3 weeks Ahmedabad - Mumbai

Welcome India Experts!

Me and my wife are flying to India at the end of October and planning to stay for three weeks. Our arrival and departure airport is Ahmedabad so we will start and end our trip there.
We have decided to visit Western part of India. We haven't really decided on our itinerary yet and only place on our list so far is Mumbai.

We're not really into 'golden triangle', ancient ruins, hours spent on the beach, expensive tours and cruises or big cities. We'd like to check a wildlife (a ride on an elephant would be great), visit small village (see people's life), take a walk in the forest, go to the bazaar. Of course a nice temple or an old building are not the things that we want to miss on our way!

We will be more that happy to read any suggestions on the places that are worth visiting. We'd also like to make this trip an inexpensive

Thanks for any help or advice!

Read

Rann of Kutch - A different world (Trip Report)

LIONS IN GIR! Trip report.

trip report re Bhuj and Mandvi

Amazing Kutch and Saurashtra......

Do a research and make a sample plan.

Since you have mentioned wildlife, Gir Forest could be one good place to go to.
Apart from lions, for which it is famous, you can also find leopards, jackals, cobras, and other animals in the forest. It is around 400 Kilometres from Ahmedabad, and could take up to 6-7 hours by road. Or you can use train route to go to nearby stations (Junagadh- 60 KMs from Gir, or Rajkot- 150 KMs from GIr).
However, the national park is generally closed for tourist during monsoons. So check this before making a plan.
For temples, you should go to Somnath and Dwarka, two of the more famous towns in India for temples.
A trip to Kutch will give you glimpses of wilderness and desert.
Ahmedabad itself has lots to offer, which you should not miss out.

I would recommend the temple town of Palitana and the temples of Patan and Modhera. You could also visit the Western Ghats near Mumbai (there's not much wildlife to be seen)but there's plenty of biodiversity and tropical forests to be seen.

Aarosh has already coverd a lot of threads which should help you cover gujatrath, I would say why not also spend some time in maharashtra? The sahayadri ranges are magnificiant post monsoons, you could enjoy small village life on coastal maharashtra (konkan), A lot of historic places and forts of the great king shivaji (if you are into small treks then this is gonna be a treat)

Ride an elephant? well another one who has this crazy urge. I really wonder what is it about riding an elephant