Gujarat - out of the public ( read heavy tourist flow ) places

Hi,
In March we drove from Baroda to Ahemdabad and on to Ambaji in an over stuffed minivan with lots of our Indian friends/family. We stayed over in Ambaji (this was a surprise to us) to celebrte Shiva's birthday; to go to the temples. The next day we were to set off on the 2 hour trip to Abu. Ambaji was extremely uncomfortable for us. It is an Indian tourist/religious destination and our white skin caused more shock than anywhere else on the sub-continent. Nothing was in English and please don't attempt to stay there. Stop over to climb to temple top (it's steep-there should be defibulators builit into side of mountain! I was very worried about our friends) and get out asap.

BTW, our friends went to another temple earlier that morning (Shiva's b-day) and all mistakenly drank bhang . All of them, including our driver, passed out. For hours and hours. At nightfall we hired another driver to take us back to Baroda. Never got to see Mt. Abu, but hear it's beautiful

From ahmedabad you can visit below places:
- Gandhinagar (akshardham temeple)
- Mount abu (its around 300 km from ahmedabad)
- Pavagadh (near vadodara, it may take around 3-4 hours by car)
- you can visit sasangir (it is around 400 KM away from ahmedabad)

i am sure other people around here will share more places

Dangs district is still out of the typical tourists seeking leasure. The attractions in the district is Mahal wildlife sanctuary, shabari mandir site in the Subir village, Pampa sarovar a small lake near Subir, Pandav caves again somewhere near Subir, girmal waterfall near Subir, Giradhodh a waterfall near Vaghai town, Vansda national park. Travel near Garkhadi village gives spectacular view of Sahyadri mountain range. For some of the photos from Dangs visit my blog http://glimpsesofkonkan.blogspot.com/. Entire district is tribal and hilly. Best time to visit is late September when rains have receded, hills are green and Kharsani (niger crop has started flowering). Dangs district is also accessible for Navapur, Nandurbar and Nashik in Maharashtra.

Some more attractions in Valsad district:
1. Dharampur an old princely state,
2. Pindval village near Dharampur has Wilson Hill point
3. Ajmalgad, a small fort near Vansda offers spectacular views.
4. There is one ashram and a big temple near Dharampur which claims that it is 13th Jyotirling of Shiva.
5. Restaurants operated by co-operative group of tribal women offer typical Dangi thali. One is in Kaparada on Vapi- nashik highway and other is in Gangpur village (6 km from Vansda towards Dharampur.
6. Unai near Vansda has hot water springs.
7. One can buy locally grown cashews and mango pulp in Vansda town at Vrindavan outlet operated by Vasundhara tribal co-operative.
8. Navsari town has site for Gandhiji's salt march.

Taranga Hills Jain Temple, is a good add on to Modhera/Patan, Porbander has some quite special architecture. Alang village for the bizarre shops full of ship fittings. The Black Buck Sanctuary at Velavada; is very quiet and full of, well black buck, plus a few wolves and Hyena.
Champenar is nice and Pavangadh could have been, if it wasn't such a midden.

How does one reach taranga temples?

Here's a map http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&so...1,1.766052&z=9

Hi My wife and I will be visiting Rajasthan in September and finish in Udaipur on 7th September. We then want to visit Gujrat .Please can you figure out an itinerary for 15 days visiting some of this places mentioned in the Gujrat sticky .I would like to include Palitana Japparda Daman & Diu or any really good beaches. We like outdoors and trekking/Walking National parks/forests or of the beaten track.

We did some years ago a tour with car+driver through Gujarat which ended in Udaipur and started in Vadodaro.

Our itinerary was
Vadodara + Champaner
Jambughoda
Bhavnagar
Junagadh
Bhuj
Dolavira
Radhanpur
Meshana + Patan
Udaipur

I have written a detailed story about this in the March part of our Mumbai Delhi journal.

Thanks I will have a look at this

You could start from udaipur,get to mt.abu, then to patan,modhera, then kutch, then ahmedabad.
After that get to palitana,then diu,somnatrh,gir and finally dwarka and back.

Thanks I will post my final itinerary once its done but beacuse there is only two of us we may change as we go along.

gir national park to see lion, junagarh fort and somnath temple also important places in gujrat.
Near ahmedabad, there is a lake Nalsarovar, a large water body grat place for boating. step well buildings in sarkhej is must see around ahmedabad.

Modhera,patan, baroda palace, palitana are absolutely unmissable places..kutch too.

Those definitely on the list .Will also spend time in Jamnagar with family