The Background:
The Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) Road Trip was in my mind for a very long time, ever since we finished the Ladakh trip in 2017. We had a great experience on the 2-week long Bangalore-Ladakh-Bangalore Road Trip with my friends.
The only dilemma for the GQ trip is about my co-travelers: either to go with family or friends. With friends, a basic route plan is sufficient, but with family a well scripted plan becomes mandatory.
You may be surprised if I tell that we didn’t pre-book even a single hotel for the 8000 Kms Ladakh trip. But the basic plan worked out perfectly.
To all who is new to GQ, the GQ is the National Highway network that connects the 4 Metro Cities. The total distance calculates to around 6000 Kms. I had researched through the Internet about the no. of days required/taken by other travelers.
As usual when we (Me, my wife & my daughter) were discussing where to go for this Summer Holidays, I put up a proposal about the GQ Road Trip which had mixed reviews. The main reason to select this road trip is that Post-Pandemic, all tourist places will be crowded as most people have not traveled for the last 2 years. Finally, I convinced my wife & daughter to get ready for an unforgettable Road Trip. Of course, they had no other option.
The Home Work:
The detailed planning started 2 weeks prior to the trip which includes: distance to be traveled in a day, location of stay, best time to visit a landmark, etc. The first question was whether to take the GQ clockwise or anti-clockwise? After analysing the route/stay I decided to take it clockwise, starting from Bangalore.
After detailed calculations, the 6000+ Kms was split into 8 days of travel, halting/resting in bigger cities. Night driving was not planned except in the early mornings. One landmark in each metro city was chosen to be visited and also the time of visit was planned. One bonus place of visit was picked, just for my little girl. The stay/hotels were selected close to the highway. The hotels for the last 6 nights were booked online as one of our friend, Sanjay obliged to host us for the first night of the trip. So finally an 8D/7N itinerary was all set for execution.
The Challenge: 3 M’s (Man, Machine & Mausam)
Man: The first challenge is for the driver of the trip, that is obviously ME. As I have done 1000+ Kms in a day, a number of times, the challenge is do it consistency. My wife was worried that whether I will be able to do that 8 days in a row. I was pretty confident to do that each day with proper rest/sleep at night. So, a good night’s sleep was the top priority of the plan.
Machine: The second challenge is for the machine, my XUV5OO a.k.a. my BEAST. Clocking just above 94,000 Kms, it is really a test for my BEAST to perform well (or as usual) on this long trip & reach the 1 Lakh Milestone. It’s similar to a batsman trying to hit a SIX at a score of 94. Ha ha. The vehicle was checked-up in the Service Center & was given a go-ahead for a 6000+ Kms drive. The engine belt got replaced due to a noise. As it was nearing 1L Kms, another priority of the plan was not to over-strain the machine.
Just for the record: Last year, My BEAST & me have done a non-stop 1500 Kms drive in less than 24 Hrs. You can read that trip details here “Orissa Trip”
Mausam: The next challenge was the climate. PAN-India Road Trip in Mid-April? Sounds crazy… Everybody knows about the temperatures in India, that too in mid-April and we as travelers are very much aware about that. There was news about heat waves in various parts of the country. So the plan was made to visit the landmarks early/late in the day and travel during the hottest time of the day. And my Service Advisor too complemented it by getting the AC filter cleaned.
DISCLAIMER: Unlike my other travel posts, this one has more text than pictures as this is a hard-core Road Trip. So do DRIVE through our experience. It’s a very LONG drive.
The Road Trip
Day 1: Bangalore to Pune (875 Kms)
As our standard departure time for any outstation trips is 4 am, this one is not an exception. I still remember, the ignition started at 3:59 am & we left our parking by sharp 4 am. We have done this route N number of times, but still I asked Google Maps.
Google Maps said “It will take 14.5 hrs” to each your destination i.e. 7:30 pm
Me: Are you kidding me? It will not take more than 12 Hrs.
The traffic at 4 am in the Outer Ring Road looked as if it is 6 or 7 am, adding to that the Tumkur Road flyover was closed for all traffic. With all these reducing our pace, we managed to do the intial 100 Kms in 1.5 Hrs. With the highway work near Chitradurga completed, the next couple of hours was fun as we managed to reach Hubli Kamat for our breakfast by 8 am. The next 310 Kms in 2.5 Hrs and in total our first 410 Kms in 4 Hrs non-stop: Not a bad start.
