[narayans80]

You can do Bangalore-Shirdi in one sitting. Takes 15 hours at most including breaks. Start at 4 am, you should reach Shirdi for dinner easily. Distance is 1050 + how far you are from Nelamangala via Chitradurga-Hospet-Bijapur-Solapur-Aurangabad-Samruddhi Mahamarg. You can choose between G-Square or MTDC, former has the least walking.

Staying at Solapur is not recommended, since its the messiest town to cross and it now has a beautiful bypass.

[RRM]

Thanks for the suggestions. How can I get VIP passes?

@narayans80 - to your query on "how far I am from Nelmangala", I stay in HSR layout, around 60 kms

[jkrishnakj]

You can buy tickets online for Shirdi darshan and Arti. You can buy tickets outside the temple too, I forgot which gate. I remember it used to be a hundred Bucks and darshan is inside 15 mins tops.

Edit:
Special entry tickets are available at their offices outside Gate1.

[narayans80]

If you are going in weekends. Best to book darshan online. Aarti tickets move pretty fast, for weekends you'll have to book the day it opens (30 day before)

[jkrishnakj]

I had an excellent trip last week.

Circuit done was as below:

(28th April)Bangalore-Solapur (Stay) - (29th April)Tuljapur-Shirdi (stay) - (30th April)Pune-Kolhapur (Stay) - Bangalore (1st May)

Route was excellent till Shirdi. There are some speed breakers from Hospet till Vijayapura, and that's the only caution we need. The short drive on the Samruddhi Mahamarg express-way was a joy.


What was a seemingly mid-high summer high temp drive turned out to be a very pleasant, rainy kind of a drive. Solapur, Shirdi saw some heavy rains and it turned out to be rather a cool drive. The only pains, other than the speed breakers were the rampant wrong side driving, especially near villages and small towns.

The roads from Shirdi to Pune, via Ahmednagar was a very stressful one. Many diversions and bad quality roads. I had taken my A6 and I really struggled. It almost felt like driving on our Bangalore outer ring road traffic, all the way to Pune.

Pune to Kolhapur on 30th was chaotic. It was so full of traffic. The tolls in Maharashtra appear quite slower than the ones in Karnataka.

On the 1st May, we started from Kolhapur around 10.30 am. The drive till Hubli was decent, but from then on, it was full of fun again, all the way to Tumkur. I was dreading the Tumkur and Nelamangala toll traffic over the long weekend, but somehow, both tolls were almost empty around 5/5.30 pm that day.

[AnandAndy]

Hello BHP'ians,
I'm planning to drive from Bengaluru to Shrirampur (https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ya8LS1ay7qD1Abpd7) (30-35 KMs from Shirdi) before the Dasara Weekend on 14th Oct.
I'm planning to take the following route
Bengaluru --> Hospete --> Bijapur --> Solapur --> Aurangabad -->(Samruddhi Mahamarg) --> Shirdi --> Shrirampur.
I'm planning a start of 4AM from my place (Marathalli https://maps.app.goo.gl/7cwSMhhFm1oGKcdh8) and planning to stay in Aurangabad.(Most probably 7 Apple Hotel - Aurangabad - https://maps.app.goo.gl/Kx5FXhbnyx1vjTAR8)
I'm the only driver and have previously covered 600-650 KM in one stretch.
Your thoughts and suggestions are most welcome.
Thanks in Advance

Questions/Suggestions

1. Am I taking the correct route? Any modifications?
2. Is the halt and hotel for the halt fine?

[narayans80]

Your route is correct. But you don't need a night halt in Aurangabad. If you start at 4 am, you should make it to your destination by 7 pm.

[jkrishnakj]

You can actually push to Shrirampur itself as opposed to halting at Aurangabad. Alternate would be to take it easy with a halt at Solapur.

[Awaz]

Any reason why you want to go via shirdi ? I see you can go directly to Shrirampur without touching Aurangabad & Shirdi.

[AnandAndy]

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

You can actually push to Shrirampur itself as opposed to halting at Aurangabad. Alternate would be to take it easy with a halt at Solapur.

I'm not sure If I would be able to cover 1084 KMs in a single stretch. But as you said pushing to home directly can be tried. If the conditions are good and If I'm not tired, I can try to cover it.
Was not thinking of halting at Solapur due to couple of comments in this thread that the roads and traffic inside Solapur is not good along with a better bypass for solapur

Originally Posted by Awaz

Any reason why you want to go via shirdi ? I see you can go directly to Shrirampur without touching Aurangabad & Shirdi.

The reason is because of NHs all the way till shirdi (including Samruddhi Mahamarg) and in the other options, the road conditions might not be good.
Other options are from solapur, join solapur-pune highway and take a turn from Daund, then Ahmednagar and then Shrirampur. I know the roads are not good(very bad ) from the nagar patch onwards.
Another option is to take smaller roads (ex. via jamkhed) from nearby beed, again same reason smaller and not so good roads

Please let me know your thoughts on this
Also, another question.
What are the good options for breakfast/lunch on this route?
Any trusted COCO petrol pumps?
Google Map links for the above would be appreciated.

[Nishith]

Hello Everyone,

Planning to do a Bangalore to Shirdi trip in the 4th week of Jan'24.

Can someone suggest which is the best route to take?

As per recommendations here, planning to start in the morning at 4AM and reach by night and spend the following day in Shirdi and return to Bangalore the following day.

I would need one fuel break after 550-600 KM from Bangalore, so any recommendations on COCO IOCL pumps would be of great help too.

Looking forward for guidance on this.

Thanks in Advance,
Nishith

[Nishith]

Originally Posted by Nishith

Hello Everyone,

Planning to do a Bangalore to Shirdi trip in the 4th week of Jan'24.

Can someone suggest which is the best route to take?

As per recommendations here, planning to start in the morning at 4AM and reach by night and spend the following day in Shirdi and return to Bangalore the following day.

I would need one fuel break after 550-600 KM from Bangalore, so any recommendations on COCO IOCL pumps would be of great help too.

Looking forward for guidance on this.

Thanks in Advance,
Nishith

Hi All,

Any guidance on this would be of great help.

Thanks,
Nishith

[venkyhere]

Originally Posted by Nishith

Hello Everyone,

Planning to do a Bangalore to Shirdi trip in the 4th week of Jan'24.

Can someone suggest which is the best route to take?

As per recommendations here, planning to start in the morning at 4AM and reach by night and spend the following day in Shirdi and return to Bangalore the following day.

I would need one fuel break after 550-600 KM from Bangalore, so any recommendations on COCO IOCL pumps would be of great help too.

Looking forward for guidance on this.

Thanks in Advance,
Nishith

I had made plans for this in 2023, which had to be cancelled due to medical issues in family. I used info from this thread as well as from expert veteran BHPian @paragsachania who kindly guided me w.r.t route planning. Haven't been able to find a suitable date ever since, to execute the plan. However, glad to share the map (3am departure) I had saved for this - blore-to-shirdi