Mumbai

Mumbai is India's most energetic city: a financial capital, the home of Bollywood and a place where Gothic railway stations, Art Deco apartment blocks and fishing villages share the same coastline. This package uses Mumbai as the starting point for a wider journey through Maharashtra, from the city's seafront to the green Sahyadri ghats and the rock-cut caves of Ajanta and Ellora.

In Mumbai you see the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, take the ferry to the Elephanta Caves with their monumental Shiva sculptures, walk Marine Drive at sunset and pass through the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The trip then climbs into the Western Ghats to Lonavala, famous for its viewpoints, forts and chikki, before heading to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, the city formerly known as Aurangabad.

From there you visit two of India's greatest monuments. At Ellora, Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves were carved side by side over several centuries, and the Kailasa Temple was cut from a single rock from the top down. At Ajanta, painted Buddhist caves from as early as the 2nd century BCE preserve some of the finest ancient art in Asia. The trip suits families, history lovers and anyone who wants to combine a big-city break with India's heritage. Note that Ajanta is closed on Mondays and Ellora on Tuesdays, so the itinerary is timed around those days. The weather is kindest between October and March, while the monsoon transforms the ghats into a carpet of green and waterfalls.