Gujarat: Ahmedabad, the Rann of Kutch and the Gir Lions

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Ahmedabad

   Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport to a hotel in Ahmedabad

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Ahmedabad
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport (AMD) at any time today; a driver meets you in the arrivals hall and takes you to the hotel, about 10 km and half an hour away. Ahmedabad was India's first city to be named a UNESCO World Heritage City, in 2017, for the walled old town the Sultans of Gujarat founded on the Sabarmati river in 1411. If you land early, the riverfront promenade is a good place to walk off the flight in the late afternoon. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing on the days ahead: the walk tomorrow, the road days, the Rann and the safaris, what to wear at temples and mosques, and how Gujarat's dry-state rules work. Then we sit down together for a welcome dinner of a Gujarati thali, a round tray of small dishes that waiters keep refilling: dal, kadhi, shaak, rotli, rice and something sweet.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport (AMD)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome Gujarati thali dinner

   Temps libre : Free until the evening briefing

   Activité : Plan to land by about 4 pm to join the briefing; the exact time is confirmed with your final itinerary.

2. Jour 2 : Ahmedabad: the old city and Gandhi's ashram

   Old city heritage walk, Sidi Saiyyed mosque, Sabarmati Ashram

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Ahmedabad
   Détail du jour 2

   We start early, at about 8 am, on the old city heritage walk that leaves from the Swaminarayan temple at Kalupur, while the lanes are cool and the city is waking up. For two and a half hours we walk through the pols, gated neighbourhoods of carved wooden houses built around shared courtyards, with bird feeders on poles, family shrines and hidden Jain temples, and finish at the Jama Masjid of 1424. After a break for chai we stop at the Sidi Saiyyed mosque to see its carved stone window, the tree-of-life jali, then sit down for lunch. In the afternoon we cross the river to Sabarmati Ashram, where Gandhi lived from 1917 to 1930 and from where he set out on the Salt March in 1930. His small house and the museum are quiet and simple, and we give them time. The late afternoon and evening are free; your guide can point you to Manek Chowk, which turns into a street-food market after dark.

   Compris

   • Old city heritage walk, about 2.5 hours, ending at the Jama Masjid
   • Sidi Saiyyed mosque and its tree-of-life window
   • Sabarmati Ashram and museum with your guide
   • Lunch in the city

   Activités en option

   • Calico Museum of Textiles guided tour (limited places, booked in advance where available)

   Option plus facile : Join the walk for the first hour and meet the group at the Jama Masjid by van.

   Option plus active : An evening walk with your guide to Manek Chowk's night food market.

   Temps libre : Late afternoon and evening free

   Activité : Shoes come off at temples and mosques; cover shoulders and knees.

3. Jour 3 : Adalaj, Modhera and Rani ki Vav

   Ahmedabad to Adalaj, Modhera, then Patan

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Patan
   Détail du jour 3

   We leave Ahmedabad at about 8 am and are at the Adalaj stepwell, 20 km north, before the heat and the coach groups. Built in 1499, it drops five storeys into the ground through carved galleries where travellers once rested in the cool by the water. From there it is about 85 km and two hours through farm country to Modhera, where the sun temple built in 1026 under the Solanki king Bhima I faces east over a stepped tank lined with small shrines. Inside, the carved dome of the hall rings in sandstone. We have a sit-down lunch nearby, then drive 35 km north to Patan. Rani ki Vav, the queen's stepwell, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site: an eleventh-century well seven levels deep, its walls carved with hundreds of gods, goddesses and dancers. We go in the late afternoon, when the light reaches down the steps, then check in for one night in Patan, a quiet town best known for its double-ikat patola silk.

   Compris

   • Adalaj stepwell
   • Modhera sun temple and its stepped tank
   • Rani ki Vav, Patan (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
   • Lunch near Modhera
   • Dinner in Patan

   Activités en option

   • Visit to a patola weaving workshop in Patan, where a family is weaving that day (no purchase expected)

   Option plus facile : Stay at the top of Rani ki Vav, where the view down the steps shows most of the carving.

   Temps libre : Early evening free in Patan

   Activité : Steep stone steps at both stepwells; there are rails on the main flights.

   

4. Jour 4 : Across the Little Rann to Bhuj

   Patan to Bhuj via Radhanpur and Bhachau

   • Environ 5.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Bhuj
   Détail du jour 4

   This is the first of two long road days, and we say so up front: Patan to Bhuj is about 290 km and 5 to 5.5 hours of driving. There is no rail or air link that helps, and no town with a suitable hotel along the way, so the alternative would be a longer day from Ahmedabad. We leave after breakfast at about 8 am. The road runs west through Radhanpur and along the northern edge of the Little Rann of Kutch, a flat, pale salt plain where you may spot wild asses or flocks of cranes from the road, then crosses into Kutch at Bhachau. We stop mid-morning for tea and a stretch, and for a sit-down lunch on the way, so no stint at the wheel runs much over two hours. We reach Bhuj by mid-afternoon and check in for three nights. The rest of the day is free: rest, or walk to Hamirsar lake in the town centre as the light goes.

