Karla Caves: Timings, Entry Fee and How to Reach
Karla Caves near Lonavala — timings, entry fee, when to go, and where to stay if you are making a weekend of it.
A 2,000-year-old Buddhist chaitya hall with the largest rock-cut arch in India, reached by climbing the same steps as a working temple.
The Karla Caves sit above the old Mumbai–Pune road near Lonavala, cut into the hillside in the 2nd century BCE. The great chaitya hall is the largest and best-preserved of its kind in the country — a barrel-vaulted prayer hall with a stone screen, carved elephants and 37 octagonal pillars. What makes the visit unusual is that the Ekvira Devi temple sits at the same site, so an ASI monument and a busy working shrine share one flight of steps.
Karla Caves at a glance
| Timings | 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM |
| Entry fee | ₹25 for Indian, SAARC and BIMSTEC visitors; ₹300 for other foreign nationals |
| Children | Free under 15 |
| Managed by | Archaeological Survey of India |
| The climb | Around 500 steps from the car park to the cave and temple level |
| Time needed | 1.5 to 2 hours including the climb |
| Nearest station | Malavli, on the Mumbai–Pune local line |
Checked 21 August 2026.
Ekvira Devi Temple
Shares the site and the same staircase. Entry is free and the temple keeps its own hours — roughly 5:00 AM to noon and 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM. It is a major shrine for the Koli community and gets extremely busy during Navratri and on weekends, which is worth knowing if you were picturing a quiet archaeological site.
Knowing before you go
Go early. The steps are exposed and by mid-morning in any month other than the monsoon they are hot. Weekends and Navratri bring temple crowds rather than tourist crowds — the climb becomes a queue. The cave interior is dark and photography without flash is the norm; it is a chaitya hall, not a gallery. Bhaja Caves are on the opposite side of the valley and pair naturally with this as a half-day.
When to come
June to September for the greenest approach; October to February for the most comfortable climb. For the wider area — June to September for the monsoon scenery, October to February for comfort; weekends sell out, midweek is transformed. If you are combining this with a stay rather than driving out and back, the same seasonal logic applies to the property: a garden and a pool are worth a great deal more in one half of the year than the other, and rates follow.
One honest note on the numbers
Fees and timings are as reported in August 2026 and ASI revises them periodically. Confirm before travelling, particularly if you are planning around the temple hours rather than the cave hours.
We check these figures when we publish and date them on the page, but entry fees, package prices and opening hours are set by the site rather than by us and they move. Treat the table above as a planning guide, not a booking confirmation.
Where to stay near Karla Caves
We list around 29 properties in and around Lonavala. These are the ones written up in detail, and all of them are whole-property bookings rather than rooms — the garden, the pool and the kitchen are yours for the slot.
| Property | Area | Sleeps | From (weekday) | Pool |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nature Oasis | Khandala | 18 | ₹23,600 | Private + kids |
| Arabella Villa | New Tungarli | 23 | ₹22,000 | Private |
| Secret Heaven | Gold Valley | 25 | ₹13,200 | Private |
| Enroute | Khandoba Temple | 15 | ₹10,560 | Private + kids |
Making a weekend of it
Most people do Karla Caves as a half day, which leaves the question of what fills the rest of the weekend. The usual additions around here are Bhushi Dam, Tigers Leap, Lions Point. Two of those in a day is comfortable; three is a schedule rather than a weekend. The pattern that works better for a group is one outing and a lot of nothing. Book the property for two nights, do the attraction on the Saturday morning while everyone still has energy, and spend the rest of the time where you are. It is also considerably cheaper than trying to see four things in two days. A practical note for the drive: confirm the last stretch of road with the property rather than the map, and get the caretaker's number as well as the owner's. On the day, the person who can open a gate is the one on site.
Two capacity numbers, not one
Every listing carries a day-time limit and a night-time limit. The day figure is frequently two to five times the night figure, because space rather than beds is the constraint.
