hrs and were there until 1600 Hrs to start back to Kudle Beach viewpoint, Gokarna.
Leg Three: Gokarna – Jog Falls
We started for Jog Falls at around 0900 Hrs from Gokarna (we stayed at Sanskruti Resort) post our breakfast.
Had a freak incident which i need to mention here: Our vehicle was parked in the designated parking lot and another family which stayed in Room# 210 checked out before us. Looks like they drove down as well to Gokarna. However, when they took their vehicle out, they ended up leaving behind a scratch on our Duster in the right side of our duster before leaving and not even having the courtesy to stop and say a sorry and i was pained to notice the car with a scratch as we came out an hour later.
With a determination not to spoil our vacation as the scratch was minor but evident, we decided to leave after talking to the hotel management who were not too helpful which was understandable.
The route that we took for the Gokarna – Jog Falls was a route with good and bad patches.
Route Taken: Gokarna – Kumta – Hadinbal (Honnavar Bengaluru Rd) – Gerusoppa – Sharavati View Point – Bhuvan Mane Lodge – Jog Falls
The roads were good to a decent part and had rough patches at places with road repairs on at full swing.
While in the coastal side of Karnataka, Jog Falls is a must visit and should not be missed, should you have time, you should opt to go onto the other side of Jog Falls and trek down to see this beauty.
Once incident that i cannot help myself from not sharing at Jog Falls- My son was wanting Lays Chips and i took it on our way out from Jog Falls, as we were walking towards the car, a monkey from nowhere landed beside him and snatched the Lays packet, with no effort tore it open and started eating the chips. My son was all tears and said, i will never ever want to go back to Jog Falls, the monkeys are not good here, they snatched my Lays Chips 🙁
He sat in the car with a sad face for a while before he forgot the incident. Sweet memories like these with your kid, make you reflect upon your childhood and feel nostalgic.
Leg Four: Jog Falls – Hampi
Route Taken: Jog Falls – Siddapur – Soraba – Harihar – Harpanahalli – Hagaribommanahalli – Hosapete Outskirts (Vijayashree Resort) – Hampi
The Route was OK again with good and bad patches, cannot actually mention as there were multiple patches good to bad to worst to again good to bad patches through the route.
We started at Jog Falls around 12ish in the afternoon and continued on our journey towards our destination of the day.
Stopped for Lunch en-route on a Highway Dhaba at around 1430 Hrs before starting again.
Crossing Tungabadhra Reservoir, we neared Hospet Tunnel to take the slip road towards to Hampi.
We finally reached our destination, Vijayashree Resort & Hotels on the outskirts of Hospete nearing Hampi around 1700 Hrs.
The total duration of journey for this leg was around 08:30 Hrs with a stopover of 20 mins at Jog Falls, 30 mins for Lunch en-route.
Leg Five: Hampi to Hyderabad
Route Taken for Hampi – Hyderabad: We started at around 1300 Hrs post lunch from Hampi. The route we took is as follows:
Hampi – Gangavathi – Sindhanur – Raichur Bypass – DeoSugur – PatherChed – Bhootpur – Jadcherla – Hyderabad ORR – Hyderabad
Time taken is 5:45Hrs (Until Hitech City) covering a total distance of 376 kms.
Road was good leaving the patch at Sindhanur and the speed humps that you would find on state highways in Karnataka.
Overall, the trip was great with family enjoying the time.
Do read my blog and if you find it interesting, do like it on social media which would be a major motivation for a blogger.
Do follow me on Social Media for my travel journeys: Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest
