The Hotel Shree Maya is Aurangabad's backpacker central. Located in a quiet backstreet a few minutes' walk from Station Road East and the railway station, it has a youth hostel feel with helpful staff, free newspapers, and slow Internet access (40 rupees an hour with a 20% discount for guests) in the lobby, and a great outdoor terrace dining area on the first floor where you can eat meals or hang out over a few beers with fellow travellers.
The Shree Maya isn't the cheapest place in town: standard rooms cost 345 rupees and the noticeably bigger air-conditioned rooms 495 rupees. It's not worth paying the extra unless you're planning to spend a lot of time indoors, as even t
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The Hotel Shree Maya is Aurangabad's backpacker central. Located in a quiet backstreet a few minutes' walk from Station Road East and the railway station, it has a youth hostel feel with helpful staff, free newspapers, and slow Internet access (40 rupees an hour with a 20% discount for guests) in the lobby, and a great outdoor terrace dining area on the first floor where you can eat meals or hang out over a few beers with fellow travellers.
The Shree Maya isn't the cheapest place in town: standard rooms cost 345 rupees and the noticeably bigger air-conditioned rooms 495 rupees. It's not worth paying the extra unless you're planning to spend a lot of time indoors, as even the more expensive rooms feel a little stuffy. While varying in size all the rooms have roughly the same furniture and facilities: a couple of 1970s style armchairs, and ugly wardrobe/shelving unit, hexagonal stools, cable TV, and bedside phone, mosquito nets over the windows, and medium-sized beds with cheap woolen blankets and clean but clearly aged sheets and pillow cases. Although the rooms were in need of decoration, the two I stayed in were both comfortable and adequately sized. The bathrooms are plain and institutional, a large sink, Western-style toilet and metal bucket occupying corners of a space decorated with beige tiles and metal pipes. The showers have reliably hot water between 6 and 9am, though you can have a warm shower most of the day thanks to the installation of solar heating panels.
But while the rooms are nothing special, the Shree Maya remains an excellent place to chill out for a couple of days while you explore the city and Ellora Caves, mainly due to that outdoor terrace. The 50 rupee buffet breakfasts served every morning between 6 and 9am are good value for money, including fruit juice, unlimited tea and coffee, cornflakes, two eggs cooked to order, and four slices of toast with jam or butter. In the evenings the terrace is lit up for dinner while the guests—mainly foreigners with a few middle-class Indian families thrown in—swap travel stories. In between times, the room service menu is reasonably priced and surprisingly extensive. The staff are also very friendly, and can help to organise drivers and guided tours.
The Shree Maya is not for those who need a bit of pampering, or for anyone sick of the traveller trail. But if you want a comfortable base for a couple of days where you can rest up and meet people, then this is the place to head for.
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