Bengaluru to Jaipur : Christmas 2022

 22-12-2022

During Christmas 2022 we decided to do a road trip to Jaipur. The plan was to go to Noida and then continue onwards to reach Jaipur and do some sightseeing.

We left Bengaluru around 7:30AM and drove straight to Hyderabad. The plan was to stay night in Hyderabad. For some reason we found hotels in Nagpur too expensive during Christmas so decided against staying there.

We stopped in Cafe Coffee Day near Gooty at 12:15 PM for about an hour and then continued onwards towards Hyderabad. 

We arrived in Hyderabad at 5:30 PM and retired for the day. 

23-12-2022

We decided to take a halt in Bhopal for couple of days. I was not feeling well so decided to stop over in my house in Bhopal and then continue after taking rest.

Since we just had to reach up to Bhopal, we decided to leave after breakfast. We were on the road at 7:00 AM. 

We stopped at the Highway Nest Mini near Borkhedi toll plaza for a bio break around 1:00 PM

We quickly crossed Nagpur town and got on to four lane highway connecting Nagpur and Betul. Just after four-lane highway finishes, there is a small hotel called Hotel Meghna where we stopped for some food around 4:10 PM. 

We started from there at 4:45 PM and continued towards Bhopal. Finally arrived in Bhopal at 7:40 PM.

Next day we took rest in Bhopal before continuing.

25-12-2022

We started at 6:30 AM towards Noida. It was early so did not have any breakfast. 

We reached near Guna at around 9:10 AM. Near Guna you will find K2 Squared Highway Treat right on the highway which is a pretty good place for a break and breakfast. We left the place at 9:45 AM.

Finally around 3:00 PM we entered Yamuna Expressway. Drove till the mid point and stopped at The Food Street for some lunch.

Arrived in Noida at 6:40 PM.

27-12-2022

We got ready around 9:00 AM and left for Jaipur. 10:55 AM we stopped at Mcdonalds for some food and bio break. 11:20 AM we started towards Jaipur again.

Impromptu we decided to visit Neemrana Fort-Palace. On reaching there we learnt that you can't just visit the fort. You have to buy a ticket for food or you should be staying with them then only you can visit. So we left that place and joined the Jaipur highway back.

We stopped at the food street at around 1:20 PM. I badly needed a coffee. I had still not fully recovered.

We started from the food street at 2:20 PM and continued towards Jaipur. 

4:45 PM We arrived in The Lalit, Jaipur. The hotel was very crowded and checkin itself took couple of hours. After resting for a while, we decided to drive to the Hawa Mahal area and find some food.

28-12-2022

We started after our breakfast and reached Jal Mahal at 12:15 PM. We spent some time there and after parking our car in Jal Mahal area, took a rickshaw to go back to Albert Museum.

1:30 PM we arrived in Albert Museum and spent around an hour in the museum. It is pretty interesting museum.

We left towards Amber Palace and after parking our car in the parking, tool a Jeep to visit Jaigarh and then Nahargarh.

After visiting these two forts, we arrived back at Amber Fort at around 5:45 PM. We bought the ticket for light and sound show and then went into the Amber Fort for a quick walk around.

Then we went into the light and sound show which got finished at 8:45 PM, We started towards our hotel and stopped midway for some food at a place called The Vegetarian Grill.

29-12-2022

This was the day to leave back to Noida. We stayed at the hotel in the morning and decided to leave around 2:45 PM. 

This was a simple eventless journey back.

We stopped for a quick break at The Food Street around 6:30 PM. We left the place at 7:20 PM. 

We arrived back in Noida at around 10:45 PM.

Next few days we spend in Noida to take care of some things.

03-01-2023

We started our journey back to Bengaluru. As usual the first stop was Bhopal.

8:30 AM We left Noida and got on to Yamuna Expressway. We stopped at the food court in the middle of YEW for a quick coffee at around 9:20 AM. We again stopped at the next rest area on YEW at around 11:10 AM. 

We exited YEW and quickly got on to Gwalior road. We crossed Dholpur and crossed Morena. We stopped at the Subhim Highway Resort for a bio-break.

We couldn't find any decent place for food after that, so we continued driving to the same K2 squared Highway Treat near Guna.

We finally arrived in Bhopal at 9:00 PM.

Next few days we spent in Bhopal

06-01-2023 

We left our home in Bhopal towards Hyderabad at around 6:30 AM. We stopped in Hotel Meghna just before Betul at 8:30 AM for some breakfast and continued onwards towards Hyderabad at 9:20 AM. 

We stopped at Borkhedi Toll plaza after crossing Nagpur for a bio-break at 12:30 PM. 

We arrived in Hyderabad around 8:00 PM.

