RutzIndia.com's tour packages from Pune are five chauffeur-driven circuits: Ajanta and Ellora, the Mumbai and Lonavala loop, two lengths of Goa and a Gujarat heritage run. One car and one driver stay with you throughout, and the fare is kilometres driven or 250 km a day, whichever is higher, times the car's per-km rate.
Why Pune is a good place to start
Pune sits at a crossroads. The Mumbai-Pune Expressway drops west through the Sahyadri to the coast, the Ahmednagar road runs north-east to the Deccan cave country, and NH48 heads south through Satara and Kolhapur towards Goa. That means three of the five circuits on this page can begin at your own gate in Kothrud, Baner, Viman Nagar or Hadapsar, with no flight at all. Only the Gujarat trip really needs a plane.
It also means the itineraries, which are written from Mumbai or from the Goa airports, can be bent to suit you. The chauffeur's first pickup can be your home; the last drop can be your home too. Because the car is billed on kilometres and a daily minimum rather than on a fixed route, a change of starting point is simply arithmetic, and the travel desk will show you the revised figure before you commit.
For the local pieces around a trip, the run to Pune airport at Lohegaon, the station, or a day of errands before you leave, use our Pune taxi service or book car rental with driver in Pune by the 8-hour block.
The cave temples: Ajanta and Ellora from Pune
The 5-day Maharashtra package is written as a Mumbai start, but for Pune it is actually shorter. Aurangabad is about 235 km from Pune through Ahmednagar, a five-hour drive, against about 335 km from Mumbai. So a Pune version leaves after breakfast, reaches Aurangabad by mid-afternoon for Bibi ka Maqbara, spends a full day at Ellora with Daulatabad fort on the way back, a second full day at Ajanta's painted caves, and then either returns to Pune or continues down to Mumbai if you want to finish there.
Two closing days matter more than anything else when you plan this trip: Ajanta is shut on Mondays and Ellora on Tuesdays. The chauffeur will build the week around them, but tell the desk your dates early if they include a Monday or Tuesday. Our Aurangabad, Ellora and Ajanta road guide covers the shuttle bus at Ajanta, the best order for the Ellora caves and where to eat along the way.
Mumbai and the ghat, run in reverse
The 4-day Maharashtra package is designed for visitors flying into Mumbai: the city, the Elephanta boat, the Karla and Bhaja rock-cut halls near Lonavala and a final day in Pune. From Pune it works just as well turned around. Start with the Buddhist caves at Karla and Bhaja and the Lonavala viewpoints, go down the ghat to Mumbai for the old fort district, Marine Drive and the museums, and take the morning ferry to Elephanta on the third day. Finish with a drop at Mumbai airport for an onward flight, or come back up the Expressway.
The Mumbai-Pune Expressway is the fastest road in the state, but weekends and the monsoon change it. Friday evening heading down and Sunday evening heading up are the slowest windows, and the ghat section around Khandala can close briefly for landslide work or heavy fog in July and August. The chauffeur plans around both. If you only need a single transfer rather than a tour, the Pune to Mumbai taxi page gives the one-way fare.
Goa: drive down or fly down
Goa is where Pune families argue most, because both options are reasonable. By road the coast is about 450 km away, a full day through Satara and Kolhapur and then down one of the ghats into Goa; it is a lovely drive in the green months and gives you the car for the whole holiday. By air, flights from Pune reach Dabolim or the new Mopa airport in about an hour, and the chauffeur meets you on arrival.
The 3-day Goa package covers the northern beaches, Old Goa's basilica and cathedral and the Latin quarter of Fontainhas in Panaji. The 4-day version adds a day in the south: Colva and Benaulim, the mansions of Chandor and the curve of Palolem. If you drive down, the travel legs are simply added to the kilometre count, and each of those days is billed at the 250 km floor or the actual distance, whichever is more. Our North Goa and South Goa guides help you pick which half to base in.
