Must visit places in Gujarat
Finally, I returned from the long impending trip of Gujarat with my family, taking break from my monotonous schedule. Gujarat located on the Western coast of India relates us to a host of exotic culture and traditions.Gujrat is a home to friendly and modest Gujarati people. My Gujarat excursion is a memorable one, so here I am going to share my personal Gujarat trip experience, which will definitely serve useful for mediocre income level people who plan for perfect holiday!
Here you go!!
Finally, I returned from the long impending trip of Gujarat with my family, taking break from my monotonous schedule. Gujarat located on the Western coast of India relates us to a host of exotic culture and traditions.Gujrat is a home to friendly and modest Gujarati people. My Gujarat excursion is a memorable one, so here I am going to share my personal Gujarat trip experience, which will definitely serve useful for mediocre income level people who plan for perfect holiday!
Here you go!!
The major cities to travel in Gujrat are Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Porbandar, Dwarka, Vadodara, Surat, Gulf of Kutch (inlet), Diu(island near Gujarat), Somnath.
Ahmedabad
I made my Gujarat trip in the month of January (winters are best to visit the place), donning just a light jacket throughout the journey. I embarked on my journey from New Delhi railway station boarding Rajdhani Express destined to Ahmedabad junction. The comfortable train journey took around 14 hours. From Ahmedabad Railway Station we booked auto to nearby hotel. You can get a lot of hotels at affordable prices around Ahmedabad Railway Station. In Ahmedabad, we hired auto(you can hire a cab) to show us the famous tourist spots of the city. The must watch tourist spots in Ahmedabad are the following-
Kankaria Lake
This lake is equipped with various amusement rides, food stall etc, as in amusement park, to spend some relaxing quality time with family.
Siddi Sayed Mosque
The major highlight of this mosque include the carved jalis in the windows of the western wall depicting a tree with interwining branches. Built in 1573, the last year of Gujarat sultanate before the Mughals invaded, the craftsmanship of this mosque is nearly unparalleled in the world.
Akshardham Temple
Akshardham Temple is located in Gandhinagar, is about 25 KM away from Amhedabad. The temple is devoted to Swaminarayan and is the best example of contemporary architecture and style. Akshardham is considered a place of education(with a museum), enlightment.
We got ourselves clicked with the background of temple for a perfect soverneir in just 100 bucks!
Sabarmati Ashram
Tying my hands on 'charkha'
Popularly known Gandhi Ashram was built by Gandhiji after he returned from South Africa in 1915. Mahatma desired to pursue works related to agriculture, animal husbandry, and khadi udyog from here. A number of Indian and international tourists flock here to have a look at the reminiscences of the ‘Life of Gandhi’, his great works full of accomplishments and shortcomings while endeavouring to build new India.
ISKON Temple
The beautiful temple of ISKCON, also known as Hare Krishna Mandir, showcases the blend of Gujarat Sompura and Rajasthani Khamira style ofarchitecture.Though the temple is dedicated to Krishna and Radha, it also houses idols of various other deities of Hindu mythology. It witnesses a huge footfall of devotees, who fill up the premises with energizing and enchanting chants of ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’.
Adalaj step well
Built in sandstone, the 5 stories step well is a fine example of Indian architecture, adorned with beautiful platforms and galleries. The shafts of the well are profusely carved with floral and geometric motifs, interspersed with a number of figurines. It was dug deep to store groundwater and access it accounting to fluctuations in rainfall.
Hathee Singh jain temple
The temple is dedicated to 15th Jain Trithanakara named Dharmnath. The temple is renowned for its fabulous architectural styling and designing that consists of intricate carvings. The temple is a double storied construction that features a dome on the front side. The other two sides of the temple consist of lavishly carved out galleries, making it one of the most elegant jain temple in India, which is worth a visit.
Vaishnodevi Temple
Vaishnodevi Temple of Ahmedabad is a man made replica of the original Vaishno Devi temple of Jammu Kashmir and to give a real feel of the environment of the sacred temple, it has been set above a mock hill.The standstone made hill houses several beautiful carvings and sculptures of gods and goddesses related to Hindu mythology. The main shrine is placed at the top of the hill and pilgrims have to walk all the way towards it.