07-01-2023

We decided to take it easy since we just had to drive from Hyderabad to Bengaluru. We got up, had our breakfast and then checked out around 11:30AM. 

We drove non-stop for next few hours and stopped just before Ananthpur at Cafe Coffee Day for a break at 3:40 PM. 

We left from Cafe Coffee Day after an hour and crossed Ananthpur. 

We stopped at Shell Petrol Station near Aroor for a top-up and bio-break.

We arrived within Bengaluru city limits around 8:00 PM, had our dinner and reached home.

2022 Diwali Trip to Hyderabad

22-October-2022

We decided to visit Hyderabad and chill out in a hotel during Diwali of 2022. It was relaxed trip and not targeted for any tourism. Following is the complete Vlog of the trip.

Bengaluru to Goa : Dussera 2022

 During Dussera of 2022 we decided to drive down to Goa from Bengaluru.  We had few days vacations and decided to spend them in Goa.

01-October-2022

We started from our Home at 06:00 am. There was lot of traffic probably due to holidays and NICE road had lots of blocks due to multiple truck accidents. We finally reached Sira at 08:45 am and stopped at the Cafe Coffee Day.

09:40 am We started from Sira for our onwards journey. There was not much to eat available in CCD.

10:28 am We reached Shell petrol station near Tumkur and topped up our car. We also had tea there.

We drove into Davangere town and look for Benne Dosa shop. But there are two entries on google maps and we ended up not finding it. So we decided to stop there on our way back.

1:15 PM We stopped at Kamat restaurant near Haveri. Kamat chain of restaurants have definitely lost their past glory and not very nice places to have a stop at.

After Dharwad we turned towards Goa via Anmod Ghat.

We arrived in Goa approximately at 7pm. We straight away drove to our hotel which was ITC Grand.

02-October-2022

We spent the entire day at the hotel. The hotel is a nice property and one can spend time there. It is adjacent to a beach and a nice pool.

03-October-2022

We decided to drive towards the Panaji and look at some places. We went to Basilica De Bom Jesus, Tower of St. Augustine. These are nice places to visit, and one can spend some time there. Basilica does get very crowded while the tower is empty.

After these two places we went to the restaurant Copperleaf and had our lunch there. Then we decided to drive to Fort Aguada. 

Fort Aguada gets very crowded. So, we quickly went around the place and left for our hotel.

We spent rest of the day leisurely at our hotel.

04-October-2022

We had decided to leave the place after our breakfast. We got ready, checked out and left the hotel at 11:20 AM. We had to topup the car which we did before getting out of Goa and then we drove towards Bengaluru. 

3:20 PM We stopped at Shell petrol bunk near Hubbali and topped up our car again and had a small tea break. Shell petrol stations are nice places for a tea break. 

5:25 PM We stopped at Shri Guru Kottureshwara Butter Dosa Hotel in Davangere and had our late lunch there. There are two adjacent shops with identical signage and name and there is really no way for somebody to tell which is the original one. If you want to go to this shop you will find two entries on google map, choose the one that is say opposite medical college.

We continued driving from there to our home and reached around 10:00pm.

Summer 2022 -- Really Hot

Summer 2022, I decided to drive to Bhopal and then decide if I wanted to go somewhere further. There was a wedding to attend in Sagar, MP.

14-May-2022 I started early morning (4:40 AM) towards Hyderabad. 8:30 am I crossed Ananthpur and stopped at Cafe Coffee Day near Gooty. 12:45 PM I reached Hyderabad Outer Ring road. 2:30 PM I reached the Cafe Coffee Day near Nagulapally. After a brief stopover as a lunch break, I continued on. Finally at 7:50 PM I arrived in Le Meredien, Nagpur which was the stop for the night.

15-May-2022 Next day morning I took it easy. Since my destination was Bhopal, I decided to leave after breakfast. Left the hotel around 8:15 am. Drove pretty much non-stop and arrived in Bhopal at 2:15 PM.

20-May-2022 This was the day I had to attend a wedding in Sagar. Left Bhopal around 4:00 pm and arrived in Sagar at 7:00 pm. The evening was spent at the wedding venue and left from the wedding at 1:00 am. 

23-May-2022 Finally it was time to leave Bhopal. Earlier I had planned on visiting some of  the fort towns in Rajasthan but it was too hot. The temperature was touching almost 40 degree celsius on some of the days. I decided to head back to Bhopal where the weather had turned pleasant. At 4:20 am I left Bhopal. Crossed Nagpur city around 8:45 am. Drove pretty much non-stop and stopped for Lunch at 2:00 PM  at a restaurant around 1 hour before Hyderabad. After an hour break and lunch, left for Hyderabad and arrived in Hyderabad at 4:15 pm. For a moment I thought I could continue to Bhopal, but decided against it and checked in to Fairfield by Marriot near Gachibowli.

