[ghodlur]

Can any BHPian suggest a good hotel in Shirdi for one night stay. Will be driving from Thane to Shirdi on 2nd April and returning back on 3rd April.
Any good hotels with room tariif in 1500-2000 range available in Shirdi close to the main temple?

[n.devdath]

The best option is to stay at any one of the huge accomodation options run by the Shirdi Sai Sansthan. They have rooms of all ranges and the facilities are very good with reasonable rates. You need to go there and then fill a form to book a room. Rooms are allotted for a maximum period of 3 days.
Apart from that Shirdi has its gamut of hotels and you can choose any one. They are all pretty much the same.

There is a travel and accomodation thread on TBHP. You need to post your queries there. Mods, pl move this thread appropriately. Thank You.

[arjunrudra]

My best bet would be the Hotel named Garodia. Thats where we always stay. It just a minute's walk from the temple and its really comfortable.It is preiced at around 2500 for a night. There is also a cheaper option named Budget Garodia which is just adjacent to the regular garodia.

[hvkumar]

MTDC's Pilgrim's Inn is also good and closest to the temple.

[khoj]

Hotel Sai Leela. They run a drop and pick up service to and from the temple entry gate free of cost. Hotel Sai Leela

[ghodlur]

@khoj,

Thanks for the info. I have booked at Sai leela for one night and the cost for a double bed without AC costs me Rs1650 + 10% luxury tax whereas for AC room its 2050 + 10% luxury tax. I fail to understand what this luxury tax is when I am booking a room and that too for one night. I had booked over phone and they have promised that the room would be reserved till 2 pm after which it would be released. My train would reach Sai nagar at 1245 pm. Hope its on time on Friday. The checkout time is 12 pm in the afternoon.
Another couple of queries;
1) How far is Shani Shingnapur from Shirdi (Sai Leela) and what is tranportation means and cost?
2) My return journey is from Rotegaon to Thane. How far is Rotegaon from Shirdi and again what is the tranportation and cost?
Pls provide me with infor regarding my queries.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

1) How far is Shani Shingnapur from Shirdi (Sai Leela) and what is tranportation means and cost?

Distance is approx 95-100kms,would take around 2hrs,hiring a vehicle would cost you arnd 1500-2k.

Originally Posted by ghodlur

2) My return journey is from Rotegaon to Thane. How far is Rotegaon from Shirdi and again what is the tranportation and cost?
Pls provide me with infor regarding my queries.

this should take you approx an hour

[khoj]

@ghodlur,

For your route queries I believe hvkumar and other members who have thorough knowledge of the route are the best persons to help you out. I suggest you wait for their response here or looking at the time frame you may want to get in touch with hvkumar via pm for finer details.

As for the hotel just be in touch with them over phone while arriving at Sainagar station, I think that is all the assurance they would need to hold the room longer than promised. Luxury tax is a product of the Socialist era and continues till date.

Do post your experience on visiting Shirdi by the new train service, it will be helpful to a whole lot of people.

Apart from above the Shirdi sansthan has started a ticketed darshan service. I believe tickets are priced at Rs.300/- and Rs. 500/- each. If you could find out more on the same or avail of this service then do post the details on your return.

[COUGAR]

i always stay at the MTDC hotel. Convenient for darshans, clean, decent and inexpensive.

[ranjith.rajaram]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Can any BHPian suggest a good hotel in Shirdi for one night stay. Will be driving from Thane to Shirdi on 2nd April and returning back on 3rd April.
Any good hotels with room tariif in 1500-2000 range available in Shirdi close to the main temple?

Her are some list of hotels in Shirdi. You can get phone number and pics in the internet.

Hotel Bhagyalaxmi, Address Pimpalwadi Road - Rs 2000 to 2500 (a/c)
Hotel Utsav, Shirdi-Rahata Road, Nr Tata Showroom, Shirdi (Sakuri) Rs 1500
Hotel Sai Sahavas, Opp. Gondkar Complex, Near Gautam Sahakari Bank Pimpalwadi Road. Rs 1500
Sai Mahal Hotel, opp.Police Guest House, Taluka Rahata - Rs 1500

[arjunrudra]

I'm actually suprised that no one is recommending the Garodia hotel . That is nearest to the temple and its really good too. The rates are also very reasonable.

