My Journey to Shirdi Sai Baba from Mumbai, and Shani Shingnapur
Written in 2015, updated in October 2026. Prices and timings still change; check before you go.
When to go Shirdi through the year
Easiest: Oct to Feb. Hardest: Apr to May, Jul. Tap + for the month-by-month weather and where these numbers come from.
- January: Easy. Daytime about 30°, night about 13°. Rain: dry, about 3 mm.
- February: Easy. Daytime about 34°, night about 16°. Rain: dry, about 1 mm.
- March: Mixed. Daytime about 37°, night about 20°. Rain: dry, about 10 mm.
- April: Hard. Daytime about 40°, night about 23°. Rain: dry, about 6 mm.
- May: Hard. Daytime about 40°, night about 24°. Rain: dry, about 16 mm.
- June: Mixed. Daytime about 34°, night about 24°. Rain: wet, about 142 mm.
- July: Hard. Daytime about 30°, night about 23°. Rain: very wet, about 256 mm.
- August: Mixed. Daytime about 30°, night about 22°. Rain: wet, about 195 mm.
- September: Mixed. Daytime about 29°, night about 22°. Rain: wet, about 205 mm.
- October: Easy. Daytime about 30°, night about 20°. Rain: some, about 71 mm.
- November: Easy. Daytime about 30°, night about 16°. Rain: dry, about 13 mm.
- December: Easy. Daytime about 29°, night about 14°. Rain: dry, about 9 mm.
Ten-year averages (2015 to 2024) from NASA POWER satellite data. Conditions change; check before you go.
Where do these numbers come from, and how far can you trust them?
The figures come from NASA POWER, a free NASA project that publishes weather estimates for every point on Earth, put together from satellites and weather models. We took every day from 2015 to 2024 for this place, and averaged each month: the usual daytime high, the usual night low, and the rain.
We compared it with official weather-station figures for a few places. Over flat land it matched closely; in the hills and on islands it can be a few degrees out, and then the strip says so.
Easy, Mixed and Hard are our rule of thumb, not a forecast. Hard means days above about 37°, rain of about 250 mm a month or more, or nights close to freezing. Mixed means days above about 32°, rain over about 100 mm a month, or cold nights (below about 8°). Easy is everything else.
An average is not the weather on your dates, and it knows nothing about festivals, crowds, road closures or this year's monsoon. Check a forecast a week before you go.
Working and staying in aamchi Mumbai or city of dreams was always associated with great memories. One of them was my yearly pilgrimage to Sri Sai Shirdi Baba temple. The first time I visited Shirdi was with my college friends on a bus. Money crisis always looms during college days and can be a single point of decision making during those days.
The Quick Answer
| You are asking | The answer |
|---|---|
| How far is Shirdi from Mumbai? | About 240 to 280 km by road, depending on the way you take (in 2015 I wrote about 230 km). The Samruddhi Mahamarg, the Mumbai–Nagpur expressway, has run the whole way from Thane district since 5 June 2025 and has a Shirdi interchange: about 4 to 5 hours. The older road through Nashik takes 5 to 6. |
| Is there a fast train? | Yes, since February 2023. The Vande Bharat Express 22223 leaves Mumbai CSMT at 6.20 am, stops at Dadar, Thane, Kalyan and Nashik Road, and reaches Sainagar Shirdi at about 11.30 am. It does not run on Tuesdays (check on IRCTC); 22224 is the train back. |
| Can I fly? | Shirdi Airport, at Kakadi, is about 14 km from the temple and opened in 2017. Flights have thinned: in February 2026 only IndiGo flew there, and its night flight stopped in December 2025, so check the routes before you plan around one. |
| How do I book darshan or an aarti? | The free darshan queue needs no ticket. Paid darshan and aarti passes are sold on the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust's own portal, online.sai.org.in, on its app and at the counters in Shirdi (a pass kiosk opened at Gate 1 in April 2025). The trust publishes no price list I could find; booking sites quote about ₹200 for paid darshan and ₹400 to ₹600 for an aarti. The portal shows the price when you book. |
| What are the aarti times? | From the trust's own answers: Kakad aarti at 5.15 am, Madhyan aarti at noon, Dhoop aarti at sunset and Shej aarti at 10 pm. The darshan queue runs from 6 am to 9.30 pm. |
| How long is the queue? | About an hour on the Thursday we went, as I write below. Thursdays, weekends and festivals are the busiest days. |
| Is there a dress code? | The trust asks visitors to dress modestly. It said in 2020 that this is a request, not a rule. |
| How far is Shani Shingnapur? | About 65 to 75 km, 1.5 to 2 hours by road. Since 8 April 2016 women may go up on the platform too, after a Bombay High Court order. Since February 2025 only branded oil may be offered. |
| Can I watch darshan from home? | Yes: the trust streams it on its live darshan page. |
We all have gone through this phase at some point or other. Considering everyone’s interest in mind, we decided to book an overnight bus from Dadar(Mumbai) to Shirdi. The total distance between the megacity and holy city is approx 230 Kms (2026: route planners give 240 to 280 km, depending on the road; see the quick answer). Also, the overnight journey gave us ample time to reach Shirdi very early in morning to have a darshan of Baba.
