travel guide to the abode of Lord Venkateswara. One of the richest and holiest Dham in the world. One of my favorite pilgrim destinations in India, this hill town is known for its devotional and cultural heritage. As we all know, yearly, millions of devotees visit this holy Dham from across the world.
A common confusion among pilgrims is Tirupathi and Tirumala are the same. Tirupathi is a town in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district. Whereas Tirumala is the seven hills situated in Tirupathi. Tiru means Shree and Mala mean hill, it’s a Tamil word.
A few years back before the pandemic, I went on a pilgrimage trip to Tirumala along with my family. After crossing Tirupathi town which is crowded most of the time, we came to the entrance of Seven hills.
The majestic white color statue of Garuda (Vehicle of Lord Vishnu)welcomes the pilgrims with folded hands. Here, at the Alipiri check post, all the vehicles have to go through checking, like any other place in India.
Tirupati to Tirumala Trip
Here you need to buy a ghat road travel ticket which is quite affordable. The main intention of issuing tickets is to monitor the time a vehicle takes to reach Tirumala. However, each vehicle has to take at least 45 minutes to 1 hour to reach the exit point to avoid accidents on Ghats.
At the entry point, they register the vehicle name along with the time they are entering. The same will be checked at the exit point before allowing the vehicle into Tirumala.
Travel time from Banglore to Tirumala approximately around 5 hours by car. There are no direct bus services to Tirumala. You need to take the bus to Tirupathi, catch another bus from Tirupathi, or hire taxi jeeps to Tirumala.
There are numerous taxi services available to Tirumala from Tirupathi town. From Chennai, it takes around 3 hours by car, whereas by bus around 3hours 30 minutes. If you are coming by road to Tirupati from Chennai, please check out these temples to visit from Chennai to Tirupati.
Getting a rest/guest house and Darshan ticket on time used to be very difficult a few years back. However, TTD, the governing board made it easy for pilgrims by making ticket booking online. I personally advise those who are planning to visit the abode of Lord Venkateswara to make sure you book tickets prior.
Another advantage is that they can select the Seva which they want to perform for the god. If there are no slots available, then you can visit the nearby TTD temple board in your area and book through them. You can even make online donations as well.
The guest house we stayed at during our visit was very comfortable and had a beautiful view from the balcony. The roads were so clean you can even walk without footwear.
If you are looking for some luxury stay, you can opt for Balaji Guest home, Aditya Birla Nilayam, Lakshmi VPR guest home, Tirumala Sainik Niwas. These guest houses’ price range starts from 2500 – 3000 rupees.
TTD made things easy for devotees. Open the TTD office site, select pilgrim services in that select rest houses. You will find the price range for different rest houses. Then, go for advance booking and book your selected rooms.