After the 30 mins break, the single road between Hubli & Dharwad slowed us a little as usual.
The next stop was planned at Kolhapur for a traditional lunch, but as we reached Kolhapur around 11:30 am, we continued till Satara to break for Lunch just before 1 pm. Anyhow our menu didn’t change at Satara. After a delicious meal, we proceeded to Pune & reached so early to disturb Sanjay who was on a nap after lunch. The time was 3:05 pm to be exact, in total we took just 11 Hrs. I wanted Google Maps to update its algorithm.
We got to spend more time with our friends that evening & promised them that the next time we drive to Pune we’ll join them for lunch. After a delicious home-cooked meal, we retired that night as we needed rest for the next day’s drive: the longest of the trip.
Day 2: Pune to Udaipur via Mumbai (904 Kms)
There are no surprises about the first landmark in Mumbai. It’s the Gateway of India. The plan is to visit the landmark early in the morning, take some pictures for our travel album and leave the busy city asap. This is because I know the traffic condition with trucks in Gujarat.
We bid adieu to Sanjay at 5:15 am hoping to cover the 150 Kms in 2 hours, which later took 15 mins more. At 7:30 am, the Gateway was crowded with most locals. In the next 15 mins the entry gate opened & we were there at our first spot. We spent some time capturing the monument & also the adjacent Taj Hotel.
Later we had a quick bite of Samosas & Chai in a nearby stall as we were hungry. From there, we took the Worli-Bandra Sea Link to leave the city. The Sea Link gave some magnificent views of the city.
We stopped for breakfast after driving for an hour away from the city. We entered Gujarat around 11 am & it was getting difficult to navigate through trucks.
We also had a couple of narrow escape when the trucks were changing lanes without indication. At one instance, when I was overtaking a truck from the right most lane, the truck suddenly steered right from middle lane. I had to apply brakes and my wife who was having a nap slipped down from the second row. Luckily she did not get hurt & luckier, I didn’t get any scolding. My daughter, as a navigator supported me as it was not my mistake. From then on, I was double cautious while overtaking trucks, but didn’t compromise on SPEED. Even many cars in the highway didn’t follow the lane discipline.
Later after a lunch break around 2:30 pm, we entered Rajasthan to have a cup of tea in the evening around 5:30pm. Witnessing a late & beautiful sunset, we continued our drive in natural light till 7 pm.
As we were nearing Udaipur, we could see a lot of resorts near the highway and some looked nice on the small hills. By 7:30 pm we reached our place of stay just before Udaipur, which was also on the highway. Finally, 904 Kms in 14.5 Hrs was not bad either. As small walk after dinner ended Day-2 on a high note.
Day 3: Udaipur to New Delhi (673 Kms)
The journey for the day started at 5:15 am from the hotel. As we need to traverse through Udaipur, we followed Google Maps & took a wrong road at a junction turn that led us through some narrow lanes. We managed to get to the highway in a few minutes as it was early morning. At some places we could see many tourists arriving thee in buses. At the junction of the highway, we stopped for a much needed tea, the starter-fuel for the driver.
With my wife as navigator today, another beautiful sunrise but in another state. The highway seemed like a state highway, but in a good condition though with some construction in a few places. We crossed many small towns, one such was Rajsamand. We drove through the marble shops that ran for a couple of Kms on either side of the highway.
Somewhere in between, today it was my daughter’s turn to slip down from the rear seat who was having a nap. But the result was same: No Injuries. This was the last FALL of the trip: reason maybe, I drove carefully or the person sleeping became over-conscious or the outsiders behaved well?
The route had a few options for food as we stopped for breakfast at a small dhaba around 8 am. We had some hot Aloo Paratha & tea before we resumed our journey. We crossed Ajmer before 10 & Jaipur around 11:30 and after 480+ Kms, the time came for lunch.
This time we had many options to choose on the highway. We opted for Hotel Highway King which was like a small food court with many other shops around it. As we stepped outside, we could feel the heat which was definitely more than 40 deg. and we wasted no time to enter into the hotel. After a light meal, we resumed our journey to the Capital city.
The next 180+ Kms journey took exactly 3 hours with a loss of 30 mins for 2 Kms near Gurugram. Finally, we managed to reach our pre-booked hotel in New Delhi by 4:15 pm.
