score:2
Riesko, there are many options as to how to get to Hampi. I can suggest you clearly, if you can tell me how much time & money you can afford in traveling to Hampi. Also, I would like to know if you particularly want to travel by train (as many foreigners like to have that experience of traveling by train in India)?
If you are familiar with how things work in India and if you have the patience to use the slow public transport, then you have different options to travel by bus. You can look for bus schedules to either of these cities/towns (Hubli, Dharwad, Bellary, Hospet, Bijapur, etc) and then take the next bus, which is frequently scheduled to Hampi.
If you would like to fly and save a lot of time, then I would suggest you to look into flight schedules to Hyderabad/Hubli and then take the bus/train to Hospet (closest to Hampi). As for flight schedules, Hyderabad has more options than Hubli.
An other option is to rent a car (specially if you are traveling with some other people) and drive there. I guess the road ain't that bad between Mumbai/Bombay and Hubli (as it is Mumbai to Bangalore highway).
EDIT:
Here's something :
Bluelines, Canara Pinto and Sharma are the daily private volvo bus service operators. Their offices are at dadar and they have pick-up points for passengers in the city.
Upvote:0
Train ticket
~see on indiarailinfo.com what are the chances to get tatkal ticket [ opens day before the train departs from the 1st Station [ from where train starts ]
~see for premium tatkal availability #
Book innova or something to reach there by having a stay during night time somewhere midway or share a ride using blah blah or similar sites
Upvote:6
Long distance buses in India is a pretty unorganised sector. Bookings aren't usually made online! So one option would be get to Mumbai, then book a bus ticket with a local tour operator. There is one online bus ticket booking site called RedBus but they don't seem to have scheduled services running between Mumbai and Hospet. (This doesn't mean bus services don't exist, as RedBus has ticketing deals only with select bus companies.)
EDIT: So it turns out RedBus does have connections between Mumbai-Hampi, but only allows bookings 30-days in advance. If you can wait for making bookings, then this is an option.
There are two direct trains between Mumbai and Hospet:
You can also indirectly go from Mumbai to Bangalore or Goa by train, and then further onwards by train from there to Hospet. My personal recommendation would be to get to Goa, because it's a place worth seeing itself and the Mumbai-Goa stretch of the journey on a network called Konkan Railway is one of the more scenic rail routes in India. From Goa, you can catch VSG Howrah Express that runs from Goa to Hospet every Tuesday/Thursday/Friday/Sunday.
I wouldn't advise taking a cab because the distance between Mumbai to Hampi is non-trivial.
On whether you can get a reservation or RAC booking three days in advance: As a rule of thumb, on most 'express' trains this is not possible, so don't count on it. Make the booking as early as you can. If for some reason you really have to leave it till the last minute, buy a ticket for the unreserved coaches instead (N.B. not all trains have one), although you should understand that unreserved coaches usually are filled over capacity so don't expecting more than sitting/standing space even though you have a ticket. Certainly not for the faint-hearted traveller.
When making bookings in advance, on most train booking sites such as IRCTC, Cleartrip, MakeMyTrip et al you can click on the 'check availability' link to find out whether there are seats available, and if not, what your waitlist position is. If your waitlist position is below 20 and you have a couple of weeks left for the journey, you often do end up with a reservation or RAC.
EDIT: (To answer the question on whether buses need to be reserved in advance.) If you're using an online booking system such as RedBus, then yes, it is advisable to book in advance. RedBus doesn't operate its own services, it's just a booking system used by select bus operators. If for some reason you are unable to book online, ask around at local travel agencies and you will be able to find bus tickets within a few days notice, if not same/next day.