Kolhapur is on the Pune - Miraj - Kolhapur section of the South-Central Railway. The railway station is named on Chatrapari Shahu Maharaja. It is well connected with all the important cities in India. Mahalakshi and Sahyadri express connect Mumbai to Kolhapur and they run daily. Nijamuddin-Goa express connects to Delhi, while there is also a daily train to Hyderabad and Tirupati.
MSRTC ( Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation) has buses running every hour from Mumbai to Kolhapur and vice versa. These are Non-A/C general transport buses and cost approximately 180-240 INR.
Private operators also operate buses on this route with A/C and Non-A/C option, the fare ranging from 200 to 350 INR.
Similar Options are available from Pune. The Private/State Buses and shared Taxis , all start from Swar-Gate in Pune which is a large bus/transport hub to the south of Pune.
From south side, there are direct buses (private and state-owned) from almost all places from Karnataka, including Bengalore, Belgaon, Mengalore, Hubali etc.
Air Deccan has a daily flight from Mumbai which cost around 3000 INR.
Overall, Kolhapur has become a crowded place recently. Huge number of two wheeler vehicles precides over the number of four wheelers ( private & commercial ). The central city being non-planned is very crowded during peak hours.
First visit Mahalaxmi Temple then go to Panhala Fort the Auto Rikhsa Charges 450/- for Panhala Trip from Kolhapur to Panhala and back.This trip wil take 6 hrs and after coming back to Kolhapur city got to Rankala Lake in evening there is Shalini Palace Hotel and Chowpaty where You can enjoy food from vaada Pav to South Indian dishes.
Next day Start in the morning go to new palace Museum. After seeing museum go to Jyotiba Temple.
Don't forget to visit Bhavani Temple near Maha Laxmi Temple.
A full meal without drinks will cost around 80 to 200 INR. Hotels generally close by 11 PM, while some of them have Coffee shops that also serve rice variety round the clock.
Don't forget to eat the "paandhraa rassaa" & "taambdaa rassa" in non-veg. These are two special curries which are tradition of Kolhapur.
'''For party freaks''' Kolhapur has got some decent bars & restaurants like Scores (beside hotel Victor palace) & Texas (in Hotel Ayodhya), also Mithila is a family bar & restaurant in Hotel Ayodhya.