Since I can remember, I have always been shuttling between Mumbai and Delhi. I am one of those people who could never take sides during a Mumbai vibe vs Delhi vibe argument.
Contents
The Past
I had bought my car in Delhi and since I had to move to Mumbai in 2017, I drove down to Mumbai with my mom. Read about that journey in the below link:
Since that was my first long woman roadtrip, I was initially nervous and excited in equal parts. And then the family and friends convincing happened which drained out most of my energy leaving me 70% nervous.
On that trip, we stuck to crowded cities and national highways, dressed conservatively, were very conscious about not attracting attention (especially at dhabas). We took the most conventional and popular route (via Rajasthan – Gujarat) on that trip.
The Present
In 2022, I had to move to Delhi and now had to drive the same car from Mumbai to Delhi. And with the same co-passenger : My mom
Having done a lot of woman roadtrips since 2017, I was hell bent on taking a different route and exploring new roads and cities.
Note: A new Mumbai – Delhi expressway is being constructed which will bring down the time of travel from 24 to 12 hours. The first stretch of that expressway opened in Feb 2023 and my mom and I drove till Jaipur via the new expressway. Read about that trip: Delhi to Jaipur via Mumbai – Delhi expressway
Also, check out some amazingly useful roadtrip products on amazon:
Pepper Spray, Pee Safe, Peechute; car freshener, Car charger, Car charging cable, Car air pump , Car tissue holder, Car vacuum cleaner, Car door edge cover guard
The Plan and Preparation
I zeroed in on the Madhya Pradesh route. One stop over destination was decided – Indore. It was en-route and both of us had never been there.
As I was moving, most of my energy and time was spent in packing and wrapping up things in Mumbai. I had no time to research for the alternate routes or other possible stops. The only preparation that I did prior to the trip was to get my car serviced, fill up the fuel tank and download some latest songs.
The night before our journey, the roadtrip excitement hit me and as with most of my roadtrips, I was too excited to sleep. I started researching on alternate stopovers for our first night. The tentative plan was to drive till Indore and then take our first halt, however Indore was about 11 hours away (~600km).
Knowing the multiple number of stops I like to take, I was doubtful of making it to Indore prior to sunset.
Part 1: Start from Mumbai
As with most of my roadtrips, we started from Mumbai at 5 AM and beat the Mumbai – Thane traffic. We decided to take the conventional route to Indore as I could not find any alternate state highway options without adding too many kms to the journey. So the route was Thane – Nashik – Malegaon – Dhule – Indore.
Early morning according to me is the best time for driving so we wanted to cover as much distance as possible before the sun was too high.
Keeping that in mind, we took our first break three hours later for breakfast around Nashik . This was most probably going to be my last meal in Maharashtra in a long time so I wisely chose vada pav and was rewarded with some yummy, hot and fresh ones.
We were starting on this roadtrip on 10 March 2022 which happened to be the state election result day and my mom was hell bent on following live updates. In fact that was her only condition to being on the road on such an important date.
Thankfully, the internet connectivity was amazing throughout our stretch. So I fixed livestreaming for mom and then peacefully went back to route planning.
A few more stops later, we realised that we would not be able to make it to Indore before dark.
The stops did set us back in time, but were absolutely worth it. We also managed to squeeze in another round of vada pavs and sugarcane juice before leaving Maharashtra!
So, I now started looking at possible stopovers before Indore.
One option was to halt on the highway itself, but unlike on NH44, there were not many hotel options on this highway (NH52). So that was not preferable for us.
I noticed that we would be crossing river Narmada and started looking for cities around the river which were on our route.
There were two options:
- Maheshwar – this seemed to only be a half an hour diversion from our highway (NH52)
- Omkareshwar – this seemed to be more interesting but was causing us to take a diversion of 2 hours. Also, this would defeat our purpose of reaching the halt city prior to dusk.
So, Maheshwar it was.
Part 2 in Maheshwar
Maheshwar is a small town on the banks of river Narmada and is about 15 km east of NH 52. The town has many temples mostly along the river and also has one fort.
The town is quite picturesque due to which quite a few movies like Ashoka, Kalank, Bajirao Mastaani and Pad Man have been shot here.
