Kolhapur

Kolhapur wears its history with confidence. A princely capital of the Marathas, it was ruled into the modern era by Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, a genuinely progressive king who championed education and social reform for the marginalised in the early twentieth century, and that legacy of pride and independence still runs through the city's character.

At its centre stands the Mahalakshmi, or Ambabai, temple, an ancient Shakti Peetha with roots in the Chalukya era, one of the most revered goddess shrines in western India and a place of constant devotion. The city's royal past shows in the Indo-Saracenic New Palace, built in the 1880s to a design by Charles Mant and now a museum, and in Rankala Lake, laid out as a public promenade. Above the plains nearby rises Panhala, one of the largest hill-forts in the Deccan and a stronghold woven into Shivaji's story.

Then there is Kolhapur's everyday fame, its crafts and its food. The handmade Kolhapuri chappal, a GI-tagged leather sandal, and the ornate Kolhapuri saaj necklace are made here, and the city's kitchens are known across India for their fierce, full-flavoured cooking: the red tambda rassa and white pandhra rassa mutton curries, and a spicy Kolhapuri misal. The tradition of kushti wrestling, trained in red-earth akhadas, still thrives. MyTripMyTravel runs Kolhapur as a rounded heritage, temple, and cuisine leg on the road between Pune and the Konkan or Goa.