Sri Balaji Temple
Sri Venkateswaraswamy temple was constructed by Ahmedabad Andhra MahaSabha to replicate Sri Venkateswara Temple of Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, to provide the devotees of Lord Sri Balaji residing in and around Gujarat, the chance to offer prayers to their almighty.
Lal Darwaza
This is among the famous shopping areas of Ahmedabad. Lal Darwaza is a grand arched gate that is among the many gates of Ahmedabad.The place is a huge market where you can buy myraid range of stuff like dresses of Gujarat, kids wear, cosmetics, soft toys, etc at affordable prices. You can taste the delicious street food of Ahmedabad like Dhokla, Paan, Pani Puri etc.
Vastrapur Lake
This man-made lake in Ahmedabad offers a perfect ambience amid calm water of river and greenry for relaxation and peace with friends and family. It also has a jogging track surrounding the lake, a children’s park, and an open-air theatre for cultural and entertainment programmes and events.
Sabarmati River Front
This lake is equipped with various amusement rides, food stall etc, as in amusement park, to spend some relaxing quality time with family.
Siddi Sayed Mosque
The major highlight of this mosque include the carved jalis in the windows of the western wall depicting a tree with interwining branches. Built in 1573, the last year of Gujarat sultanate before the Mughals invaded, the craftsmanship of this mosque is nearly unparalleled in the world.
Akshardham Temple
Akshardham Temple is located in Gandhinagar, is about 25 KM away from Amhedabad. The temple is devoted to Swaminarayan and is the best example of contemporary architecture and style. Akshardham is considered a place of education(with a museum), enlightment.
We got ourselves clicked with the background of temple for a perfect soverneir in just 100 bucks!
Sabarmati Ashram
Popularly known Gandhi Ashram was built by Gandhiji after he returned from South Africa in 1915. Mahatma desired to pursue works related to agriculture, animal husbandry, and khadi udyog from here. A number of Indian and international tourists flock here to have a look at the reminiscences of the ‘Life of Gandhi’, his great works full of accomplishments and shortcomings while endeavouring to build new India.
ISKON Temple
The beautiful temple of ISKCON, also known as Hare Krishna Mandir, showcases the blend of Gujarat Sompura and Rajasthani Khamira style ofarchitecture.Though the temple is dedicated to Krishna and Radha, it also houses idols of various other deities of Hindu mythology. It witnesses a huge footfall of devotees, who fill up the premises with energizing and enchanting chants of ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’.
Adalaj step well
Built in sandstone, the 5 stories step well is a fine example of Indian architecture, adorned with beautiful platforms and galleries. The shafts of the well are profusely carved with floral and geometric motifs, interspersed with a number of figurines. It was dug deep to store groundwater and access it accounting to fluctuations in rainfall.
Hathee Singh jain temple
The temple is dedicated to 15th Jain Trithanakara named Dharmnath. The temple is renowned for its fabulous architectural styling and designing that consists of intricate carvings. The temple is a double storied construction that features a dome on the front side. The other two sides of the temple consist of lavishly carved out galleries, making it one of the most elegant jain temple in India, which is worth a visit.
Vaishnodevi Temple
Vaishnodevi Temple of Ahmedabad is a man made replica of the original Vaishno Devi temple of Jammu Kashmir and to give a real feel of the environment of the sacred temple, it has been set above a mock hill.The standstone made hill houses several beautiful carvings and sculptures of gods and goddesses related to Hindu mythology. The main shrine is placed at the top of the hill and pilgrims have to walk all the way towards it.
Sri Balaji Temple
Sri Venkateswaraswamy temple was constructed by Ahmedabad Andhra MahaSabha to replicate Sri Venkateswara Temple of Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, to provide the devotees of Lord Sri Balaji residing in and around Gujarat, the chance to offer prayers to their almighty.
