Pandharpur Travel experience
Hi Friends,
Just thought to share my experience on a recent Road trip from Mumbai - Satara - Pandharpur - Tuljapur - Akkalkot - Kolhapur - Satara and back to Mumbai, before my trip I did a lot of search on the internet for better planning and things to explore on this area to make the trip memorable for my family but unfortunately there are very less good blogs who are giving this information hence writing this blog (not sure if it will be up to mark as it was my first ever blog).
I will not spend more time on how to reach from one location to another and various options as you will get good options from Google Map and a lot of travel sites but will share my experience about each place.
In this blog, I will write about my Pandharpur travel
Pandharpur
We started our Journey from Wai (my home town) to Pandharpur it is approx 180 Km via road, Google will show you two options (one via Satara SH143 and another via Phaltan), I will suggest preferring the option of via Phaltan as it is around 25 Km shorter and will save your 30 min.
How about Roads?
Believe me, the Roads are Superb !!! initially, it is single lane roads as it is passing from villages but as there is low commute it is very easy to ride (caution to Citi drivers: there are few blind side curves so be cautious), but once you reach the NH it is like super flat roads with 3 lanes, another alert: most of the places there is road construction going on so overtaking lane is kept for incoming vehicles (hence keep your speed limit in control as you never know when another vehicle will from another side), this is from 2021, I am sure the way work going on roads will be a superhighway in next couple of quarters.
Explore the Pandharpur
Initially, I thought there may not be much apart from Vitthal Rukmini Temple as most of the trip planner sides and even searches like 'best places to visit in Pandharpur' do not show any good result.
BUT believe me, if you rely on those you will miss a lot of things in Pandharpur, below are the few tips and best places to visit in Pandharpur
Vitthal Rukmini Temple
We should admire the way Temple authorities, local corporations, and even the local vendors maintain this holy place in such a beautiful way. There is a wide road, no chaos, no compulsion for puja or Dakshina, it is a very neat and clean surrounding place, ample parking space available, neat and clean washrooms are available at nearby locations.
There is no need for any e-pass for Vitthal Rukmini Temple Darshan and all the devotees need to stand in the same queue which on normal days take around 25-30 minutes and on a holy day like Pandharpur vari as told by local people take 2-3 days. below is the path from where you need to stand for que, there are no short-cuts as the whole que is a single-lane sky-walk bridge which is an excellent thought to avoid devotee's traffic near to mandir parisar.
Opposite Vitthal Rukmini Temple on the other side of Chandrabhaga River, there is a newly built ISKON Temple, it is also nicely built, and must visit the site if you are traveling to Pandharpur.
you can take the Boat Ride to visit both the places, normally the people charge per person Rs. 100 return Journey to Narad Muni and Vishnupad Temple and Rs. 80 for return Journey to ISKON Temple, But if you have a big family you can get your self boat and you can negotiate with them (I will suggest not to negotiate as it is very long distance and person need to manually row the boat as there are no motor-driven boats.. so it is hard-working job considering the distance). On my trip, we negotiated the rate but looking at the efforts and distance we pay the full amount plus an additional tip.
Tulsi Vrindavan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX58r8b8qrs)
Tulsi Vrindavan is one of the best modern art which showcases the history of all the saints in Maharashtra and their work along with hundreds of species of Tulsi's. very beautiful running track maintain next to Tulsi Vrindavan garden and the sun-set view is one of the best scenes to watch from this place, do take your children to this place and explain the details of each and every painting.
Children do get a lot of fun activities next to this park.
Shri Sant Gajanan Maharaj Mandir (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv7UAm-K7_c)
This is another not much-explored place in Pandharpur on the internet but another great place to visit, with such a beautiful garden, mandir and stay facilities and that too on the heart of the city and only 5 min walking distance from Vitthal Rukmini Mandir.
I am sure there are many more places to visit but these are my explored ones.
Where to eat?
Unlike any other city, you will not get many good restaurants in Pandharpur maybe because there are so many Math and Mandir who give the bhajan and prasad to all the devotees at very discounted rates, We only found "Special Golden Tea" restaurant which is near to Mandir Paris, for other restaurants you need to go around 5-10 Km away from Mandir parisar.
So for Lunch and Dinner, you need to visit any good Mandir's or Gajanan Maharaj Mandir offers Lunch / Dinner at Rs. 35/-.
Where to Stay?
Similar to restaurants there are no big hotels available in Pandharpur as Vitthal Rukmini Mandir's Bhakta Niwas and Gajanan Maharaj Math is none less than 3-4 star hotel-like atmosphere with Rs. 1000/- for 5 people for one night stay.
I would recommend two places for your stay
Vitthal Rukmini Bhakta Niwas - you can do online booking/phone booking / direct booking in this place, which has all the facilities inside the premises at very very cheap rates
Shri Gajanan Maharaj Bhakta Niwas - it is a walking booking with first cum first serve basis of Rs. 250/- for 5 people for one night stay with all the amenities.
hope you like the information, if you found it useful please do share it with others so they can get benefited.
(my small attempt to help you guys)...
Anil Bhange
Comments
Post a Comment