I decided to visit Tirumala for Lord Venkateswara darshan, and began searching for simple tour guide to Tirupati Balaji on internet. As usual to my experience there are many giving half cooked information and no-one spelled out precisely what should be the sequence for planning the Tirupati Bajaji visit.

I met almost 10 persons who went to Tirumala rescently, however the information I got was in bits and pieces, not that much useful.

So I went ahead with some sequence, and completed the Lord Venkateswara darshan successfully 🙂

Now here is my complete package information beginning from planning the stay at Tirupati or Tirumala (ttd room booking), Tirupati Devasthanam Online Darshan Booking, Food, Water, Travel, Flights planning. All-in-One-Guide.

Step-by-Step guide for Tirupati Balaji Darshan..

Step 1: Stay Booking

Online Room Booking at Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD)

• First thing that you need to ensure is to do room booking at Tirumala
• Reason for staying at Tirumala is to spend more time in vicinity of Lord Venkateswara, and the sacred place of god.
• So you need to generate an account on TTD Services, Create your online account here
• You can use New User Signup form and fill in necessary details, you will need a valid email ID, mobile number for OTP confirmation, Identity details, photo ready with you.
• Rules as given on their website
  • No single person accommodation provided/allowed (Practically I saw no-one is checking who is staying and how many persons in a room!)
  • Advance Booking:
    Booking can be done maximum 90 days in advance (min 1 day) – I did it 90 days in advance
  • One room per person only: Create multiple accounts
    One person can book only one room, since we were 5 persons, we created two logins and did two room booking
  • We went for 500 Rs room booking based on feedbacks from different people, however found that 500 Rs rooms are half a kilometer distance from main temple! and rooms of 100 Rs are precisely in front of temple. Hence my suggestion is to go for 100 Rs Room booking only, this will save lot of time and you will be able to walk bare foot to temple
  • 500 Rs or 100 Rs or 50 Rs rooms?
    Since we booked 500 Rs room, we told driver to drop us for darshan, also there was inconvenience since we were not having mobiles to call the driver. So we requested some other person for his mobile phone and called driver. If you want to avoid this better to book 100 Rs rooms which are near to temple.
  • ID proof:
    ID proof need to be carried with you to take actual room booking at window (Practically I saw no-one was asking for ID proof and the person gave booking receipt on showing the online booking form in 15 seconds) – this is only info, but you do carry your ID proofs with you 🙂
  • You can see Tirupati accommodation availability online in a single click
  • Select location of rooms: Tirumala or Tirupati
    There are two options available for online booking 1) Tirupati – that is bottom of hill in city 2) Tirumala – that is on top of hill near the temple, I prefer this since you will feel like staying on a hill station. also it is easy to goto temple etc
  • Select check-in time slot:
    Based on your flight time from Chennai, you can locate suitable time-slot for check-in to rooms, they are broadly defined into night 12 to 12 noon, so very broad ones.
  • How many persons in a room?
    Rooms are very big ones, in fact 10 persons can stay in a room, however the bedding provided was only for two persons, so remember if you are even 3 persons and booked room by paying 500 Rs, you will not get additional bedding. so Book one room for two persons is best, or else carry bedding with you
  • In case you are ready to spend more money, you may book high end rooms by spending, 1000 or 1500 Rs, these rooms are also located nearby temple, but scattered, so not sure where you will get location, but at least at walkable distance from temple
  • Check-in/Check-out times:
    It is 24 hours, so if you reach say 4 pm and take the room, then you are entitled to leave the room after 24 hours, that is second day 4 pm

Step 2: Darshan Booking

Online Darshan Booking at Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD)

• In parallel to the room booking you need to also ensure that online darshan booking slot is available
• Check online darshan passes / tickets availability here
• Special entry darshan ticket is available for 300 Rs, you can select suitable time slot based on your flight timing from Chennai. I will come back to what time slot I selected and why
• Remember to book additional Laddus at the time of ticket booking only. Later after reaching Tirumala, you can’t get additional laddus. They must be pre-booked.
• Suppose you book time of 11 am, then you can proceed to be in line at 9 am ( 2 hours before), however it is not gurantee that you will get entry, sometimes the gate opens at 9 am or sometimes 10 am, on checking I came to know that this is decided by the Sansthan persons depending upon the devotee load on that particular day and the Poojas being performed on that day. So its your luck.
• For me I booked time 11 am, went to the entry line 9 am, however the line opened by the Sanshan persons 10 am! in face I was getting different information from them that gate will open at 9.30 am, someone said 10.30 am… so I sat in front of the gate, and suddenly the gates opened at 10 am! so better to wait at the entry gate

Step 3: Travel Booking

Book your flights to Tirupati

• Now again this has to be done in parallel, considering the availability of rooms and online darshan!
• Synchronize your bookings with stay + darshan timings
• I booked flights to Chennai from Pune and vice versa

