A road trip through Gujarat - Trails and Frames

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Road trip route: Ahmedabad -> Ambaji -> Gabbar Hill -> Patan (Rani Ni Vav) -> Bhuj -> Mandvi Beach -> Kalo Dungar -> Rann of Kutch -> Bhuj -> Jamnagar -> Dwarka-> Beyt Dwarka -> Somnath -> Sasan Gir -> Diu - Sasan Gir -> Ahmedabad

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Here is a day wise account with costing and important notes at the end.

Day 1: We reached Ahmedabad airport and had to travel about 8 km to go to the taxi rental place. We rented an Innova (7 seater) for the entire trip duration.

We left to Ambaji the same day for a short visit.

Headed to Patan for the night.

Drive time: Ahmedabad to Ambaji : 3.5 hours Ambaji to Patan: 2.5 hours

Stayed at Patan: Hotel Navjivan, Price: ~2000 per night. We booked this based on reviews, it's an average budget stay. Food at the in-house restaurant was average.

Day 2: Visited Rani ki Vav the Unesco World Heritage site.

There is Patan Patola heritage centre where Ikat work is showcased. Double ikat also called Patan Patola is one of the things Gujarat is famous for. You could go there to check the weaving process or to buy a souvenir for yourself. It will be a beautiful keep for sure. Read more about Patola and its history here.

Stayed at Bhuj: The Dream resort. Price: 4500 Rs. per night for a room (cottage style). Food at the in-house restaurant is below average. It was fairy new when we stayed, not sure if there is any improvement now. Stay was comfortable, rooms are clean. They have sheet roofs so it got really cold when we were there. (in Dec end) .

Bhuj : 1 day and 2 nights. Would suggest to add another day here to cover places near Bhuj (Mandvi beach, local Bhuj)

Day 3: Day trip to Kalo Dungar and Rann of Kutch:

We lost half a day due to car breakdown, it was out of battery. It was easy to get a mechanic and replace it. But we did loose time from our planned (tight) itinerary. So we had to skip local Bhuj village and head directly to Kalo Dungar means Black hills and is the highest point in Bhuj. You get to see a diverse landscape view of water, the salt scapes, sand, grassland and the mountains all at once. Well its all mostly the salt scapes. It has the best panoramic view of the Great Rann of Kutch.

At Kalo Dungar we were lucky to hear some local folk songs performed by a local.

If you have an additional day, you can choose to watch the sunset here. Since we had a time crunch (owing to the car breakdown and my ambitious sister's itinerary), we headed to Rann of Kutch.

Rann of Kutch: If you visit Rann of Kutch during the annual festival in December, you will see a lot of food stalls and local art village setups and performances.

You can have food at any of the stalls or choose to have the local thali meal at the entrance of the Rann of Kutch.

It is about a kilometre walk from the car park to where the salt marshes start. There are options of camel pulled carts, if you do not have the time or the energy to walk it up. The walk way is in itself a good view and it would have been even better if you could have an aerial view of it. For that you do have a tower which provides an aerial view. It's extremely crowded during festival time (is when we had gone). Be ready to see a lot of people everywhere you turn. Well who doesn't want to see the only one of its kind, one of the largest salt marshes in the world!

Rann of Kutch is a beautiful sight at sunset. The salt crystals that you walk on can give way anytime to muddy swamp beneath. But if it doesn't (most of the time it won't), the crystals end up looking like little clouds! It's a sight not to be missed. This place marked the most memorable place in Gujarat and was worth all the hype it carries.

All of them were good. The experience was quite happening, since cows kept marching up and down in rage every time people decided to be in their way !

Oh yes! They have the right of way here, and there can be no rational to it, it's just that you have to respect (fear) the horns and jump to the sides when they decide to take a stroll (which was quite often actually).

We did a leisurely tour of all Dwarka temples on Day 5. Byet Dwarka was unfortunately closed (access to it) due to bad weather.

Stayed at: VITS Devbhoomi Dwarka. Price : 4000 Rs per night. Rooms are spacious and clean. Service was below average (apparently they were understaffed). In house restaurant food was good.

A very beautiful sight and must visit. You cannot (like most temples) click any photographs of the temple from inside. In fact you are not allowed to take any mobile phones or electronic devices into the temple.

This temple is quite peaceful in spite of the large crowd and fortunately has more open area around the temple complex. That could be the reason why I liked this temple the best.

Drive Time: Bhuj to Somnath temple: 5 hours. Somnath to Gir: 1.5 hours.

Stayed at: Vanvaso resort, Sasan Gir. Price - Rs. 4200/- per night. Stay was comfortable, the resort has a good garden space, a swimming pool (not in use). It's right on the banks of Hiran river, and calls for a lovely nature walk around the river. And watch out for crocodiles! I did not see one, but the locals say they come out in the noon for a sun bath!

We had booked a resort based on booking .com photos and reviews of a place. It wasn't ready though when we got there. It was photos of a model place. The owner of the place was very friendly and agreed to cancel the booking and in fact got us some rooms in the neighbouring resort. This was a very nice gesture and was the first polite and helpful person we had met in Gujarat.

Diu has beautiful forts and beaches to negate all the temple only visits in the days at Gujarat so far. It was a pleasant change for all of us.

The fort is quite a lot of walk and has some good views of the fort walls against the tides.

Diu houses and roads have a very different look to it, owing to the Portuguese influence. It's a vibrant place to just walk around.

Naida cave is a lovely cave without bats (at least we did not see any)! It has sunroof and natural windows here and there, triangular entrance. It has layered walls and roots growing over the rocks. All this make up for a great sight at Naida caves. A must visit I would say.

Stayed at: Vanvaso resort, Sasan Gir.

Day 8:

Stayed at: Sasan Gir, Vanvaso resort.

The forest in Gir National park is dry and deciduous. It is the natural habitat for the Asiatic lions which is its main attraction. Apart from these you also have quite a number of Leopards and lots of bird species housed in the National park

Head back to Ahmedabad.

Drive Time: Gir to Ahmedabad : 7.5 hours drive.