Lal Darwaza
This is among the famous shopping areas of Ahmedabad. Lal Darwaza is a grand arched gate that is among the many gates of Ahmedabad.The place is a huge market where you can buy myraid range of stuff like dresses of Gujarat, kids wear, cosmetics, soft toys, etc at affordable prices. You can taste the delicious street food of Ahmedabad like Dhokla, Paan, Pani Puri etc.
Vastrapur Lake
This man-made lake in Ahmedabad offers a perfect ambience amid calm water of river and greenry for relaxation and peace with friends and family. It also has a jogging track surrounding the lake, a children’s park, and an open-air theatre for cultural and entertainment programmes and events.
Sabarmati River Front
This 10.4 km long riverfront stretch, developed along the banks of Sabarmati river consists of the walkway over the river Sabarmati, gardens, amusement parks, golf courses, water Sports Park.One can also do cycling around the river front by borrowing cycle, paying a nominal fee. Kite festival is also hosted here, every year in January.
Kite museum
Regarded to be one the unique museums, one can see here multitude of kites and types of papers that are used to make kites. The collection of custom made kites includes mirror work kites, 16-22 cm long kites, Japanese kites, and block print kites.
All these major points can be easily covered in 2 days of stay in Ahmedabad. After enjoying in Ahmedabad we headed towards Dwarka by train which usually takes 8 to 10 hours( bus services are also available). I was reluctant to go there but had no other option other than to accompany my parents, so there we arrived at the most renowned shrine the major highlight of which- "Dwarkadhish temple" is counted among the Char Dham of Hindu religion.I was wonderstruck by the architectural design of the temple and could not stop myself thinking as to how people in the past without any modern technology, made such glorious sky touching temples with perfect cravings on them.
There, fortunately, somehow we managed to pull ourselves through the crowd and to get the darshan of the deity- 'Dwarkadhish'. We stood there for a while to see the flag on the top of the temple being changed. While returning, we got a photograph clicked by photographer as photography is prohibited inside the temple premises.
Dwarka
Bhadkeshwar Mahadev Temple
Somnath
From Dwarka, we headed towards the renowned " Somnath Temple", which is considered the most prominent among the lord Shivas '12 Jyotirling'. I was awed to see the architecture, beauty and serenity of the place. The holy chants, vibrations, prayers, matras, sound of the sea waves aside the temple, makes the ambience of the place majestic, taking over to a different world. Visiting that place was not less than a mental therapy. In the evening, we enjoyed the light and sound show- which briefs about the development of the temple. We experienced the spectacular sunset in the sea. In Somnath, one can also book a cab and witnesses some of the landmarks around the city.
A temple around Somnath
From Somnath we went to Gir forest- the experience was disappointing considering the expense and time spent on it as it was more of a zoo Safari than a forest one that too with brief bus ride of around 30 minutes, capturing only to sleeping lioness, three leopards and a fair amount of deers.
Diu
Next day, from Somnath we went to Diu, booking a personal car, who drove us to the major attractions of the place including the Diu Fort, Nagoa Beach, Diu Church & Museum, Shopping Complex, Pani Kotha Jail, Naydu Caves, Gangeshwar Temple and INS Kukri Memorial.
The Diu Island seemed like a foreign land (as it is influenced by Portuguese culture) with clean roads and civilised locals. Apart from the picturesque beauty, we personally enjoyed "Naydu Caves" the most, where you can spend a good serene time. Gujarat trip is incomplete without Diu.
After 2 days of halt in Somnath, we left for Ahmedabad again as we awaited to experience the tallest statue of the world -" Statue of Unity" (182 m). The gigantic statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel located on a river island facing the Sardar Sarovar Dam on river Narmada in Kevadiya Colony, proved to be worthy given the long and tedious journey which we set from Ahmedabad to reach the isolated place,as it lacks effective transport connectivity from Vadodara.
The statue of 'Iron Man of India' concluded our trip to Gujarat. We returned our home via train, spending the next day reminiscing the moments of excursion while penning it down!
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