[narayans80]

Originally Posted by pramodpk

Planning to do a road trip from Kochi to Gujarat. We have 13 days from Dec 20 to Jan 1st, 2025.

You can easily push to Nashik on day 2. Possibly Hospet on day 1. This might save you half or full day, by being aggressive on familiar ground.

I've only tried Peint route (which is now not good after Nana Pondha) and Saputara which is decent all the way to Chikhli. GMaps how shows Dhule-Surat, which I have not tried.

You can reach Baroda on day 3 by late afternoon and possibly see Laxmi Vilas Palace on day 3 itself. IIRC Laxmi Vilas Palace is closed on Tuesday.

SoU is a full day affair, you can do Baroda stay-SoU-Ahmedabad stay or vice versa. You can possibly do Laxmi Vilas-SoU and retire in Ahmedabad for the night.

When I did in 2019, I dedicated 3 days in Bhuj and 3 days in Patan when the Aadhav-Khavda road didn't exist. We did Bhuj-Dholavira and reached Patan around 10 pm.

From Bhuj, you can pick among Mandvi-Vijay Vilas Palace-Lakhpat-Narayan Sarovar for a day trip. We did Narayan Sarovar-Vijay Vilas Palace-Pingleshwar. Rann Utsav-White Desert-India Bridge was another day trip.

With Patan as base, you can do Modhera Sun Temple-Rani ki Vav-Ambaji-Dilwara temple. Becharaji temple is also good.

You may think of going or returning via Indore with an evening there for a Chappan Dukan visit.

Gol Gumbaz takes 2 hrs, Ibrahim Roza another 2 hrs. We reached Bijapur evening at 4 pm and left by 10 am next day.

Hotels we used and were good:
Baroda - 7 Apple - Aurangabad branch is good too. But its deep inside the city
Patan - Grand Raveta
Bhuj - Mangalam

In Ahmedabad, the only worthy place we stayed was the Ellisbridge 4 Points. SG Road Ginger was meh, so was the other unplanned stay.

Ours was a 17 day trip that also included Saurashtra. You aren't planning on it, otherwise would have suggested a Narara visit.

[skasse]

Dear fellow travellers, need help with a road trip plan being made at short notice to visit Gujarat (primarily, Rann of Kutch and Gir National Park) from Mumbai in mid-December. We are a family of 3 (incl. a 8yo) and will be driving our car for the trip.

Current plan is like this:

Day1 (14th - Sat): Start early from Mumbai (hopefully by 6 am) to reach Hazira maximum by 3pm to catch the Ro-Pax ferry scheduled at 4pm. Hopefully, the ferry starts on time and reaches Ghogha by 8pm. Booked the night stay at Nilambagh palace, a heritage hotel at Bhavnagar, 40mins away from the ferry terminal. This was based on a recommendation I saw on a Team BHP travelogue.

Question: Any recommendations for clean and hygienic breakfast and lunch places on the way?

Day 2 (15th - Sun): Start from Bhavnagar and move towards Sasan-Gir. GMaps shows a driving time of approx. 5:30 hrs. Reserved a resort in Sasan-Gir and should reach by 2pm. We have 2 nights at Gir and we could get the Gir Jungle Safari tickets only for Day 4 and hence keeping this day light. Planning to relax at the resort and not venture out.

Question: Bhavnagar to Sasan-Gir – which route is preferred? Via NH51 hugging the coast? Or the interior road through Amreli?

Day 3 (16th - Mon): Today, we plan to do the Gir Interpretation Zone safari (Devalia safari). Since this is only for 1 hour, planning to go to Somnath temple also today. Night halt at the same resort.

Question: Any other ideas on what can be done on this day?

Day 4 (17th - Tue): Checkout from the resort. Jungle safari from 9.30 – 12.30pm. Have lunch and then set off for Rajkot for the night stay. Ideally, would have loved to reach Kutch today itself. But the drive from Gir to Bhuj is 9hr+ (excluding breaks) and can be quite tiring especially for our kid who doesn't like whole-day drives. Hence breaking the journey at Rajkot, roughly the midpoint.

Question: Any recommendations for the night halt other than Rajkot? Any recommendations for the stay at Rajkot?


Day 5 (18th – Wed) – Day 7 (20th – Fri): Leave for Kutch on 18th morning. Idea is to spend 3 days (including this day) exploring the Rann and its extractions. We know Rann Utsav will be on during this time and would definitely love staying for some time (if not all the time) in the tent city. But the prices are quite exorbitant right now and hence booked a resort at Dholavira for three nights. Intend to cover the areas of interest during these 3 days.

Question: Will definitely visit: Harrappa site, Road to Heaven, White rann (in Dholavira and possibly the one near the tent city), Kala Dongar. May be also include one of the villages (Nirona/Hodko)? Any other suggestions?

Day 8 (21th – Sat): Checkout of Tent City and drive to Ahmedabad. Night stay at a hotel in Ahmedabad.

Question: Any good hotels on the outskirts of the city to avoid wasting time in the city traffic and which allows us to bypass the city the next day morning as well.

Day 9 (22th – Sun): Leave Ahmedabad for Mumbai. Reach by night.

Question: The return from Rann of Kutch to Mumbai is currently planned for 2 days with the break at Ahmedabad. But the second day drive from Ahmedabad to Mumbai is 11hrs of drive time which is again looking a bit doubtful to me. Debating whether we should break this journey up further to 3 days instead of 2 with halts at Malvan (see two good properties - Royal Safari camp and Fern Sattva Resort there) for first night and Surat/ for the second night. Any inputs here would also be helpful.

Any other tips or inputs for Gir and Rann of Kutch would be most welcome.