If nobody is sleeping over, search on the day-time number and ignore bedroom count entirely — filtering on bedrooms hides most of the properties that would suit a large daytime gathering.
Booking it on the app
If you are looking for short-term rental vacation homes in Lonavala — farmhouses, villas, resorts or weekend homes — the BookMyFarm app and website carry the same inventory and the same detail. Search by city or by area, filter on the amenities that actually matter to you, read the owner's house rules, message the owner, and book the slot you want.
For anyone who has tried and failed to find this kind of property on a nightly-rate site, it is the closest thing to a purpose-built Airbnb alternative for the Indian farmhouse and villa market — because it is built around how these places are actually rented: by the slot, by the whole property, with two separate guest limits.
Where to look
Browse all Lonavala properties · farmhouses · villas · weekend homes · family get-togethers · pool properties · weekend getaways.
Nearby: Karjat · Pune · Igatpuri · Matheran.
Or browse across every city: all farmhouses · all villas · all resorts · how booking works.
Getting there
The approach is via the Mumbai–Pune Expressway or the old Mumbai–Pune highway. Nearest station: Malavli, on the Mumbai–Pune local line. Two things worth doing before you set off, and they apply to almost every outing in this part of the country. Check the last stretch of road with whoever you are staying with rather than trusting a map pin — internal roads change character quickly after rain, and owners answer that question honestly because a stranded guest is their problem too. And leave earlier than the drive time suggests. Estimates assume an empty road, and on a weekend morning out of any large Indian city that is not the road you will be on. Arriving with daylight to spare is worth more than an extra hour anywhere else in the plan.
The detail that makes a booking safe
What separates a good listing from a photograph is specificity, and it is worth using. Pool dimensions including depth, whether there is a separate children's pool, how many bedrooms have attached bathrooms, whether the kitchen is active, what the caretaker does, what is chargeable on top of the slot rate.
Where an owner has filled that in — and most have — you can size a booking to your group accurately rather than hoping.
Ask the owner directly
Every property has a chat thread attached to it. Use it before booking rather than after — owners field these questions constantly and answer quickly, and it is far more reliable than a broker's summary.
The single most useful question, and the one almost nobody asks: what usually goes wrong at bookings here? Owners have watched hundreds of them and will tell you the specific local answer.
Whole property, stated plainly
When you book here the entire property is reserved for your group — the listings say so explicitly, and the property FAQs repeat it. You are not sharing a pool with another family or a lawn with a second booking.
That is a meaningful difference from a room-based platform, where "entire place" can still mean a unit inside a compound, and from resort day-passes, where the pool is shared by definition.
Frequently asked questions
Kids swimming pool available?+
Yes
Swimming pool size?+
20X15
What does Nature Oasis cost?+
The slot rate is ₹23,600 on a weekday and ₹35,400 at the weekend. Above the included headcount there is a per-person charge of ₹2,000 a head, which at a large group moves the total more than the base rate does.
How many properties are there in Lonavala?+
We currently list 6 in and around Lonavala, 3 of which have a separate children's pool.
When is the best time to book near Lonavala?+
June to September for the monsoon scenery, October to February for comfort; weekends sell out, midweek is transformed. If your dates can move at all, a weekday booking saves between a quarter and half the rate, which is more than switching to a cheaper property usually achieves.
Can I book for the day without staying the night?+
Yes. Most properties sell a half day and a full day as well as an overnight, and the day slot is what a birthday or a family lunch usually needs. It is also why the day-time guest limit is often several times the sleeping capacity.
Is the whole property mine, or is it shared?+
The whole property is reserved for your group. The listings state this explicitly and the property FAQs repeat it — you are not sharing a pool or a lawn with another booking.
Can I bring my own food, or use the kitchen?+
It depends on the property, and these are two separate permissions. Some allow outside food but not cooking; some hand you an active kitchen with utensils; a few cater in-house and do not permit outside food at all. Every listing states which applies.