The journey was nothing much to write about, except that we talked a lot about our college life and how fast it was coming to an end. It takes a real time for the bus to exit Mumbai city because of insane traffic. We didn’t realize when we slept only to wake up at 5 AM when the conductor shouted “Shirdi pahuch gaye.”
For quick refreshing before darshan of Shirdi Sai Baba, there is plenty of options in town, operating either at free or charging nominal fee. These facilities are very good for backpackers or budget traveler, however it is recommended to take a hotel or real lodge if coming to Shirdi with family.The good news is that there is plenty of hotels available in all ranges from budget, to standard and even premium category to suit the traveler’s needs.
We stayed in Hotel Sai Simran (2026: I could not confirm it is still open; check before you book). We found the hotel to be a good one, what I liked about this hotel is its location, situated bit far from the temple(1 km) so it will give you the needed peace and solitude once you are done with Puja. Also, the hotel is nearly 1.5 km from Shirdi railway station.
We were expecting large crowds at the temple, it is a Thursday, every Thursday is considered to be an auspicious day to do puja and the arrangements made at the temple complex assured us that the authorities too were expecting a massive influx of devotees. We took our place in the queue and were happy to note that it was moving.
There are ample seating desks made of steel en route to Baba darshan; these are superb for elders and children who want to take rest while in the queue. I would say it usually takes 1 hour in the queue and finally to have grand darshan of Sai Baba. As we were out in 1 hour after our puja, we had all full day at our disposal, so we decided to go to Shani Shingnapur.
Shingnapur is known for its popular temple of Shani, the Hindu god associated with the planet (graha) Saturn and is 2 hrs journey from Shirdi (2026: about 65 to 75 km, 1.5 to 2 hours by road).There is a special queue for those who want to approach the idol, and this was quite long (2026: since April 2016 women may go up on the platform too. The state government named an administrator for the temple in September 2025; the courts are still deciding who runs it).We had darshan soon, and started on our return journey, stopping along the way for fresh sugarcane juice.
We returned to Shirdi around 4:00 PM, drenched to the core after a sudden rainfall, as the auto which we took to Shingnapur had no means of protection from rain.We had dinner at our Hotel Sai Simran (their Gujarati Thali, especially their Khichdi is excellent!).
After spending the evening roaming in around the Shirdi town, we checked out from our hotel for the return journey to Mumbai. We considered ourselves lucky by booking the return bus ticket well in advance. We got the best and comfortable seats on the bus. The bus left Shirdi roughly around 11 PM.In no time, we all slept.We slept comfortably, waking up only to alight at Dadar at 6:30 AM.Thus ended a journey we had made with our friends.
Sai baba live darshan online feed is available at– Here
More on Travelescape
- Weekends from Mumbai and Pune: Shirdi with the ghats, the Konkan and Goa.
- Spiritual India: our guides to temples, ashrams and pilgrimages.
4 comments
4 conversations from readers on the earlier site.
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