Travel: How to reach Pithapuram, Karnataka. India

All devotees of Shripad Shri Vallabha knows the Pithapur as birth place. We had chance to visit Pithapur in December 2013. In my search I found some good information and different experiencing of travel to Pithapur.

I had considered all 3 options by road, by train and by plane, and finalised based on time and cost. We had selected Air and train travel. Travelers were one aged couple, one young couple, 3 kids from Mumbai.

Journey Options:-

By Road:- 

To reach Pithapur we had to travel from Mumbai - Pune (150 km. 4-5 hrs) - Solapur (251 km 7-8 hrs)- Hyderabad (320 km. 10 hrs) - Pithapur (480 km 13 hrs.) route, total 1200 km app. time calculated including snack breaks. To travel from one end of India to other end of India, we had to make 2 stops in night at Solapur and Hyderabad. So we dropped that idea as return travel would have taken approximate 7 days. 

By Air:-

There are two airports nearby to Pithapuram, 

1. Visakhapatnam (VTZ) 150 km from Pithapuram via  AH 45/NH 5 route and 

2. Rajahmundry (RJA) 60 km from Pithapuram

Depending on distance of road travel, I searched more about Rajahmundry, which has only 2 airlines operating Spicejet and Jet Konnect from Hyderabad. Flight leaves from Hyderabad at around 11 am and return flight is at around 2 pm from Rajahmundry. Cost varies depending on season and promotions of airlines

By Train:- 

There are many trains goes via Pithapuram.

You can also refer below site for exact train station.

http://www.sreepadasreevallabhapithapuram.org/reachpithapuram.html

We had selected Hyderabad as stopover so we selected train options from Secunderabad to Pithapuram. Return Journey to Mumbai from Secunderabad Duronto express. Duronto Express runs between different stations in India on alternate days or couple of days in week. 

In my search I came across one good travel group http://avdhootyatracompany.in/

but it travels from Pune to Pithapur.

Journey Route :-

We finalised our journey as Mumbai - Hyderabad - Rajahmundry by Jet Airays. And return on same day by Godavari express from Pithapuram at 19.20 / 7 pm. to Hyderabad. Stay in Hyderabad and back to Mumbai by Duronto express.

Experience:-

For first time traveler to domestic airport, always carry valid identity card. Mumbai domestic airport is neat and clean, we had no trouble reaching to Hyderabad airport. As we were travelling in first week of December 2013, Severe Cyclone Helen was passing through Andhra Pradesh (due to the deep depression over the Bay of Bengal), our Rajahmundry Flight was affected. Flight was scheduled earlier departure from Hyderabad and then delayed for hour. After taking off flight total travel time to Rajahmundry is 50 mins but due to bad weather condition couldn't land on airport. 

As weather was getting bad Captain decided to take flight back to Hyderabad. We had around 2.5 hours travel time in Plane. By God's grace we were safe. We had to cancel our return train tickets and re-planned our trip. 

We could find waiting list tickets on Indian railway train booking to Samalkot station which is one stop before Pithapuram. We booked Samalkot station 10 km away from Pithapuram because Samalkot has more lodges and hotel facilities than Pithapuram. Our train was departing 7 pm from Hyderabad and arriving at Samalkot morning 5 am. We met one family in train journey, who suggested that its good to go to Kakinada for stay than in Samalkot. So we hired car from Samalkot to Kakinada. Its like traingle kakinada - Samalkot - Pithapuram in distance. We were lucky enough to find car hire in train journey than searching on platform. There are lots of colourful temples on the route of Kakinada, we couldn't stop on all stations due to early morning travel (around 6 am).

Our days plan was changed slightly due to going to Kakinada. We took good nap of 2-3 till morning breakfast in hotel. We had nly plan to visit Pithapura Datta temple on Venugopal Marg. We gave address to driver but he was under impression that its famous temple in Pithapuram so He took us to Kukuteshwar Temple. Its Temple of Shiva and Many more temples together, Shri Shripad Vallabh used to pray in this temple. After prayers, we headed to Venugopal Marg. We reached to Shripada Shrivallabha Mahasansthan 11.50, just before temple door closes. Temple is closed between 12 pm - 5 pm. Devotees can have 'Mahaprasad' in temple dining room. 

After that we headed to Annavaram, which has Lord Veera Venkata Satyanarayana Swamy temple situated. The temple, situated on the hill top. Its good view and very big temple, you will gte big queue walk to reach main view. So its good to keep some time in hand for return journey. Since it was 24 km from Kakinada where we had only our baggage, we could take rest of hour or two. Then we headed to Samlkot station to catch train to Hyderabad.

Hope my travel finds you useful in your journey, have a great trip! Enjoy :-)