The Ashtavinayak darshan yatra covers eight ancient holy temples of Lord Ganesha. These temples are located at Raigad, Pune and Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, India. The interesting fact is that all Ganeshas in these temples are Swayambhu (self originated). Most of the devotees follows the yatra in a particular sequence and complete the same in 3-4 days time. But, I along with my family took a different route to complete the yatra by visiting two temples on weekends. And we managed to complete the yatra in 4-5 weekends. It took us long time to complete the yatra but we could spend more time in each temple and its surrounding areas. Overall it was a great experience of planning the weekend trip, visit the temples and wait for coming weekend to meet the Lord Ganesha again.
For travellers from Mumbai/Thane/Kalyan, I found Mumbai-Pune passenger trains are the best option. You can catch any early morning passenger train like Indrayani/Intercity Express. Get down at Pune station and hire a vehicle to visit Ashtavinayak temples which are located at Pune.
Here are my photo posts on Ashtavinayak temples.
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