Ajanta Ellora Tour Itinerary : weekend getaways from Mumbai

This post details out Ajanta Ellora Tour Itinerary which is one of the best weekend getaways from Mumbai as well as a weekend getaway from Pune. Few people know that Ajanta of the Ajanta Ellora Caves is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Also that these are 2 very separately located cave monuments.

 J Griffths said about the Ajanta frescos:

“The Florentines could have put better drawing and the Venetians better color, but neither could have thrown better expression into it. For pathos and sentiment and the unmistakable way of telling its story, these pictures I consider cannot be surpassed in the history of art.”

A trip to Ajanta Ellora caves, whether from Mumbai or Pune, is one the best long weekend options from Mumbai. If you are interested in history and architecture, this is one place you shouldn’t miss. This can be combined with a visit to Lonar Crater lake (and Daityasudan temple closeby) or the Grishneshwar Shiv temple (one of the 12 jyotirlings in India).

Our travel route:

If you are planning for a weekend getaway from Mumbai, this is a route you can take. If its a weekend getaway from Pune, the time taken will reduce by around 2hrs.

• Mumbai to Aurangabad – 360 km – ~7hrs
• Mumbai to Nashik – 150 km – ~3hrs
• Nashik to Aurangabad – ~4 hrs
  When we went, there was some work going on the highway and after we reached Aurangabad through this route, we found out that another way of reaching Aurangabad from Mumbai could have been through Pune.

Stay:
Many good options like ITC Welcomgroup hotels and Lemon Tree among others. Our reservation was in Lemon Tree. In the holiday season, do try checking out for any package deals, some might be good. As for Lemon Tree – pretty neat a place, good rooms, fresh ambience, nice 24hrs café and very polite and courteous staff.

Sightseeing:
Ajanta Caves (110km from Aurangabad) – ~2 hrs from the main city
A world heritage site, the Ajanta Caves, situated in a horse shoe shaped rock formation, are entirely Buddhist caves which were constructed in two phases – the Hinayana Phase (2^nd – 1^st Century BC) and Mahayana Phase (5^th – 7^thCentury AD).

While in the Hinayana phase paintings and sculptures, one would only find symbols depicting Buddha like the Bodhi Tree, the wheel of life, lotus, yakshinis and the Gandharvas among others, it’s the Mahayana phase which saw Budhha being given a physical form and thus being idolised in stone. In keeping with which, the Mahayana phase caves see huge Sculptures of Buddha in Parinirvana (Reclining Buddha) and Deeksha state.

The caves in all contain 30 temples and dwelling halls – which include 5 Chaityas (or temples) and 21 Viharas (or dwelling halls). 8 caves out of the 30 present are unfinished.

16 of the 30 caves contain Mural Paintings and the most noteworthy among those are Cave no. – 1, 2, 16, 17 and 19. while the best sculptures can be found in the Cave no. caves 1, 4, 17, 19, 24, 26. (The caves have been so numbered by the Archaeological Survey of India, in the order of their presence (as one walks past them).

Do note that flash photography is not allowed inside the caves with frescos since it has an adverse impact on the frescos which are now being preserved and restored.

Check this post for the marquee paintings/frescos and sculptures in Ajanta caves

Ellora Caves (30km from Aurangabad) – ~1 hr from the main city
The cave temples of Ellora are the product of three religious systems – Buddhism, Jainism and Hindu. Caves 1 – 12 are the Buddhist caves, next 16 are the Hindu or Brahmanical as they’re called and the last 5 (cave no. 30 – 34) are the Jain caves. The caves are spread over an area of around 2 km. The starting point is Cave 16, one of the most noteworthy caves of Ellora, South to which are the Buddhist caves and up north are the rest of the Hindu and jain caves.

Click here to see what you will find in the most noteworthy caves in Ellora. 

Traveller Notes
This post is more than just an Ajanta Ellora tour itinerary but mentions everything you need to know about enjoying the place to the fullest.

• Opening and Closing Time: Caves open at 10:00 in the morning and Mondays the caves are closed.
• Charting the route:
  • Ellora caves and Ajanta are not in the same direction.
  • The caves are around 4km from the entrance of the cave complex. From this point, there is a shuttle service which runs every 5 – 8 minutes to the caves and back. On holidays, the queue for this shuttle is serpentine. Reaching there as early as possible will save some time.
  • Be sure to ask for directions on the way back from Ajanta since there are multiple entries into the city and depending on which turn one takes or misses it could result in extra travel time of upto 30 – 40 mins
• Managing the kids:
  • The entire place is stroller friendly and since there is a lot of walking expected, better to carry a stroller.
  • Our 4yr old enjoyed the sculptures and the paintings as we kept telling her stories from the guidebook and she never complained of getting bored. However, better to be prepared and carry things to keep them busy (art set, papers, puzzle books, play dough etc whatever works for your kid)
• Food:
  • There is a restaurant at the cave complex entrance where you can plan to have lunch and pick up water bottles from
  • You can also get basic snacks like chips et al there
• Sightseeing:
  • Seeing the caves of Ajanta would take almost ¾ of the day (including the travel time) and the same goes for Ellora.
  • While travel time in the case of Ellora would be 45 – 60mins, the caves are widely spaced out and one can opt for taking an auto to visit the caves from cave no. 16 to 34
• Guides and Guidebooks:
  • ASI has a small office close to the ticket booth where they have separate guidebooks on Ajanta and Ellora on sale. These are quite detailed and cover the stories behind each and every mural, fresco and sculpture in the cave.
  • There are other more concise guidebooks available too, which are more for the entire Aurangabad with Ajanta and Ellora as a chapter in them.
  • As with any other Indian tourist hotspot, there are guides who weave the folklore well into the facts and history.
• Nearby: What makes this one of the best weekend getaways from Mumbai as well as one of the best weekend getaways from Pune is there are more than just the Ajanta Ellora caves. These also make it one of the best long weekend options from Mumbai.
  • If you have an extra day at hand, do plan to visit Lonar crater lake and the DaityaSudan temple next to it.
  • For those with religious bent or traveling with extended family who may be interested in temples, the Grishneshwar Shiv temple (one of the 12 jyotirlings) is in the vicinity (c.2hr drive from Ajanta and Ellora)