Most blogs tell you the Ram Mandir is open all day and darshan is easy. Both halves are misleading, and both cost pilgrims their darshan.
First, the timing. General darshan of Ram Lalla runs in two sessions - roughly 7:00 AM to 11:30 AM and 2:00 PM to 7:00 PM - with the temple closed in between for the Bhog offering and the deity's rest. Any group that arrives between 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM finds the gates shut. The 7:00-11:00 AM window has the shortest queue, which is exactly why Experience My India times your arrival for the 7:00 AM opening and puts Hanuman Garhi ahead of it at 5:45 AM, not after.
Second, the security. Mobile phones, cameras, smartwatches, leather items and bags are not permitted inside. Free lockers sit before the first security checkpoint - but pilgrims who don't know this arrive at the gate holding a phone and get turned back to the locker queue, losing 20-30 minutes. Between the locker, the screening, the roughly 500-metre corridor and the darshan line, budget about two hours for the temple alone.
Third, the cost - and this is where money changes hands wrongly. General darshan is completely free. A Sugam Darshan e-pass, booked only on the official srjbtkshetra.org portal, cuts the general queue from roughly 60-90 minutes to about 30-45. There is no political VIP entrance and no priest connection that legitimately skips security. Anyone outside the gate offering guaranteed VIP darshan for cash is a tout selling nothing. Experience My India books only through the official Sugam Darshan and Aarti-pass channel, and for a Mangala or Shringar Aarti we tell you to request that free pass 10-15 days ahead, because inner-area numbers are strictly capped.
Get this wrong and you lose the morning. Get it right - early arrival, phone in the locker, official pass - and Ram Lalla darshan on a same-day tour is calm, not chaotic.