Gujarat by air, then by car
Pune to Ahmedabad is too far to drive for a five-day holiday, so the 5-day Gujarat package starts with a direct flight. The car meets you at Ahmedabad airport for the old walled city and its pols, the Adalaj stepwell, the sun temple at Modhera, Rani ki Vav at Patan and the Statue of Unity on the Narmada. Remember that the statue is closed on Mondays, and that Navratri in September or October fills Ahmedabad's hotels and lights up every evening with garba. Read the Statue of Unity road guide before you book.
Staying near the caves and on the road
Aurangabad is the natural base for both cave sites. Business hotels and a few older heritage properties cluster in the city, a short drive from Bibi ka Maqbara, and Ellora is about 30 km away. A few resorts and forest guesthouses sit closer to Ajanta at Fardapur, which saves an early start if you want to be at the gorge when it opens; the travel desk can quote both. On the Goa run, Kolhapur makes a comfortable halfway night if you break the drive, with the Mahalaxmi temple and a famous local cuisine to fill the evening. In Lonavala, hotels line the old highway and the hills above it, and weekend rates rise sharply in the monsoon.
The road to Aurangabad through Ahmednagar is a two-lane state highway for much of its length, busy with sugar-cane trucks in the crushing season from roughly November to March, so the chauffeur allows extra time and stops for breakfast before the traffic builds.
Seasons from a Pune point of view
Pune people know the monsoon better than any brochure. From June to September the ghats are at their greenest and the Lonavala and Mahabaleshwar roads fill with weekend traffic; the cave sites are open and lush, and Ajanta's gorge has water in the river. Goa in those months is quiet, green and cheaper, but the beach shacks are closed and the sea is off-limits for swimming. October to February is the comfortable season for everything on this page, and Christmas to New Year is Goa's busiest fortnight by far. March to May is hot on the Deccan plateau; start the cave days early and rest after lunch.
Ganeshotsav deserves its own line. In the ten days of the festival, central Pune's roads around the big mandals are closed or crawling, especially on the immersion day, so plan departures and returns around it. The Maharashtra Tourism site lists festival dates and site timings each year.
Which car suits which Pune group
- Couples: a compact sedan at Rs 72 a km is ample for Goa and the Ajanta-Ellora run; a premium SUV such as the Fortuner at Rs 170 a km is there for those who want the extra room on the ghats.
- Families of four to six: the Ertiga at Rs 84 a km or the Innova Crysta at Rs 114 a km. The Innova is the one we suggest for the drive down to Goa, with space for beach bags and a cooler.
- Housing-society groups, college friends and office teams: the tempo traveller in Pune at Rs 160 a km, or the Urbania at Rs 200 a km for a smoother ride.
- Something special: anniversaries and milestone birthdays sometimes call for a luxury car in Pune; an E-Class runs at Rs 330 a km on the same method.
Three things are added to the computed car fare: a driver's allowance for each night on the road, from Rs 3,000 Pay Now to Reserve; Expressway and highway tolls and parking, passed on without mark-up; and GST at 5%. Nothing in the fleet is more than four model years old, and the fleet page has photographs of every class.
Short trips that sit alongside the packages
Some Pune travellers want a shorter break rather than a full circuit. Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani are about two to three hours away, Bhimashankar makes a day's pilgrimage and Shirdi a long day. Our Mahabaleshwar and Bhimashankar guides, and the Pune to Shirdi taxi fare page, cover those. Lavasa's lakeside town is about an hour away for a lunch drive, and in the monsoon the Tamhini ghat road beyond it is one of the greenest drives near the city, best done midweek when the weekend crowds have gone.
Booking and changing your plans
Put your Pune address in the online booker as pickup one, choose the class, and the transport price is on screen before you pay by card or UPI. Rooms, cave entries and guides can be added by the travel desk as a written package price, and firms get a GST invoice for team trips. Change of plan? Up to three days before departure it costs nothing. Closer than that we keep 10%, then half once you are inside two days, and all of it inside the last day or if nobody comes down to the car. Read the cancellation policy for the exact wording.