[ghodlur]

Hi guys,

Had a wonderful trip to Shirdi, mixed bag of experiences both good and bad.
Let me start with the train journey. I had to opt for a train journey just because my son wanted to even though I had made plans to drive down to Shirdi. I had booked the Jan shatabdi express 0137 from Kalyan to Sai Nagar Shirdi. The train was 10 min late at Kalyan and reached at 0735 hrs. The train has 5 halts Kasara, Igatpuri, Nasik Rd, Manmad, Niphad and Sai Nagar. The train was to reach Sai nagar at 1245 but reached 45 mins late. Till Nasik the journey was good and fast but after that the train slowed down too often to give siding to other mail/express trains, hence the delay. From Sai Nagar Station you can take a six seater but they charge exorbitantly. I had booked a room in Sai Leela which was 10 mins from the main mandir and the guys wanted to charge me 100 bucks. Only one guy quoted me 30 rs and we readily hopped in. Reached Hotel Sai leela in 10 mins and was alloted the room in 15 mins. Refreshed and were off to the temple for darshan. Sai Leela had pick up and drop facility to the mandir unlimited times. They had the cute looking Tata Ace Magic which cud accomodate 6 persons at a time. The Darshan took 1.5 hrs. I was aghast to see the chadars, garlands, flowers being simply thrown at Sai Baba's feet. Maybe they were meant to be recycled and would not be surprised to see them back at the stores again. Collected the prasad, there is a ladoo counter in a building opp to the Mandir where you can see people clamouring for the ladoos and since one one ladoo is given per person people buy and again join the queue to buy again.
Reached Hotel back and my son had a gala time at the waterpark. Luckily I found one of my old college mate with his family. Relived those college days while my son was having fun in the pool. Sai leela is a 3 star hotel and they charge Rs 1650/- per day for a non AC room. The room was good for a one night stay. The meals are quite good costing Rs 120 and is buffet type. The water in Shirdi is somewhat borewell type, adults could adjust to the taste but for kids it would be difficult. Better buy a Bisleri for them.
We wanted to go Shani Shingnapur the next day, I made enquiries with the Hotel for the transport. They came up with a price of Rs 900/- for to & fro. Ventured out and made some enquiries near the Mandir with a couple of travel agents. There are two options - book a vehicle for your travel which will cost you around Rs 800/- for non AC or Go on per seat basis which will cost around Rs 70 up and down but you will have go in those cramped, to the brim full Taveras, Sumos, Bolero's etc. These would available right opp to the Mandir. You also have the state buses but the timing and the location I did not venture out to find.
Luckily for us we found another family in look out for sharing the expenses and we booked a non AC for to & fro trip to Shani Shingnapur. The trip was to start at 6 am in the morning since it was saturday and we didn't want to get caught in the traffic. But there was no sign of the pick up vehicle till 6.45, Somehow the vehicle was arranged and it was a Omni. Started at 6.45 and reached Shingnapur at 8.15 am, the journey being 75 kms from Shirdi the road in some places was too horrible, cud hear the Omni rattling a lot. Once you leave the Nasik highway and turn towards Shingnapur it becomes worse. At a time only two vehicle can pass by and in that the drivers drive so rashly that you start praying before reaching the temple. Upon reaching Shingnapur we were immediately surrounded by the store guys trying to lure us to buy from them the pooja thali. Since it was my first time, my pooja thali costed me Rs 500/- which included a lot of puja items plus the dhoti which is to be compusarily to be worn by men. Took a bath, you have to enter the temple in wet clothes and after taking a bath you are not supposed to touch women. We were guided a local lad who explained the entire darshan process. Took the puja thali and walked to the temple where there are seperate lines for men and women. By the time you reach the main Shani idol the place gets so slippery due to the oil spillage. After offering the oil, you can visit a couple of idols nearby and start walking towards the exit. However you are not supposed to look back at Shani idol and keep walking till you reach the exit. If you look back then evil time will befall on you. Thats what the locals say.
Finished the darshan and reached the hotel back at 11.30 sufficine ttime to pack our bags and have lunch. Checked out the hotel at 1230 hrs and had hired a vehicle to reach Rotegaon which was 50 kms from Shidi. Costed Rs 600 for the Omni again. Took Tapovan express which arrived 15 min late at 1600 hrs and was packed. Luckily managed to locate our booked seats and reached Thane at 2130.
All in all it was a good journey and most imp my son enjoyed the train journey a lot.

[ghodlur]

@udayjani,

You sent me PM for Shirdi enquires, I tried to reply you but getting an error message.
The following errors occurred when this message was submitted:

1. udayjani has chosen not to receive private messages or may not be allowed to receive private messages. Therefore you may not send your message to him/her.

You want me to reply at the earliest and not choose to receive a PM. The choice is yours.