CityDekho
Pune

Pune

city · Maharashtra

Pune, the cultural heart of Maharashtra, blends Maratha history with a youthful student-and-tech energy.

State
Maharashtra
Type
City
Best season
Winter
Things to do
3+

Pune, the cultural heart of Maharashtra, blends Maratha history with a youthful student-and-tech energy. Home to Shaniwar Wada, the Aga Khan Palace, Osho's ashram and gateway to nearby Sahyadri forts and hill stations, it is an easy city to live in.

When to go

Best visited October to March; summers can be hot.

Why visit

Maharashtra's cultural and education hub — Maratha forts and palaces, a youthful cafe scene, and a gateway to Sahyadri treks.

Cultural notes

The seat of the Maratha Peshwas and a centre of social reform and learning, Pune today balances heritage with a thriving IT, automotive and student culture.

How to reach

Pune Airport has domestic and some international flights; the city is a major rail hub and just ~3 hours from Mumbai on the expressway.

Pune in 2 days

See the full itinerary

2 days in Pune

Take the whole plan, or add any single stop.

Shaniwar WadaDay 1

Day 1

Shaniwar Wada

The fortified 18th-century seat of the Maratha Peshwas.

Day 1

Dagdusheth Ganpati

Dagdusheth Ganpati

Aga Khan Palace

Day 1

Aga Khan Palace

A grand palace and Gandhi national memorial set in gardens.

Day 1

FC Road / Koregaon Park cafes

FC Road / Koregaon Park cafes

Sinhagad FortDay 2

Day 2

Sinhagad Fort

Day 2

Misal & mastani food trail

Misal & mastani food trail

Day 2

Pataleshwar caves

Pataleshwar caves

Food & cuisine

Signature dishes and local flavours to look for in Pune.

Full food guide →
Misal Pav

Misal Pav

Spicy sprouted-bean curry with pav, a Pune favourite

Bhaji

Bhaji

The classic Maharashtrian street snack

Vada Pav

Vada Pav

The classic Maharashtrian street snack

Bhakarwadi

Bhakarwadi

Sweet-spicy fried snack (Chitale)

Mastani

Mastani

Thick Pune milkshake topped with ice cream

Maharashtrian thali

Maharashtrian thali

Sweet stuffed flatbread and a full thali

Puran Poli

Puran Poli

Sweet stuffed flatbread and a full thali

Eat your way through Pune

A stop-by-stop walk through what this city actually eats — what to order, in what order, and when.

Pune Food Trail

Pune guide & itineraries

Pune is perfect for

heritagefoodfamilybackpacker-workation

Nearby getaways

Lonavala

Lonavala

~1.5 hrs

Things to do

How to spend your time in Pune.

Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati

Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati

Beloved, richly decorated Ganesh temple

Sinhagad Fort

Sinhagad Fort

Popular hill-fort trek near the city

Hidden gems

Koregaon Park & FC Road cafes

Koregaon Park & FC Road cafes

Trendy cafes, nightlife and shopping

Frequently asked questions

What is Pune known for?

Peshwa-era heritage (Shaniwar Wada), the Dagdusheth Ganpati, a big student and IT scene, and food like misal pav and mastani.

How many days for Pune?

1-2 days for the city; add Sinhagad and Lonavala nearby.

Been to Pune?

Write what you would tell a friend — where you stayed, what you would skip, the thing you wish somebody had mentioned before you went. We read every submission before it goes up.

Share your story

People also explored

Travellers viewing Pune also loved these

Maharashtra

Shirdi

Shirdi is one of India's most visited pilgrimage towns, the home of the revered saint Sai Baba, who preached love, tolerance and the unity of all faiths.

Maharashtra

Bibi Ka Maqbara (Aurangabad)

Bibi Ka Maqbara in Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) is a grand Mughal mausoleum built in the 1660s to 1670s for Dilras Banu Begum, the wife of Emperor…

Maharashtra

Siddhivinayak Temple (Mumbai)

Shree Siddhivinayak is Mumbai's most beloved Ganesha temple, built in 1801 and today one of the richest and most-visited shrines in India.

More heritage & forts

More places you'll love

Karnataka

Daria Daulat Bagh (Srirangapatna)

Daria Daulat Bagh is the elegant summer palace of Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore, set in a garden on the river-island of Srirangapatna near Mysuru.

