Our complete guide to plan a trip to Khajuraho & It’s UNESCO World Heritage Temples

About Khajuraho

Khajuraho is a very small town located in the Chhatarpur District of Madhya Pradesh. But centuries ago, it was the capital of the major Rajput kingdom of the region – Chandela Dynasty. And they ruled in the 10th – 12th century. So, that is when they constructed the world famous temples of Khajuraho, which are a UNESCO world heritage now and popular all over the world as the “Erotic Temple Complex”.

Coming soon : Main Temples to visit in Khajuraho

Where to stay on your trip to Khajuraho

The Khajuraho main road that one takes on a trip to Khajuraho from NH39 to enter the city has a lot of hotels and resorts on either side. Actually, you can browse and book one here. After all, the advantage of residing on this road is that the temples are very close by. Actually we stayed at The Clarks Khajuraho. The hotel was neat and clean, with big premises, in campus parking and good food. And it was only 5 minutes drive to the western temples complex of Khajuraho from this hotel. Also, it was just 6-7km from the NH. So, overall, we could save time both ways on our trip to Khajuraho, traveling to and from Khajuraho as well as visiting the temples. Even the area right near the Western Temple Complex has a lot of stay options.

Can I do a day trip to Khajuraho

Khajuraho is well connected from most of the major cities of MP and also cities in UP. Definitely it is possible to do a day trip to Khajuraho, visiting the temple complexes and returning by the evening. But, from our own experience, I will highly recommend staying overnight. Because it gives one chance to visit the temples towards the evening and early morning when it is not very hot. And also not very crowded. We visited the main complex – the western Group of Temples the next day morning, after staying overnight. And it was really very pleasant to visit the complex early in the morning. Since, the cool, pleasant weather supported a lot. And we energetically visited all the temples, comfortably covering the grounds between them.

Also, driving and then a lot of walking between the temples will be tiring in my opinion. However, if you are really constrained by time, yes, it is possible to do a day trip to the temples of Khajuraho. But mostly it will be a very long and tiring day.

How to reach Khajuraho

Khajuraho is well connected with the rest of India through both roadway and railways. In fact, on our trip to Khajuraho, we came to Khajuraho from Bandhavgarh after doing a tiger safari in Bandhavgarh. However, one can easily reach here from Agra, Delhi, Gwalior, Bhopal or other parts of India via road. And the NH39 , which will connect Khajuraho to most of these other towns and cities, is being converted in a very nice 6 lane national highway at the time of this writing. And looking at the pace of work that we observed on the roads, in a few months, it will be fully ready. So, this will drastically reduce the travel time between Khajuraho and other towns. Although Khajuraho also has an airport, but there are hardly any commercial planes. So, road and rail are the primary means to reach Khajuraho. However, one can always fly into Gwalior, which has a very commercialised airport with many flights operating from all over India. From Gwalior, it will be a 5 hours road trip to Khajuraho.

General tips on doing a trip to Khajuraho

1. The Western Group of Temples, which is the main temple complex in Khajuraho opens up for public as early as 6:00am and is open till 6:00pm (or sunset, whichever happens earlier).
2. Prefer visiting the Western Group of Temples during your trip to Khajuraho in the early morning hours as the crowd is least and the climate is pleasant even in summers
3. There is a ticket of INR 40/- per head for Indian citizen to enter the western Temple complex
4. There are government designated guides available at the entry of Western Group of Temples in Khajuraho in case you want to hire one. Audio guides are also available.
5. For visiting the Southern and Eastern Group of Temples in Khajuraho, you can either hire a guide or rent a tuk-tuk (autorickshaw) which will take you to the different temples through the lanes of the village.
6. Wear comfortable cotton cloths and comfortable shoes or slippers to walk. When visiting the temple complexes, you will need to often leave your shoes at the stairs. So slip-ons really help.
7. October – February will be the best time to visit the Temple Complexes of Khajuraho as the weather is otherwise too hot.
8. You can carry water bottle inside the main temple complex but carrying food is not allowed. If you have something with you, you can leave it at the entry gate and collect later.
9. Some temples like the Chausath Yogini Temple are located far from the others, so, do designate ample time to visit these. It is one of the oldest temples of Khajuraho. Check our upcoming writeup to know more about the temples of Khajuraho that you shouldn’t miss visiting –

Must visit temples of Khajuraho

An idle itinerary for a trip to Khajuraho Temple Complexes

Day1 : Arrival in Khajuraho, visiting Eastern & Southern Temple Complexes

On your trip to Khajuraho, target to arrive in Khajuraho by max noon. Check-in into your hotel. Have lunch. We arrived in Khajuraho by 2:00pm. And after a swift check-in, we had our lunch. After getting refreshed, by 4:00pm, we were ready to go out and explore the temples of Khajuraho.

Honestly, we didn’t know so much about the Group of Temples and in what order to visit them. As we were driving towards the western complex, a guide stopped us. And suggested us to visit the Eastern and Southern Group of Temples today instead. We did the same. And by the time we were done visiting the major temples of the Eastern Temple Complex and Southern Group of Temples in Khajuraho, it was almost 6:00pm. The guide also gave us information on when the Western Temple complex opens the next day in the morning. And then we departed and came back to our rooms. We had an early dinner.

Today, some of the major temples that we visited included – Parsvanatha Temple, Brahma Temple, Chaturbhuj Temple, Vamana Temple and Duladeo Temple.

Breakfast was included in our hotel room plan, which means we had already pre paid for it. So, we had two choices for the next day. (1) to wake up early in the morning and visit the temple complexes as early as 6:00am in the morning, come back by 8:30am and then have breakfast and checkout for the next destination – Orchha. Or, (2) to wake up little late, have breakfast early at 7:00am and then start for the temple complex by 8:30am, come back to hotel and check out by 11:30am.

The second option was delaying our checkout and thus our road to the next destination. So, we decided to opt for the first one. You can do the same.

Day2 : Visiting Western Group of Temples at Khajuraho and departure

Morning, 5:30am, we woke up, got fresh and started for the Western Group of Temples at Khajuraho by 6:00am. We parked our vehicle in the parking area right in front of main entrance. Although, you have to access it by turning left twice from the road in front of the temple complex.

We bought our tickets and entered the Western Group of Temple Complex. There was hardly anyone at this time inside the temple. We saw a beautiful sunrise and witnessed the first rays of the sun entering the temples in the complex and fall on the idols. This is the reason, we will highly recommend visiting these temples early in the morning.

We visited all the temples in the complex including the Lakshmana Temple, Vishvanath Temple, Kandariya Mahadev Temple, Parvati Temple, Jagdambi Temple and Chitragupta Temple.

You can comfortably finish visiting the Western Group of Temples Complex at Khajuraho in 2.5 – 3 hrs. We finished visiting all the temples by 8:15am. And we were back to our hotel by 8:30am. Then, we headed straight for breakfast. After finishing breakfast, we comfortably checked out by 10:00 am and started for the next destination – Orchha.

PS: We followed the above itinerary on our road trip to Madhya Pradesh from Bangalore. Wherein, we reached Khajuraho after doing a tiger safari in Bandhavgarh National Park. And later proceeded to the ancient historical city Orchha.

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