Bangalore-Mumbai-Bangalore

Hi Guys this blog if about my sudden strip from Bangalore to Mumbai and return. I have to go to Mumbai from Bangalore urgently so immediately I looked for flights. As we all know immediate booking of flights are always costly, so I looked for alternate ways.

After flights my first choice was train but trains takes a way lot more time like around 22-26 hrs, so this option is also removed.

Then I checked for road route, AC Sleeper buses. To my surprise bus takes around 16-18 hrs with min of 3 stops. Then my search begins for best bus operator.

Usually all bus operators are more or less same, so I thought I will try one for onward journey and one for return.

So for onward journey I selected VRL Travels, as this was one of the best rated and reviewed. Other than this was SRS and National which were in most rated but less rating.

So I booked VRL through Redbus.in and ticket cost was 2400/pp for AC Sleeper. Ticket price are totally fluctuate as per date/day & season. I was little skeptical about the bus punctuality but to my surprise bus was just 15 min late and did not got delayed anywhere in b/w.

There are many pickup point in Bangalore and I opted for Yashwantpur as kind of it is the last part of city traffic, also it was at similar distance with other near by pickup location. There was just 1 or 2 more pickup stops after it.

The bus was neat and clean and there were no cargo load inside or even in the luggage area of the bus like what people have mentioned for other bus operators. Official timing was around 4.30 PM at Yashwantpur but it came 15 min late and left from there at around 5 PM.

Sleeper sections were neat with clean bed-sheets and blankets. There were no separate pillows provided. There is individual LCD in each sleeper which can be turned off. In double sleeper there is separate storage to keep your shoes or small bags/backpacks/handbag, which is not there in single sleeper.

Every sleeper has curtains for privacy. There was no foul smell in the bus throughout the journey which was good else full journey will be unpleasant. After leaving Yashwantpur it stopped at around 6.40 PM which was first official midway stop.

It stopped at VRL’s own restaurant. The washroom was clean and there they have separate Western section. This was a large property with ample parking and decent options for eating with prices on little higher side. I had tea and it was Ok.

Total stoppage time was around 15 min max. After this we can either watch the movie they play or if you got something on your phone or laptop. Yes there was a charging point and it was working perfectly fine. After running for around 3 hrs it stopped for dinner break at around 10 PM at Deol Punjabi Dhaba. Till this place total distance covered was around 315 Km from Bangalore.

Here it stopped for around 30 min, it was not like some other operators that they say 30 min but don’t move for 40-50 min, these guys were very punctual didn’t delayed more then 5-7 min. After dinner bus stopped at Hubli at one of VRL’s own fuel station.

Not sure if this is fixed stop or due to less fuel they made it. Toilets were Ok here. Time stopped was around 12 AM. As it was a fuel stop it didn’t took much time and we were on road quickly.

After the last stop they didn’t stop anywhere till morning or I was in sleep if they had made any stop. This stop was after we crossed Pune, around 7.20 AM and 50 Km before Mumbai. You can freshen up here and can have you morning tea with some snack.

One thing to mention is about this place is I think all the buses stops here so the toilets were crowded and you can’t expect them to be that clean. Name of the place was Nishi Sagar. Food here was nice and fresh and price was also decent. So after a stop of around 15-20 min bus was back on road to Mumbai.

It reached Vashi around 8.30 AM, which was right on time as per there schedule. So total time taken was around 16 hrs with 4 stops total distance covered is around 1000 Km. The roads are very nice, maximum part is either 6 or 4 lane with some small diversions in Karnataka region, other than that nothing to mention about roads.

Now when it was time to come back I though to come back by bus as decided with another operator but when I checked the air fare it was quite comparable with bus fare if you book 15 -20 days advance.

Air ticket costs us Rs 2500 with some discount on credit card and time taken by flight is around 2 hrs from airport to airport. Travel time too and from airport is different plus the additional cab cost.

So we took shared cab from CBD Belapur in Navi Mumbai to T2 and it cost me around Rs 370 with Uber share, then in Bangalore I took the bus(Vayu Vajra) till Banshankari Stage 3 Kathreguppe signal and ticket cost was Rs 280 then a Uber to my home which cost Rs 65 so total additional expense was around Rs 715 which was not bad.

I booked Spicejet late night flight i.e departed from Mumbai at 1 AM and arrived at 3 AM, this was the only reason I took bus instead of cab it took around same time to reach (approx 15 min more then cab) but way less money as cab was costing me around Rs 800-1000 just from kempegowda Airport to my home.

One more thing I would like to mention is that SRS and other bus operators tends to stop more and keeps waiting at stops more. This was my observation at Vashi stop point. Also SRS left early from Bangalore and was left behind by VRL in the night time only.

Over all I would say road route is also a good option if one needs to go urgently and wants to save some money.