Bangalore-Tirupati

We planned last weekend to go to tirupati. this was my 1st long drive in my Esteem. This was for Kalyani's Mundan.We started from Bangalore at 8:50 am from home on a nice cool bright morning. Once we touched KR Puram it was a nice drive, the roads were not that good with many pot holes. We had a good breakfast at Kamath hotel which is around 50 Km from Bangalore. We had the butter masala dosa and some hot coffee. Breakfast for 4 was around Rs 150. There is a woodies hotel also on the way after, people say it’s also a good place.After Kolar the roads were much better and had a great view with all the mango trees and vegetable farms. It was tomato season and we found loads just dumped and rotting due to excess production....was wondering why i can’t start a tomato pure/ketchup factory around!!!Instead of going to Tirupati we took a left to tirumala, I presume this is a by pass.Since we hadn’t booked the darshan it was not a good idea, as we reached tirumala around 3 PM. They have a elaborate security check of all baggage’s.The darshan coupons in Tirumala are sold at the Vijaya bank counter, the coupon is Rs 1000 for 5 members ( Puja name Arjitha Bhramaotsava).T he counter would tell you that you can get darshan at 1 pm, but actually its a puja done 500 mts away from the main temple in an auditorium. 1 pm is reporting time and actual puja will start at 2-230 pm. So be ready for that.Once the puja is over you can move to the VIP queue counter opposite the Vijaya Bank counter and enter the temple.We had to wait in the queue for 1 hr, which was pretty ok and got very good darshan. Once we took the coupon we left for lunch at Indian coffee house in tirumala.We drove down to Tirupati for our over night stay, we did a recce on 3 hotels- ITC, Mayura and one more cant recall the name.On the price and ambience we chose Mayura, it was a nice room with extra bed cost us around Rs 2000 for 3 (breakfast dosa and mausambi juice was really good)We checked out at around 10 am and left for tirumala for darshan. In tirumala you can also visit Akashaganga, its 10 km further and you can see a few windmills and a Dam. It’s kind of a tourist spot. Try the raw mango and also the Bhel Puri!
We drove back at around 5 pm from tirumala. We also visited 2 temples on the way back in Kannipakam - Arsidha Vinayaka temple and Ardhagiri temple. We reached home at 12:30 am.The ride back in the night is not advisable, it really strains you down.

For clarity - The route for tirupati is Bangalore - kolar - chittoor - tirupati (631 Km total)