   Compris

   • Drive from Patan to Bhuj with your guide
   • Tea stop and sit-down lunch on the way

   Temps libre : Late afternoon and evening free in Bhuj

   Activité : One of two long road days, about 5 to 5.5 hours of driving with two stops.

5. Jour 5 : Bhuj: block printers, weavers and the palaces

   Ajrakhpur and Bhujodi, then Bhuj's Prag Mahal and Aina Mahal

   • Environ 1.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Bhuj
   Détail du jour 5

   Kutch is known across India for its crafts, and this morning we meet the people who make them. We drive 15 km east to Ajrakhpur, a village built by block-printing families after the 2001 earthquake, where ajrakh cloth is printed by hand with carved wooden blocks and natural dyes in a long sequence of printing, resist and washing. We watch the work and try a block ourselves. At the nearby crafts museum of the Living and Learning Design Centre, the embroidery and textile collection explains the region's many styles. Next comes Bhujodi, where weaving families work on pit looms with wool and cotton. These are workshops, not shops: there is no commission, and you buy only if you want to. After lunch in Bhuj we visit Prag Mahal, an Italian Gothic palace of the 1870s with a clock tower view over the town, and the eighteenth-century Aina Mahal, the hall of mirrors next door. The late afternoon is free.

   Compris

   • Ajrakh block-print workshop visit at Ajrakhpur, with a try at printing
   • Living and Learning Design Centre crafts museum, Ajrakhpur
   • Weavers' workshops at Bhujodi
   • Prag Mahal and Aina Mahal, Bhuj
   • Lunch in Bhuj

   Option plus facile : Skip the palaces and take the afternoon at the hotel.

   Option plus active : Climb the Prag Mahal clock tower, where it is open, for the view over Bhuj.

   Temps libre : Late afternoon and evening free in Bhuj

   Activité : Aina Mahal and Prag Mahal keep separate closing days; we order the day around them.

   

6. Jour 6 : Hodka and the White Rann at moonrise

   Bhuj to Hodka, then the White Rann at Dhordo, and back to Bhuj

   • Environ 4 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Bhuj
   Détail du jour 6

   The morning is free and slow, because tonight runs late. We leave Bhuj at about 11 am and drive about 65 km north into the Banni grasslands, where herding communities live in round mud-walled houses called bhungas. In Hodka we have lunch in the village and meet women who do Banni embroidery, dense mirrorwork in bright thread, and see how a bhunga keeps cool. In the mid-afternoon we drive on about 20 km to Dhordo and show our permits at the checkpoint for the White Rann, the Great Rann of Kutch: a salt flat that runs to the horizon, dry and white from about November. We walk out onto the crust for sunset, and our group dates are set close to the full moon, so the moon rises over the salt as the light goes. Dinner is at Dhordo during the Rann Utsav season, then the drive back to Bhuj, about 85 km and 1.5 to 2 hours, arriving around 10 pm.

   Compris

   • Hodka village visit with Banni embroidery and bhunga homes
   • Lunch in Hodka
   • White Rann permit and sunset and moonrise on the salt at Dhordo
   • Dinner at Dhordo

   Activités en option

   • A night in a Rann Utsav tent at Dhordo instead of the return to Bhuj (priced at booking; the group drives back)

   Option plus facile : Watch the sunset from the viewing area by the road rather than walking out onto the salt.

   Option plus active : A morning walk to Bhuj's Hamirsar lake and Chhatardi before we leave.

   Temps libre : Morning free in Bhuj

   Activité : A late night: the return reaches Bhuj around 10 pm. Bring a warm layer; the Rann is cold after dark.

7. Jour 7 : Bhuj to Gondal

   Bhuj to Gondal via Bhachau, Morbi and Rajkot

   • Environ 5.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Gondal
   Détail du jour 7

   The second long road day: Bhuj to Gondal is about 270 km and 5 to 5.5 hours of driving. Kutch connects to the Saurashtra peninsula by one main road, and splitting the drive at Gondal is what keeps tomorrow short and leaves the afternoon free for the first lion safari. We leave after breakfast at about 8:30 am, go back east to Bhachau, cross the Surajbari bridge over the creek and run south through Morbi and around Rajkot. We stop for tea mid-morning and a sit-down lunch on the way, so no stint runs much over two hours. Gondal was the capital of a princely state, and it still has the air of one. We arrive by mid-afternoon and visit the Naulakha Palace, with its carved stone arches and a museum of the rulers' belongings, then end the day at the Swaminarayan temple as the late light turns it gold. The evening is free.

   Compris

   • Drive from Bhuj to Gondal with your guide
   • Tea stop and sit-down lunch on the way
   • Naulakha Palace and museum, Gondal
   • Swaminarayan temple, Gondal

   Option plus facile : Skip the palace visit and rest at the hotel.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Gondal

   Activité : One of two long road days, about 5 to 5.5 hours of driving with two stops.

