BHPian Corbettcub recently shared this with other enthusiasts: Hello Team Members, This is a long awaited post and I had procrastinated about writing this for over a year. This trip was done in Aug’24 and was my second road trip after Puri to Mumbai within 3 months of ownership. Details -Passengers : 3 Members on boardVehicle : Honda City CVTLuggage : 3 medium sized bags & multiple small bagsTotal Duration : 7 days [4th Aug till 10th Aug in Year’24]Total Distance : 2353 kmTotal Mileage : 17 KMPL Day 1:Mumbai to Surat [270 kms] During Aug’24, I was staying in Thane. My parents made a visit to my place and we had decided to go on a road trip to Dwarka Dham, Nageshwar & Somnath Jyotirlinga. We started on 4th Aug from Thane and the plan was to reach Vadodara. We left early around 6 AM but encountered traffic from the Ghodbunder Road almost till Vapi. The traffic only worsened as we went ahead and I remember very clearly that after 6-7 hours of journey, we had covered only 70-80 kms. This should give an idea of how bad the traffic was. It was raining then and the roads were broken. Moreover, I observed a lot of truck traffic on this route till Vapi. At one point I was so frustrated with the condition that we even thought of returning back. Once we reached Vapi, the conditions were better but we did not carry the same excitement of the road trip which we had at the start of the day. We stayed at Ginger Surat. It is a basic stay but solves the purpose with decent parking space available. Day 2: Surat to Dwarka [~675 km] Now comes the good part. With an extremely bad start on day 1, we did not have slightest of idea of the good roads ahead of us in Gujarat. It was on this road that we had the chance of experiencing the Mumbai Delhi Expressway. Amazing Roads I must say. The entire road was smooth and we reached Ginger Dwarka at night. This was when the excitement for the trip was back again and I started looking forward to the trip. The car returned in excellent FE of ~19 kmpl. Day 3: Stay at Dwarka and visit to Beyt Dwarka & Nageshwara Jyotirlinga In the morning, we made a visit to Nageshwara Jyotirlinga which was around 25 km one way. It was a narrow road and since we were travelling in monsoon season, most of the fields around were submerged in water. The temple is under renovation and visitor rush was modest. We completed our darshan and were back to the hotel by around 11 AM. Out of the blue, we came to know that a bridge was constructed which connected Dwarka to Beyt Dwarka. We finished the breakfast within half an hour and left for Beyt Dwarka. We travelled on the bridge which is named as Sudarshan Setu. This bridge was inaugurated on 25th Feb’24. It has a separae walkway and although just 4 lane, it does solve the purpose. After reaching Beyt Dwarka, one has to park their personal vehicle (ample parking space available) and then take an auto. It took around 200 Rs. After our darshan, we came back to the hotel in Dwarka and took rest for the rest of the day. Day 4: Dwarka to Somnath [~226 km] This is an amazing road. We left somewhere around 10 AM after our breakfast and reached our stay at Somnath around 2 PM. The coastal road is a good drive and roads are smooth. Butter Smooth!. The views around were fascinating and immediately reminded me of the coastline of Vizag. We booked our stay at Regent Central Somnath. The stay is decent and I would definitely recommend this for families. In the evening, we made a visit to the temple. The new corridor which is built around the temple is scenic with designated parking space. The corridor made is similar to the one made around Jagannath Puri Temple & Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain. Day 5: Somnath to Vadodara [~460 km] We started our return journey for Mumbai but were sure about not taking the route of Borivali Exit. We decided to take the Nashik route in our return way. One of my father’s friend works in the IOCL Refinery and we visited the IOCL Township. Interestingly, I noticed that there two silencers sort of equipment in his Hyundai Verna. He explained that there were fire arrestor and IOCL replaces the stock silencer of vehicles which travel inside the refinery to avoid any accident.We stayed for a night and left for Nashik the other day. Day 6 & 7: Vadodara to Nashik to Thane [~540 km] We stayed at Ginger in Nashik. The roads, as soon as we enter Maharashtra, does become bad. Ginger Nashik is one place I would ask to avoid. My experience was not good with the stay in terms of hygiene and food quality. The next day we left for Thane and used the old Mumbai Nashik highway. Samruddhi was not in operations then as far as I remember. Conclusion: 1. The roads in Maharashtra are not good for most of the part. I experienced the same when I travelled from Telangana as well as when I travelled to/from Gujarat. 2. Not drawing comparisons with SUV body type but sedans are comfortable. Very Much I would say. My mother usually avoids long road trips but she was absolutely fine after this road trip of ours. 3. We were 3 members with boot full of luggage. The car did not scrape at any point throughout the road trip. I believe the human cry around low GC is a lot more than the actual encounter of the users. Considering I was in a Honda City, I am sure cars like Virtus/Slavia would have performed even better. 4. If possible, avoid travelling during monsoons. You will have to be extra careful throughout. 5. The car performed brilliantly. The 1.5L engine of Honda is absolutely praise worthy. If we rightly time the paddle shifters and slot the car into Sports mode, one can have a fair bit of fun with the automatic variant. However, the increase in pace shall not match the increase in engine noise. So, this was about my second road trip, documenting which took almost a year for me. LAZY!!! But yes, we did have a lot of fun! Thank you for reading across. Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.