We relaxed a bit in the room before heading towards our second landmark of the trip. Later we took an auto to visit the India Gate keeping in mind the evening traffic. After reaching the landmark, we came to know that visitors are not allowed near the monument due to the Central Vista Project construction work. We got to click some pictures with the monument from the main road itself.
Anyhow it was not a great deal as I promised my little girl that a separate itinerary to New Delhi will soon be derived.
In the late evening, we had some delicious chaats in the Delhi streets & retired back to our room for some rest.
Day 4: New Delhi to Varanasi (860 Kms)
Its
4:15 am as we start driving from our hotel. It was a drive through the
maze as the roads we took were closed (barricaded) by the Delhi Police.
After some 15-20 mins of playing in the maze, a private security guy
helped us a way out of the maze. In no time we entered the Yamuna
Expressway & zoomed to our next special destination. Any guesses?
It’s
the Taj Mahal in Agra. As per the information online, the Taj opens 30
mins before sunrise. So the plan was to visit the Taj before the Sun
starts its hot game. We reached 15 mins earlier than the planned 7 am
time. 211 Kms in 2 Hours and 15 Mins. Thanks to the Expressway.
As we
were parking, the tourist guides there asked us whether tickets have
been booked. We said No & told that we’ll buy in the counter. We
thought they wanted to sell some & make some money. To our surprise
we came to know that the ticket counter opens only by 10 am. Luckily
there was an option to book the tickets online & my wife immediately
booked it.
Just before reaching the parking, we got to see the Taj
from the Taj View point. However, my daughter was not that much excited
to that view.
This is my third visit to the Taj and still I fell
there are no words to express what it looks/feels like. One has to be
see it to believe it. We spent a lot of time walking around &
clicking a lot pictures.
On a lighter note, I asked my daughter to write about her experience on visiting the Taj Mahal. She gave me this…
My dad told me to write my experience about my visit to Taj Mahal, so here I am.
The
only thing that came to my mind when I hear the word Delhi, is Agra.
And Agra means Taj Mahal! One of the 7 wonders of the world!!!! Wohooo…
I
had been to the ‘fake’ (or look alike) Taj Mahal (Bibi Ka Maqbara in
Aurangabad) long time back and from then I wanted to visit the actual
one.
Even though Agra wasn't in our plan, my Dad specially included
it just to show me the monument. Thank U Dad for that :) As we reached
there we had to walk some distance to reach to the actual monument. I
almost gave up cause of my laziness but when I saw a huge white
structure in front of me I was blank. For a second I did not believe
that I WAS in TAJ MAHAL!!! I was amazed by its beauty and also by the
surroundings. We roamed around the monument and also went inside the
dome to see the so called Mumtaz’s grave. We clicked many pictures with
the monument and it came out so well. So now for me it’s a tick mark (✅)
for one of the 7 monuments in my bucket list.
At last I would like to say, Waah !! How MARBLE-ous is Taj.
We
still have 650 Kms to drive for the day & so had a quick bite of
breakfast before leaving the Taj Parking at 10 am. The next lap was the
second best of the trip so far, zooming through the Agra-Lucknow
Expressway covering 340 Kms in 3.5 hours before we stopped for lunch
near Lucknow. We even drove through the Emergency Air Strip here. It was
a straight highway with temporary dividers that runs for 2-3 Kms.
After
a 45 mins lunch break, we took the Purvanchal Expressway & another
highway to reach Varanasi by 6:30 pm. The delay was due to the narrow
roads & traffic there in the City. We had some snacks late in the
evening & retired for the day.
Day 5: Varanasi to Kolkata (669 Kms)
With
the last evenings experience, we planned to leave the Varanasi before
the city wakes up. We checked out by 5 am & continued our journey to
the third Metro in our list. The journey was nice with some scenic
routes.
We crossed Bihar & Jharkhand in the process to enter West
Bengal. With a halt for breakfast & lunch we managed to reach
Kolkata by 4:30 pm. Again we came across with narrow lanes & traffic
to reach our Hotel.
Keeping the traffic & roads in mind, we
later took an auto rickshaw to visit the famous Howrah Bridge. After a
short walk, we were amazed to see the huge metal structure. Unlike other
metros, this is my first visit to Kolkata. We then walked over and
across the bridge to the river bed to have a full view of the
magnificent structure. As it was getting dark, the bridge looked even
better with the colourful lights on it.
After spending some time there,
we walked back to the starting point to get a ride in the similar
Electric auto rickshaws there back to our hotel. We retired back after a
light dinner nearby.
