I went to Tirupati last weekend with GreenLine Travel’s Tirupati Package. I didn’t know anything about GreenLine Travels before I booked the ticket with them through a local travel agent in Domlur.
I booked my ticket just one day in advance, and only option I had was GreenLine Travels, as others were full. I booked for Rs.1700 Volvo Multi Axle Package.
Soon after booking tickets, I checked this site for review and found almost all of them are negative. That really made me upset, but I had no other choice.
I had a bus at 10.15 pm from Indira Nagar BDA Complex. At 10 pm, I got a call from the Travels that the VOLVO bus in which I had booked ticket is gonna be late by more than 2 hours, and was advised to travel in Mercedes Benz. Surprisingly the seat they offered in the new bus was the same as what was in Volvo Bus. It was quite strange, how can they give me same seat in different bus... well they had played trick and cheated my for Rs. 50 as the Mercedes Benz package was for 1650.
Anyways I started my journey, Bus was new, seat was very comfortable, and most surprisingly blanket was clean :-). The journey took a little more than 4 hours, by 3 am we had reached Tirupati.
A guide joined us there as soon as we reached Tirupati. He was a nice, kind guy. He informed us that there was a VIP(President Pranab Mukharjee) visit that day, and asked us to get refreshed in just 30 mins otherwise there will be long wait for darshan.
They took us to a hotel.. well it was a lodge owned by GreenLine Travels named K R Residency. It was a single floored newly constructed lodge. They gave one room for every 2 persons for refreshment and asked all to get ready in just 30 mins. The room was quite spacious(well this doesn’t matter must as we didn’t have to stay there), clean and hygiene. The bath room was also very clean and had a 3 liter geyser (had never seen such a small geyser before :-)).
So far so good. We got ready in 30 mins, and then we were offered breakfast in their cafeteria. Breakfast had 2 Idli (big size), 1 Vada, Pongal and Kesari Bath with Tea/Coffee. Overall it was 2 good and sufficient for one person.
We then headed to Tirumala in APSRTC bus, as they are only public bus service allowed to go to Tirumala. It was local town bus, but was in good condition. On the way there was a check post, all the passengers were asked to get down for screening... we reached Tirumala by 5.30 am.
In all this while we had our guide who was very polite, helpful and experienced in his job. Once we reached there, the guide asked us to handover all the electronic equipments to him before we get into the queue. He wrote down his mob # on our tickets and asked us to give him call if lost anywhere. He gave us the address where we were suppose to assemble post darshan.
He gave each of us Rs. 300 to buy Sigrha Darshan Ticket. We joined the queue at almost 6 in the morning, as few of us had gone for Mundan (Head Shaving) and we had to wait for them to join us.
We joined the queue marked with "Sigrah Darshan", there was no separated queue for ladies. All were going together in a single queue chanting matras. The devotees were offered Hot Milk/Water for free all the while in the queue.
By 8 am I entered the Lord Balaji’s Temple... As soon as I got a glimpse of the Lord, tears rolled out of eyes... I had been planning this visit for last 4-5 years and finally it was the day I saw the lord. There’s something there, I must say. As soon as we came out we were asked to collect Laddus (2 on each ticket). There was a separate queue to get token if interested in buying more Laddus. I got in that queue as I wanted more then just 2.
We collected the Laddus and then assembled at a point asked by our Guide. The guide handed over our cell phones and charged Rs. 10 for each cell phone. He gave us 2 hours to do shopping nearby and assemble at that point again by 11 am.
At around 11.45 am we were taken back to hotel in a APSRTC bus. As soon as we reached there we were asked to have our lunch in the same cafeteria. The lunch was ok ok. We were then taken to nearby Padmavati Temple (wife of Lord Balaji). The guide took us inside temple and asked us to go for VIP darshan queue. The VIP darshan ticket was for Rs. 100, and we had to pay that from our pocket. The guide asked us to assemble near the bus in 30m ins. Well we did take the VIP ticket and joined the queue. In took hardly 10 mins and we got the darshan. We there roam around and then got into the bus. The guide then say bye to all of us, and said we are heading back to bangalore. It was around 2.15 pm that time. As soon as we started to bangalore, we were stopped by police as the President was supposed to cross that road.
We had to wait there for almost an hour. It was then 3.15 pm we started from there, and reached Bangalore at around 7.30 pm. Everything was so smooth, so well planned and well executed. It was much more than what one can expect from a tour package. I don’t know how good or bad GreenLine travels are with other tour package, but for Tirupati they’re the best.
I thought of putting down my experience, so that others may get benefited.
If you’re planning for Tirupati Package, opt for Green Line Travels.
Thanks