In March 2020 we went to Aurangabad to visit Ajanta, Ellora and Daulatabad. I didn't do much research on the places and had very vague ideas about them. I took advice from a friend - Supratim Pal - who lives in Pune. I will write down the travel tips for other potential tourists of future who I hope will be better equipped than me after reading this.
Ajanta
I will not give you any history of Ajanta here. That's very easily read if you google up. These are caves about thirty of them on a mountain wall. They have exquisite Buddha and other statues and paintings. The most famous painting of India - Padmapani (Monalisa of India - in the sense it is very famous and people go there to see it) - is housed here on a dark wall of a cave. Now how to go there. There is no hotel near Ajanta where you can stay and go to the caves over a few days. You have to stay in Aurangabad and make a day trip from there. Takes about 3/4 hours because the road is terrible.
The usual thing to do, if you are not very adventure minded, is to go by car or tourist bus to the parking lot near Ajanta. You have to complete the last 7 kms through the forest in one of the shuttle buses that takes you from the parking lot to the caves. Private vehicles are not allowed here. What we did is, we got dropped near the View Point (this is the local name). It is a little off the highway before Ajanta. From View Point you have to walk down a steep hill through the jungle. Steps are made out and there is no way you could get lost.
Ajanta caves are basically dug out on the wall of a canyon formed by a small river. You climb down the opposite wall across the river. Cross the river over a small bridge and then climb up a little to go to the caves. The View Point is the place from where the caves were discovered by modern India (1819). If you take this route, you get a clear bird's eye view of the caves from the opposite side. You can understand the entire perspective of the place. More importantly this is a very tourist free part of the hills.
On the way back, we took the shuttle bus and went to the parking lot where our car was waiting.
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