[NPV]

Visited Shirdi yesterday from Mumbai.
The driver of the cab we had hired was very familiar with the route and mentioned that the Ghoti-Sinnar bypass was best avoided so onward we took Nh3 to Nashik and then took the Nashik-pune road from where we took the shirdi bypass road. Excellent all the way and I would recommend this for now. We left Juhu at 4.55am and were at Shirdi by 8.50am with just a 10 minute break for tea on the way.
Very sedate driving, car was a Tavera and he never exceeded 90kmph anywhere.
We had breakfast at Sai Amrut right opposite the temple entrance. Peaceful parking at Rs.70 for 12 hours.
Crossed the road to enter the temple at 9.40am since I'd taken the online Darshan ticket for 9.30-11am slot turned out to be a great decision. We walked straight inside the temple complex and proceeded to the Shani Gate for VIP entrace. No crowd in this line and walked straight up to main entrance near the Prasad counter where the regular queue merges. From here it took about 30 minutes to get agood Darshan and we were back at the car park by 10.30am after visits to the smaller temples inside the complex and some quick souvenir shopping.
We decided to skip the visit to Shani Shignapur as we would get back very late in the evening, so left Shirdi around 11, took the Sinnar-ghoti bypass road.
The driver said we would get stuck in truck traffic inside Nasik so this would avoid that but a large section of the road would be bad, I guess he wanted to prove his point
And yes the last 15-18 km (out of 50 total) turned out to be a mixed bag of average, very bad and bad roads
I wouldn't recommend hatch back and low GC sedans to take this route. We managed as it was a Tavera.
More details on distances, our lunch break stop etc later.

[k.sumit]

Hi Guys, I'll be doing Indore - Matheran road trip over the weekend and need your inputs on the road conditions from Shahpur to Matheran. I understand that Indore to Shahpur is NH 3 and the road condition is brilliant, but I am totally unaware of the conditions there after.

[ghodlur]

Bumping an old thread.

I am planning a quick run to Shirdi tomorrow and wanted to know the road conditions of the Ghoti-Sinnar bypass. Would it be wise to go via Nashik or use the bypass road. I am assuming the NH3 would be in a good condition.

[docaxe]

Just been to Shirdi ten days back. The Ghoti Sinnar road is in excellent condition except for few potholes . Take this route! Om Sai Ram

[sudhir3127]

Originally Posted by docaxe

Just been to Shirdi ten days back. The Ghoti Sinnar road is in excellent condition except for few potholes . Take this route! Om Sai Ram

Can you or anyone please confirm if the below one is the best route

https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/Go...19.7668633!3e0

Thanks

[docaxe]

Yes that's the route! Should take about 4-4.5hrs with breaks

[King_pin09]

Originally Posted by docaxe

Just been to Shirdi ten days back. The Ghoti Sinnar road is in excellent condition except for few potholes . Take this route! Om Sai Ram

Just arrived from a trip to Shirdi on 01-12-2016. We took the route as; Thane - Bhiwandi - Asangaon - Kasara - Ghoti - Sinnar - Shirdi.

The Mumbai Agra highway (old NH-3) is as good as ever. The Ghoti to Sinnar stretch is extremely mixed bag with near non-existent, worst, bad, average and some good stretches. The last stretch of 50 odd Kms from Sinnar towards Shirdi is in very good condition.

The entry into the Ghoti Sinnar bypass road is horrendous with a very rough surface; the surface on the railway bridge is very gruesome with no tarmac and only a pitted concrete surface. There are several unmarked speed breakers (in clusters of 3 or 5 no’s) all along which pop up suddenly giving nasty surprises especially during night. Some potholes are too deep for a sedan to handle.

If you are planning to travel in a low slung sedan, loaded with well fed people and luggage, my sincere advice is to avoid this route completely.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by King_pin09

The Mumbai Agra highway (old NH-3) is as good as ever. The Ghoti to Sinnar stretch is extremely mixed bag with near non-existent, worst, bad, average and some good stretches.
...
If you are planning to travel in a low slung sedan, loaded with well fed people and luggage, my sincere advice is to avoid this route completely.

Your description of the ghoti-sinnar road condition is very similar to what I experienced back in November 2015 (see my earlier post), so not much change in the past year then, and yes it's best avoided in darkness - in addition to the bad stretches there are absolutely no facilities and very desolate in many stretches.

[hamster]

Folks,
Its our time to visit shirdi. Planning for the second weekend of Feb. we have our 3.5 years old son tagging along this time.
Have kind of decided to go via Mumbai, so that we can visit our folks in Mumbai too.
Plan is to take on Friday morning (around 7AM or 8AM) flight to Mumbai. reach Mumbai by 10/11.
Take a cab Direct to Shirdi from the airport. (need help on the route and safe places to stop with family for any breaks).
Arrive at Shirdi by 4 PM, take a decent accommodation and take rest for couple of hours.
Planning for the Night Kshej aarti and come back to the Hotel (any suggestions for 2/3 Star stay would be helpful).
Start Next day morning by 7 by the same cab and reach Mumbai by 12.
spend time with our folks in Mumbai and start back late on saturday Night or Sunday morning.

Pointers on this would be really appreciated.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by hamster

Take a cab Direct to Shirdi from the airport. (need help on the route and safe places to stop with family for any breaks).
...
Pointers on this would be really appreciated.

Route - take the straighforward Mumbai-Nashik-Shirdi route, roads are in very good condition.

