Just 30km from Aurangabad, the 34 cave temples at Ellora were carved over a period of 5 centuries by Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain monks.
The cheapest way to visit Ellora is by bus, but it's worth paying the extra for an auto-rickshaw unless you're on a very tight budget. You'll need at least 4 hours to see everything and the distance between the first and last cave is around 2km, making it a very tiring day trip. Bring food and water with you as the snacks and drinks on sale at the main entrance are overpriced. Only a couple of the caves have disabled access and the site is very rocky and exposed, so take decent shoes and plenty of suncream. The best time to see the mainly westward facing caves is in the late afternoon, but I preferred to go in the morning when there were fewer visitors and the sun was less intense.
The 12 Buddhist caves are to the right of the main entrance. Full of dark alcoves and small chambers, with seated Buddhas, they're much more restrained than the exuberant Hindu caves. The highlights are cave ten, which has a ribbed roof like the inside of a ship's hull and a magnificent seated Buddha in the centre; and cave twelve, a plain three storey building with relief pictures on the inner walls and amazingly smooth floors and ceilings.
The 17 Hindu Caves are strung either side of Kailasa Temple (100 rupees entrance or a free view from the hill above), a monumental building which took over a century to carve out of the surrounding rock with one inch chisels. Don't miss the two-storey cave fifteen, the Das Avatara, which has carvings depicting the ten incarnations of Vishnu; or cave twenty-nine, which is connected to the other Hindu caves by a ledge that goes under a tiny waterfall.
The five Jain Caves are a kilometre or so north. Auto-rickshaw drivers generally take you to them after you've seen Kailasa, then drop you back outside cave twenty nine to work your way back to the main entrance. If you've come on the bus, it's an exposed walk along a dusty road. The Jain caves are tiny compared to the biggest Buddhist and Hindu ones, but they are spectacularly detailed. Cave thirty two is the best: a plain downstairs leading to an ornate upper shrine, with a lotus flower adorning the ceiling.