India Road Trip 2021: Bangalore-Sanchi-Agra-Jaipur-Jodhpur-Jaisalmer-Udaipur-Indore-Bangalore-5500km

Route: Bangalore -> Bhimbetka -> Sanchi -> Agra -> Jaipur -> Jodhpur -> Jaisalmer -> Udaipur -> Indore -> Nagpur -> Bangalore

Days: 18 Distance: 5500km Driving: Maruti Ertiga, with family of 3

Last year 2020, we had our first 5k km road trip from Bangalore - Kolkata - Varanasi - Jabalpur - Kolkata on our Maruti Ertiga with family (myself, wife and daughter), which gave us lots of confidence to do more such trips.

https://www.tripoto.com/trip/india-road-trip-bangalore-kolkata-bangalore-5000km-61867029722aa

This year also we planned to start such journey, destination unknown but decided to do another 5k. So utilized the Dussehra vacation and planned to do MP and headed towards Bhopal via Hyderabad and Nagpur.

Day 1: Bangalore to Hyderabad (570 km - 7:30 hrs)

Started around 4pm from Bangalore after completing the online classes and office and reached Hyderabad around 11:30 PM. Stayed in a hotel for the night. Excellent road conditions.

Day 2: Hyderabad to Nagpur (580 km - 8 hrs)

Finished online classes again and office (half working day) and started post lunch (paradise biriyani) and resumed our journey towards Nagpur. Road conditions deteriorated after Adilabad and also no good roadside eateries for family throughout this route.

Day 3: Nagpur to Bhimbetka & Sanchi (410 km - 7 hrs)

Our stay in Nagpur hotel - Airport center point hotel was just excellent, they have upgraded our room to suite one, which any ask. Their services were extraordinary. It was a buffet with spread breakfast. Highly recommended. After breakfast started our journey towards Bhimbetka rock shelter, near Bhopal. Road till Betul was just excellent, after which the road construction was underway on ghat section, so the speed slows down. Reached Bhimbetka around 5PM and visited this UNESCO world heritage site (a must visit). Then we resumed our journey towards Sanchi ( Reached after 2 hrs, as the road conditions were not good at all). On the way we crossed the Tropic of Cancer site.

Day 4: Sanchi to Agra (520 km - 9 Hrs)

We stayed in MPT Sanchi retreat, the property was great from MP tourism but rooms were not maintained. Visited Sanchi stupas for the first half and revisited our ancient Mauryan empire era and stories about Ashoka, the great! Our plan was to visit Agra and then travel back Gwalior, Jhansi, Khajuraho etc. So we moved towards Agra and had our lunch on the way in some highway hotel, which was pretty good family restaurant. The road from Sanchi till NH44 was not good, but once we reached NH44, it was pretty smooth drive till Agra.

Day 5: Agra (Visited Taj Mahal)

First half again, my daughter attended online classes from Hotel (Taj - IHCL) and I did my office WFH till evening 4PM. Then we visited the Taj Mahal for rest of the evening. The view of Taj mahal from our Hotel Room was also awesome, the services from Taj - IHCL was excellent. Highly recommended.

Day 6: Agra - Fatehpur Sikri - Jaipur (250 km - 4 Hrs)

We changed our plan from here onwards and decide to visit Rajasthan instead of going back to Gwalior. Again we finished Online classes and WFH-office and started in the evening 4PM towards Jaipur. Visited Fathepur sikri on the way. The Road till Jaipur was excellent, reached Jaipur in the night.

Day 7,8: Jaipur

We stayed in Pink city, Jaipur for couple of days and visited many places like - City Palace, Hawa Mahal, Jantar Mantar, Patrika, Amber Fort, Jal Mahal, Chokhi Dhani resort, Patrika gate etc. Also tried local cuisine - dal bati churma, and other snacks in famous LMB and did lots of local shopping.

Day 9: Jaipur to Jodhpur (350 km - 5 hrs)

We started in the morning after breakfast towards Jodhpur. The roads throughout the Rajasthan are excellent but there are over-speeding tracking vehicle on many places. Since I was caught first time, I was cautiously driving below the speed limit henceforth. But soon I found it to be scam, as they stopped me few more time and harassed me even though I was within limit. This was confirmed when they caught few more guys with HR and KL registration, in front of me while letting off the local vehicles. When questioned them, the reply was local guys knows we will be checking at this spot, so they slow down here. Anyhow we had lunch on the way and reached Jodhpur in the evening. The stay in Kankariya heritage was excellent, the view from terrace overlooking the blue city and Mehrangarh fort was just awesome.

Day 10: Jodhpur to Jaisalmer (280 km - 4 hrs)

Visited the Mehrangarh fort and Umaid bhawan palace in the morning. Both are must visit palaces in this blue city, Jodhpur. Later post lunch we started towards Jaisalmer and reached before the sunset.

Day 11: Jaisalmer & Thar

We started the day with Jaisalmer fort, Sonar kella (became famous due to Satyajit Ray movie - sonar kella). He is revered as god here, as the unknown town was soon a populous tourist circuit due to his movie. This is the living fort, as till date people live inside the fort. Jaisalmer is very small town but famous for havelis and architecture, every house and building is made of sandstone, thus called the golden city (as whole city reflects like a gold under the sun).

Post lunch we moved towards Sam Sand dune, Thar desert and checked-into Kasam desert safari resort. It was excellent experience and superb hospitality by them. The package includes the accommodation in deluxe tent, camel ride and Thar jeep safari in sand dunes, cultural program (folk songs, kalbelia dance and some acrobatics), and full meals for a day. Highly recommended.

Also visited the abandoned OR haunted village nearby - Kuldhara village. There are any folklore why this village is abandoned within one night but definitely worth a visit.

Day 12: Jaisalmer to Udaipur (530 km - 9 Hrs)

Next day morning after breakfast we resumed our journey towards Udaipur, which was good till Pali, after which the state highway starts and very pathetic road conditions till Nathdwara. One can visit Kumbhalgarh fort on the way, which has a great wall of India. We could not visit, as it was already dark by the time we reached here, owning to bad road condition. However we reached Udaipur safely around 9 PM night.

Day 13: Udaipur

We visited the City palace, Lake Pichola, Jagmandir for the day. This itself will consume the whole day, however there are many places to visit Udaipur, which is also called the city of lakes. Definitely this should be high on itinerary with more number of days.

Day 14: Udaipur to Indore (410 km - 7 Hrs)

We decided to end our joyful trip and planned to travel back home to Bangalore. The route chosen was from Indore, Nagpur, Hyderabad and Bangalore because entry to Karnataka from Maharashtra required an RT-PCR test. The road condition from Udaipur to Indore was excellent. Reached Indore, the cleanest city in India, by evening and took rest.

Day 15: Indore

We decided to just relax this day after a hectic Rajasthan tour, thus did a half day city tour and try the local cuisine (Indore is also the food capital of middle India). Always try out chappan dukan for your taste buds.

Day 16: Indore to Nagpur (450 km - 9 Hrs)

Day 17, 18: Nagpur to Bangalore (1100 km - 15 hrs)

We drove 1100km, 15 hrs continuously from Nagpur to Bangalore as we did not want to spend another day in hotel. There were not eateries from Nagpur to Hyderabad, so we skipped the lunch and had heavy snacks near Hyderabad in the evening. Then we resumed our journey back to Bangalore throughout he night with one dinner break and reached home early morning 3:30 AM. The night journey from Hyderabad to Bangalore was smooth and safe as the road condition are excellent. I was worried about the engine getting heated up, but our lovely Ertiga helped us reach home safely without any problem, worth every praise.