[tckanth]

Booked the 50/- darshan tickets for 6th April, reporting time 1100 hrs.
Plan to leave early in the morning 0300hrs, reach by 0800hrs. Start walking the shorter route and reach on time for darshan.
I am not sure if I'm being too ambitious while planning this, I hope to make it work. Worst case, I'll skip the walking part.

Any tips/ suggestions from the more experienced friends here?

[HighOctane]

Originally Posted by tckanth

Booked the 50/- darshan tickets for 6th April, reporting time 1100 hrs.
Plan to leave early in the morning 0300hrs, reach by 0800hrs. Start walking the shorter route and reach on time for darshan.
I am not sure if I'm being too ambitious while planning this, I hope to make it work. Worst case, I'll skip the walking part.

Any tips/ suggestions from the more experienced friends here?

We always leave house early in the morning and reach Tirupathi by 9-10 a.m then return back to Bangalore by night 9-10pm.

This January also, we left home by 4.30 & reached Tirumala at 9am. The road upto Mulbaghal is good with less traffic. Once you finish 4 lane road after Mulbhagal, you need to slow down and drive carefully as the road is two way traffic and not so good. You can take left before Chittor and drive through Chittor bypass road, this road is newly laid. Then Chittor-Kurnool road will be full of trucks and slows your drive and you need to be careful until you take right turn towards Tirupathi. Then roads are empty and you can reach by 8am and have breakfast on Tirumala. Even if your darshan is at 11am, you can join the queue at 9.30 itself. Happy Journey.

[samsan02]

Hi
Any idea how the crowd will be for friday darshan (12th April). I am planning to drive down on ugaadi (11th), I want to finish Padmavatthi temple on same day will it be very crowded because of uggadi. Plan to stay in Tirupati for 2 nights 11th and 12th and drive back on 13th.
Also I have a kid so would prefer seeghra darshan, any suggestions on what time it will be less crowded.
Will it be a good idea to go to Padmavatthi temple on 13th (saturday) instead.
thanks

[ravib]

Originally Posted by samsan02

Hi
Any idea how the crowd will be for friday darshan (12th April). I am planning to drive down on ugaadi (11th), I want to finish Padmavatthi temple on same day will it be very crowded because of uggadi. Plan to stay in Tirupati for 2 nights 11th and 12th and drive back on 13th.
Also I have a kid so would prefer seeghra darshan, any suggestions on what time it will be less crowded.
Will it be a good idea to go to Padmavatthi temple on 13th (saturday) instead.
thanks

IMO, being a long weekend with festival on 11th april, it is going to be definitely crowded heavily. Moreover, exams are almost over for many. If your kid is less than 1 year, you may want to give a try with Infants queue, otherwise, suggest you plan for a different date and not in the long weekend.

At Padmavathi temple, you can buy Rs. 100/- or Rs. 200/- ticket which will enable you to have very quick darshan almost all days. But ofcourse, fridays will be more crowded usually.

-Ravi

[tckanth]

Originally Posted by samsan02

Hi
Any idea how the crowd will be for friday darshan (12th April). I am planning to drive down on ugaadi (11th), I want to finish Padmavatthi temple on same day will it be very crowded because of uggadi. Plan to stay in Tirupati for 2 nights 11th and 12th and drive back on 13th.
Also I have a kid so would prefer seeghra darshan, any suggestions on what time it will be less crowded.
Will it be a good idea to go to Padmavatthi temple on 13th (saturday) instead.
thanks

Hi Samsan,
I've had my share of experiences in Tirumala. I keep visiting there almost once in a quarter. I normally leave Bangalore on Saturday early morning and get into the Seeghra darshan line, eat something at Bhimas and leave by evening / late evening. Dinner is normally at the CCD near Kolar.
The 'Seeghradarshan', of late, is not seeghra (fast) anymore. I had to stand for more than 7 hrs on my previous two occasions (both were saturdays and during the holidays). I tried the 50/- token darshan once on a friday 11PM slot and managed to have my darshan in 45 minutes flat.

I'm off to Tirumala this saturday (6th April) and took the 50/- ticket for Saturday morning 11AM slot.
I think its better if you can book your tickets in advance for Tirumala.

I'll share my experience shortly.

Cheers,
- Chaitanya.

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by samsan02

Hi
Any idea how the crowd will be for friday darshan (12th April). I am planning to drive down on ugaadi (11th), I want to finish Padmavatthi temple on same day will it be very crowded because of uggadi. Plan to stay in Tirupati for 2 nights 11th and 12th and drive back on 13th.
Also I have a kid so would prefer seeghra darshan, any suggestions on what time it will be less crowded.
Will it be a good idea to go to Padmavatthi temple on 13th (saturday) instead.
thanks

I came back from tirumala and it was super crowded on last weekend(29th being good friday) and also because summer holidays are just starting may be.

