Chandwad Rang Mahal & Renuka Cave Temple (Holkar Palace)

On the old Mumbai–Agra trunk road roughly 65 kilometres northeast of Nashik, the small taluka town of Chandwad guards two very different landmarks that together make an easy, uncrowded day-trip.

• The first is the Rang Mahal, an 18th-century Maratha palace-wada associated with the Holkar dynasty and, by tradition, with the revered queen Ahilyabai Holkar, whose administration left temples, wells and rest-houses across this stretch of the Deccan.
• Built in the layered courtyard style of the period, the Rang Mahal — literally the "palace of colour" — takes its name from the painted decoration that once covered its inner walls and wooden ceilings.
• Time and weather have dimmed much of that work, but patient visitors can still trace faded frescoes, floral borders and figural panels above the carved timber pillars and cusped arches.
• The building rewards slow looking rather than grand spectacle: this is a place to study craftsmanship, imagine a working 18th-century court, and photograph light falling through old lattice screens.
• Signage is limited, so it helps to arrive with curiosity and, where possible, a local guide.
• A short distance away, set into the basalt cliffs of the Chandwad hills, is the Renuka Devi cave temple, one of the district's important goddess shrines.
• Reached by a flight of stone steps, the cave sanctum sits dramatically against the rock, drawing steady streams of devotees — especially during Navratri — who come to honour Renuka Mata, a much-loved Devi across Maharashtra.
• The elevated setting gives sweeping views over the plains and the nearby hill-forts of Chandwad and Indrai, making the climb as much about landscape as pilgrimage.
• Both sites are best explored in the cooler months.
• For food, Chandwad is a highway town, so pure-vegetarian Maharashtrian fare is close at hand — steaming poha, sabudana khichdi, misal, batata-vada and unlimited veg thalis with bhakri, pithla and seasonal bhaji.
• Because several roadside kitchens are mixed, simply ask for the pure-veg or Jain option; many family-run eateries in the town bazaar and along the Nashik–Manmad road serve satisfying vegetarian meals and hot chai.