24-May-2022 Checked out of the hotel and started the journey towards Bengaluru. Stopped at Cafe Coffee Day before Ananthpur at 1:00pm. Had a small lunch there and then continued driving towards Bengaluru. I was running low on petrol, so stopped at Shell Petrol Pump near Aroor at 4:30pm. After refuel and a tea, continued towards Bengaluru and arrived home at 6:30pm. 

The total journey was around 3,500 kilometers.

10 Day Trip to Madhya Pradesh from Delhi

 Earlier I wrong a blog on what you should you see if you have 7 days to visit MP starting from Delhi. I felt that 7 days is too little a time to do justice. So I am doing another post assuming you had 10 days. See the earlier post here.

Sanchi Stupa No 1

Bhim Betka

10 Day Itinerary

I am assuming that you have not visited MP at all the if you are the first timer visiting MP and have 7 days at your disposal, your itinerary might look something like below.

• Day 1 -- Start from Delhi early morning and look out for Mitaoli, Padavali and Bateswar after crossing Morena. Here is a blog from my trip to these places. The first place to visit would be Mitaoli and then other two places are nearby. After finishing these places you can drive on to Gwalior and stay there for the night. If you have time left you can do some local sighseeing in Gwalior. In Gwalior must see places are the museum and Rani Jhansi's samadhi
• Day 2 -- You can use your mornings to finish off places in Gwalior and then carry on to Orccha. It is not a long drive,  Here is my blog from an earlier trip when I travelled from Gwalior to Orccha. Orccha has good MP Tourism properties for stay and you can use them to stay.
• Day 3 -- Finish up on any sighseeing in the morning and then leave for Khajuraho. Khajuraho attractions close down at sunset so you might not reach in time to see anything. Here is my earlier trip on travel to Khajuraho.
• Day 4 -- Temples in Khajuraho open at sunrise, so get up early and visit the western group of temples. It would take probably 2-3 hours there. Once done you can leave for Bhopal. You should reach Bhopal by evening. Since you will be passing through Sanchi, if you can reach Sanchi before sunset, it would be a good use of time to visit Sanchi. There is Udaygiri caves as well closeby. Depending on time availability, you can choose to visit them. Here is one of my trips to Sanchi and Udaigiri. You should reach Bhopal for the night stay.
• Day 5 -- Stay in Khajuraho and visit nearby places. A visit to Panna national park is a must and Chitrakoot is also an interesting place to visit. You can either keep your base at Khajurao or stay in Panna and visit these places.
• Day 6 -- Stay in Bhopal and finish local attractions. Some of the must visit places are Bhim Betka, Bhojpur temple, Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Tribal Museum, State Museum and a visit to the lake in the night.
• Day 7 -- Most people who wish to travel to MP have Ujjain (Mahakaleswar) and Omkareswar in their itinerary. So this day can be used to complete that circuit. The target should be to visit Ujjain and Omkareswar. You can add Maheswar also to the itinerary. Depending on the time you can also visit Hanuwantiya island. Good MP tourism places to stay are available in Ujjain, Omkareswar and Maheswar
• Day 8 -- Drive to Indore and Do local sighseeing in Indore. If you feel like it, you can also visit Mandu (Mandav)
• Day 9 -- Stay in Indore for local sighseeing and food circuit. Keep on evening/might for visiting sarafa for night food market.
• Day 10 -- This day can be used for return journey from Indore to Delhi.

7 Day itinerary for MP from Delhi

In my view, Madhya Pradesh is one of the most underrate states from tourism point of view. It has so much to offer but unfortunately it can't compete with other tourist destinations. Here I am trying to list done some itineraries for travellers from Delhi if they want to visit MP.

7 Day Itinerary

I am assuming that you have not visited MP at all the if you are the first timer visiting MP and have 7 days at your disposal, your itinerary might look something like below.

