[for_cars1]

Originally Posted by vyasachetan

Thank you all for the suggestions.
May is holiday season, hence planning it this time of the year.
Tentatively I was planning
Day1(Afternoon departure): stay in Hubli
Day 2 & Day 3 l: stay in Lonavla
Day 4: Lonavla to Ahmedabad
Day 5: Ahmedabad sightseeing
Day 6: drive to Dwarka
Day 7: Dwaraka
Day 8: Gir
Day 9: Gir
Day 10: Gir to Vadodara
Day 11: Vadodara to Kolhapur
Day 12: Kolhapur to Banglore

Need suggestions if the above plan is feasible, where can I squeeze in Somnath and Porbandar?

Another option is to move the Lonavla part during the return phase of your trip and add those 2 days to the Gujarat plan to make it more leisurely while in Gujarat.

Porbandar is along the coast during the drive down from Dwaraka and you can just do a stopover at Gandhiji's house.
Somnath is near Gir, you can plan an extra day for the temple visit.

One aspect that always returns to me is that I should have added Kutch to my plan after having driven so far from Bangalore.

[pcpranav]

Hi friends,

last month in Feb-2020 I did Gujarat (Saurashtra) trip - solo on my Versys650 bike, totaling about 2200 KM trip.

The schedule was:
Mumbai - Vadodara
Vadodara - Dwarka
Dwarka - Somnath
Somnath - Diu
Diu - Vadodara
Vadodara - Mumbai

Roads in stretch for Jamnagar - Dwarka - Somnath : they are not wide, rough at few patches. You will find lesser and smaller restaurants / dhaba on this stretch.
The road from Somnath to Diu : though its a small stretch, the roads were bad.

I have visited this area in past too, so this time I was not keen to cover all the typical tourist points.

you can watch my vlog here :

https://youtu.be/pzSIYEOPh8k

Sometime back I had prepared this document for a colleague who was planning Gujarat area; attaching fileherein for ref - it covers the regular tourist places.

regards,
Pranav

[Vipin Kumar]

In Gujarat, which is a better stretch in terms of road conditions -- Rajkot to Porbandar, or Rajkot to Somnath, or Rajkot to Dwarka? Say, I want to visit all the three places. How can one plan it ideally?

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by Vipin Kumar

Rajkot to Porbandar, or Rajkot to Somnath, or Rajkot to Dwarka? Say, I want to visit all the three places. How can one plan it ideally?

I did visit all 3 last year and here are some inputs.

Rajkot to Porbandar is a piece of cake, roads are very good all through.
Rajkot to Somnath too were in great shape except Junagadh town which is about 3-4 km of lunar surface.
I hadn't done Rajkot-Dwarka. However Jamnagar-Dwarka 2-lane was in good shape.

What I did last year was:
Rajkot-Somnath. Somnath-Gir. Gir-Porbandar bypass-Dwarka, Dwarka-Porbandar. Porbandar-Rajkot-Bhuj.

Porbandar bypass-Dwarka was the lousy stretch of all. So Dwarka-Porbandar I took a circuitous route doing some 30 km on Jamnagar road and taking a road parallel to the coastal highway from Dwarka-Porbandar. Some enroute towns were Bhatiya and Kalyanpur looking at my timeline

You will however miss out on Madhavpur Beach because the roads are bad.

[Vipin Kumar]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Porbandar bypass-Dwarka was the lousy stretch of all. So Dwarka-Porbandar I took a circuitous route doing some 30 km on Jamnagar road and taking a road parallel to the coastal highway from Dwarka-Porbandar. Some enroute towns were Bhatiya and Kalyanpur looking at my timeline

You will however miss out on Madhavpur Beach because the roads are bad.

Thanks a lot. This means, Porbandar to Somnath via coastal road is not advisable? Is it because of the bad patch at Nerwal? Is it still so?

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by Vipin Kumar

Thanks a lot. This means, Porbandar to Somnath via coastal road is not advisable? Is it because of the bad patch at Nerwal? Is it still so?

I have not taken, so can't be of help on Somnath-Porbandar. I checked old posts in this thread for the stretch among other sources prior to my trip in Dec '19, none had rosy things to say about the stretch.

Porbandar-Dwarka I personally took and regretted.

[punterccrx8s]

Hello bhpians. Need your help in deciding what route to take from Bangalore to Statue of Unity. I am planning on riding there in Jan 2021. Also want to spend a day at Daman if it is along the way. Please help with the best routes with minimal bumpy roads as I will be on bike.

[abhikb]

Originally Posted by punterccrx8s

Hello bhpians. Need your help in deciding what route to take from Bangalore to Statue of Unity. I am planning on riding there in Jan 2021. Also want to spend a day at Daman if it is along the way. Please help with the best routes with minimal bumpy roads as I will be on bike.

Daman will be enroute once you take the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway, all you would require is a 15 kms detour from Vapi. Post crossing Surat, you will have hop onto Rajpipla state highway after Palod. From Surat, SOU is about 160 kms and should take 4 hours to reach. Roads are broken at places on state highway after Surat but will be manageable.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Porbandar-Dwarka I personally took and regretted.

My co-brother did Somnath Dwarka this morning and here are some latest pics he shared.




Says that It's all good and all done!

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

My co-brother did Somnath Dwarka this morning

Its done end to end? Nice!

I had done 25-26 Dec last year.

[Vipin Kumar]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

My co-brother did Somnath Dwarka this morning and here are some latest pics he shared.
Says that It's all good and all done!

This is the straight coastal route, I suppose. Must be possible to cover in around 4 hours(?)

[Vasuki]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

My co-brother did Somnath Dwarka this morning and here are some latest pics he shared.

Says that It's all good and all done!

Great. When I was doing that stretch last January, a lot of work was going on. Really glad to know the developments.

Originally Posted by Vipin Kumar

This is the straight coastal route, I suppose. Must be possible to cover in around 4 hours(?)

Why not, it is definitely possible. Only bottleneck if any would be in Porbandar city, most probably bypass would be for that too.

[Vipin Kumar]

I drove the Gandhinagar - Ahmedabad bypass - Rajkot section yesterday afternoon/evening. The Ahmedabad - Rajkot section is full of road diversions and widening work going on. In some places, the road has dangerous edges and one has to be very careful if driving at night. It took me more around 6 hours for this 220 km stretch.

Yes, there are lot of fuel stations and eateries enroute.

And, the police will chalan you if you do not wear mask inside the car. If you are alone in the car, they let you go, but otherwise, shell out Rs 1000/- per person , and no digital payment. Only cash.

[amit_i]

Originally Posted by Vasuki

Great. When I was doing that stretch last January, a lot of work was going on. Really glad to know the developments.



Why not, it is definitely possible. Only bottleneck if any would be in Porbandar city, most probably bypass would be for that too.

I did Probandar-Dwarka last week and it took us 1 hour to cover the distance of 100 kms, roads are butter smooth with very less traffic. There are one or two diversions due to the bridges and road widening.

[fergus]

Originally Posted by punterccrx8s

Hello bhpians. Need your help in deciding what route to take from Bangalore to Statue of Unity. I am planning on riding there in Jan 2021. Also want to spend a day at Daman if it is along the way. Please help with the best routes with minimal bumpy roads as I will be on bike.

Hi Punterccrx8s.Did you make the trip from Bangalore to Statue of Unity? What route did you take? what is the current conditions of the road? A close relative is planning to do this same trip next week in a Duster with his family including 2 small kids. Any suggestions on stopovers-hotels, restaurants,fuel stations?