Gujarat Trip: Brief Itinerary

Here's the brief itinerary our Gujarat trip which was executed in December 2019. As mentioned, in my retrospect post that Gujarat is quite a large state and has signature destination across all corners. We had to skip Statue of Unity, Mandvi, Diu, Junagad to accommodate Kutch (White Desert), Bhuj in our itinerary and had to be considerate about senior citizens and a small kid in our group.

Day-0: 6th Dec 2019

• Departure from Bangalore and Arrival at Ahmedabad
• Check-in at Toran Hotel (in front of Sabarmati Ashram)

Day-1: 7th Dec 2019

• Early morning visit to Sabarmati Ashram
• Started journey towards Dwarka
• Stopover at Jamnagar in the evening - visited Ram dhun mandir and Lakhota lake/palace
• Drive through Reliance refinery and stopover for dinner at a highway hotel
• Reached Dwarka at 11.00 pm + and checked-in at Toran behind lighthouse

Day-2: 8th Dec 2019

• Drive to Okha and took a steamer to Bet Dwarka
• Lunch at a low-brow eat out near Okha
• Visit to Nageshwar Temple
• Visit to Sunset point near Toran Hotel
• Darshan at Dwarkdish temple to witnessed evening aarti - (no cameras, mobiles allowed)
• Dinner at a small restaurant near Dwarka temple

Day-3: 9th Dec 2019

• Early morning wake-up and walked to Gomti Ghat and surrounding locations
• Early morning darshan of Dwarkadish
• Started drive towards Porbandar reached there by noon time
• Visited Gandhiji's birth place
• Started drive towards Somnath - lunch at a low-brow Dhabha
• Stopover at Madapura beach for brief time
• Reached Somnath at 6 pm and checked-in at Sagardarshan Guest house
• Walked to Somnath temple but missed 7 pm aarti - (no cameras, mobiles allowed)
• Watched sound & light show at 8 pm

Day-4: 10th Dec 2019

• Early morning walk to Somnath temple and witnessed 7 am aarti
• Had breakfast at cafeteria in Sagar Darshan guest house
• Started drive towards Gir around 11 am
• Lunch opposite to Gir safari reporting office
• Started safari ride at 3 pm and it went up till 6 pm
• Started drive towards Bhuj instead of staying overnight around Gir
• Stayed overnight at Oyo hotel near Rajkot

Day-5: 11th Dec 2019

• Continued journey towards Bhuj (post breakfast)
• Lunch at a low-brow eat our near Bachao
• Reached Bhuj around 4 pm and visited Aaina Mahal, Prag Mahal
• Checked-in Hotel White Desert in Bhuj Cantonment
• Dinner at one of the eateries near the hotel (there were lot of options !)

Day-6: 12th Dec 2019

• Started towards Dhordo (post breakfast)
• Completed permit formalities at Bhirandiyara
• Visit to Kaladungar - highest point in Kutch
• Checked in at Toran Rann Resort and also at White Rann Resort
• Visit to Zero point of White Desert (5 km drive) - Witnessed Sunset 
• Walked around the desert and witnessed Moon rise (it was a full moon day !)
• Back to Hotel for dinner
• Night drive to Zero point and witnessed the moonlight illuminated landscape

Day-7: 13th Dec 2019

• Early morning walk around Dhordo and witnessed sunrise
• Re-visited zero point to experience landscape of white desert during broad daylight 
• Shopping of handicrafts, clothing at the exhibitions stalls at Dhordo (next to Rann Utsav village)
• Started drive back to Ahmedabad
• Reached Ahmedabad late night and checked-in at Toran Hotel

Day-8: 14th Dec 2019

• Early morning walk to Sabarmati Ashram
• Visit to Akshardam Temple - no cameras, mobiles allowed
• Lunch at Food court in the temple
• Came back hotel and visited Sabarmati Ashram for shopping etc.
• Took a late evening flight from Ahmedabad
• Reached Bangalore around midnight

Hope this helps in planning your Gujarat trip. If you have any queries please post a comment here or send me an email at sandeep@shande.in 

Kuch bin hamne bhi bitaye Gujarat mein

A trip to Gujarat was in my bucket list for a long time and it had got amplified with Amitabh Bachhan's Kuch din bitaye Gujarat mein promos. But my actual visit didn't get materialized for a long time and main blocker was exorbitantly high flight ticket prices during holiday seasons and multiple secondary reasons such as small kid at home, taking long leaves, etc. 

Finally, in Nov 2019, when a flash airline ticket sale was happening for Go-Air and I applied my contrarian theory looked for prices of competitor airlines and there was a sweet deal in Spicejet in 1st week of December which synced with the basic motto of my travel - don't travel when others are traveling. Within matters of hours, I finalized the date of travel with Ramya, discussed my leave plan at the office, and booked the tickets Bangalore-Ahmadabad return without any concrete itinerary in mind. 

Here a couple of points from my retrospect. 

• Gujarat is a very large state and the signature locations on all corners. Plan your itinerary meticulously and have some buffer to make-up for unavoidable delays.
• Initially, we didn't have White Rann on our travel list. But later we figured out that the week when we had planned the trip coinciding with the full moon day. This changed planning equations dramatically and later we had to give up on the newly unveiled Statue of Unity and Baroda city tour thinking it can be covered future visits to the state.
• Food is never a compromise in Gujarat. Wherever you go, you will be served with nice Gujarati delicacies with Sev Tamatar, Bhaigan masala, etc. icing on the cake is complimentary/unlimited buttermilk they serve along with Thalis. I am sure it will keep your bowels going for the entire trip !
• Got to appreciate the professionalism of A to Z travel. Initially, I was discussing to book an entire tour package tour with them. Then later due to certain preferences w.r.t accommodation, I opted for only rented vehicle and as my per requirement they helped me with Seven Seater Innova with a carrier. 
• Hats off to our driver Sunilbhai. He managed with us for a week and always spot on with the choice of his restaurants
• Full moon day at Kutch is a good experience. But the crowd on a full moon day was a big let down. Plus authorities switching off of mobile signals on that particular day created a lot of issues syncing with family members in a crowded place.
• Please ensure that you stay close to White Rann at Dhordo village. The Rann Utsav package with 12K per person per night tariff for a large group was out of budget for us. Instead, we opted to adjacent places - Toran Rann Resort and Gateway To Rann Resort. Gateway to Rann is way better than Torann with respect to experience, food, etc.
• Staying at Toran Ahmadabad was a prudent decision. We could cover Sabarmati Ashram during our early morning walk. esp. during Golden hours. Not to mention it saved us a couple of hours on a packed trip. 

 More details about the itinerary in a separate post.