There are 3-4 different aiports to enter Madhya Praesh - Indore, Nagpur, Bhopal or Gwalior. Depending on what you want to cover, you can chose the appropriate airport.
I had made 2 plans.
Plan A
There are 2 Jyotirlingas in MP. To reach them, it is best to start the trip from Indore. I will capture my trip itinerary
Day1:
Land in Indore. Depending on what time you land in Indore, you can plan local sight seeing at indore. Indore is famous for Namkeens. You can shop for them in Prakash Namkeen, Agarwal Nameen or Apna Sweets.
You can also Visit Indore’s Sarafa, India’s only night street food market
https://recipes.timesofindia.com/articles/features/visit-indores-sarafa-indias-only-night-street-food-market/articleshow/46677266.cms
Day2:
For Day 2 travel from Indore, there are several options to book cabs - like Ola, redbus, savari.com etc. But based on my friend's recommendatin, I booked cab from https://www.gozocabs.com/
Visit 2 Jyotirlingas - Omkareshwar and Ujjain Mahakaleshwar. In 2019, the roads were not so a great, so we had start early in the morning and Visit Omkareshwar. The temple closes by 1.00 p.m. and reopens after a couple of hours. You can opt for special Darshan. Try to avoid Pundits. Finish the darshan early and head towards Ujjain.
If you reach Ujjain early, visit Harasiddhi Mata temple. This is more than 1000 years old maha kali temple in Ujjain and it is having two pillars and each one is having 1001 lamps. At the time of evening aarthi, all the 2002 lamps are cleaned everyday and lighted again.
See how this task is done perfectly and quickly.
The main Mahakala temple is open till 11 p.m. So, try to get a darshan either before or after dinner. It takes about 20 min for Darshan.
Day3:
Ujjain Mahakala temple is famous for Bhasma Arati. This Arati starts at 4.00 a.m. People stand in the line from 12.00 a.m. I am told that first 50-100 people who enter the temple will get a chance to go close to god and do Jalabhishek themselves. To get this chance, people stand in line from 12.00 a.m. If you are not particular about Jalabhishek, but want to get a good Darshan of Bhasma Arathi, it is good to get in to the line by 2.30. Any later than this, you might not get a good seat to view the Darshan. Booking can be done from temple website 30 days before the darshan
http://dic.mp.nic.in/ujjain/mahakal/default.aspx
For Stay, there are multiple places to stay in Indore, but I chose the Dharmashala attached to the temple. It is not fancy. It is a very basic, but clean accomdation. Advantage is if you want to go to temple for Arati, you can get up and walk 200-300 mts to reach the temaple. Other good hotels are more than a km away. Booking can be done from temple website 30 days before the darshan
http://dic.mp.nic.in/ujjain/mahakal/default.aspx
Since the Darshan gets over by 6.30 or 7, you have rest of the day to take rest and visiting near by temples. There are plenty of Auto rickshaws that you can hire for the same
My next destination was visiting National parks in MP. Most famous ones are Kanha Tiger reserve forest and Bandavgarh National Park. These national parks are more than 600 kms from Ujjain. So, instead of wasting an entire day travelling by road, I took AC train to go to Jabalpur. Jabalpur is the closest railway station to any of these National parks.
Day4:
There are a few local attractions in Jabalpur - Marble rocks at BedaGhat, Dhuadhar falls, 64 yogini temple, Jain temple, Madan Mahal fort, Sharada temple, Kachnar temple. Depending on your interest you can visit any of these places.
Enjoy the boar ride in Beda Ghat. Get a glimpse of it from the famous song from Ashoka movie "Raat ka Nasha Abhi"
Unfortunately there was an extended monsoon this year and Narmada river was over flowing. So, we couldn't go no a boat ride.
For traveling in Madhya Pradesh, I booked cabs from http://www.guptatravelsjabalpur.com/
I found them online and they gave me a good service.
Day 5:
For the next segment of my trip which was for 6 days, I booked a Tempo traveller from Gupta travels.