   

8. Jour 8 : Junagadh and the first lion safari

   Gondal to Junagadh, then Sasan Gir

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Sasan Gir
   Détail du jour 8

   A short road day. We leave Gondal at about 8:30 am and drive about 65 km south to Junagadh, at the foot of Girnar hill, where we stop for an hour at the Mahabat Maqbara, a nineteenth-century mausoleum with spiral stairs wrapped around its minarets. Then it is about 55 km more to Sasan Gir, where we check in for two nights and have lunch. Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary is the only place on earth where Asiatic lions live in the wild; the population had fallen to a few dozen by around 1900 and has been rebuilt here since. At about 3 pm we go out on the first safari in open gypsies, with a driver and a forest department guide in each, on a route set by the forest department. Expect three hours on dry teak and scrub tracks, with spotted deer, sambar, nilgai, langurs and peafowl, and with luck lions or a leopard. No sighting is ever promised. Dinner at the hotel.

   Compris

   • Mahabat Maqbara, Junagadh
   • Afternoon lion safari in Gir National Park, with permit, gypsy and forest department guide
   • Lunch and dinner in Sasan Gir

   Option plus facile : See Mahabat Maqbara from the van and go straight to Sasan Gir.

   Activité : The safari is about three hours seated on rough tracks; bring a hat, sunscreen and a scarf for dust.

   

9. Jour 9 : Gir at dawn and Somnath by the sea

   Gir National Park, then Somnath and back to Sasan Gir

   • Environ 2.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Sasan Gir
   Détail du jour 9

   We are at the gate for the first safari slot, around sunrise, when the forest is cool and the lions are most likely to be on the move after the night. The route is a new one, set again by the forest department, and your guide pools what each gypsy saw. We are back for a late breakfast by about 10 am. At 11 we drive about 45 km, a little over an hour, to the coast at Somnath. Its temple, rebuilt in 1951 on a site sacked and rebuilt many times, is one of the twelve jyotirlinga shrines of Shiva and stands over the Arabian Sea; phones and cameras stay in lockers at the gate. We walk on to Prabhas Patan's old sun temple and the Triveni Sangam, where three rivers meet the sea, then have lunch and drive back to Sasan Gir by about 3:30 pm. The rest of the afternoon is free before our farewell dinner together.

   Compris

   • Morning lion safari in Gir National Park, with permit, gypsy and forest department guide
   • Somnath temple
   • Old sun temple at Prabhas Patan and the Triveni Sangam
   • Lunch near Somnath
   • Farewell dinner

   Activités en option

   • A third safari in the afternoon slot instead of the free afternoon (priced at booking)
   • Devalia, the fenced Gir interpretation zone, in the late afternoon (priced at booking)

   Option plus facile : Skip Somnath and spend the late morning and afternoon at the hotel.

   Temps libre : Late afternoon free in Sasan Gir

   Activité : An early start for the safari; dawn in an open gypsy is cold from December to February.

10. Jour 10 : Sasan Gir to Rajkot airport

    Sasan Gir to Rajkot International Airport at Hirasar

    • Environ 4 h de route
    • Petit-déjeuner
    Détail du jour 10

    A slow breakfast in Sasan Gir, then the road north at about 9 am: about 190 km and 4 hours via Junagadh and Rajkot to Rajkot International Airport at Hirasar (RAJ), the city's new airport, which has direct flights to Delhi, Mumbai and other Indian cities for your connection home. We stop for tea on the way, and your guide sees you to the terminal and checks your flight before saying goodbye. Book a flight leaving after about 3 pm. If you would rather finish on the coast, Diu's airport is about 100 km and 2.5 hours from Sasan Gir, with fewer flights; we can arrange that drop-off instead, on request when you book. If you are staying on in India, we can quote extra nights, a beach stay in Diu, or a flight to Delhi to join the Golden Triangle, or to Udaipur or Jaipur for Rajasthan.

    Compris

    • Drive from Sasan Gir to Rajkot airport with your guide
    • Drop-off at Rajkot International Airport, Hirasar (RAJ)

    Activités en option

    • Drop-off at Diu airport instead of Rajkot, on request

    Activité : Book your flight out of Rajkot for after about 3 pm.

Faune et météo : November to February is the season: dry, sunny days of about 25 to 30 C and cool nights, colder on the open Rann after dark. The White Rann is dry and white from about November once the monsoon water has gone, and the Rann Utsav festival runs through these months, which makes Bhuj busier. Gir's lions are easier to find in the dry season, when the forest thins out. From March the heat builds fast, and Gir's safari route closes from 16 June to 15 October for the monsoon.

• Ahmedabad2 nuits
• Patan1 nuit
• Bhuj3 nuits
• Gondal1 nuit
• Sasan Gir2 nuits