One Day Road Trip To Tiruvannamalai from Bangalore
How to go One day road trip to Tiruvannamalai from Bangalore, and which is the best route to drive? Lets see.
Total distance of total 400 Kms, Tiruvannamalai is our all time favorite destination for weekend trips, for both our bike trips and car trips.
And this was our first trip to Tiruvannamalai post Covid-19 lockdown.
(Note – The above pic was clicked at Singarapettai Lake, on the way towards Tiruvannamalai from Bangalore via Chengam route).
Our Plan to Go On One Day Road Trip to Tiruvannamalai From Bangalore
Our destination was Tiruvannamalai – Arunachaleswara temple, always same destination in our one day trip, to darshan Lord Shiva representing element Fire.
Google map link for the temple – https://goo.gl/maps/bSaL75AiiG1AgKXt5
Though we are regular travellers to this temple, yet we never planned for a one day trip to Tiruvannamali from Bangalore. Because we used to go bike trip, we prefer to take rest at night before return to Bangalore. While we are there, never miss to visit Tirukoilur temples (at 35kms distance on Pondicherry route ) on the next day, yet another favorite place near Tiruvannamalai. So we never thought of going on a one day trip to Tiruvannamalai from Bangalore.
Now that we have our new Creta car (named Milo), a comfortable SUV for long road trips, we decided on a one day road trip to Tiruvannamalai.
Note that covering long distances in one day is nothing new to us.
We covered 410 kms on our first day of 11 days bike trip in the year 2017. (And a grand total of 2000 kms in 11 days by bike, yeaahhhh ).
Even before that, We covered a total of 500 kms on an unplanned journey to Hassan, in our short trip to Adichuchunagiri hills
And one of our most favourite trip of 350 kms to lepakshi (Read – One Day Bike trip from Bangalore to Lepakshi ) in Andhra Pradesh.
And in the year 2019 in one of our car trips, we covered 590 kms in one day, when we went on a 5 days trip to Tirunelveli in TamilNadu.
So, we pat ourselves for being regular travelers and setting new milestones for every single trip.
But it is not the same when you plan on a long drive to one of the ancient, famous and all time crowded temples.
It requires proper planning and execution considering the temple open timings and our convenience in travel.
So here is how we planned our one day trip to Tiruvannamalai from Bangalore by car.
How to Plan for One Day trip to Tiruvannamalai From Bangalore
We are travel duos from Bangalore, so all our starting points are from Bangalore. You could use my plan as a sample if you starting point is not Bangalore.
So, here are the factors to consider when you plan on a culture trip like this.
Temple Open timings
Knowing the exact timings of the temple is important, because your start and end time your journey is weaved around this information.
Tiruvannamalai temple open timings – 5 am to 12.30 noon and 4 pm to 9.30 pm.
This timing is quite common for almost all Lord Shiva temples and this is not applicable for Lord Vishnu temples. As the rituals and procedures vary entirely for both the temples.
Now, you need to decide on the time to visit the temple. We chose morning 5 am to 12.30 noon batch timing. That means we need to arrive at the destination atleast 1 to 1.5 hrs before 12.30 noon, giving enough buffer time to park the vehicle and waiting time to darshan Lord Shiva and Parvathi.
Now, How can we reach before 11.30 am driving 200 kms from our start point?.
Travel Distance to Tiruvannamalai from Bangalore
Here is second important factor to consider for our one day road trip to Tiruvannamalai from Bangalore.
- Total travel time from Bangalore to Tiruvannamalai by Car including pit stops – for 200 kms on one way. And considering the bad roads in the Krishnagiri – Chengam route, time varies based on the driver’s skills. If you are choosing an alternative route (that is Via Vellore), your travel time naturally increases for the increase in 100 kms.
- Total Waiting time to Darshan Lord Shiva at Main sanctum: the time you take from entering the temple at main entrance (east gopuram) to the time you take to see Lord Shiva at the main sanctum needs to be considered.
Since we always go for paid darshan, we kept an average of 1.30 hrs for the darshan timing.
Now you know what time you need to start in the morning to darshan at the temple.
Same goes for calculating the return journey.
Yet, you cannot calculate the same hours for the return journey, it varies based on the traffic on the highways and in the city.
How Successful Was My Plan ?
All went well as per the plan. Infact, it was quite successful.
We started by 5 am with all pre packed bags with snacks and water bottles packed a night before.
We were able to drive to the destination even though we have spent more than 1 hr in our favourite fit stop on the Hosur highways. It is called Krishna Inn in Shoolagiri. It is the bikers meeting point on weekends, and I have written a great deal about their food here.
We reached the temple campus at 11am, and it took us 20 mins to find the right parking spot before we entered the temple.
We spent total of 1 hr for the entire darshan time in the temple, including the Goddess parvathi darshan.
By 12.30 noon, We were back to parking area, headed straight to our favourite resort called Sparsa resorts, one of the elite stays in Tiruvannamalai for lunch.
We spent time on good lunch and stretching our legs before we started our return journey by 2.20 pm.
Success !!!.
We reached the destination as planned, had quick darshan to our surprise and relaxed in our favorite place for couple of hours before we started our return journey. Kudos.
Tiruvannamalai to Bangalore : The Return Journey
As usual, we were profoundly delayed by the evening traffic on the Bangalore – Salem highways. Since it was anticipated during our trip, we reached on scheduled time, totally tired and sleepy by the time we hit our home by 9pm.
It was a seamless peaceful journey except for the bad roads on the route we chose for this trip to Tiruvannamalai from Bangalore.
Next time we plan to take the Vellore route since we are fed up travelling on this bumpy NH77 roads forever.
Kudos to Rajesh for making things happen irrespective of how challenging our trip turns out.
Planning one day road trip from Bangalore?
Here are some interesting destinations from Our travel History –
Melukote (beautiful view on the hill),
Talakkad (temples and beach),
Shivanasamudra waterfalls – For twin waterfalls
Belur – Halebidu (Popular destination in Karnataka for Hoysala Architectures),
Nandhi Hills (beautiful spot for trekking and watch sunset),
Lepakshi (for hanging pillars and majestic sculpture on a single rock),
Hampi (for World UNESCO heritage site) and
Mysore (for monuments and palaces).