Roads are not great (as of 2019) and it takes long time to reach places.
We started by 8 a.m and reached BandavGarh National park by lunch time. We had booked 2 safaris. People say that tiger sighting is better in BandavGarh National park. But the best time to sight tigers is Dec-March. We had booked an evening safari (3 p.m. to 6 p.m) and a next day 6 a.m. to 10.a.m.)
Day 6:
Get up early and head to Tiger safari. The resort guys generally pack breakfast. After the safari, you can come back to hotel and get ready for next journey.
We started towards Khajurao in the afternoon. Due to bad road conditions in 2019, it took us 8 hours to reach Khajurao.
Day7:
The entire day was dedicated see different temples in Khajurao. We travelled in September and weather was still in 30s and very humid in Madhya Pradesh. So, it is better to start sight seeing as early as 6 a.m. Early morning is also good for photography.
We went to the main khajurao temple (western group of temples) at 6 a.m. It takes 2-3 hours to see the temple (depending on your interest). Return back to hotel, have breakfast, and then head to Rahen falls which is about 30 min drive from khajurao. It is a beatiful falls formed due to volcanic eruption. You can spend about an hour there and head back.
After lunch, you can take some rest. You can resume visiting eastern and southern tempples after the temperature cools down (say after 3 p.m.) Finish all temples by 6 to be back to main Khajurao temple for light and sound show (english show at 6.30 and Hindi show at 7.30)
Day 8:
After breakfast, start journey towards Orchha. Due to road conditions, we reached Orccha by lunch time. After lunch time, we visited Orccha fort. Try to finish the fort visit before sunset to visit Chattris. https://www.windhorsetours.com/sights/india/Chhatris.html
It is a beautiful view at that time.
After sunset, head towards Jhansi.
Day 9:
Start towards Jhansi fort early in the morning. Jhansi fort was not as exciting. It takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to see the place. It is even ok to skip Jhansi. Post lunch, we headed towards Gwalior.
On the way to Gwalior, if you have time visit Datia. There is a fort and Pitambar temple (Shakti Peeth). Due to Navarathri festival, the temple was crowded, so we skipped it.
We reached Gwalior by evening.
Day 10:
Start early at 6 a.m. to cover Gwalior fort. It is a beautiful fort. It takes about to cover all the places in and around the fort. In the same premisis, you can visit Gwalior fort, Saash Bahu mandir, Gurudwara and Teli ka mandir.
Return to hotel, have breakfast, take some rest. After lunch, visit Jai Vilas Palace in Gwalior. It is a beautiful palace and you can easily spend about 2 hours.
You can do some shopping in Gwalior
Breakfast - Famous Poha
Lunch/Dinner - kwality restaurant.
For chats -(at your own risk), try Phool Bagh chaupti
Shopping - Topi bazar, sarafa bazar, subhash market
Sweets - Bahadura for Gulab Jamun, Shano-Shaukat for assorted sweets especially Boondi laddu, Daulatram Gupta, Gazak
Day 11:
Return to Bangalore
Other places of interest in MP
I didn't have time to cover it. But if you happen to go to bhopal, visit Bhimbetka rock shelters
Bhimbetka rock shelters are in Bhopal, MP. It is a UNESCO world heritage site that consists of seven hills and over 750 rock shelters distributed over 10 kilometres. At least some of the shelters were inhabited more than 100,000 years ago. Some of the Bhimbetka rock shelters feature prehistoric cave paintings and the earliest are about 10,000 years old (c. 8,000 BCE),
I had made 2 plans.
Plan A
- night Indore (Dont miss street food)
- omkareshwar temple - day trip night halt indore
- Ujjain and back to Indore
- train to Jabalpur
- Kanha/Bandavgarh - 4 hours
- 2 nights in kanha
- drive to bhedghat near jabalpur - 4 hours. Stay in Bhedghat
- boat ride and relax and stay Bhedghat
- morning drive to chitrakoot and stay there
- 4 hours drive to khajurao - see the place and stay
- 4 hours drive to Jhansi. stay - see the place
- afternoon start towards gwalior - 3 hours
- gwalior sight seeing and evening flight
- Skip chitrakoot and just see khajurao to save a day.
