Thread by @championswimmer

So I recently moved from #Delhi to #Bangalore and the easiest and fastest way I could move my work desk setup (monitors, PC, gaming chair) and my car was to stuff all that into the 🚗 and drive it all the way down.

So here's a smol thread 🧵 on a DEL-BLR road trip.

Day 1 was planned to be #Delhi to #Gwalior. But that would have left a very long 2nd day, so we planned to go a little further to Jhansi.

A complete chance browsing through @bookingcom led us to discover this beautiful Bundelkhand Riverside Resort at Orchcha to stay.

Day 1 was 425 km. Total drive time was 10hrs+, because we stopped at Agra to visit @TajMahal too.

Booked Hotel Atulyaa Taaj (apart from Oberoi Amarvilas, this is the nearest hotel to Taj) simply as an expensive parking spot 😅 as the car was loaded with stuff.

The Bundelkhand Riverside Resort is the haveli of the erstwhile Raja of Orchcha, and imho, the best possible place one can do a highway stop on the first leg of this trip. Highly recommended!

Next day we went from Orchcha (Jhansi) to Nagpur.

In terms of road quality, we faced the worst stretches on this leg. Places where the highway goes through a city and is pretty much a city road. Places under construction/repair.

90% of it is still 100kmph level good.

Day 2 was 550 kms of driving. And thus again 10hrs on the road.

We stopped just a little before Nagpur inside the @PenchMP Tiger Reserve 🐯 to check out the resorts.

Sadly post COVID, all are at very low/nil occupancy. But worth staying if you have 2 spare days in the trip.

There's a lot of stretch of the National Highway that cuts through the tiger reserve. Despite tall barricades along the roads, monkeys on the road are a common feature.

We had to get out of Pench post sundown and it was spine-chillingly eerie to drive through the unlit jungle.

Next day we drove down to #Hyderabad

This was quite a beauty of a drive. The amount of greenery, hills, valleys, small river crossings we saw around will be unparalleled. Great roads too, the whole stretch.

Not gonna lie, Hyderabad stop was all about @IKEA pilgrimage.

First time visit to IKEA, and totalllly worth it! Bought a bunch of things, and noted down a bunch more to order.

Protip: Good place to take out someone too 😅, won't run out of conversation starters.

Day 3 was 500km, and we didn't stop at all (had to hurry to reach before IKEA closes) so covered it all in 8 hrs.

The last 50km stretch, the bypass around Hyderabad and the road to HiTech city were just 👨‍🍳🤌

Easily 150kph capable roads, 4 lanes throughout, well maintained!

At every stop I tried to stay at a good hotel, primarily because I wanted the car, laden to the brim with my stuff, to be parked properly.

@Westin at Hyderabad has one of the best breakfast buffet spreads, I figured, as a result. Definitely recommended just for the breakfast.

Final leg - home run. Compared to the last 2 legs, where there would often be 30-40 min stretches of driving through literally middle of nowhere (no dhabas, no small towns, no civilisation), this whole leg is through quite populated areas. Not a single deserted stretch.

Day 4: Another 525 km.

Stopped at IKEA again in the morning 😅
Also stopped at @Lenskart_com as driving with the sun in the eye was starting to get to me. Buying shades helped a lot, albeit only on the last day.

Reached @peakbengaluru quite late into the night.

Thankfully journey ended at Indiranagar and didn't need to go upto @SonyWorldJn, or else would have had taken another 4 days to cross the stretch of deleted road at Koramangala😅😅

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