Trip to Tirupati -1

 It is a dream for everyone to visit tirupati/tirumala and my wish is to visit as many times as possible. I will share details on my recent visit to tirupati/tirumala.

Tirupati is well connected by Air/rail/roads from all parts of the country. You can also hire a cab. The best mode will be travel by train or bus to tirupati and hire a jeeps or bigger vehicle based on the number of people.

Tickets for Travel
I am from Bangalore and every time I plan in advance book my train tickets/Dharsan tickets before I leave for travel. There are six trains everyday from Bangalore to Tirupati and few weekly trains.

Train tickets can be booked 120days in advance now.

I always travel by Mysore-Tirupati fast passenger as the train leaves bangalore at 8:30pm and reaches Tirupati next day morning at 5:30am.

The same train returns from Tirupati to Bangalore at 8.55pm and reaches Bangalore at 7am next day.

There is no AC coach in this train and there are sleeper coach/ 1 First class/ and 6 general coaches. The fare for general class is 44rs, sleeper class is 104rs and first class is 430rs.

There are frequent buses from bangalore to tirupati and there are Express, Semi Deluxe, A/C sleeper and Volvo buses. The bus fares range from 150 upwards.

Tickets for dharsan

There is free dharsan(sarvadharsanam) and paid dharsans to have dharsan. I have visited malaiappa swamy in free dharsan and had waited for 6hrs -14hrs. sometimes I had dharsan twice in 12hours.

There are 2 types of free dharsan
1, Reach tirumala by walk and join the queue. (exclusive for devotees who come by walk to tirumala). There are 2 ways to reach Tirumala by walk.

1. Popular route -Alipiri to tirumala (9kms)
  You can reach tirupati by bus/train and there are free buses plying between busstation/railway station to Alipiri. Once you reach Alipiri (Foot steps of Tirumala) you can deposit your bags and start walking. The bags will reach before you reach tirumala. You can collect it in the exclusive counters in tirumala. There are bio metric centres enroute and you will be photographed and a slip would be given so that you can enter tirumala through exclusive entrance for pedestarians.

will be continued.