• Day 1 -- Start from Delhi early morning and look out for Mitaoli, Padavali and Bateswar after crossing Morena. Here is a blog from my trip to these places. The first place to visit would be Mitaoli and then other two places are nearby. After finishing these places you can drive on to Gwalior and stay there for the night. If you have time left you can do some local sighseeing in Gwalior. In Gwalior must see places are the museum and Rani Jhansi's samadhi
• Day 2 -- You can use your mornings to finish off places in Gwalior and then carry on to Orccha. It is not a long drive,  Here is my blog from an earlier trip when I travelled from Gwalior to Orccha. Orccha has good MP Tourism properties for stay and you can use them to stay.
• Day 3 -- Finish up on any sighseeing in the morning and then leave for Khajuraho. Khajuraho attractions close down at sunset so you might not reach in time to see anything. Here is my earlier trip on travel to Khajuraho.
• Day 4 -- Temples in Khajuraho open at sunrise, so get up early and visit the western group of temples. It would take probably 2-3 hours there. Once done you can leave for Bhopal. You should reach Bhopal by evening. Since you will be passing through Sanchi, if you can reach Sanchi before sunset, it would be a good use of time to visit Sanchi. There is Udaygiri caves as well closeby. Depending on time availability, you can choose to visit them. Here is one of my trips to Sanchi and Udaigiri. You should reach Bhopal for the night stay.
• Day 5 -- Most people who wish to travel to MP have Ujjain (Mahakaleswar) and Omkareswar in their itinerary. So this day can be used to complete that circuit. The target should be to visit Ujjain and Omkareswar and then stay night in Indore.
• Day 6 -- Do local sighseeing in Indore. If you feel like it, you can also visit Mandu (Mandav)
• Day 7 -- This day can be used for return journey from Indore to Delhi.

Jan - Feb - 2022 : Quick round the country trip before everything opens

 We started on a quick impromptu trip on 30-January-2022. We went to Bhopal, Sagar, Chhatarpur, Noida and back to Bengaluru over a period of two weeks.

Following is the detailed travelog of our trip.

1. Day 1 - Bengaluru to Hyderabad
2. Day 2 - Hyderabad to Nagpur
3. Day 3 - Nagpur to Bhopal
4. Day 4 - Bhopal to Sagar - Day Trip
5. Day 5 - Bhopal to Noida
6. Day 6 - Noida to Chhatarpur to Khajuraho
7. Day 7 - Temples of Khajuraho
8. Day 8 - Khajuraho to Chhatarpur to Noida
9. Day 9 - Noida to Jhansi
10. Day 10 - Jhansi to Hyderabad
11. Day 11 - Hyderabad to Bengaluru

The total distance covered was around 6000 kilometers. Total petrol consumed was around 620 litres. Minimum rate around Rs. 94 for a liter in UP and around Rs, 110 in Karnataka and MP.

Jan - Feb -2022 : Day 11 : Returning Home : Nagpur to Bengaluru

13-February-2022

Checked out and left my hotel around 10AM. It was a struggle to get out of Hyderabad because of heavy traffic going to newly innaugrated Statue of Equality. 

3:00 PM Stopped at Cafe Coffee Day just before Ananthpur.

7:00 PM We arrived in Bengaluru. We stopped at McDonalds near airport to have dinner. We finally reach home around 9:00 PM

Jan - Feb - 2022 : Day 10 : Returning Home : Jhansi to Hyderabad

 Left our hotel in Jhansi around 6:00 AM.

After Sagar stopped at a Dhaba. The place was too slow. Ended up spending almsot one hour there on our breakfast. At 9:45 AM left the place for onward journey.

The highway around Pench National Park is finally complete and you can quickly reach outskirts of Nagpur.

Nagpur has quite a few police check posts with speed guns. 

After Nagpur we continued driving and arrived in Hyderabad around 9:15 PM.

Jan - Feb - 2022 : Day 9 : Returning Home : Noida to Jhansi

 11-February-2022

Left Noida around 3 PM straight on to YEW. The food court was completely jammed with cars so we carried on to the end of YEW for bio break.

Our search of a proper bypass for Agra continued. We again got lost but eventually emerged on the other end of Agra.

Found a dhaba near Morena and found it to be rubbish. So we continued on.

Finally stopped at the MP Tourism hotel near Morena.

Around 10 PM reached Jhansi. We stayed at Hotel Lemon Tree.

Jan - Feb - 2022 : Day 8 : Chhatarpur to Noida

 07-February-2022

We left Khajuraho around 9:10 AM and headed to Chhatarpur where we had a day full of bureaucratic things to be taken care of.

Our entire day was spent in the city. We had to take care of some legal work. meet some government officials etc.

5:15 PM we left Chhatarpur towards Noida. As we got on to NH-39, we decided to try an alternate route back. We turned towards Hamirpur and then finally to Agra Lucknow expressway. Unfortunately that was a very bad decision.

Road were horrible and took long time.

Around 9PM we got on to four laned highway NH-19.  We stopped at a road side dhaba which was horrible.

Entered Agra Lucknow expressway around 10:15 PM. 

Entered YEW around 11:20 PM. We had to exit Agra Lucknow expressway and get into the town roads because we were very low on fuel.

Midnight we stopped at the food court on YEW. The place was completely closed. So we used toilets and left quickly.

We arrived back in Noida at around 2AM.