Road trip Gujarat

pathojatri

Hello, we are planning a road trip to Gujarat in December 2009 for about 8 days starting and ending in Ahmedabad from where we will hire transport. We are an architect couple in our forties, with a teenage daughter. We'd like a nice blend of forests, beaches and temples and the absolute must-sees for us are Lothal, Dholavira, Gir, Diu, Modhera Sun Temple, Dwarka and Somnath temple. We are open to adding a couple of days or so to take in Chittorgarh, Mt. Abu. We'd like to book our flights to Ahmedabad and back by mid November latest, hence we have a clear month and more to finalize the trip. We don't want a rushed and whistle-stop kind of tour but would still like to take in as much as possible. Thanks in advance for your time in helping us put this together.



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pathojatri

Sure, and thanks for pointing it out. Will comply henceforth.

hvkumar

The ideal circuit would be Ahmedabad-Lothal-Diu-Somanath-Gir-Dwaraka-Jamnagar-Samakhiyari-Rapar-Dholavira-Rapar-Samakhiyari-Radhanpur-Palanpur-Mt Abu-Udaipur-Himmatnagar-Ahmedabad

It would be difficult to do this circuit in 8 days.
I would suggest you prune it down to cut out Dholavira.


Ideally, you would do the following schedule:
D1 - Ahmedabad-Lothal-Diu
D2 - Diu-Somanath-Gir (morning in Diu)
D3 - Gir-Dwaraka (leave Gir in late afternoon)
D4 - Dwaraka-Jamnagar-Modhera
D5 - Modhera-Mt Abu (arrive at Mt Abu mid-morning)
D6 - Mt Abu-Udaipur (leave for Udaipur in late afternoon)
D7 - Udaipur
D8 - Udaipur-Ahmedabad (leave for A'Bad in late afternoon, you can do Chittorgarh in early morning)

You can also cover Palitana (Jain temples), but that will an extra half-day. You can drop in at Porbandar between Gir and Dwaraka.

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vonkla

we made a road trip through Gujarat in 2007. We started in Vadodaro and ended in Udaipur.
We covered just a part of the places you wish to see.

Our itinerary was Jambughoda - Bhavnagar - Junaghad - Bhuj -Radhanpur(en route visiting Dholavira) - Mehsana (en route to Patan and Modhera).

If you are interested in more details see the march part of our journal Mumbai-Dehli in three months

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shalabhk

We made somewhat similar trip from Baroda.

D1- Baroda to Diu covering Lothal enroute.
D2- Diu to Somanth via Gir
D3- Somnath to Porbander
D4- Porbander to Dwarka
D5- Dwarka to Baroda via Rajkot.

I wish we would have spend a little more time at Gir.Apart from it was slightly hectic but managable.
Regards
Shalabh

pathojatri

Thank you. I think that 8 days is too short and we are aiming for too much. Diu is a must. Lothal and Modhera are doable from Ahmedabad. How to accomodate Rann of Kutch and Somnath and Dwarka? I don't want to leave out Gir either. I guess I will have to do some detailed planning here. If you can suggest any way out, please do advise me. Regards,

pathojatri

Thank you shalabhk. We'd like to spend more time in Gir and Diu. What is optimum? Maybe we should drop Dwarka and Porbandar and the Rajasthan destinations for now. Regards,

shalabhk

I think if you can drop Rajasthan .Just limit to Saurashtra I think you it should be managable coolly in 8 days. See if you can add up Junagarh in this.

pathojatri

Hello again! I am posting a tentative itinerary here based on the advice of all of you. What do you all think?
D1- Ahmedabad to Diu covering Lothal enroute.
D2- Diu
D3- Diu
D4- Diu to Gir
D5- Gir
D6- Gir to Somnath
D7- Somnath to Little Rann
D8- Little Rann to Ahmedabad

Thanks in advance.

Regards, pathojatri

machadinha

Do you mean Sasan Gir park, or Girnar Hill (sometimes confusingly referred to as Mount Gir by some), by Junagadh? I'd certainly recommend to try and throw in the latter. So if that's what you're doing, please disregard this

Two days there (so sort of like you planned) is worth it; clambering up & down the mountain takes pretty much a full day; try to start early to avoid the heat, then whatever of the day you have left you'll deserve to recover (there's some excellent Gujarati thalis to be had in town for just that purpose, just ask around). The town itself has a number of fine sights (fort & baodis, or stepwells, among them) to merit another full day.

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shalabhk

I feel Diu can be cut down by a day .It just has a beach and small market.You can add up Dwarka.

My personal experience with Devji Bhai of little rann has been very good.Try www.littlerann.com

sb_amd_us

You mentioned Dwarka in your initial post so I would do following:

D1- Ahmedabad to Dharangadhra(Little Run of Kutch..Only 130 km from Amd...morning Train Journey)
D2- Train Back to Amd--> then drive to Lothal - Diu
D3- Diu
D4 - Diu
D5- Diu to Gir ---Not far and can do Safari on same day
D6- Gir to Somnath -- Temple/Triveni/Dehotsarg/Bhalka Tirth
D7- Somnath to Dwarka
D8- Dwarka/Rukamani Temple/Nageshwar/Bet Dwarka..night Train to AMD

hvkumar

Girnar is a holy Jain mountain top outside Junagadh town, and Sasan Gir is the lion sanctuary near Veraval. Girnar is quite a steep climb and please keep aside an entire day for the climb to and fro. I would recommend Palitana, which is near Bhavnagar, and on the way from Ahmedabad-Lothal-Bhavnagar-Diu-Somanath, whioch has over 800 Jain temples cramped into a small hill, which takes 3 hours to climb up.