Gujarat and Diu Trip

This was a long pending solo trip and I decided to explore the state of Gujarat and the Union Territory of Diu. After a lot of deliberations and research came up with a five day itinerary for the Gujarat and Diu trip. Zeroed in on Ahmedabad(as entry point), Somnath and Dwarka. Booked the flight tickets to Ahmedabad and decided to travel locally by buses for intercity, cars and autos. Started on Monday morning and reached Ahmedabad by around 10 am.

5 Day Itinerary of Gujarat and Diu trip covering Ahmedabad, Dwarka, Somnath and Diu:

Day 1 – Hyderabad to Ahmedabad and local site seeing like Sabarmati Ashram, Adalaj Step Well and Kankaria Lake front. Boarded overnight bus to Dwarka.

Day 2 – Reached Dwarka and visited the Dwarkadhish temple, local site seeing, Bhadkeshwar Mahadev Temple and also Nageshwar Jyotirling and Beyt Dwarka.

Day 3 – Dwaraka to Somnath by bus during the day. Visited Somnath temple, Bhalka Teerth temple and other temples, Triveni Sangam ghat.

Day 4 – Somnath to Diu and back. Visited Diu fort, St.Paul Church, Diu Museum, Naida Caves, INS Khukri Memorial and Gangeshwar Temple in Diu. Boarded overnigh bus to Ahmedabad.

Day 5 – Returned to Ahmedabad and visited Gandhinagar area including Akshardham temple. Return to Hyderabad

Day 1: Flight was on time and reached Ahmedabad by 10 am. Came out of the airport, engaged an auto to visit few places in Ahmedabad city as my bus to Dwarka was in the evening. Visited Sabarmati Ashram first which had quite a few artefacts related to Mahatma Gandhi. Had lunch and went to Adalaj Step Well which was a 5 storied stepwell with good architecture and from there visited the Kankaria lake front. In the evening, started to Dwarka by Gujarat road transport bus.

Day 2: Reached Dwarka by around 6 am in the morning, checked in to a hotel room, got fresh and went to the Dwarkadhish temple by around 7.30 am. Darshan took around 30 mins. Then had breakfast and visited the local places by engaging a horse cart. Went to the Bhadkeshwar Mahadev temple first, then went over the Sudama sethu to the seashore behind the temple and spent some time there. After lunch, booked a tourist bus package to Nageshwar Jyotirling and Beyt Dwarka. Reached Beyt Dwarka which is on an island close to the Pakistan border around 5 pm and went to the temple on a ferry. Came back from there and reached Dwarka around 7.30 pm. On the way back saw Tata Chemicals factory at Okha, the place where Tata salt is manufactured. .

Day 3: Started to Somnath by bus and on the way, visited Mul Dwarka temple. Reached Somnath around 2 pm and engaged an auto for local site seeing after checking in to a hotel room. Visited the Bhalka Teerth which is believed to be the temple where Lord Krishna is believed to have gone to heavenly abode after mistakenly being hit by an arrow of a poacher. Also visited, Panch pandav temple, Kamnath Mahadev temple, Sri Geetha Mandir and Triveni Sangam Ghat. On the way back, visited the Shree Ram temple built by Sree Somnath trust in 2017. Then visited the main Somnath temple twice during the day. The temple is right on the shores of Arabian sea and quite big.

Day 4: Started around 8.30 am in the morning to Diu by cab which I engaged the previous day itself. It was around 2 hrs drive from Somnath and reached Diu around 10.30 am. Visited Diu fort first which was a built around 1535 CE and was big on the seashore. Took around 1 hour to roam around the fort. From there, went to the St.Paul Church and from there to the Diu Museum. After that went to Naida caves which are quite ancient. From there, went to INS Khukri memorial and Gangeshwar temple. Had lunch after that and spent some time on the beach. After that, started back to Somnath around 3.30 pm. Reached Somnath around 6 pm and boarded the bus to Ahmedabad around 9 pm.

Day 5: Reached Ahmedabad around 7 am. Took a room to get fresh and explore the city of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. Went to the Akshardham temple which was quite big and time to say good bye to Ahmedabad. The return flight was at 7.45 pm and reached Hyderabad around 9.30 pm. All in all, a great Gujarat and Diu trip which I enjoyed thoroughly. Would definltely come back to Gujarat to visit the other parts of the state.

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