Day 6: Kolkata to Bhubaneshwar (460 Kms)
Accomplishing
3 out of the 4 Metros, it was still 2000+ Kms to our home through the
last Metro. So it was split into 3 days in order to avoid a hectic one.
It was because I didn’t know the roads between Kolkata &
Bhubaneshwar and the bad stretch between Rajahmundry and Vijayawada.
We
started from the hotel by 6 am so as the see the Howrah Bridge in
daylight & a drive through it. So we drove through the magnificent
structure and then passed through the famous Victoria Memorial. We
could see a lot of public coming there to do their morning workout.
Clicking some pictures, we then drove to join the highway which took us
more than an hour, thanks to the narrow roads & traffic.
With a
halt for breakfast on the highway, we then proceeded to Bhubaneshwar.
There were a lot of deviations on this stretch that slowed us and not to
mention the traffic. Finally, we managed to reach our pre-booked hotel
at 1:30 pm in BBR. The hotel was on the highway with a restaurant where
we had our lunch & relaxed a bit.
Late in the evening, one of
our friend in Bhubaneshwar visited & took us for some delicious
snacks/chaats. We ate so much that we had to skip dinner and it finally
ended with some delicious Lassi from a famous stall. The day ended with
recollecting some sweet memories of our last year’s trip to Bhubaneshwar
& the non-stop drive back to Bangalore.
Day 7: Bhubaneshwar to Vijayawada (802 Kms)
We
started from the hotel at 4:10 am, just Like that of last year. I
thought it was going to be a repeat drive. The only difference was that
it was in winter & now its peak summer.
Google maps said “It will take 16 Hrs to reach your destination”. I said “Thank You”.
The
main worry in this route is the last 160 Kms of bad stretch between
Rajahmundry and Vijayawada and I wanted to do that during day light as
there are a lot of craters in the road.
Without worrying much about
Google’s time, we drove in our style. We drove through the beautiful
hills, coming across the mighty Chilika Lake. Here too, we had an early
sunrise as in Kolkata.
We managed to enter AP for breakfast &
stopped at the same place as last time for breakfast. Another 500 odd
Kms to go and we were sure that by evening we can reach Vijayawada. As
soon as I said this, my daughter had other plans & started searching
for options online. I told her that I cannot approve her plan until we
reach the Hotel.
Finally, the much awaited Rajahmundy passed by &
at some point there was single road from a few Kms. We travelled some
50 Kms & still we could not find the bad stretch. We then stopped
for lunch around 1 pm. The final 100+ Kms was easily covered in less
than 2 hours. To my surprise there is no bad stretch of roads as
experienced last year, thanks to NHAI. So finally the 780 Kms was covered in 11.5 Hrs as compared to 16 Hrs suggested by Google Maps.
Now
as we checked into the hotel before 4 pm, I told my daughter that your
plan can be executed. Her plan: To watch the RRR movie (Telugu) in a theatre
nearby. Tickets were immediately booked for the 6 pm show. Luckily, the
cost was much lower than in Bangalore.
Relaxing a bit in the room, we
left for the show by 5 pm. That night, we had our dinner with NTR, Ram
Charan, Alia Bhat & other foreigners. My daughter enjoyed the movie
very much & so did we.
We reached hotel by 10 pm to have our last night’s sleep of the trip.
Day 8: Vijayawada to Bangalore via Chennai (785 Kms)
The final day of the trip started with the much needed tea & some biscuits at a nearby shop.
We
had some mixed feelings: Me worried about the drive getting over so
soon, my wife worried about cooking from tomorrow & my daughter
excited to play with her friends.
I had an initial plan of visiting
the Durga temple in the morning and leave Vijayawada after
breakfast & reach Chennai by evening to get some cool breeze in the
Marina beach. But due to the scorching heat, the plan changed
completely. Now the plan is to leave early, visit a landmark in Chennai
& leave to Bangalore after lunch. In between this, my daughter was
working on her micro-plan. Hope you can guess her plan this time.
The
drive started at 5:30 am and as usual Google showed 8 hours to Chennai.
My daughter motivated me that I can do much better than that. I knew
her intention.
We drove on some excellent road crossing many bridges. In
no time we reached Nellore to break for our first meal of the day. This
turned out to be the fastest lap of the trip clocking 267 Kms in just 2
Hrs 35 Mins. Now I was damn sure that we can reach Chennai before noon.