Plan B
- Morning fligt to gwalior
- afternoon/evening -see gwalior
- drive to jhansi see the place
- start towards khajurao - see the place and night stay
- chitrakoot and stay
- come to jabalpur and checkin at bhedghat and stay
- boat ride and go to kanha by night
- 2 days in kanha
- Feel free to end the trip by going to nagpur for a flight to bangalore
- Else, contine to Indore for Ujjain and mahakaleshware visit
I stuck with plan A.
Route map
There are 2 Jyotirlingas in MP. To reach them, it is best to start the trip from Indore. I will capture my trip itinerary
Day1:
Land in Indore. Depending on what time you land in Indore, you can plan local sight seeing at indore. Indore is famous for Namkeens. You can shop for them in Prakash Namkeen, Agarwal Nameen or Apna Sweets.
You can also Visit Indore’s Sarafa, India’s only night street food market
https://recipes.timesofindia.com/articles/features/visit-indores-sarafa-indias-only-night-street-food-market/articleshow/46677266.cms
Day2:
For Day 2 travel from Indore, there are several options to book cabs - like Ola, redbus, savari.com etc. But based on my friend's recommendatin, I booked cab from https://www.gozocabs.com/
Visit 2 Jyotirlingas - Omkareshwar and Ujjain Mahakaleshwar. In 2019, the roads were not so a great, so we had start early in the morning and Visit Omkareshwar. The temple closes by 1.00 p.m. and reopens after a couple of hours. You can opt for special Darshan. Try to avoid Pundits. Finish the darshan early and head towards Ujjain.
If you reach Ujjain early, visit Harasiddhi Mata temple. This is more than 1000 years old maha kali temple in Ujjain and it is having two pillars and each one is having 1001 lamps. At the time of evening aarthi, all the 2002 lamps are cleaned everyday and lighted again.
See how this task is done perfectly and quickly.
The main Mahakala temple is open till 11 p.m. So, try to get a darshan either before or after dinner. It takes about 20 min for Darshan.
Day3:
Ujjain Mahakala temple is famous for Bhasma Arati. This Arati starts at 4.00 a.m. People stand in the line from 12.00 a.m. I am told that first 50-100 people who enter the temple will get a chance to go close to god and do Jalabhishek themselves. To get this chance, people stand in line from 12.00 a.m. If you are not particular about Jalabhishek, but want to get a good Darshan of Bhasma Arathi, it is good to get in to the line by 2.30. Any later than this, you might not get a good seat to view the Darshan. Booking can be done from temple website 30 days before the darshan
http://dic.mp.nic.in/ujjain/mahakal/default.aspx
For Stay, there are multiple places to stay in Indore, but I chose the Dharmashala attached to the temple. It is not fancy. It is a very basic, but clean accomdation. Advantage is if you want to go to temple for Arati, you can get up and walk 200-300 mts to reach the temaple. Other good hotels are more than a km away. Booking can be done from temple website 30 days before the darshan
http://dic.mp.nic.in/ujjain/mahakal/default.aspx
Since the Darshan gets over by 6.30 or 7, you have rest of the day to take rest and visiting near by temples. There are plenty of Auto rickshaws that you can hire for the same
My next destination was visiting National parks in MP. Most famous ones are Kanha Tiger reserve forest and Bandavgarh National Park. These national parks are more than 600 kms from Ujjain. So, instead of wasting an entire day travelling by road, I took AC train to go to Jabalpur. Jabalpur is the closest railway station to any of these National parks.
Day4:
There are a few local attractions in Jabalpur - Marble rocks at BedaGhat, Dhuadhar falls, 64 yogini temple, Jain temple, Madan Mahal fort, Sharada temple, Kachnar temple. Depending on your interest you can visit any of these places.
