India Road Trip - 2020: Bangalore - Kolkata - Bangalore (5000km)

Route taken:

We family of 3 (Me, my wife and daughter) started our long road trip from Bangalore to Kolkata in our Maruti Suzuki Ertiga. Experience wise we covered many places (self driving) in entire South India, Maharashtra, Goa & Orissa earlier on many occasion, but max on long or extended weekends. This was first time we decided to do this entire length of road trip of around 5000km round trip of bangalore - kolkata - bangalore, which was possible due to covid situation in country (WFH and online classes).

The route followed was for -

Onward Journey: Bangalore - Nellore - Rajahmundry - Vizag - Bhubaneshwar - Bishnupur (WB) - Shantiniketan(WB) - Berhampore (WB).

Return Journey: Berhampore (WB) - Asansol (WB) - Varanasi - Jabalpur - Nagpur - Hyderabad - Bangalore

Onward Journey

Day 1: Bangalore to Nellore (375km - 6hrs)

After finishing the online classes for my daughter in first half and completed my office work, started our day 1 (@4PM) towards Nellore (reached 10PM). All the packing was done and kept lots of food and water. Kept sanitizer, sprays and disposable masks for covid precautions. Selected the hotels online, that provides the safety and hygiene for these situations. Carried thermos for hot water and tea, electric rice cooker to cook foods in hotels for day travels. Road condition was mostly good except before Tirupati.

Day 2: Nellore to Rajahmundry (450km - 10hrs)

Started day 2 after breakfast at around 10:30 am towards Rajahmundry. Stopped in Vijayawada for lunch and visited Undavalli cave, Prakasam barrage before starting the onward journey towards Rajahmundry. The road condition till Vijayawada was just excellent, however it deteriorated after Vijayawada till Rajahmundry

Day 3: Rajahmundry - Bhubaneshwar (625km - 13hrs)

Started the day 3, exploring on a lovely river bay resort (beside Godavari river) in Rajahmundry. It was very calm, pleasant and beautiful stay on this property. Had a good breakfast at this resort and started (11 am) onward journey towards Bhubaneshwar (reached 1 am). The road condition was mostly excellent here onwards except some bypass around Vizag. Once we entered Odisha, the good highway food options and restrooms were very very limited. So its advisable to carry food for lunch / snacks on this route.

Day 4: Bhubaneshwar to Bishnupur (west Bengal) (410km - 9hrs)

Started the day late, as we reached late night on previous day, after breakfast at around 12 PM. We met our friends in cuttack on the way and then resumed our journey towards Bishnupur. The road condition was very good throughout, however there was a blockade at the Odisha - WB border (local issues, which wasted an hour of our time). However we can find may local dhabas in this route.

Day 5: Bishnupur (WB) to Berhampore (WB) (220km - 6 hrs)

We visited the historical city of bishnupur, famous for ancient terracotta temples. A must visit places for those who adore the ancient Indian architecture, there are innumerable hindu temples scattered throughout. Also famous for terracotta and pottery handicraft worldwide. Bishnupur tour needs a needs a separate blog. After finishing the tour for the day, started at 2 pm for onwards journey to my native berhampore (WB) via Durgapur, Shantiniketan.

The road are pretty good till durgapur and then the real fun starts thereafter. As we stepped from National highway to state highway, after durgapur, roads full of pothole welcomed us, but our Ertiga carried us safely in this roller coaster ride. The road from Shantiniketan to Berhampore (via Sainthia) should be avoided at all cost (actually road ceases to exists). However we reached berhamore by 8 pm and thus ended our onwards journey from Bangalore to Kolkata (we Kolkata later, but not in this stretch).

We spend the Durga puja and Diwali holidays (1 month) in Berhampore, Nabadwip, Kolkata during this period, before we started our return journey.

Return Journey:

Day 1 : Berhampore (WB) to Asansol (WB) (230 km - 5:30hrs)

We started our return journey after finishing the office work and online classes (for my daughter) at 4pm from Berhampore. This time we took a different route via Bihar, UP, MP, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra. Plan was to reach Asansol (WB), where in another family friend, from Bangalore, joined us in our return journey. Reached Asansol at 9:30pm, road condition was good throughout this time. We spent the next day in hotel and again attended the office and classes. Plan was to do the night journey, as we had another family (in their own car) which gave us confidence to drive in the night.

Day 2: Asansol (WB) to Varansi (475 km - 10 hrs)

We had tasty lunch at our friends place in Asansol and they had packed the dinner as well for us. Filled the petrol and started the night journey with lots of enthusiasm as we got company on this journey. We crossed Jharkhand and Bihar on the way to Varanasi. The road condition was OK (with potholes on many places). We stopped over in a petrol pump for a dinner break and some rest. Apprehensive about the night journey on an unknown road for the first time, the journey turned out to be smooth without any hassles. Reached Varanasi early morning 6 am.

Day 3: Varanasi and Sarnath sight seeing

We got up late, as were driving whole night, skipped breakfast, directly had lunch and straight away went to Sarnath for sight seeing. After returning from Sarnath, visited couple of places in Varanasi and then boat ride in river Ganga for evening Aarti. The evening view of well lit Ganga ghats and aarti was just extraordinary. Its a must visit place and should be in bucket list. A journey is not completed without a journey into this holy land of Varanasi, which is older than history.

Day 3: Varanasi to Jabalpur (MP) (460 km - 9 hrs)

Started the day late (12 pm) towards Jabalpur, MP, as we were tired a day earlier, due to night driving and sight seeing. We passed through the Prayagraj sangam on our way to Jabalpur. The road from Varansi till Bangalore is just excellent, no potholes whatsover. Had food on the highway dhabas as this part of highway offer plenty of dhabas.

Day 4: Jabalpur to Nagpur (274 km - 5 hrs)

Jabalpur is famous for Bhedaghat (marble rocks and Dhuandhar falls), which we visited for the day. Enjoyed lots in this place sightseeing, boat riding and handicraft shopping. We started our journey from Jabalpur at 5 pm (after sight seeing) to Nagpur (reached 10 pm). There was some road construction on Pench national park area at that time, so there was a detour of 100km via Chhindwada (MP). The road condition was ok except this detour.

Day 5: Nagpur to Hyderabad (500 km - 9 hrs)

Our stay at Nagpur was not a good one (the covid situation made the hotel understaffed and poor service). However we finished our breakfast and started (11 am) towards Hyderabad (8 pm). We decide to stay in Hyderabad just for once reason - paradise biryani. This part of journey was smooth, but have very few (or none) highway food option. So advisable to carry the food and plenty of water.

Day 6: Hyderbad to Bangalore (575 km - 10 hrs)

We again did WFH and online classes, as it was starting of week. Finished the day and started back home to bangalore at 5 pm. The road condition is just excellent, as always in this part, so we could do the night journey as well. Reached home at 2 am and were happy to see us back home safely with loads of good memories to cherish forever.

Credits: To my wife and daughter who supported me to carry this long road trip. Our family friend - Abhishek, Megha and Pakhi who accompanied us on our return journey.

Ertiga: Finally, our ever reliable Ertiga, which outperformed beyond our expectation and never gave any trouble throughout all road conditions. My car is almost 9 years old and mileage was 16-17 on an average on highways. Tolls could be around Re. 1.25 / km average.