How to reach Ujjain

Ujjain is easier to reach than its size suggests, because it has been a pilgrimage city for as long as there have been railways in India. The practical choice is between the train, which puts you two kilometres from the temple, and a flight into Indore, which puts you an hour and a half away. If you want to be at a four o’clock aarti the morning after you travel, that difference decides your plan.

By train

Ujjain Junction, station code UJN, is on Western Railway and is the obvious way in. It is about two kilometres from the Mahakaleshwar gates: ten minutes by auto, less at night. Trains run from Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Bhopal, Indore, Nagpur and Varanasi among many others, and the Indore to Ujjain stretch has frequent short-distance services through the day.

• Arriving overnight is the single best trick for Ujjain: you reach before dawn, and the temple is already open.
• Train numbers and timings change every timetable. Check IRCTC or the National Train Enquiry System rather than any blog, including this one.
• Autos wait outside the station at all hours, so a pre-arranged car matters less here than it does at the airport.
• The station is a short walk from Freeganj, which is where the newer hotels and the late food are.

By air

The nearest airport is Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport at Indore, code IDR, about fifty-five kilometres away. It is the busiest airport in Madhya Pradesh, with direct flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune. The road from Indore to Ujjain is good and takes about an hour and a half, Indore traffic included.

Bhopal’s Raja Bhoj Airport is the other option at about a hundred and eighty-five kilometres, which is three to four hours by road. It is rarely worth it unless the fare or the schedule is much better.

If you land after dark, arrange the car before you fly. Fifty-five kilometres of unfamiliar highway at eleven at night, with luggage and children, is the part of the trip people most regret improvising.

By road

Ujjain is well connected by road and most traffic comes through Indore or Dewas. Approximate road distances, which are what matter when you are deciding whether to drive at all:

State and private buses run from Nanakheda bus stand to Indore, Bhopal, Omkareshwar, Mandu and Kota. For Omkareshwar in particular most people take a car for the day rather than a bus, because the return timing is what makes or breaks it.

Getting about once you are here

Inside the old city autos are everywhere and cheap, and they get closer to the gates through the lanes than a car can. Across the river, at Kal Bhairav, Mangalnath and Chintaman Ganesh, the distances add up and a car for the day works out better, especially between April and June when the heat decides things, or in December when the pre-dawn cold does.

• An auto for a full six-temple day: from ₹1,000 for the whole vehicle, up to four people.
• A car for the same day: from ₹2,000 for the whole vehicle, four to twelve seats depending on what you pick.
• Indore airport to your Ujjain hotel: quoted on your dates, because night runs and festival weeks differ.

Questions people ask

Train or flight?

Train, if one runs from your city overnight. It puts you two kilometres from the temple before dawn. A flight into Indore if the train would be a two-night journey, and then arrange the car for the 55 km.

How early should we reach Ujjain for a Bhasma Aarti morning?

The evening before. Reporting at the gate is somewhere in the two o’clock hour, so arriving the same morning only works off an overnight train that gets in by midnight.

Can we do Omkareshwar and Ujjain on one trip?

Yes, but give Omkareshwar its own day. It is about 140 km each way and the darshan takes time once you are there.

Is there parking near the temple?

There are paid lots around the corridor and they fill up on Mondays and through Shravan. If you are driving yourself, stay somewhere with parking of its own.