Assam

Sivasagar

Sivasagar, once the capital of the mighty Ahom kingdom that ruled Assam for six centuries, is a town rich in monuments around its great tank.

Tripura

Neermahal

Neermahal is a striking water palace rising from the middle of Rudrasagar Lake near Melaghar in Tripura, built by the Manikya king in the 1930s as a royal…

Tripura

Unakoti

Unakoti, in the forested hills of northern Tripura, is an ancient Shaiva pilgrimage and archaeological site famous for its colossal rock-cut carvings and…

Delhi

India Gate (Delhi)

India Gate is a 42-metre war memorial arch on the ceremonial Kartavya Path, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and completed in 1931.

Delhi

Lotus Temple (Delhi)

The Lotus Temple is a Baha'i House of Worship and one of Delhi's most photographed modern landmarks, shaped like a half-open lotus with 27 marble-clad petals…

Andaman & Nicobar Islands

Cellular Jail (Port Blair)

The Cellular Jail in Port Blair, known as Kala Pani, is a colonial-era prison built by the British between 1896 and 1906 to hold Indian freedom fighters in…

Karnataka

Gol Gumbaz (Vijayapura)

Gol Gumbaz in Vijayapura (Bijapur) is the mausoleum of Sultan Mohammed Adil Shah, completed in 1656.

Delhi

Safdarjung's Tomb (Delhi)

Safdarjung's Tomb is a garden-tomb built around 1754 for Safdarjung, the powerful Nawab of Awadh and a prime minister of the Mughal empire.

Rajasthan

Kumbhalgarh Fort

Kumbhalgarh, a UNESCO-listed Mewar fort in the Aravalli Hills, is famed for its immense perimeter wall, which stretches roughly 36 km and is often called the…

Gujarat

Shatrunjaya Hill

Shatrunjaya Hill rises above the Shatrunjaya River near Palitana town in Bhavnagar district, and no other mountain in the world carries anything like what…

Gujarat

Pavagadh Hill

Pavagadh Hill is a volcanic plateau rising about 822 metres from the plains of the Panchmahal district, at the heart of the UNESCO-listed Champaner-Pavagadh…

Trending in Maharashtra

Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai runs on its trains, and the fastest way to stop being a tourist here is to work out which line you need and get on it. The stretch people photograph without knowing what it is runs from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus down to Oval Maidan: Victorian Gothic on one side, Art Deco on the other, facing each other across the park. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it is best walked at seven in the morning when the light is low and the traffic has not started. Skip the crush at the Gateway of India unless you are taking the ferry to Elephanta, which is worth a half day for the rock-cut Shiva in cave one. Instead go to Banganga tank in Walkeshwar — a stepped water tank in the middle of the richest neighbourhood in India, almost always empty of visitors. Monsoon, June to September, is when the city is most itself and most difficult. The rain is genuinely heavy, the trains flood, and locals will tell you both that it is beautiful and that they dread it. Both are true. November to February is the easy window.

Shirdi

Shirdi

Shirdi is one of India's most visited pilgrimage towns, the home of the revered saint Sai Baba, who preached love, tolerance and the unity of all faiths. The Samadhi Mandir enshrining his tomb draws tens of millions of devotees of every religion each year.

Ellora Caves

Ellora Caves

The Ellora Caves are a group of 34 rock-cut shrines carved into the basalt cliffs of the Charanandri Hills near Aurangabad. Stretching over two kilometres, they bring together Hindu, Buddhist and Jain temples cut between the 6th and 10th centuries CE — a rare place where all three faiths sit side by side. The centrepiece is Cave 16, the Kailasa Temple: the largest monolithic rock-cut structure in the world, carved top-down from a single cliff. Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of basalt were removed to reveal a multi-storey temple with carved pillars, life-size elephants and detailed galleries.

Ajanta Caves

Ajanta Caves

The Ajanta Caves are 30 rock-cut Buddhist monuments set into a horseshoe-shaped gorge in Aurangabad district. They were cut by hand out of vertical basalt cliffs between the 2nd century BCE and the 5th century CE, and monks used them as a retreat through the monsoon. Then they were forgotten — swallowed by jungle for centuries until someone stumbled on them again in 1819. What is inside is the finest ancient Indian wall painting to have survived anywhere. The pigments are natural minerals, and the Jataka tales and celestial figures they were used to paint carry an emotional weight that little else from the period does.

Where next?

Everything in MaharashtraBrowse all destinations