Aurangabad has a healthy range of cinemas and parks featuring animals, but there is not much else in the way of suitable attractions for children as most of the places of interest here are natural or historic sites. The many cinemas in the city also rarely show any films with English, meaning the best entertainment on offer for children are the wildlife parks.

Gautala Wildlife Sanctuary
About 60kms from Aurangabad, Gautala Wildlife Sanctuary makes a good, if tiring, day out for older children who enjoy a walk in the outdoors. This area is made up of pristine forest, rivers and waterfalls that are perhaps best enjoyed with the help of a guide who can point out the local flora and fauna. There are many colourful bird species to observe here, along with more familiar animals such as monkeys, deer and even on occasion, leopards.

Siddharth Garden Zoo
Located within the confines of Siddharth Garden, this small zoo makes a sure-fire source of entertainment for youngsters, with its selection of popular animals such as the Bengal and white tigers, deer, emus and crocodiles among other international species. Close to the wildlife enclosures is a lawn that is popular with families bringing picnics along to the park. This is an attraction best visited outside of the monsoon season.

Aurangabad is all about the culture, being home to the second Taj Mahal, so to speak. There are numerous other historical and cultural attractions to keep you busy as well. Additionally, being a less tourist-oriented city, Aurangabad offers a better chance to get to know the locals and see how life is really lived in small-town India. Perhaps the best cultural activity of all is just sitting down for some ‘chai’ (tea) with a resident.

Bibika Maqbara
Often referred to as the ‘poor man’s Taj Mahal’, Bibika Maqbara is actually an altogether different building built towards the end of the 17^th century, much later than the Taj, by the then Prince Azam Shah in honour of his mother. The building is designed to be less opulent than the Taj Mahal although in truth it is almost as magnificent, with a similar group of four asymmetrically positioned white minarets around a central domed structure. If you visit Aurangabad, this is a site not to be missed.

Grishneshwar
Located just outside of the city, this Hindu temple is hugely significant given that it is 1 of the 12 Jyotirlingas of India, shrines where Lord Shiva is worshipped represented as a light image. As a result, it is one of the most revered Hindu places of worship in the region. The temple was built in the latter stages of the 18^th century by Rajmata Ahilyadevi Holkar, a famous female ruler of the nearby Malwa kingdom.

History Museum of Marathwada University
Displaying a wealth of excavated artefacts from the Sathavahana dynasty more than 2,000 years old along with art from various areas of the central southern region from the past 500 years, including those from the colonial era, this history museum is a worthwhile cultural experience in Aurangabad. The exhibition also includes international pieces, mostly from China and Japan. Head to the Marathwada University to find it, except on Sundays when it’s closed.

Panchakki
This clever example of old engineering is said to be built by Malik Ambar, the father of Aurangabad, and was used as a water mill to grind grain. The hydro-power used to turn the mill is sourced from a mountain spring that originates 8kms away and flows through the compound. The area around the mill features a complicated network of earthen piping used to distribute the water to gain maximum benefit for the mill as well as pools that are filled with fish.

State Archaeology Museum
The highlight of this fascinating exhibition is the large collection of relics retrieved from ancient Paithan, a city that lies 50kms from Aurangabad and used to be a major settlement during the Sathavahana era more than 2,000 years ago. Some of the pieces on display here include broken panels and sculptures from this historic site.

Aurangabad offers a healthy selection of restaurants, most of which offer typical Indian fare from the fast-food places to the pricier. The good news for meat-eaters is that the city is not as prone to vegetarianism as many other parts of the country; you’ll be able to find a handful of chicken and mutton curries on the menu, particularly at the restaurants that surround Connaught Place. Kohinoor Plaza in the Nirala Bazaar is another place to track down meat dishes.

For the best restaurants in the city, head to the top hotels, which all offer good Indian cuisine along with a handful of semi-Western dishes. Many of the restaurants offer menus that mix different Indian types of cooking and includes Punjabi dishes, shwarma and even some Chinese food. Other oriental options exist on Station road where a new Thai restaurant has opened, a sign perhaps that Aurangabad is slowly becoming more cosmopolitan when it comes to dining out. Among the other popular areas of the city for restaurants are Kranti Chowk and along the Daulatabad road.

Like any Indian city worth its salt, Aurangabad features a number of bazaars where bartering is essential and a whole variety of goods are sold, with products changing depending on which day you visit. The largest such markets in the city include Connaught Place, Gul Mandi and Nirala Bazaar, but do not expect many options in the way of genuine shopping malls.

Many of the best quality products you’ll notice in the markets and at other specialist sellers dotted around are Paithani saris and a whole variety of garments made of traditional Himroo silk.

One of the best features of Aurangabad is its stunning natural scenery and the variety of wildlife. If you don’t see any manmade attractions during your entire stay, you can still be fully satisfied with the parks, sanctuaries and breathtaking walks of the area.

Jyakwadi Dam Bird Sanctuary
Covering an area of 350 square kilometres, the Jyakwadi Dam Bird Sanctuary is another scenic park teeming with flora and fauna within the Aurangabad region that is more than worth a visit. The highlight for keen bird-watchers here are the migrating birds that come all the way from Siberia when that icy part of the world gets too cold in winter. The park was inaugurated in 1986 and remains an excellent venue for observing wildlife as well as for hiking outside of the monsoon season.

Lonar
At a distance of 160kms from Aurangabad, Lonar is quite a long road journey away and requires passing through Jalna; however, it is very much worth it for its fascinating features. The town was the site of a huge crater that was ground into the surrounding basalt by a meteor that hit around 50,000 years ago. The resulting dent in the landscape has for many thousands of years been filled in by a lake with a high alkaline content, meaning no organism can live in it, resulting in an eerily striking stretch of water. NASA has previously conducted extensive exploration of the site and so should anyone else who makes it to Aurangabad.

Siddharth Garden
Located in the heart of the city near Station road, Siddharth Garden is a large expanse of greenery that remains one of the most popular outdoor recreational centres in Aurangabad. Home to the Siddharth Garden Zoo, the park also features a smaller aquarium and large areas of grass flanked by shrubs and trees that makes a good spot for a picnic or playing games such as cricket, as popular in Aurangabad as it is elsewhere in India.