Maharashtra Caves and Coast

Arrive and start in Colaba: the Gateway of India of 1924, the galleries and pavement bookstalls of Kala Ghoda, and the David Sassoon Library. Walk to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, finished in 1888 to F. W. Stevens's design, then along Marine Drive as the Art Deco facades around the Oval catch the last light. Dinner at Britannia and Co. for berry pulao, or seekh rolls at Bademiya behind the Taj.

The nine o'clock launch from the Gateway takes an hour to Elephanta, where 120 steps and a lane of stalls lead up to the great cave and its three-headed Sadashiva. Back by early afternoon for Dhobi Ghat, the Dadar flower market or the junk shops of Chor Bazaar, then an evening flight or the Jan Shatabdi train east to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, formerly Aurangabad.

One hundred kilometres north, about two and a half hours, then a shuttle bus for the last stretch to Ajanta, which is closed on Mondays. Take the caves slowly: the Padmapani and Vajrapani of Cave 1, painted in earth pigments and lamp black, Cave 2's ceiling medallions, the seven-metre reclining Buddha in Cave 26, and the chaitya arch of Cave 19. Walk to the viewpoint across the gorge on the way out.

Thirty kilometres to Ellora, closed on Tuesdays, for Cave 16: the Kailasa temple, cut from the top down out of the basalt hillside in the eighth century under the Rashtrakutas, with some 200,000 tonnes of rock removed and nothing at all added. Then the Jain caves at the north end and the hill fort of Daulatabad with its dark spiral passage. Afternoon drive to Nashik, 190 kilometres, about four hours.

Early at Panchavati, where the Godavari runs past Ramkund and the black stone Kalaram temple, and the Sita Gufa is a squeeze of stone steps; this is Kumbh Mela ground every twelve years. Then twenty-eight kilometres to Trimbakeshwar, source of the Godavari and one of the twelve jyotirlingas. Afternoon at Sula or Grover Zampa for a tasting, and the Pandavleni Buddhist caves at sunset.

About 200 kilometres south, four and a half hours, joining the Mumbai-Pune Expressway into the Sahyadris. Stop at Karla for the largest rock-cut chaitya in India, from around the first century BCE, its wooden roof ribs still in place after two thousand years, and at Bhaja for its stupas and monsoon waterfall. Lonavala sits at 624 metres: Tiger's Leap at sunset, and chikki to take home.

Drop off the escarpment to the coast, about 110 kilometres and three hours to Alibaug, and on to Murud for the island fort of Janjira, reached by sailboat and never taken in three centuries of sieges by Marathas, Portuguese and the English. Lunch on the shore: bangda fry, kolambi bhaat and a bowl of sol kadhi. Return to Mumbai over the 21.8-kilometre Atal Setu for evening flights.