How to reach:
By Air: The nearest Airport is Nasik Airport (Gandhinagar Airport) which is around 85km from Shirdi. However Shirdi Airport will be operational shortly as trial has already been done for the same.
By Rail: Nearest Railway Station is now Sainagar Shirdi Railway Station.
Where to stay:
Dwarawati Bhaktiniwas (pre-booking is required)
Booking for Darshan, Aarti, Accomodation, Sewa and etc:
Website for booking online: https://www.shrisaibabasansthan.org/INDEX.HTML
Registration: First the devotee needs to get registered with the above mentioned site. Apart from general details like Name, Address, DOB, Phone Number, devotee should have soft copy of photo (max 250kb) and a photo id like Aadhar Card, PAN Card, Voter ID, Passport, Driving License, Ration Card.
Once the devotee is registered, he/she can do bookings. Please have ID details of the people for whom bookings are done along with yours.
* Register in the name of the person visiting the temple or availing the accommodation as name and photo Id of the registered person will be required while availing the facilities.
Review:
I got the opportunity to visit this shrine twice once with cousins and second time with parents. During first visit we chose to get into the general line which took near about 2 hours for darshan. In second visit I booked the Madhyan Aarti (11am – 11:45am) for which we reported at 10am. I would advise to pre-book darshan or aarti if visiting with elderly parents. With Aarti booking one can attend the aarti from very close to the idol.
Madhyan Aarti ticket costs INR 300 per person and INR 10 for Internet Reservation charges.
We even booked our stay at Dwarawati Bhaktiniwas through Shri Sai Baba Sansthan website (mentioned above) which costs very minimal for two days. We booked AC room (attached washroom and balcony) with four occupancy at INR 1910 (INR 10 – Internet handling charge) for two days. Our check in time on day 1 was 8pm and check out time on day 3 was 11 am which perfectly suited our schedule. The place is very neat and clean and just walking distance (1 km) from temple.
Please note the check out time is 11am only.
Visited in June 2015