Grishneshwar & Ellora in a Day from Nashik — Timings & Plan (2026)

Grishneshwar is about 170 km from Nashik by the Yeola and Vaijapur road, 3.5 to 4 hours, and the Ellora caves are a kilometre from the temple gate. One day covers both if you leave Nashik by 5 am, take darshan by 9, and give Ellora the late morning.

The one date rule: Ellora is closed on Tuesdays, so pick any other day.

Here is the road, the temple's timings and its two unusual rules, the Ellora hours and fee, and the timeline that gets you home by evening.

🛣️ The Vaijapur road: Nashik to Grishneshwar

The direct route leaves Nashik eastwards through Yeola and Vaijapur, then on to Khuldabad and Verul, the village at the temple. Call it 170 km and 3.5 to 4 hours with one tea stop.

The road is two-lane for most of its length and busy with sugarcane traffic in winter, so the 5 am start is about light traffic as much as early darshan.

Shirdi lies off this route, not on it. Going Nashik to Shirdi to Grishneshwar adds roughly 30 to 40 km and about an hour, and Shirdi darshan itself takes two hours more. Do that as a separate day rather than squeezing it into this one.

🕉️ Grishneshwar darshan: timings and the two rules

The temple is open about 5:30 am to 9:30 pm, with the morning darshan running to mid-afternoon and the evening session from about 7:30 pm. In Shravan and on Maha Shivratri it opens as early as 3 am. Morning aarti is around 6 am and the evening aarti after 7:30 pm.

Two rules catch first-time Yatris:

• Men remove their shirts before entering the garbhagriha. Vests too. Women enter in normal traditional dress.

• No leather inside the sanctum: belts, wallets and watch straps come off. Phones stay outside as well.

• You may touch the linga. Grishneshwar lets Yatris place their hands on the Jyotirlinga, which most of the other eleven do not. Queue volunteers keep each person's time short.

On a weekday morning before 9 am the queue is 20 to 40 minutes. By 11 am on a Saturday it is two hours. For the Shravan Monday scale of crowd, see the Grishneshwar darshan timings page.

🪨 Ellora: hours, fee and the Kailasa cave

The Ellora caves are about 1 km from Grishneshwar, a five-minute drive or a fifteen-minute walk. They open roughly 6 am to 6 pm, Wednesday to Monday, closed Tuesday.

• Entry: about ₹40 for Indian visitors, slightly less booked online, ₹600 for foreign nationals, free under 15. A video camera costs extra.

• Kailasa, cave 16, the monolithic temple, sits at the centre of the row near the entrance. Give it an hour on its own.

• The rest: the Buddhist caves to the south and the Jain group to the north need another hour or two and some walking in the sun.

• Carry: water, a cap, and cash for the shoe stand, because the cave floors are stone and hot by noon.

Two hours at Ellora is a good visit; four is a full one. Our Ellora caves guide walks through the cave numbers.

🙏 Bhadra Maruti at Khuldabad, and the timeline

Bhadra Maruti, the reclining Hanuman temple at Khuldabad, is about 4 km from Ellora and open roughly 5 am to noon and 4 pm to 9 pm. It is a 30-minute stop on the way back to the Vaijapur road.

The day, hour by hour:

1. 5:00 am leave Nashik on the Yeola road.

2. 8:45 am reach Grishneshwar, shoes and leather to the stand, queue.

3. 9:30 am darshan done, breakfast in Verul.

4. 10:15 am Ellora, Kailasa first, then as many caves as the heat allows.

5. 1:00 pm lunch, Bhadra Maruti by 2 if it is open, else skip.

6. 2:30 pm leave for Nashik, home by about 6:30 pm.

Yatris without a car can take an MSRTC bus from Nashik to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, about 180 km and 4 to 5 hours, and a local bus the last 30 km to Ellora. That turns it into an overnight trip. The 3 Jyotirlinga tour from Nashik is the version that adds Trimbakeshwar and Bhimashankar over three days.

🧭 Which plan should you choose?

• With elders: taxi, 5 am start, darshan, Kailasa cave only, home by 5 pm. Skip the Buddhist and Jain groups.

• On a budget: the overnight bus plan via Sambhajinagar, sleeping in Khuldabad or Verul for the early darshan.

• Here for Ellora as much as the temple: leave at 4:30 am, darshan at opening, and give Ellora from 8 am to 1 pm before the heat.

• Avoid: Tuesdays, and a Shravan Monday if Ellora is the point, because the temple queue eats the morning.

🛏️ Where to stay

For the 5 am start, sleep in Nashik. If you would rather take darshan at opening and be at Ellora when the gates open, Verul and Khuldabad have simple lodges a few minutes from both, and our Sambhajinagar team's Grishneshwar early-darshan stay guide lists them.

Leave in the dark, shirt off at the sanctum, Kailasa before the heat, and Grishneshwar from Nashik is one clean day. Har Har Mahadev.