Book your travel from Chennai to Tirupati or Tirumala

• I pre-booked taxi (online) for around 7500 Rs package Chennai to Tirumala and return for Innova SUV
• I paid 500 Rs more to cover Kalhasti temple in travel
• Just to check if the prices are correct, I checked with local persons / pre-book taxies outside airport and to my surprise, the prices told to me were 7000 Rs one way! so including stay around 15,000 Rs!! so be aware pre-book your taxi online only. After reaching there you will have to pay exorbitant prices.
• If you wish to know from where I booked the taxi, plz mail me at [email protected]
• I reached Chennai 8 am in morning and reached Tirumala via Kalhasti temple by 3 pm

Step 4: Selecting best time/day to visit

What is best time to visit Tirupati ?

• Needless to say that this is the most visited temple in India!
• So if you want to avoid waiting for hours in darshan line, they its important to select the day and time correctly.

• Which day is best in a week to visit Tirupati ??

  Best day in week when you will have least crowd is MONDAY 🙂 Yes, when I reached there on Monday, the number of vehicles were very less. The driver told me that each MONDAY is with least crowd. And Friday, Saturday & Sunday you will find high crowd.

• Which month is best to visit to visit Tirupati ??

  Exam times i.e. February, March, pre-Diwali you will find less crowd
  Beginning of schooling i.e. July second week, is best time to visit
  Diwali holidays, Summer holidays, December – Just forget about going to Tirupati

I have reached Chennai, now how to plan Tirupati visit?

• I went from Chennai to Kalhasti temple(by road – Innova) which is a must visit temple for those who love giant creations by our ancestors. Its lovely temple indeed, almost 2000 years old. This is one of the best and intact (undamaged) temple I have seen ever
• While on the way I took my breakfast, in typical Chennai hotel, the Idli and Dosa … do not forget to try one Upma too.
• Important thing is Chennai Traffic is terrific …. so if you have landed on airport by 7.30 am or so, try to cross the city ASAP. You can delay the bk-fast for that. Once you are out from the traffic jargon, you can have ur bk-fast, this will save your time.
• Water is big problem in Chennai, so I bought one crate of bottled water and kept in Innova so as not to keep hunting.
  However when I reached Tirumala, I found that Devasthan has put in huge RO purifiers so once you reach the temple, you need not worry about the water quality and quantity. You can just refill your empty bottles.
• Reached Tirupati
• Tirrupati to Tirumalai:
  • First enttry to Tirumalai, you will be stopped at the check-post cum toll-gate.
  • Everyone has to get out from vehicles alongwith all the luggage and walk through the security post
  • Driver will pay the entry fee and reach withing few minutes
  • Here also Practically I found that the security checking is for the name sake only! its wastage of time. Anyway can’t help!!
  • then you will travel through a ghat section, broad road, one-way so no issues at all .. only buses will make your drive slow.
• reached Tirumalali
  • Reaching there you will enter into a jargon! so many vehicles ! although I went on Monday which is supposed to be lowest crowd day of the week .. there were hundreds of vehicles and thousands of people!
  • You need to park your vehicle and goto get the room booking
  • Room booking section is in the building where in BIG letters it is written Railway reservations
  • You have to show your internet room booking slip and withing 30 seconds you will get room booking receipt with room number printed onto it
  • Even if you are a group, the rooms will be allotted based on availability and hence there is no guarantee that you will get adjustment rooms! looking at the man-turnover it is impossible, you can understand that.
  • Get to the rooms, show the booking receipt and take room keys
• First walk to the temple
  • In the evening we had walk to the temple, there was no crowd at all and hence very good chances of darshan, but we were not having our traditional dress (Lungi) as well as not prepared and carrying lot of things, we missed the chance.
    So lessons learnt is that once you reach Tirumala, start wearing Lungi for all the time. Keep a empty bag with you to carry chapples (if needed) do not wear shoes, since time to time you will need to remove the footwear.
  • Check the front of temple and decide upon the assembly point. Since after taking darshan from temple, male and females may come out at different timings, and then finding your partners in the huge crowd becomes an issue. You are not carrying mobiles during darshan too ! so during first visit to temple look at and decide common gathering point.
  • You can have good food at local small stalls, tasty and cheap food is availabl or you can decide for going for Prasadam in the temple. I wanted to take the Prasadam only so went to temple for dinner.
  • Prasadam was standard rice servings with first Dal, second Rassam and third Butter-milk. It was really tasty to have Prasadam in the temple 🙂
  • We also went to the location where the 300 Rs special darshan line begins, this was to save time on second day to locate the start point.
  • Toilets are available at all locations in temple, so no issues at all. and all toilets are crystal clean.
• Night stay in rooms
  •  Rooms are big and clean
  • Tube light was not working, fan switch was not working
  • We did not get any extra bedding for third person, although at the time of booking we did indicate that three persons will be there in a room! so remember you will get things for two people only per room.
  • Clean and filtered water was available
  • No mobile range in area of rooms rented 500 Rs. you need to walk to some particular areas of building to get in range.
• Second day visit to temple for Darshan
  • My booking time for Darshan was at 11 am
  • After checking with local person and many others I decided to head down to the temple at 9 am
  • Reached to the entry gate for 300 Rs special line at 9 am
  • Many people were already waiting and sitting on ground (road), so did I
  • After discussing with local people I came to know that gates may open any time, from 9 am till 11 am
  • at around 9.45 am someone came from inside and told that gate would open at 10.30 am, so many people went to take a round / timepass
  • at 10 am someone came from inside and opened the gates! so we went inside immediately.
  • Lessons learnt is to wait at the gate patiently if you want to get inside ASAP

