Team-BHP - Tirumala / Tirupati Seegradarshanam query

Hi Friends,
I am visiting Tirupati from 21-23rd Oct. I have booked Supatham entry tickets for 22nd Oct.

Understand that Supatham Gate is just on the left side of the temple main entrance. But I am unaware of the closest car parking lot. My elderly mother would find it difficult to walk long distance, hence below query. Our darshan window is from 12PM - 7PM, I am planning to reach Supatham Gate around 4.30-5PM.
Could someone advise me on

Closest parking lot for Supatham gate entry.
Location of nearest cloak room this is to keep mobile, wallet, car key & other belongings at the time of darshan.
Any other points that we should be aware of, since this being our first attempt using Supatham gate

Thanks in advance.
Prabu

Quote:

Originally Posted by APV (Post 5418461)

Closest parking lot for Supatham gate entry.
Location of nearest cloak room this is to keep mobile, wallet, car key & other belongings at the time of darshan.
Any other points that we should be aware of, since this being our first attempt using Supatham gate

Thanks in advance.
Prabu

To answer your questions

1) The catch is closest parking lot for "when", at the time of entry or exit? I would recommend that you drop elderly person and others in the car to this location https://goo.gl/maps/Sa6jYQoDnZj4jGew8 which is closest to Supatham entry. And then you alone go and park the car closer to exit area. Thus after darshan, when you are tired, you don't have to walk a lot of distance and can reach car quickly or with less walking. Suggested parking area near exit of temple laddu counter is: https://goo.gl/maps/n6Y2Bt3zMq5Vnpz38

2) With the extreme crowd in Tirumala now, i won't recommend you to use cloak room. Keep all safe things in car itself and carry the car key and wallet only. Ensure, you don't carry any smart watches as they are not allowed too.

3) Usually Supatham entry takes about 1 to 2 hours for darshan without any waiting time. Its mostly non-stop walking right from entry to exit. However, with the crowd now, there could be delays. Ensure you keep proper ID cards, as that is checked strictly. Covid vaccination certificates are not checked currently.

BTW, what darshan you booked and referring to?

-Ravi

Quote:

Originally Posted by ravib (Post 5419368)

To answer your questions

1) The catch is closest parking lot for "when", at the time of entry or exit?...

2) With the extreme crowd in Tirumala now, i won't recommend you to use cloak room. ...

3) Usually Supatham entry takes about 1 to 2 hours for darshan without any waiting time. ...

BTW, what darshan you booked and referring to?

-Ravi

Thank you Ravi, appreciate the details shared. To answer some of your queries.

1. As per TTD helpdesk,Supatham entry point is at this location (https://goo.gl/maps/gvmK9pcYwWMczoE29)
which is on right side of the temple(when walking out of the temple) while regular exit after darshan will be on the left side, so my entry & exit points are reasonably close. I guess the parking lot you shared should be good enough for me. Any alternate parking lot option also welcome(even if bit far from the one you shared earlier - just to have a back up option)

2. will try to avoid using Cloak room as per your suggestion

3. 1-3 hours should be manageable for our elders. will keep IDs handy.

I have booked using Shrivani trust Donor ID which facilitates one darshan per year through Supatham entry for 5 people.

We completed a day trip yesterday from Bangalore.

Summary:
Reported at: 2PM
Out of Temple Complex at 4:45 PM

Parking
While our reporting time was at 2:30PM,we reached our parking spot (near to exit from laddu counters) link at 1:55PM. From there, we took sumo for drop to entrance for SED (INR 300) near the ATC circle and it charged us Rs100.

Entrance/Waiting Experiences
In my previous visits in previous years, for entrance, we would walk to the hall entrance where they validate the tickets and photo id cards. Map Link

However, this time, everyone was diverted to another entrance much earlier to the above mentioned area. Around here- Map Link.

It was a slow crawl of ~45-50 mins from the entry to the Ticket Hall.
We were soon put into cages where we sat for 1hour 15 mins.

