The Gujarat tour package for 5 days is a private-car loop from Ahmedabad: three nights in the walled city with day runs to Adalaj, Modhera and Patan, then a night beside the Statue of Unity on the Narmada. One car and one chauffeur stay with you throughout, and the fare is per kilometre with a 250 km daily minimum.
Why five days is the sweet spot for Gujarat's heritage belt
Gujarat rewards travellers who slow down. The state's great monuments are not strung along a single highway; they sit in pockets around Ahmedabad, and the pleasure lies in reaching each one early, before the heat and the coach parties. Five days lets RutzIndia.com build the trip around one base and one excursion night, so you unpack only twice. You see two UNESCO listings (the historic city of Ahmedabad and Rani ki Vav at Patan), the Modhera sun temple, the Adalaj stepwell and the statue of Sardar Patel, and you are home without a single dawn-to-dusk driving marathon.
This length works best for a first visit, for families with children who tire of long car days, and for business travellers who have a few free days either side of meetings in Ahmedabad or GIFT City. If lions and the Saurashtra coast are on your wish list, the 7-day Gujarat tour package adds Somnath and Gir at the cost of three long drives. If you only have a weekend, book a chauffeur-driven car in Ahmedabad for day runs to Adalaj and Modhera instead.
Road notes: expressway, state highways and the Narmada approach
Driving in Gujarat is among the easiest in India. The Ahmedabad-Vadodara expressway is fenced, tolled and fast; the road north through Gandhinagar and Mehsana towards Modhera is a wide four-lane with dhabas and fuel stations every few kilometres. Only the final stretch to Ekta Nagar, through Dabhoi and the Narmada villages, narrows to two lanes, and your chauffeur will slow down for tractors and cattle.
Inside Ahmedabad the picture changes. The old city's lanes are too tight for anything bigger than an MUV, so the car drops you at a pol gate and waits while you walk. Traffic on Ashram Road and the SG Highway peaks between 9 and 11 in the morning and again in the evening, which is why the plan puts the Sabarmati Ashram in the afternoon and the heritage walk at first light. On the Modhera day the chauffeur will suggest a breakfast halt near Mehsana and lunch in Patan, where simple Gujarati thali restaurants cluster near the old town.
Tolls on the expressway and state highways are paid as you go and added to the bill at actual cost, alongside parking at the monuments.
Where to sleep: pols, riverfront and tents by the dam
Three nights in Ahmedabad give you a real choice of neighbourhood:
- Inside the walled city: a handful of restored havelis offer rooms with carved balconies and rooftop views of the minarets. They suit couples who want to walk out at dawn; they rarely suit large families or anyone with heavy luggage, because cars cannot reach the door.
- Riverfront and Ashram Road: business hotels a short drive from both the old city and the ashram, with easy parking for your car.
- SG Highway and the west: the big international chains and newer shopping streets, convenient for the airport and the northbound road to Modhera.
At Ekta Nagar the options are hotels in the township and the air-conditioned tent resorts laid out near the river. Book early for weekends and school holidays, when domestic visitors fill both. The RutzIndia.com travel desk can hold rooms at each stop and send one written quote for the lot.
Weather, festivals and closing days
October to March is comfortable: warm afternoons, cool mornings and almost no rain. January brings Uttarayan, the kite festival of 14 January, when Ahmedabad's rooftops fill with families and the sky with paper kites; it is a joyful time to visit, but hotel rates climb and the old city gets crowded. Navratri, usually in September or October, fills the city with nine nights of garba dancing and booking pressure. Diwali and the Gujarati new year that follows are peak domestic travel days.
From April to June Ahmedabad bakes, often above 40°C, and the stepwells become the only cool places around. July to September brings the monsoon; the Narmada dam can be spectacular when the gates open, but some riverside walks close.
Two dates to watch: the Statue of Unity is closed to visitors on Mondays for maintenance, so avoid scheduling day 4 on a Monday (check the official Statue of Unity site before you travel). The Calico Museum runs limited guided visits that must be reserved in advance, so ask the desk to try for a slot as soon as your dates are fixed.
Choosing the car for this loop
The route is gentle, so the choice comes down to people and luggage:
- Two travellers: a compact sedan such as a Dzire is plenty; Gujarat's roads are smooth and the daily distances modest except on day 3.
- Three to five: an Ertiga handles four adults with bags; an Innova Crysta gives more legroom on the long Modhera and Narmada days and is our usual recommendation for families.
- Groups of eight to sixteen: a Tempo Traveller from Ahmedabad keeps everyone together; note that the big vans stop further from the pol gates.
Every car is within four model years and comes with a chauffeur who has driven these roads many times.
How the car fare works on five days
The fare table on this page is calculated rather than quoted by hand. We multiply the billable kilometres by the car's per-km rate: Rs 72/km for a sedan, Rs 84/km for an Ertiga, Rs 114/km for an Innova, Rs 156/km for a Tempo Traveller. Billable kilometres are the greater of the actual distance or 250 km for each calendar day. This loop runs to roughly 760 km, so the five-day minimum of 1,250 km is what sets the bill, which means detours to Champaner, Lothal or a second visit to the old city cost nothing extra in distance.
On top of that come the chauffeur's night allowance of Rs 3,000 a night, tolls, permits and parking at cost, and 5% GST. Hotels, meals, monument tickets and guides are not in the car fare; the travel desk quotes them separately and in writing.
Stretching the loop or pairing it with Rajasthan
Five days is a clean frame to build on. Popular additions:
- Saurashtra: two more days for Somnath and Gir's lions; the 7-day version is already planned that way. For a temple-heavy route, read our notes on Dwarka by road and Somnath by road.
- Kutch: the white salt desert is best during the winter festival season; see Rann of Kutch by road for distances from Ahmedabad.
- Udaipur and Rajasthan: Udaipur is a day's drive north-east, so a Gujarat week flows naturally into the 6-day Rajasthan tour package with the same car if you arrange it ahead.
All of Gujarat's circuits, and the other packages that start from the city, are gathered on tour packages from Ahmedabad.
Practical notes before you go
Gujarat is a dry state: alcohol is not served in ordinary restaurants, and visitors who want a drink need a temporary liquor permit, available at licensed shops in some larger hotels. Food is largely vegetarian, especially in temple towns, and it is superb. Mosques and temples expect covered shoulders and knees and bare feet, so slip-on shoes save time. The stepwells have steep, uneven stairs without railings in places; take care with small children. For background on the monuments, the Wikipedia entry on Rani ki Vav and the Modhera Sun Temple article are good primers.
Booking your Gujarat car and the rest of the trip
Choose your car in the online booker, enter Ahmedabad as the pickup and five days as the duration, and pay by card or UPI; the GST invoice is issued automatically, which suits corporate travellers. If you would rather hand over the whole trip, ask the travel desk for an all-inclusive quote covering hotels, guides and tickets as well as the car. Free cancellation applies up to 72 hours before pickup; after that the cancellation schedule charges 10%, 50% and then 100% as departure approaches. More questions are answered on our FAQ page.
