[narayans80]

Originally Posted by mogambo

On that note, I'm planning around 4-5 hours each at Ajanta one day and Ellora next day. Assuming that would be good. Does anyone know if we can find guides there itself or any earlier booking has to be done?

You will have guides at Ellora. I don't know how hot it'll be when you visit. We visited in early June, couldn't spend more than 1.5 hours, it was 43 degree celsius

[mogambo]

Thanks @narayans

With rains around the corner hoping it will be cooler.

[mogambo]

Day 1
Left Bangalore (Sarjpura Road) via NICE Road at 6am.
Breakfast around 7.30am at Shree Rathnam before Dobbaspete. Once we left, it was a free drive. Most of my drives have been Salem-Coimbatore-Kerala where it is hard to average beyond 60-70km per hour.
Here it was easy to average over 90 - hardly any vehicles on the road.
We missed the right turn at Hospet, went ahead around 15km and came back. Even then, we covered the 700km from home to Solapur in 10 hours.

Lunch stop at Nanda Gokula at Kushtagi.

Just at the start of Bijapur, there are some massive craters on the road - quite dangerous too. I barely missed one. For a short distance only.
Solapur entry road is terrible too.

Tomorrow will plan to head to Ajanta Caves.

[mogambo]

Day 2
We left Solapur at 8.30am and reached Tuljapur Bhavani temple in ~40 minutes. The town is shockingly dirty. Garbage everywhere sadly.
Area around temple is really crowded. The temple is grand. Large and majestic.
You are accosted by people every moment - especially when you stand out as a non local.
NOTE - you need to take a pass to enter the temple. Free pass is the normal line. ₹200 allows you to bypass the line.
We didn’t take the pass but they let us in anyways.
We stood in a fast moving line and got the desired darshan of the divine mother with an hour.
Huge crowd for a weekday/school day.

We left Tuljapur around 11 and had a dream drive. Stopped at Yedeshi tollgate by cops to check papers. Also again - at the next tollgate.
*Be sure to have your Emission Test Certificate* also folks.

Lunch around 12.30 pm at New Kanhaiya Veg Hotel. Average food. Surprisingly there are large veg restaurants every 10-15 kilometres so you get food.

The roads are so good and free you can really amp your mileage if you drive carefully.

Finally around 120km towards Ajanta we got off the main highway. The road via Badnapur - Hasnabad - Sillod. It is horrible. There are good stretches but long stretches with zero road. Large craters. And long stretches through isolated areas which make one doubt if you are on the right way.
For a UNESCO World Heritage Centre there is a surprisingly TOTAL lack of any signage whatsoever. Not one sign showing you are headed towards Ajanta Caves.

Staying at MTDC T Junction. Very nice place.
After Ajanta will leave for Ellora tomorrow.
More later on that route.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by mogambo

Even then, we covered the 700km from home to Solapur in 10 hours.

Where did you stay in Solapur? How is the parking?

Originally Posted by mogambo

*Be sure to have your Emission Test Certificate* also folks.

Asking for originals and PUC is a MH trait. For other docs, are they accepting mParivahan?

Huge crowd for a weekday/school day.

Surprisingly I parking to parking in 45 minutes on 23rd December. I was anticipating crowds as a norm and took the 200 Rs ticket off the bat

The road via Badnapur - Hasnabad - Sillod. It is horrible.

You are a brave man!

[mogambo]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Where did you stay in Solapur? How is the parking?

Hotel Saiprasad Executive. It is not bad for a night's stay - close the railway station (not intended - just happened so). They have a veg restaurant but wifi wasn't available and 4G signal was poor.

Originally Posted by narayans80

Asking for originals and PUC is a MH trait. For other docs, are they accepting mParivahan?

* I had my insurance copy
* DL is submitted for renewal so showed them a soft copy - they were ok with that
* Showed soft copy of RC also they were ok with that
* Didn't have PUC - pleaded in broken Marathi and after 5 minutes of begging they let me go. He suggested I do PUC at the stall "conveniently" located just there so did that.

Originally Posted by narayans80

You are a brave man!

My wife would differ, as she made amply clear through that last stretch . Actually, I think I missed the preferred turning and just followed the route provided by Google, which - in hindsight - may have been a mistake.