Enjoy the boar ride in Beda Ghat. Get a glimpse of it from the famous song from Ashoka movie "Raat ka Nasha Abhi"
Unfortunately there was an extended monsoon this year and Narmada river was over flowing. So, we couldn't go no a boat ride.
For traveling in Madhya Pradesh, I booked cabs from http://www.guptatravelsjabalpur.com/
I found them online and they gave me a good service.
Day 5:
For the next segment of my trip which was for 6 days, I booked a Tempo traveller from Gupta travels.
Roads are not great (as of 2019) and it takes long time to reach places.
We started by 8 a.m and reached BandavGarh National park by lunch time. We had booked 2 safaris. People say that tiger sighting is better in BandavGarh National park. But the best time to sight tigers is Dec-March. We had booked an evening safari (3 p.m. to 6 p.m) and a next day 6 a.m. to 10.a.m.)
Day 6:
Get up early and head to Tiger safari. The resort guys generally pack breakfast. After the safari, you can come back to hotel and get ready for next journey.
We started towards Khajurao in the afternoon. Due to bad road conditions in 2019, it took us 8 hours to reach Khajurao.
Day7:
The entire day was dedicated see different temples in Khajurao. We travelled in September and weather was still in 30s and very humid in Madhya Pradesh. So, it is better to start sight seeing as early as 6 a.m. Early morning is also good for photography.
We went to the main khajurao temple (western group of temples) at 6 a.m. It takes 2-3 hours to see the temple (depending on your interest). Return back to hotel, have breakfast, and then head to Rahen falls which is about 30 min drive from khajurao. It is a beatiful falls formed due to volcanic eruption. You can spend about an hour there and head back.
After lunch, you can take some rest. You can resume visiting eastern and southern tempples after the temperature cools down (say after 3 p.m.) Finish all temples by 6 to be back to main Khajurao temple for light and sound show (english show at 6.30 and Hindi show at 7.30)
Day 8:
After breakfast, start journey towards Orchha. Due to road conditions, we reached Orccha by lunch time. After lunch time, we visited Orccha fort. Try to finish the fort visit before sunset to visit Chattris. https://www.windhorsetours.com/sights/india/Chhatris.html
It is a beautiful view at that time.
After sunset, head towards Jhansi.
Day 9:
Start towards Jhansi fort early in the morning. Jhansi fort was not as exciting. It takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to see the place. It is even ok to skip Jhansi. Post lunch, we headed towards Gwalior.
On the way to Gwalior, if you have time visit Datia. There is a fort and Pitambar temple (Shakti Peeth). Due to Navarathri festival, the temple was crowded, so we skipped it.
We reached Gwalior by evening.
Day 10:
Start early at 6 a.m. to cover Gwalior fort. It is a beautiful fort. It takes about to cover all the places in and around the fort. In the same premisis, you can visit Gwalior fort, Saash Bahu mandir, Gurudwara and Teli ka mandir.
Return to hotel, have breakfast, take some rest. After lunch, visit Jai Vilas Palace in Gwalior. It is a beautiful palace and you can easily spend about 2 hours.
You can do some shopping in Gwalior
Breakfast - Famous Poha
Lunch/Dinner - kwality restaurant.
For chats -(at your own risk), try Phool Bagh chaupti
Shopping - Topi bazar, sarafa bazar, subhash market
Sweets - Bahadura for Gulab Jamun, Shano-Shaukat for assorted sweets especially Boondi laddu, Daulatram Gupta, Gazak
Day 11:
Return to Bangalore
Other places of interest in MP
I didn't have time to cover it. But if you happen to go to bhopal, visit Bhimbetka rock shelters
Bhimbetka rock shelters are in Bhopal, MP. It is a UNESCO world heritage site that consists of seven hills and over 750 rock shelters distributed over 10 kilometres. At least some of the shelters were inhabited more than 100,000 years ago. Some of the Bhimbetka rock shelters feature prehistoric cave paintings and the earliest are about 10,000 years old (c. 8,000 BCE),