Finally i decided to have darshan on monday morning, and even then it took me 4 hours early in the morning.

Another note is 300rs queues run longer that of 50rs ones. So Please do a bit of planning and get a 50rs slot. Else you will end up wasting much more time in queue

Also i observed that 300rs darshan counters close pretty early after they reach certain quota(easily within first few hours)

[smsrini]

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

I came back from tirumala and it was super crowded on last weekend(29th being good friday) and also because summer holidays are just starting may be.

How is the Chittoor bypass ? Has this stretch been redone or is it still as bad with potholes all the way ?

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by smsrini

How is the Chittoor bypass ? Has this stretch been redone or is it still as bad with potholes all the way ?

Roads are excellent throughout. Took me around 4 hours without having to go beyond speeds of 80-100kmph

Chittoor bypass is 75% done. rest of the 25% is rough but no potholes(you can still do 60kmph)

[explorer09]

Yes, the roads are good throughout including the Chittoor bypass. I went this last Friday and the entire journey ( including the Dharshan at the temple ) was a breeze. Tirumala was surprisingly pleasant while Sri Kalahasthi was expectedly very hot.

@Chaitanya -> How was it on Saturday?

[ravib]

Originally Posted by explorer09

Yes, the roads are good throughout including the Chittoor bypass. I went this last Friday and the entire journey ( including the Dharshan at the temple ) was a breeze. Tirumala was surprisingly pleasant while Sri Kalahasthi was expectedly very hot.

@Chaitanya -> How was it on Saturday?

How many hours it took for you to get darshan and which ticket you bought?

-Ravi

[explorer09]

Originally Posted by ravib

How many hours it took for you to get darshan and which ticket you bought?

-Ravi

Went for the 300 Rs ticket. Entered the queue at around 3PM and took approx 2 hours for the Dharshan. Note that I went on a Friday.

[tckanth]

Originally Posted by explorer09

Yes, the roads are good throughout including the Chittoor bypass. I went this last Friday and the entire journey ( including the Dharshan at the temple ) was a breeze. Tirumala was surprisingly pleasant while Sri Kalahasthi was expectedly very hot.

@Chaitanya -> How was it on Saturday?

Originally Posted by ravib

How many hours it took for you to get darshan and which ticket you bought?

-Ravi

Had a relatively peaceful darshan.
Left home at 0330hrs and reached Tirupati by 0800hrs with a break for breakfast @ Nandi Plaza (after Palamaner) my regular spot.
Thought we'll walk up but later decided to drive as we were not sure about the time it might take for darshan.
Visited Kalyana Srinivasam ( just before they closed for naivedyam) and later left for Tirumala.
Reached Tirumala and joined the queue by 1030 hrs (we booked a 50/- ticket for 1100hrs slot). We were out by 1300hrs including taking the laddu.
There were not many people as the 10th standard exams were going on.

Had a lovely lunch at Bhimas (my regular place) and left at 1530 hrs.

Everything was fine till now, unfortunately saw one of the mosthorrible accidents that day between Tirupati and Chittoor. A qualis rammed into a lorry head on and 4 passengers in the qualis died on the spot. The driver was
still alive (but in a very bad condition) when the 108 guys came.

NONE OF THE PASSENGERS AND THE DRIVER WERE WEARING A SEAT BELT, I'm sure if they wore they would have survived.

This incident re-enforced my belief on seat belts.

[androdev]

I need to travel from Banglaore to Tada in Nellore, AP (70KM off Chennai)

http://maps.google.co.in/maps?q=Tada...radesh&t=m&z=8

Should I travel Bangalore > Krishnagiri > Vellore > Chennai bye-pass > Tada (400 KM as per google maps) or try Bangalore > Chittoor > Tirupathi > Srikalahasti > Tada (340KM)?

Not in a hurry, so shortest route is not the criteria. How does the Tirupathi route compare with the regular Chennai route in terms of driving in comfort (no pot holes, no constant need to over take on a single carriageway)

Thanks in advance.

[audioholic]

Chittor route is quite okay with me, only problem being that the road is not split after mulbagal. That will slow your pace as you need to slow down for overtaking, and Palamner, and some other villages have no bye pass. On the other hand, I traveled till Kanchipuram two months back and the road is just superb. You can maintain a constant cruising speed throughout the journey and stops will be limited except for the tolls. So you have to decide whether you would choose the extra distance or the lesser pace. Personally I would choose the chittor route, as 60km is too much of an extra, when you are already covering 340 kms.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by androdev

Thanks in advance.

+1 to Audioholic. Take the Tirupathi route. Even though Chennai side is 4-lane, there are many diversions. And on top of it, you would find heavy traffic once you cross Kanchi. In spite of being on Chennai bypass, traffic would be high. Best is to go via Tirupati. You can easily bypass Tirupati and Renigunta. If you time it right, traffic may not be that high in spite of it being 2-lane from Mulbagal.