Travelling / Driving in Saurashtra
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The roads here are ok and not great. All of them are just one-lane each way traffic. The city traffic is chaotic, as usual. Overall, we found the road quality to be a notch lower than what we found in Marwar.
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Hotel Guruprerana, Dwaraka: Dwaraka does not have many options in the mid/high end hotels. There is Guruprerana and there is Lords. That's about it. Guruprerana is closer to the temple. It is about a 10 min walk from here. The hotel has an acceptable level of cleanliness. We stayed in the suite and that was pretty spacious. The room service is available, but it is slow. The food is bad - it is the very oily and spicy Punjabi fare. The hotel helps with all travel arrangements. The hotel is located close to the shopping area. It is very easy to find autos just outside the hotel. The hotel is very reasonably priced.
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Hotel Harmony, Junagadh: This is an excellent mid-range option in Junagadh. It is probably the city's best hotel. Junagadh is a very dirty city, even by Indian standards. But this hotel is spotlessly clean. The rooms are big and comfortable. The food is decent and there is room service. The hotel is bang next to the bus-stand. That means everything is within 5 mins walk from the hotel and also, the traffic noise is pretty bad. The hotel's travel option (when it comes to car bookings) is limited. But there are plenty of travel agencies available right outside.
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Lord's Inn Somnath: This hotel is in excellent condition. The whole place is very clean and is also very quiet at night. The rooms are spacious and there is room service. The food ordered via the room service was decent. But the free breakfast spread was pretty bad. The hotel is far from the temple. It is a good 10 min auto ride and it is not easy to find transportation from the hotel. There are no shops nearby as well. The front desk staff is a bit slow. The hotel only hooks you up with a travel agent and not directly do any car bookings.
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Gir Birding Lodge, Gir National Park: This is a good property located in a shady mango plantation. The cottages open out into the grove and is setting is very pretty. But the rooms are a bit tired and need urgent upgradation. The rooms are also on the smaller side. The food is good, but the timings are not convenient. The lunch is not served till 1:30 pm and the dinner is almost always after 8:00 pm. The hotel took care of all our safari bookings. They did a pretty good job of it. I also booked my onward car via the hotel. That did not go well. The car arrived an hour and a half late. I am not sure if it was the hotel's or the car agency's fault.
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1589 Gen X, Bhavnagar: Firstly, the hotel indeed as a strange name. It is not easy to communicate the name with the locals when asking for directions. This is a business hotels with single beds and small rooms. A family will find this place a bit cramped. The place is very clean. The food is decent and there is room service. The hotel does not do any travel arrangements directly. But the agent whom they hook you up with is excellent.
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The Blackbuck Lodge, Velavadar: This is an excellent five star property, the only accommodation in the park (except the hard to book forest bungalows). The stone cottages are oozing with luxury. The view from the balcony is stunning. You will surely spot enough black bucks from the comfort of your cottage. The whole place is spotlessly clean. The food is great. The safaris are decent, not great. I would have liked more knowledgeable driver/naturalist to accompany us.
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Dwaraka to Junagadh: ~220 km 4 hrs. It should take you about 1.5 to 2 hrs to get to Porbandar. The route is one-lane each way and apart from the first 20 kms from Dwaraka, it is in a very good condition. It is another 2 hrs from Porbandar to Junagadh. The first 50 kms from Porbandar is on the four-lane NH. The next 65 is on bad two-lane to Junagadh.
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Junagadh to Somnath: ~90 kms 1.5-2 hrs: This route is being upgraded to four-lane. Now the route has enough diversions to slow you down. The four-laning should be complete in a year.
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Somnath to Sassan-Gir: 45kms, 1 hr: This is wobbly two lane all the way.
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Sassan-Gir to Bhavnagar: ~250kms, 6 hrs: The straight route goes through the NP and hence is not in good condition. All the drivers take you through the long detour route. The directions are poor and the long rote is also just about decent condition. It is two-lane all the way.
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Bhavnagar to Velavadar: 50kms, 1 hr. Good two-lane highway road till the turn off and it is just 10kms on a decent one-lane after that.
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Velavadar to Ahmedabad: 150kms, 4 hrs: The route is almost all two-lane except for the final 40 kms on the Rajkot highway. You can reach the outskirts of Ahmedabad in 3 hrs. It will take you the extra hour to get to the train station.
Time Required at the Sights
- Dwarakadeesh temple: 30 mins to 1 hour (if it is not a festival day).
- Bet Dwaraka: It is 30 to 45 min drive from Dwaraka plus a 30 min boat ride. Boats leave when they are full, so its wait time is a bit of an unknown.
- Kirti Mandir, Porbandar: There isn't much to see here. You can be in and out in few minutes.
- Uperkot Fort, Junagadh: The place is not a must see. The Buddhist caves have no carvings and mosque pales in the comparison to what you see in Ahmedabad. The wells are pretty disappointing. It will take you an hour or two cover all the places.
- Ashokan Edicts, Junagadh: This is just a stone with ancient writings. You can be done in a minute.
- Mahabbat Maqbara, Junagadh: There are two mausoleums side by side. They are both closed, so you just have to see them from the outside. 30 mins should be plenty.
- Girnar, Junagadh: 4000 steps (3 hrs) will take you to the Jain temple complex. It will take you 30 mins to an hour to see them properly. It is a further 1 hr (1000 steps) to Amba Devi temple. There isn't much to see in the temple, but the views of the Jain complex from the Amba Devi are very good. It is a further 600 odd steps (30 mins) to Gorekhnath - there isn't much of a temple, but the view of the Datatreya Temple from Gorakhnath is stunning. It is all the way down and up (1000 down and 1000 up) to get to Datatreya from Gorekhnath.
- Palitana: 3300 steps (1.5 hrs) will take you to the sea of temples from the starting point. You can easily spend couple of hours wandering the complex.