After
the break, we resumed our drive to enter the last state of our GQ trip;
Tamil Nadu. There was some traffic as soon as we entered Chennai: my
birth place. Finally, we managed to reach the Chennai Central Station
just before noon. I could see the fresh red paint of the monument with a
blue sky background. I showed other buildings to my daughter on the
way. We immediately parked our car in the Metro parking & were ready
for some great pics with the monument.
As the purpose of the GQ
road trip was accomplished by noon, my daughter was planning for a lunch
with Pooja & Vijay. No surprises here. Immediately we drove to the
nearest theatre in 10 mins and booked tickets for the movie Beast (Tamil); 12:45
show. As we parked our BEAST, many were surprisingly looking at the KA
registration. They may be thinking that we have travelled 350 kms to
watch the movie here. My mind voice: Hello boss, we have travelled 5700
Kms from Bangalore to reach Chennai.
Before entering the theatre, we
had a much needed Fruit juice & Rose Milk to beat the heat. As said
earlier, we had our lunch inside with ‘Thalapathy’ Vijay & Pooje
Hegde and the movie ended by 3:30 pm. Navigating through the Saturday
traffic, it took some time to leave Chennai city. On the way I showed
many places to my daughter that include Rajiv Gandhi’s Memorial at
Sriperampudur. Meanwhile I sparked a thought to my little girl that we
can do a HAT-TRICK by watching KGF, Part-2 tomorrow in Bangalore. She
was on the job. Wait till the end to know if we did it.
We came across a
lot of road work & deviations on the highway. Filling the fuel for
the last time, we stopped for a tea at Ranipet. We didn’t miss the hot Plantain Bajjis there before resuming our journey. Forgot to tell you
that my BEAST crossed the 1 Lakh Kms mark after crossing Chennai and I
was glad to see the figure in my odometer.
Earlier in the beginning
of the trip, we read about the rains in Bangalore and were feeling sad
that we didn’t see a drop throughout our trip. Once we reached Chittoor
after dark, we didn’t realise the dark clouds above us. From Chittoor
onwards, it started pouring and we felt like we are welcomed by the rain
gods for the last lap. The drive was awesome in the rain with some
lightening in between.
As the rain slowed us down, we stopped for the
last time for dinner at one of the many options in the Old Madras Road.
After dinner, the remaining 100 odd Kms was completed in 1.5 Hrs to
reach our Home-Sweet-Home by 10:30 pm.
Another Epic Road Trip
completed successfully, covering a distance of 6028 Kms in 8 days.
However, this one was different in many ways than our 8000 Kms
Bangalore-Ladakh Road Trip. To mention a few: Confirmed Hotel booking vs
No Booking at all, Highway drive vs Off-road, Fastag vs Cash, 1 driver
vs 2 drivers, Family vs Friends.
The bottom line is that it is possible to do a Long Road Trip with family too.
The Hangover
The
next couple of days I still had highways in my dreams and in the bed, I
was turning left/right when the highway turned left/right. In the city
too, I was trying to follow the lane which was very difficult. Even in
the bike I was missing the seat belt.
The Summary
Overall, the
trip went on very well. We woke up in one city & slept in another
for 8 days. We saw sunrise & sunset in different states and that too
through all the glass windows of our car in this trip. We enjoyed all
kinds of food on the entire trip.
The key to this successful Road
Trip is Proper planning, Consistent driving and Support from the
co-travellers. Everything happened as per the plan & in fact we
reached many destinations some 3 to 5 hrs before the planned time,
thanks to NHAI & FASTAG. The roads are too good except for some
stretch and there are a lot of idiots who don’t know how to drive on the
Highway. So we should be careful.
This trip’s experience says that
one can do the GQ drive in 6 days, once the Expressway between Mumbai
& Delhi is ready. Auditions OPEN for my co-travellers.
In Short:
12 States
8 Days / 7 Nights
6,000 Kms
4 Metro Cities
3 Travellers
1 Memorable Road Trip
Total Distance travelled: 6028 Kms
Total Drive Time: 80 Hrs excluding all breaks
Coming
to our HAT-TRICK, we couldn’t make it due to 2 reasons: Tickets were
not available on that Sunday & mainly my daughter had not seen the
first part yet. So she watched KGF: Part-1 on Sunday. We booked the
tickets for Monday and watched KGF: Part-2.
However, 3 wickets in 4 balls is also not bad either.
