How to Reach Karla Caves by Road, Train or Air

Karla caves are one of the oldest rock-cut Buddhist caves located in Karli, at around 60 kms from Lonavala, Maharashtra, India. Being one of the popular and beautiful architectural caves, tourists from all over the world visit this place every year. Karla cave is the largest Hinayana Buddhist Chaitya i.e a temple in India. The karla caves are beautiful caves with intricate motifs and wonderful pillars; again here the question arises, how this beautiful architecture was built. Even though Karla caves are not as elaborated as other famous caves; Karla caves’ “Chaityagriha” is the largest and grandest of all such types of monuments in India.

Karla is the best rock-cut architecture and it is believed that this carve had been carved from a living rock. The wooden beams were superbly used in this architecture and some of them are still alive. There is a wonderful 148 feet long chaitya. One may take around 20 minutes to climb up the karla caves.

How to get there?
Since Karla caves are located near Lonavala, You have many frequent options by which you can reach Lonavala. You may prefer local transports like bus or train or flight.

How to Reach Karla Caves By Road:

If you want to go by car then it’s just about 12 km distance from Lonavala. There are frequent buses that run between Lonavala and Karla caves. The buses start at 6 am and the last bus from Karla to Lonavala leaves at 7 pm.

Lonavala is also well connected from Mumbai, Pune and Nashik cities and it is a major junction where all buses traveling from/to Mumbai and Pune halts here.

How to Reach Karla Caves By Train:

Lonavala is nearest railway station to reach Karla Caves. You can catch a train for lonavala from Pune or Mumbai. Once you get down at Lonavala railway station, to reach Karla Caves from Lonavala station is very easy. You can get the local buses that take you to the Karla, as mentioned before or can hire auto.

How to Reach Karla Caves By Air:

You can fly to Pune, the major city near to Lonavala. From Pune, you need to come to Lonavala by bus or train. There are frequent buses from Lonavala to Karla. Mumbai Airport is the nearest international airport to reach Karla Caves. From Mumbai tourists can hire a private cab to Lonavala to reach Karla Caves.

Distance from Major Cities to Karla Caves

Lonavala to Karla Caves Distance – 11 KM
Pune to Karla Caves Distance – 58 KM
Mumbai to Karla Caves Distance – 94 KM
Alibaug to Karla Caves Distance – 88 KM
Satara to Karla Caves Distance – 163 KM
Nashik to Karla Caves Distance – 226 KM

How to Reach Karla Caves