While researching in the car, I saw a few accommodation options in Maheshwar and we decided to go to the town and select the hotel after seeing the actual rooms as the photos on the net may not always give a true picture.
We saw one hotel (I don’t remember the name now) which was quite highly rated on travel company sites. However, we did not like the room. The second hotel on our list was MP Tourism hotel – ‘Narmada resort’ which was on the bank of the river.
We liked the property and the room was quite decent and priced at INR 2000 including breakfast which was reasonable. Totally recommended if you want to stay in Maheshwar.
By the time we checked into the hotel, it was around 5PM and I wanted to see the sunset along the river. My mom though had other plans. She had realised that this town is where Maheshwari sarees are weaved.
Since we had very few hours of daylight, we had a pact to check saree shops till 18:00 PM and then head towards the ghat.
We quickly freshened up, checked some of the shops for an hour and then headed towards the river for a leisure stroll – in time to catch the beautiful sunset.
Once the excitement of the new city and the drive subsided, the exhaustion of lack of sleep from previous night and the long drive hit me. We had an early dinner and I called it a night by 20:00 PM. Mom on the other hand was busy on the phone – I had no energy to ask, so I slept off.
Part 3: Maheshwar to Indore
Indore was about 2 hours away from Maheshwar. We had 2 route options with similar timings:
- Go back to NH 52 (15 km west) and then go along the NH 52 till Indore
- Take the parallel MPSH1 and reach Indore via Mhow
It was actually an easy decision – I love State highways. Although they slow you down, but the actual beauty and feel of Indian roadtrip is on these roads as per me.
So, MPSH1 it was.
Indore was at a distance of 2 hours from Maheshwar. Our plan was to have an early breakfast and leave by 8:AM, visit Maheshwar fort and reach Indore by noon which would give us the entire day to explore Indore.
My mom though had other plans.
While I was peacefully sleeping, mom was busy researching about Maheshwari sarees. At breakfast, I hear the revised plan from mom. She wanted to give saree shopping another go.
Supposedly what we did the previous day was a recce.
Being the sweet daughter (!) I agreed to the change in plan. There was a shop within our resort premise which was supposed to open at 9:00 AM. We got ready, loaded our car and waited for the shop to open. After spending about half an hour in the shop, mom was partial towards a particular light green saree but was not very convinced. Seeing her hesitation along with the strong intent of buying a saree, the shop guy suggested that we can visit his godown (warehouse) which had a lot more variety.
Mom was convinced. I had no choice.
We followed the guy through some narrow lanes and reached the godown which was about 15 min away. After nearly one hour of looking at at least 20 sarees, my mom chose the original light green saree itself!
This entire shopping spree had set us back by at least 2 hours and now we had to cancel the plan to visit Maheshwar fort.
At about 10:30 AM, we started towards MP SH1. Within 10 mins of our drive, I realised I had made the right choice in choosing this highway.
The roads were in excellent condition and surrounded with what seemed to me like wheat fields. Light yellow fields till where the eyes could see.
A beautiful drive. And yes, we had to stop a few times on this road to take in the scenery.
After driving for about half an hour in plains, we were surprised to find ourselves climbing to a good enough height. It seemed like a hill station. Without knowing what to expect and placing all our trust in google maps, we continued along the steep incline trying to enjoy the scenery. After numerous twists and turns, we finally reached what seemed like a touristy point – Jam gate.
Turns out that this was a picnic spot nearly 900m above sea level. Unfortunately, we could not see the scenery clearly from that point as it was a bit hazy on that particular day, but the place surely had the hill station vibe. Especially the cool air even on that bright sunny noon day.
After spending some time there, we headed towards Indore and finally reached the city at around 1 PM.
Tolls
The tolls on this route were on the higher side. We paid a total of INR 800 for a distance of ~600km (Mumbai to Indore via Maheshwar). The toll details are mentioned in the screenshot.
For the onward journey from Indore to Delhi, check the below link
Women’s Road trip: Mumbai to Delhi via MP (Part 2)
I have also created a vlog on this journey:
Excellent blog.
Thank You for the encouragement!