[mogambo]

Day 3:

* Ajanta T Junction MTDC Resort is a great place - you can stay an extra day, it is very delightful and pleasant. Also, very great access to Ajanta.
* Had breakfast and checked out in the morning - kept bags in car (but asked Reception to keep my laptop to be safe).
* 8.30AM we went to the Ajanta Caves shuttle. So - you can't drive to the caves. You have to stop at this point, then take the shuttle to the caves. There were few visitors but tons of staff
* Bus left at 9am - 4km, ₹25 ticket/person. Takes about 5-10 min to there. The route reminded me of Sabarimalai, with forest on both sides. And when you reach the caves - WOW. ASI has created an entire ecosystem there. Huge place, lot of facilities - feels like an Western museum, the way the things have been built and staffed. It is a buzzing place, lot of activity (which is ironic - given how lonely and isolated most of the way leading to here is).
* Ticket costs ₹40/person (below 15 free). Walk to Cave 1 and Govt approved guides will approach you. ₹1,800 for a guide. So we got someone who has been doing this for 35 years. From 9.30am to 11am he took us through various caves.
* For most part we pretty much walked barefoot with shoes in our hand since you can't wear shoes inside most of the temple caves. Easier to use sandals (I packed shoes as recommended, but honestly, not needed). Sandals easier to take off and wear if you need.
* AJANTA IS AMAZING - Folks, please visit once in your lives and make sure your children see the place. Let it sink in to them as they bask into the best of the best this country and its rich heritage have to offer.
* The paintings, the artwork, the carvings - so passionate. The chiselwork of those artists will resonate in your heart.
* We had lunch at MTDC restaurant there (ok ok food) and found ourselves back at T JUnction at 12.45pm. Picked up laptops and headed off to Ellora
* 100km from Ajanta to Ellora took approx 2 hours. The initial part of the road was bad (very) in patches. Most of the rest of the road is concrete - periodically you drive to some of the dirtiest towns I've seen ever - shops overflowing into the road. Occasionally - there will be a 100m mud patch between 2 stretches of concrete road so you have to be super alert.
* Here we are staying at Ellora Heritage Resort. Visited Grishneshwar Jyotirling (walking distance) for an truly electrifying darshan of Mahadev. Off to the caves Saturday morning.

[mogambo]

Day 4:
* Checked out of Ellora Heritage at 7am. They promised breakfast would be ready at 7 but when we went to reception, everyone was still asleep. Anyways, checked out
* NOTE - Ellora opens at 6AM (unlike Ajanta - which starts at 9). Overall Ellora is in a more accessible and crowded area.
* It was 1km to the Caves parking - en route, we found a roadside eatery. He made us fresh Poha and Ginger Chahaa. It was awesome.
* By 7:30am, we parked (there was just one more car) and walked to the caves. As usual, accosted by hawkers and touts claiming to be Government approved guys - totally ignore these folks, people. Go directly to ticket counter (again, ₹40 and below 15 free). Right there are official tourist guides (₹1,800). We got a hold of Mr Ayaz who has been doing this for 35 years and he was awesome.
* Ellora was mindblowing - we started at the famous Kailasa temple. Humbled by what our ancestors have achieved, proud of this monument of stone, and ashamed - that we could not protect what was ours. 25 years ago, I read a statement by Rajeev Srinivasan on Rediff - it is something like this. "Western countries accuse India of spending money on arms and defense when we don't do enough to feed our poor. Why not use our money there instead. Well - it is not enough to just learn to get bread, one must be able to prevent someone else from stealing it as well"
Ellora - Kailasa Temple especially - is what happens when are "good" but not "strong".

* Anyways - after a magical 3 hours, we stepped out, got some air and petrol and went on our merry way.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by mogambo

Hotel Saiprasad Executive

I stayed at the exact place in 2017. Goofed up our booking, took us 2 hours to get to our room. 4 of us in a small double room (booked a triple). Awful food. Non-existent parking (had only roadside parking I remember).

My bad experience with Solapur hotels started with this. The next Srikamal International was good except for the non-existent parking.

[mogambo]

We could park inside (very limited space). Food was so so. Not bad but not great.

Guess we got a bit lucky ������

[dozer]

I'm planning a trip to Aurangabad (near ajanta or Ellora) in a day or 2. Can we stay in Vijayapura instead of Solapur? I'm trying to break the trip into equal halves. Any recommendations for an overnight stay at Vijayapura?

[vagabond128]

Originally Posted by dozer

Can we stay in Vijayapura instead of Solapur?

You can visit Gol Gumbaz also

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by dozer

Can we stay in Vijayapura instead of Solapur?

Kanishka International (has a Kamat attached)
Kyriad Bijapur

These are about 2 km from Gol Gumbaz on the same road and easily accessible. Both are 2 buildings apart.

I stayed in Kyriad which is decent, food is just OK.

I believe there is a Fern Residency too if you are looking in that budget.

[ajayclicks]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

There is also an IOCL COCO which is northbound located here. I had taken this pic last time as I crawled through that service lane

There is no direct access to the pump from the bypass/ high way? how earlier do we have to hit the service lane?

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by ajayclicks

There is no direct access to the pump from the bypass/ high way? how earlier do we have to hit the service lane?

Vijayapura bypass is now mostly elevated. Earlier, access to this station was very easy since traffic moved on the service lane while bypass was getting constructed.

However, with the bypass now fully functional end to end, you need to exit onto the service lane 2km before this station and drive on the service lane to access this. Getting back onto the highway is a matter of less than 500 meters.