Gujarat Honeymoon: Palaces, Deserts & Beaches

Route: Arrive Ahmedabad airport, transfer to hotel, about 20 km

Your driver meets you at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport and takes you to the hotel. Nothing is planned today. This trip opens gently, with a palace, before the desert and the beach.

If you land with the afternoon free, a short walk on the Sabarmati Riverfront near the hotel is a quiet way to begin.

Experience of the Day

• Airport pickup and check-in

• Rest and settle in

Food

Recommended: Agashiye, the rooftop restaurant at House of MG, for a Gujarati thali.

Must-Try: Gujarati thali: dal, kadhi, farsan and sweets.

Activities to Do

• Rest

Optional Nearby Excursions

• A sunset walk on the Sabarmati Riverfront

Route: Ahmedabad to Vadodara, about 110 km, 2 hours by road

Vadodara is a short, easy run from Ahmedabad, and it opens the trip with the grandest building on the route. The Lakshmi Vilas Palace was built in 1890 for the Gaekwad family, the former rulers of Baroda state, to a design by the British architect Charles Mant in the Indo-Saracenic Revival style. The compound covers more than 500 acres, and the palace is still the residence of the royal family rather than a museum piece.

Part of the grounds is open to visitors, including the Maharaja Fateh Singh Museum building in the compound, which holds the family's art collection. A golf course laid out for European guests in the 1930s was renovated by a later Gaekwad and opened to the public in the 1990s, and still operates on the palace grounds today.

Spend the evening walking the gardens and, if you choose, book a quiet dinner at one of the restored spaces within the compound. It is a slow, formal start before four days of desert and three of beach.

Note: Visiting hours and which rooms are open change from time to time, since parts of the palace remain a private residence. Your guide confirms the day's access before you go in.

The Human Story

The Gaekwads ruled Baroda as one of British India's largest princely states, and the family still lives in part of this palace. A night here is a night inside that continuity, not a recreation of it.

Experience of the Day

• A tour of the Lakshmi Vilas Palace grounds

• The Maharaja Fateh Singh Museum

• An evening walk through the gardens

Food

Recommended: Dinner within the palace compound, where available, or at a heritage restaurant in Vadodara.

Must-Try: Gujarati thali with a Baroda-style twist.

Activities to Do

• Palace and museum visit

• Evening garden walk

Optional Nearby Excursions

• A round at the palace golf course, for golfing couples

Route: Vadodara to Bhuj, about 447 km, 8 hours by road

This is the longest single day of the trip, and it is worth knowing that in advance. Vadodara sits east of Ahmedabad and Bhuj sits far to the north-west, so the road effectively recrosses the state. There is no shorter way to connect a Baroda palace stay with the Kutch desert.

Build in rest stops, and treat the day as a travel day rather than a sightseeing one. You reach Bhuj in the evening, with time only to settle in before dinner.

Note: If an 8-hour drive on your honeymoon sounds like too much in one day, this leg can be split with an extra night in Ahmedabad, breaking it into about 2 hours and then about 6, at an additional cost. Ask your trip manager.

Experience of the Day

• A long, comfortable drive across Gujarat

• Arrival in Bhuj by evening

Food

Recommended: Dinner at a family-run restaurant in Bhuj.

Must-Try: Kutchi dabeli, the sweet-spicy potato roll with peanuts and pomegranate.

Activities to Do

• Drive to Bhuj

Optional Nearby Excursions

• Split this day with an extra Ahmedabad night, quoted separately

Route: Bhuj to Dhordo, about 85 km, 1 hour 45 minutes

Start the morning in Bhuj at the Aina Mahal, commissioned by Rao Lakhpatji around 1750 and designed by Ram Singh Malam, a Kutchi craftsman who spent 18 years in Europe. Its Hall of Mirrors is the best-known room in Kutch.

Drive north to Dhordo in the afternoon. Dhordo was named the world's Best Tourism Village by the UN World Tourism Organization in 2023, and it is the gateway to the White Rann, a salt marsh that floods every monsoon and dries into a bright white crust by winter. Check into your tent and go out to the salt for sunset, when the flat ground glows orange and then pink before the light fades.

Tonight and tomorrow are the romantic core of the trip: a desert camp, a sky with little competing light, and nothing scheduled beyond the two sunsets and one sunrise on the salt.

Note: The White Rann is a border zone. Every visitor needs an entry permit, and foreign nationals give passport and Indian visa details. We apply before you arrive. Tent City at Dhordo runs in the cooler months, roughly November to February.

Experience of the Day

• Hall of Mirrors at the Aina Mahal

• Drive to Dhordo

• First sunset on the White Rann

Food

Recommended: Dinner at the Tent City restaurant, a Kutchi and Gujarati buffet; a private table can be requested.

Must-Try: Bajra rotla with smoked aubergine and garlic chutney.

Activities to Do

• Aina Mahal visit

• Drive to Dhordo

• Sunset on the White Rann

Route: Dhordo and the Banni grasslands, about 40 km local

Go out before dawn for sunrise on the salt, when the crust is at its whitest and the air still carries the night's cold. A camel cart ride across the flats is a quiet, slow way to take in the scale of the place, just the two of you and the horizon.

