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

1. Day 1: Arrive in Ahmedabad

   Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport to a hotel in Ahmedabad

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Ahmedabad
   Day 1 details

   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.

   Included

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

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

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

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

   Old city heritage walk, Sidi Saiyyed mosque, Sabarmati Ashram

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ahmedabad
   Day 2 details

   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.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

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

   Easier option: Join the walk for the first hour and meet the group at the Jama Masjid by van.

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

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

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

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

   Ahmedabad to Adalaj, Modhera, then Patan

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Patan
   Day 3 details

   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.

   Included

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

   Optional experiences

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

   Easier option: Stay at the top of Rani ki Vav, where the view down the steps shows most of the carving.

   Free time: Early evening free in Patan

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

   

4. Day 4: Across the Little Rann to Bhuj

   Patan to Bhuj via Radhanpur and Bhachau

   • Drive about 5.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Bhuj
   Day 4 details

   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.

   Included

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

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Bhuj

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

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

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

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Bhuj
   Day 5 details

   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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Skip the palaces and take the afternoon at the hotel.

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

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Bhuj

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

   

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

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

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Bhuj
   Day 6 details

   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.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

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

   Easier option: Watch the sunset from the viewing area by the road rather than walking out onto the salt.

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

   Free time: Morning free in Bhuj

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

7. Day 7: Bhuj to Gondal

   Bhuj to Gondal via Bhachau, Morbi and Rajkot

   • Drive about 5.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Gondal
   Day 7 details

   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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Skip the palace visit and rest at the hotel.

   Free time: Evening free in Gondal

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

   

8. Day 8: Junagadh and the first lion safari

   Gondal to Junagadh, then Sasan Gir

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Sasan Gir
   Day 8 details

   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.

   Included

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

   Easier option: See Mahabat Maqbara from the van and go straight to Sasan Gir.

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

   

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

   Gir National Park, then Somnath and back to Sasan Gir

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Sasan Gir
   Day 9 details

   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.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

   • 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)

   Easier option: Skip Somnath and spend the late morning and afternoon at the hotel.

   Free time: Late afternoon free in Sasan Gir

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

10. Day 10: Sasan Gir to Rajkot airport

    Sasan Gir to Rajkot International Airport at Hirasar

    • Drive about 4 h
    • Breakfast
    Day 10 details

    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.

    Included

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

    Optional experiences

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

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

Wildlife and weather: 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 nights
• Patan1 night
• Bhuj3 nights
• Gondal1 night
• Sasan Gir2 nights