Make those weekend road trips special

Missed heading out of town while trying to meet deadlines during the holidays earlier this year? Don’t despair, you can sneak in a few from out of the long weekends coming up during the rest of the year. They are perfect for driving out of town for short two to three day holidays with the kind of freedom that only driving your own vehicle can give you. Here are a few road trips we made earlier this year, including one that was simply a drive to rediscover the city by night.

Maximum City Mumbai’s reputation for having driver-friendly roads may not be so good during peak-hour or, in some locales, even regular traffic hours. So your best bet to enjoy the car ride may be by heading to some of the scenic spots with well-laid tarmac within a 100-kilometre radius around the city. For a change though, we decided to try and experience Mumbai’s roads when most of the city retires for the night.

Like New York, Mumbai is a city that never really sleeps. But thankfully, the hectic crowd on its streets melts away after the night wears on well past office hours. And then Mumbai turns on its charm. There is suddenly more room everywhere, the views are unrestricted and you notice landmarks that remain hidden during the day, not to mention the empty parking lots. There is a magical quality to the views across the bays and the city’s famous art-deco buildings come alive after being lit up by the orange glow of the sodium-vapour street lamps.

Mumbai’s major landmarks can finally be seen up close and their famous architecture appreciated. The Gateway of India, Gothic-Victorian buildings like the Chhatrapati Shivaji Railway Station, the Haji Ali Dargah, the Bandra Basillica and even the latest, modern architectural landmark — the Bandra-Worli sea link are all worth revisiting during the quiet, after-work hours of the night. The best part is there is a lot of Mumbai’s famous street food that is still available well into the night. We topped off the night out with a windows-down, breezy drive curving around the Queen’s Necklace (Marine Drive).

Keeping us half-a-dozen friends company was the Renault Lodgy Stepway, a comfortable and quiet seven-seater with all-row air conditioning. The engine is the refined 1.5-litre dCi Diesel engine, which in the top trim produces a very useable 110 PS of peak power. The big plus with the Lodgy is its relatively small footprint for a people’s mover, which can be helpful while driving and parking in the city.

The East Coast Road as it is called now used be a kutcha, patched-up stretch decades ago. Today it connects Chennai and Pondicherry, and brings history and modernity together as it weaves through the ancient town of Mahabalipuram and the IT corridor on the fringes of South Chennai. The ECR has been a favourite choice for many of our test drives because of its smooth well-laid Tarmac, even though most of the 140-kilometre stretch was single-carriageway and bereft of medians. Widening of the highway, relaying the Tarmac and the addition of tall medians has been on for more than a year now.

Want to check out the rock temples of Mahabalipuram, get a fill of fresh sea-food, planning a weekend of peace and quiet in the French town of Pondicherry... then a drive down ECR is the route to take. We decided to try taking this familiar road in a ‘Hatke’ choice of transport — the all-electric Mahindra e2o Plus. Of course, we were hit by range-anxiety right away. The e2o is said to be capable of delivering about 110-120 km on a full charge of the lithium ion battery pack. Our test mule’s digital dash was indicating an available range of 85 km.

We decided to take the risk of running out of charge and looking for a charging station midway through to Pondicherry if necessary. The biggest stumbling block if one is considering going electric in India is the lack of a widespread charging network. Mahindra’s home town Bengaluru has the highest number of officially installed charging stations and there are only 16 of them. There are far fewer in other Indian cities. Even if you do carry the charging cable with you, finding a 15 amp socket is not going to be easy, like we discovered. Eventually, after a bit of searching, we found a friendly cafe owner who unplugged his water cooler so that the e2o could be charged.

The ECR winds along the coastline of Tamil Nadu, alternately swinging inland and heading back towards the desolate beaches south of Chennai. Vast salt pans, old temples, stone carvers at work and French cuisine with a local flavour served at roadside cafes are the highlights of the typical road trip down the ECR. Sitting in front of the serene, beautiful Matrimandir at Auroville, the hassle of charging the e2o seemed worth it considering the car’s ‘nearly’ zero carbon footprint.

With so many nearby towns and hill-stations just a few hours by road, there are a number of weekend getaways to choose from if you are in Delhi.

Before the summer heat set in, we decided to head to Chandigarh and Amritsar on a four-day outing.

Like it is the case with so many of our cities, getting out of town and on to the highway takes more time than the time you spend on the much longer stretch of the highway.

The drive from Delhi to Chandigarh is no exception. Getting out of town is a pain, but the three-lane stretches of National Highway 44 are easy to handle at three-digit speeds for long durations. Along the way, there are hundreds of dhabas where you can stop for some delicious, authentic Punjabi food. Chandigarh is a tree-lined haven best appreciated after you’ve just left the chaos of Delhi behind you.

We were still fresh after the four-hour drive and managed to check out a few of Chandigarh’s popular tourist spots like the rock garden, Sukhna lake and the central shopping district. The drive next day from Chandigarh to Amritsar is a bit of a mix with many stretches of the highway now being widened and under repair. Thankfully, our choice of stead for the trip was the Hyundai Tucson, the midsize sports utility that allowed comfortable seating for five and loads of boot space too, perfect for a four-day trip. We had also picked out the two-litre CRDi Diesel engine variant for its low-end Torque and pulling power — ideal when you have a full load. Amritsar’s biggest draws continue to be the Golden Temple, Sikhism’s holiest shrine, the Jallianwala Bagh memorial and the change of guards spectacle at Wagah, the India-Pakistan border. But who can forget the fantastic local fare to treat your taste buds at some of the small, crowded restaurants dotting the streets of old Amritsar.

COMMENT NOW