The middle of the day is free. Rest at camp, or ask your guide to arrange a visit to the Banni grasslands, where Hodka and the weaving village of Bhujodi are within reach if you would rather see craft than nothing at all.

Return to the Rann for the second sunset, and if the dates fall near a full moon, stay on for moonrise, when the whole plain turns silver. Dinner can be arranged on the salt itself, away from the camp, for couples who want the evening to themselves.

Note: A private dinner setup on the Rann, under the stars, is a bookable add-on and not part of the base package. Ask your trip manager for current rates.

Experience of the Day

• Sunrise on the White Rann

• A camel cart ride across the salt

• Second sunset, and moonrise on full-moon dates

• An optional private dinner on the salt

Food

Recommended: Dinner at the Tent City restaurant, or the private salt-side setup if booked.

Must-Try: Kutchi khichdi with ghee and buttermilk.

Activities to Do

• Sunrise on the salt

• A free, unscheduled midday

• Sunset and moonrise

Optional Nearby Excursions

• A private dinner setup on the Rann, priced separately

• Hodka and Bhujodi craft villages, if you would rather see people than silence

Route: Dhordo to Bhuj to Rajkot, about 343 km, 6.5 to 7 hours by road

Dhordo to Diu in one day would be roughly 500 km or more, well past what we consider reasonable for a honeymoon, so the drive is split here in Rajkot.

After one last sunrise on the Rann, the road returns to Bhuj and then runs south-east across Saurashtra. Rajkot is a working city rather than a sightseeing stop. If you arrive with light left, Kaba Gandhi No Delo, the house where Mahatma Gandhi lived as a boy, is a short, quiet visit. Otherwise, treat the evening as rest before the final push to the coast.

Note: This and Day 3 are the trip's two long driving days. Both exist because of real distances between Kutch and Diu, not because of an inefficient route; there is no materially shorter way to connect a Kutch desert stay with a Diu beach stay by road.

Experience of the Day

• A final sunrise on the White Rann

• Crossing Kutch and Saurashtra by road

• An early night in Rajkot

Food

Recommended: A Kathiawadi thali at a restaurant in Rajkot.

Must-Try: Kathiawadi sev tameta and bajra rotla.

Activities to Do

• Sunrise on the salt

• Drive to Rajkot

Optional Nearby Excursions

• Kaba Gandhi No Delo, Gandhi's boyhood home, if time allows

Route: Rajkot to Diu, about 250 to 280 km, 5 to 5.5 hours by road

The road runs south through Junagadh district to the coast. Diu is a small island Union Territory, Portuguese until 1961, with a different pace from the rest of Gujarat: quieter, lower-rise, and open to alcohol.

Check in and spend the late afternoon easing into beach time. Walk along Nagoa Beach, a long curve of calm water with palm trees, or simply watch the fishing boats come in at the harbour. This is the start of three slow days with nothing scheduled before late morning.

Note: Reported distances for this leg vary between about 250 and 280 km depending on the route taken through Junagadh district; your driver picks the faster one on the day.

Experience of the Day

• Drive south to the coast

• First walk on Nagoa Beach

• Sunset at the harbour

Food

Recommended: A seafood restaurant in Diu town, for couples who eat fish.

Must-Try: Fresh grilled fish with Portuguese-style seasoning.

Activities to Do

• Drive to Diu

• Beach time at Nagoa

Route: Diu, local drives of about 30 km

Diu Fort, a 16th-century Portuguese fort with thick sea walls and a lighthouse, and St Paul's Church, a Baroque church with a carved white facade, are worth a slow morning. The old town's Portuguese-era houses and quiet lanes reward an aimless walk more than a checklist.

The rest of the day is yours. Nagoa Beach, Ghoghla Beach and the Naida Caves, old quarry chambers that let in shafts of light, are all within a short drive, and a sunset dinner on the sand can be arranged. This is the last full day of the trip, and it is deliberately left open.

Note: Alcohol bought in Diu cannot be taken into the rest of Gujarat, which is a dry state.

Experience of the Day

• Diu Fort and St Paul's Church

• An open day on the beaches

• A sunset dinner on the sand, on request

Food

Recommended: A beachside restaurant at Nagoa for a relaxed dinner.

Must-Try: Fish curry with rice, or grilled lobster where available.

Shopping

Small shops in the old town for seashell crafts.

Activities to Do

• Diu Fort and St Paul's Church

• Beach time

• Optional sunset dinner on the sand

Optional Nearby Excursions

• Panikotha, the small fort island, reached by boat

Route: Diu hotel to Diu Airport, about 5 km

The trip ends where it feels like a honeymoon should: on the beach, not back on the highway. Diu Airport has domestic connections to Mumbai; check current schedules, as they change by season.

If your onward connection needs Ahmedabad instead, the drive back is about 360 km, roughly 6.5 to 7 hours, and can be arranged in place of the Diu departure at no change to the rest of the itinerary.

Note: Flights are not included in this package and are quoted separately. Diu Airport's schedule is seasonal; confirm before booking onward connections.

Experience of the Day

• A relaxed final morning in Diu

• Departure from Diu Airport

Food

Recommended: Breakfast at your hotel.

Must-Try: Local snacks for the road, if driving to Ahmedabad instead.

Activities to Do

• Departure

Optional Nearby Excursions

• Road transfer to Ahmedabad instead of flying from Diu, quoted separately