Hotel Marigold Regency is probably 0.5-1Km behind the Temple, located well (away from crowds) at the same time nearby and place is neat, food is good.
I think they have a mini bus that shuttles to and fro the temple frequently.

Hotel Vrindavan near Kasara ghat was good and we stopped there on our way back. However, I'm not sure if it can be reached easily without a major detour while going from Mumbai (the ghat has separate one way roads for onward and return directions).

I'm sure there are other dhabhas/hotels in the Mumbai-Nashik direction as well that have been recommended on TBHP threads, do look them up.

Nearer to Shirdi and in Shirdi there are several restaurants, like Vittal Kamat, etc.

[hamster]

Trip Update :
Travel :
We started from Mumbai at 10:45 AM from the International Airport and reached Shirdi by 03:15 PM. Took the Thane-Kasara-Ghoti-Sinnar-Shirdi.
The Ghoti-Sinnar road is been relaid now and is quiet a bit commutable and not that very bad. Think it should be back in shape in another couple of months.
We took a Swift Dzire Cab and the driver maintained reasonable speeds at 100kph. Had two small tea stops. Unforutnately our appetite increased only after the Kasara Ghat and realized there is no major place to eat after that. we ended having our lunch after reaching our hotel in Shirdi. In the return, we started at 08:45 AM from shirdi and reached Vashi around 01:15. there was traffic, especially after Asangaon.


Stay :
Stayed in Hotel Jivanta, which is opposite to Marigold found the stay and the service as well to be quiet good. They have a satvik and a Vegan restaurant as well inside the hotel.

Darshan :
We had booked online for the Night Kshej Aarti and reached the waiting hall at 08:30PM and found around 30 folks before us waiting. They maintain a good queue system for those who book in online and we were put in a queue at 09:30 PM. I ended being just beside one of the arches inside the samadhi mandir and the view was not that great.
A suggestion would be to reach the waiting hall by 08:00 PM for the Kshej Aarti (though the waiting is a bit longer), so that you are in the first 10 to have a good darshan.

Just a point noted, there are a lot of eateries on the Mumbai Shirdi side of the Kasara Ghat section than on the reverse. Most of them are just before hitting the ghat.

[Waxeloquent]

Time for Shirdi pilgrimage coming week; flying to Mumbai and taking an AC Innova 7PAX; have 4 seniors traveling and certainly need restroom breaks;
is it more convenient to opt for route via Nashik both the ways? 30 km more each way is not an issue. We are staying at Templeview at Shirdi.As most of us have to catch return flights from Mumbai between 6pm and 8pm next day, what time should we leave Shirdi to be absolutely safe? Appreciate all suggestions, thanks! Cheers

[hamster]

For Restroom breaks, did find a lot of motels on the LHS towards Shirdi till the Kasara Ghat. Not sure about the cleanliness though.
Post the Kasara Ghat, did not find much, though remember seeing a Vittal Kamat near Ghoti before the right turn towards Shinnar, which was I believe to avoid going to Nashik.

It took almost 4 hours for us to reach Thane from Shirdi on a Saturday afternoon starting from Shirdi at 08:30 AM. Give or take another hour and a half from Thane to Airport on a weekend. Mumbaikars can confirm on the timings.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by Waxeloquent

is it more convenient to opt for route via Nashik both the ways? 30 km more each way is not an issue.

I remember reading on one of the threads that barring a very short stretch, the Ghoti-Sinnar road is good, but I'd suggest you DON'T take it simply because you have elderly folks traveling - this road has zero facilities and options for any breaks.

Stick to the Thane-Kasara ghat-Nashik route and you should be good.

As most of us have to catch return flights from Mumbai between 6pm and 8pm next day, what time should we leave Shirdi to be absolutely safe?

Usually about 5 hours is good enough during non-peak hours but don't take a chance - suggest you start from Shirdi by 10am latest so that you can reach Mumbai around 3-4pm, 2 hours ahead of the 6pm departing flight.

[ar.abc]

Hello everyone

I visited Shirdi last weekend, i.e. 22nd & 23rd April 2017 (saturday & sunday). We were a group of 10 in 2 cars. We traveled from Navi Mumbai to Shirdi and back. Route taken both ways was Navi Mumbai - Thane - Ghoti - Sinnar - Shirdi.

The roads on this entire stretch is absolutely smooth with only a few hundred metres of bad patch at the beginning of the Ghoti Sinnar road (before and after the flyover) while going towards Sinnar. Otherwise road condition is quite good. We traveled in a hatchback and a sedan and none of the cars had any issue in driving via Ghoti Sinnar route. In fact, I travel to Shirdi every year and this time the Ghoti Sinnar road condition is at its best.

The tarmac seems to be laid recently. I noticed that wherever the road passes through small villages, the road patch over there is laid in concrete. One problem which I faced was at some places there was signboard for speed breakers but on road the speed breakers were missing (probably its an old signboard where speed breakers once existed). And at some places, there is no signboard for speed breakers and on road there are speed breakers! So if you are traveling by this road be a little careful about the speed breakers near the village intersections.

One typical problem on the Sinnar Shirdi road was that at almost all the culverts (small bridge across a stream) the road surface above the culvert is a few inches above the rest of the highway road surface and when the car goes over the junction of the road and culvert, the suspension takes a hit (theres a loud THUD noise!). I fail to understand why an otherwise butter smooth road needs to have such a nasty surprise?

To all fellow BHPians, you can take the Ghoti Sinnar route if you are planning to drive to Shirdi anytime soon in this summer. No guarantee about road conditions in monsoon and after! Drive safe.