Aurangabad to Lonar lake and back in a day?

Namaste,

Is it possible to go to Lonar crater lake from Aurangabad and to return back in a day? No matter how early, no matter how late, as long as there is reliable transportation.

From various posts here on IM I could find out that it takes anything from 4,5 to 7 hours to reach Lonar lake from Aurangabad by road. What kind of cars/buses/taxis/etc. are available and what would you recommend?

If it's not possible to do so, what place would you recommend for a sleepover?

Thank you.

I think it is possible,, as lonar crater is just 150 kms from Aurangabad, so at maximum 3 hours u can reach there, so dont worry,, one whole day will be more than enough, though I live in Aurangabad I dont know the exact time, but you can arrange private cab or have to check out state transportation,,,

That's great news, 3 hours are even less than I could find here. Really useful info.

Since you live in Aurangabad, I would like to ask you for the budget hotel recommendation, please. So far I found: Aurangabad Sports Club, Manor hotel, Hotel Atithi, Hotel Classic and Hotel Raviraj. Do you perhaps know if any of these hotels is good or to avoid? I would appreciate your help as initially I planed to spend short time in Aurangabad but after informing myself I saw that it's a beautiful city and I would like to stay longer and see as much as I can.

Hi,

What I suggest is look for a budget hotel in the city itself. Aurangabad Sports Club AS Club is too far away from the main city and will be somewhat costly

,,, it is almost 8 - 10 Km on the outskirts of the city and travelling to city will be a big problem for you so I wont recommend AS club. The other hotels

are fine. As I rarely got any opportunity to book room in hotel I dont know the rates and details of good hotels but in general I have found Hotel Athithi,

Hotel Classic, Hotel Raviraj to be good. Another option is there is one tourist lodge on railway station road, and Natraj Hotel just near to it. If you take

a hotel in the city you wont have problem in travelling rom one place to another. Hotel Manor I think might be recently opened one will need to check out

details of hotel manor. Hotel Devpriya, Hotel Kartiki are budget hotels near Bus Stand Area. Hotel Athithi will be somewhat costly. As of now I dont know

which hotel to recommend as I dont have any personal experience in booking rooms, still if there is time, I will just check out with my friends and let you

know. Will update this thread soon.



I found out the rates of hotel devpriya,, which is near busstand ,,

single occupancy 275
double occupancy 375
triple occupancy 500

for 24 hrs stay,,,,
and that is the best price you can get i mean least price, even hotel kartiki would have somewhat more than devpriya but is more of polished hotel...
each room in devpriya,, has fan and tv, bathroom. and here we have load shedding or power cuts for 6 hours a day,, and devpriya hotel provides backup only if power cuts

happen in night, so in daytime when power cuts are there u will have to do without fan , tv in your room,,,, as the temperature currently reaches to upto 40

degree celsius, u need to think whether to go for budget hotel or go for a costly hotel which will provide electricity with backup for 24 hrs, and if you are

not going to stay in your room in daytime then it wont be problem for you, even a budget hotel will do.

if you could post ur expected tour dates and no of persons and your budget,, then you will be in a better position to decide the hotel type and price range..

rsk11584, that's very, very useful (and lengthy) post, I appreciate it very much.

I saw suggestions before that one should look for the hotel in Aurangabad personally, instead of booking online, as Aurangabad have lots of them. I only needed someone from the city to help me make a narrower selection. Like I said, you've been very helpful on that.

I really don't know when exactly I'll be in the city, except it will be at the end of July. Initially, I was supposed to travel alone but now there are some other people which would also like to go. So everything changes from day to day. I guess we will eventually show up in Aurangabad and go straight to Devpriya, if there are no rooms than to Kartiki, etc. We will go through your list and exclude ASC.

Heat and electrical shortages will not be that much of a problem as we won't spend the daytime in the room. There's so much too see, so we won't look at the weather outside, let alone inside.

Basically, what we would need is cheap, clean and safe enough hotel to leave our backpacks during the day.

Thanks one more time.

ur most welcome,,

better book room personally, I mean if 100% your journey dates are fixed, you can tell me before one week of your visit, I can book room, and at the same time I will look for some other hotels but even if you reach aurangabad and search for a room you will get it,, just thing is you need to search for it..

Thanks, hopefully I'll remember to do that.

You might find this post by Wim useful.

Maharashtra off-beat

I missed that one, thank you.

Now we'll have to see Daulatabad fort too. If I continue to discover things like this, we will never leave Aurangabad!

Krle,

When we were in Aurangabad this Feb, a fellow we met did the Lonar crater the day we did our repeat trip to Ellora. We saw him at dinner late that evening. He was a bit tired but said he'd enjoyed the day, even getting in a dip in the water. The fellow we used for our five day trips quoted us Rs 2,000 for a Lonar trip.

One other thing, I'd avoid the Hotel Classic. We were there a couple of days and found it overpriced and dreary. Because there are plenty of places to stay in Aurangabad, I would not bother trying to book a room ahead. If you want the name of our driver, IM me.