  • Is jeans allowed in Tirupati?

    NO, jeans are not allowed in Tirupati, but if you walk from steps then you are exempted from this mandate.
    If you are entering into any paid line you must wear traditional wear. (see photo below)
    People who walk from the foothill do not have restrictions of Lungi or traditional wear, they can walk in with their Jean pants. I think temple authorities has approved this since devotees walking such a long distance can be comfortable in their daily wear and may not in traditional wear. so this exemption given.

  • 

  • Are mobile phones allowed in Tirumala?

    NO. You can’t carry your mobile, footwear, electronics etc.
    You can’t carry any eatables too. I took laddus alongwith me, which I needed to handover to security.
    You can carry vanity bag & water bottles. however at two points the bags will be scanned by security and you will loose your valuable time, so avoid carrying bags.

  • Why to carry water bottle?
    Even though there are multiple points where drinking water is available, its recommended to carry drinking water bottle with you. reason being that the line progress happens in slow way, it stops and moves fast, stop and moves fast. So it is not sure if you get time to wait in front of drinking water point. And even if you want to drink water in moving line, the push is so much that you will loose your group as well as will not be able to drink water comfortably. so to avoid this problem I suggest you to carry water bottle with you.

  • which line to take finally when you reach inside the temple?

    This is a million dollar question!!
    There will be three lines formed when you finally reach inside the temple, so you need to catchup line which is to the rightmost side. Why ? since rightmost line people are able to pass from the most closest distance from God and able to see it clearly. other lines pass through as second and third.
    Look at the diagram below for better understanding.

  • Can we go to Tirumala during periods?

    No, you should not go to the Tripathi Balaji Temple during menstruation discharge.

  • 
  • While you finish your darshan and come out, you will have to goto the Laddu counter to collect the Prasad. Remember that I have already told you to book more laddus at the time of ticket booking. since you will not get any additional laddus at the counter without booking receipt.
  • At the building where you get ladu’s on the ground floor there will be huge line, what you need to do is simply move on to the first floor. And you will find that there is less or no crowd at all !!
    I went to the first floor and got laddu withing 5 minutes, whereas people on the ground floor were still fighting in line!
• Proceed to Padmavati darshan
  as per the tradition you need to proceed to Padmavati darshan, here also the same rule applies, take the rightmost line. and you will get perfect darshan of Devi Padmavati.

What I missed in the first trip to Tirupati Balaji?

• I spent most of the time exploring place and hence missed many points which I wish to cover in next visit.
• Here is list of things which I missed at Tirupati
  • Puskarini:
    Puskarini a place with sacred water is located near to the main temple. Devotees can take a bath here before taking darshan.
  •  Akashganga Waterfall:
    Located at distance of 3 kilometres from the temple, you should visit this divine waterfall which is used for bathing the deity.
  • The Papa Vinashanam (Cleanser of Sins):
    One more place of water, where you can take bathe to cleanse all sins. Located about 5 kms from temple.
  • Sila Thoranam (The great Geological Arch):
    About one kilomter from Papa Vinashanam, there is a rare archaeological wonder, you must visit and listen to stories about various mythological folklore around it.
  • Shreevari Padalu:
    Location where Shree Balaji placed his feet for the first time! You need to get to the top of Narayanagiri Hill for this darshan

Notes :

• Temple maps are displayed in some places, you may like to use them time to time.
• Mobiles, cameras etc can’t be taken inside temple, locker facilities are available, do use them.
• Lungi you can buy at 100 Rs only outside temple
• The famous Tirupati lighting Balaji photo you will get for 4-5K Rupees in Tirumala, but if you buy it in Tirupati, you will get at better prices and good quality.

I will keep appending this post as I remember important points.

I know the post has become lengthy, however I thought that all these points are important to know for.