When releasing the people from cages, the sevaks did not do FIFO but LIFO- they opened some 6 rooms at once and it was mayhem as crowd eventually merged from n rows to 2-3 rows. We waited for long below the stairs which go loop upto the Bridge Over Mada street but volunteers opened the optional exit by which we can cross mada street and join the peripheral walkway of temple complex.
Post that, it was relatively smooth- Sevaks were stopping flows to allow a batch in and then allow a batch out.

Darshan Experience
Given that the outside temple crowd control was tight, it meant that the darshan experience inside the main temple was great vs previous visits! The sevaks inside the sanctum sanctorum were nudging us to move but were not pushing or pulling very hard unless you are right before the statue. So we got good darshan!
Prasad was regular size Laddu which was so fresh and melting in the mouth!

Side Note:

I saw people with 9PM Slots entering into the queue before me! No checks done at all!
New PS4 near Tiruchanoor is damn good and convenient! Already pointed by Senior bhpian ravib here
Drive inside the city was tough due to the bridge/flyover work

Quote:

Originally Posted by deep_blue (Post 5424495)

Has anyone used the Karnataka tourism volvo vip darshan package? In Bangalore for a week end of October & this seems to be the only way to get the Darshan.
Anyone else providing a package like this but in a car? Thanks in advance

I used the Volvo service long back. Darshan is guaranteed and we don't need to worry about booking Darshan tickets. But schedule is hectic and the only rest one can get is by napping during bus journey. I boarded the bus at night and reached Tirupati at 2-3 AM. They provided a hotel room to quickly freshen up (very basic room and shared with 1-2 other folks) and then boarded govt bus to Tirumala at 4 AM. Gathered at Ram bageecha bus stand (which is the popular market area close to the temple), left belongings there and proceeded to Darshan. Finished darshan in 2-3 hrs, gathered our belongings and then visited Padmavati temple. Started return journey post lunch (basic Andhra style meal) and reached blr around 8-9pm with a short coffee break in evening.
This trip was many years ago so things/timings etc. might have changed by now. Also there used to ITDC and AP tourism volvo packages which were similar but offered different Darshan timing in the day (depending on their tie up with the temple).

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrokenHW (Post 5416129)

Important details regarding upcoming darshans and sevas

Attachment 2365059

Hi. I'm planning a darshan at Tirupati sometime between 20th-24th of December. The last darshan we had was just before the pandemic. I see that all darshan till Nov 30th is booked out. I've mainly booked only the 300/- (Seeghra darshan) tickets till now. I see that there is a 500/- darshan now. How do I book it ? I see only the 300/- ones in the official site. Any help would be highly appreciated.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kraken (Post 5427882)

I see that there is a 500/- darshan now. How do I book it ? I see only the 300/- ones in the official site. Any help would be highly appreciated.

By 500INR Darshan - I guess you are referring to what is called VIP Break Darshan. In order to avail this Break Darshan you need to make a donation of INR 10000 to one of the TTD associated trusts. After this payment is done system makes one eligible for booking a darshan by paying INR 500 more(just for Darshan).

Roughly it works like this,
You donate 10000 - max 1 person can avail break darshan by paying additional 500 per head
you donate 20000 - max 2 person can avail break darshan by paying additional 500 per head
you donate 30000 - max 3 person can avail break darshan by paying additional 500 per head
.
.
.
you donate 90000 - max 9 person can avail break darshan by paying additional 500 per head

you need to login to TTD website to see the trusts eligible for donation & the above process being explained.

Quote:

Originally Posted by APV (Post 5428182)

Thank you so much for the info. I will definitely log in and check this out.

Just for the information, December Month SED quota is fully booked. Bookings opened on 11/11 at 10:00 AM and all the tickets were sold out by 12:00 PM.
I had 4 failed transactions and at last one successful transaction. The teething issues with the new ticketing platform are still there. TTD has to do something. Most of them fail during the payment. Interestingly my SBI Debit card got blocked for domestic ecom transactions due to two failed transactions. I had to send an SMS to revoke it.