Trip members: Karthik
Trip date: 20 March - 22 March 2026
Trip Plan : Mumbai - Vodadara - Mumbai - Chennai
Having finished witnessing the Shobh Yatra for Gudi Padwa at Mumbai, the weekend was planned for Vadodara. I had planned my return by Sunday evening from Mumbai to Chennai by flight and booked my tickets. With the return ticket in place, I was planning the weekend anywhere within 200 kms from Mumbai, so I can come back to catch the flight by evening.
Lot of options, but many had been visited already or not great for solo trip and zeroed down on Vadodara for 2 reasons - to visit the tallest statue in the world and street food!
Day-1
I took the early morning VandeBharat from Mumbai Central to Vadodara. A 4 hr journey and reached Vadodara around 10 AM. Cited few popular rivers - Daman Ganga, Tapi and Narmada enroute the journey!
Welcomed with best of local food right outside the railway station; spend few minutes to taste the dal vada, palak patra, kandvi, aloo vada and chai at Jagdish hotel! Great start for my Vadodara trip!
Checked in to hotel "Sunday by Checkin"; very clean, big rooms and big beds! Great hotel just opposite to the Vadodara railway station.
Connected for rest of the day for work and broke for lunch for an excellent Gujarathi thaali at Kheteswar - rotis, papad, salad, aloo, paneer, dall, kadi, nylon Dhokla and much more!
Evening chai with hot-hot fafda and kachoris!
Vadodara by evening
Later, after 6 PM, took an auto to the heart of Vadodara - area around Sursagar lake - saw Kirti Mandir enroute and got dropped near Lehripura gate. The lake was lit by lights and the beautiful Shiva statue was a monument to visit for locals as well.
Spent few moments nearby and walked around from Lehripura gate to Mandvi gate and vice versa - mostly a market place - lot of shops for jewellery and clothes.
For dinner, located Dayal Patice Center - famouse for their Ragada pattice.
Day-2
I had booked cab in Savaari for visiting Statue of Unity. Statue of Unity (SoU) is around 90 kms from Vadodara - a 2 hour drive if its early morning and 2:30 hrs later in the day.
SoU is situated at Ekta Nagar - exclusive railway station is set for this place. There are online tickets available to buy for specific slots and during long queue days, this would help a lot. I bought the tickets previous day evening and reached the parking lot in 2 hours.
No vehicles are allowed beyond the parking lot - may be around 6-7 kms before the Sardar Sarovar dam. Only local buses (for no charges) and pink autos (for a fixed charge) move tourists to different spots with in the SoU complex.
About the SoU
The Statue of Unity is a colossal monument dedicated to Indian statesman and independence activist Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. It is currently the world's tallest statue, standing at 182 meters (597 feet) by the Narmada river at Sardar Sarovar Dam. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was India's first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister. He earned the title "Iron Man of India" for his monumental efforts in successfully integrating 562 independent princely states into a single, unified Republic of India following independence from British rule.
At SoU
Please do visit https://soutickets.in/ for booking tickets as well as planning your trip - there are so many places to visit within the whole place - dam, the SoU, going through the SoU by lift and reaching the top, various view points, gardens/parks, zoo hosting animals and birds with safari, river cruises and more.
The time I reached was quite early, and I planned so as to avoid crowd as well as the burning sun! I was one of the few to reach first; took an auto for quick transit and it helped as I reached the SoU entry before couple of buses could make it. The view of the Statue is visible once you started travelling on the road towards the dam.
Quite a walk from the entry point to reach the statue and then climb through the lift to the top. I enjoyed the various views from different locations of the walkway.
I spent almost couple of hours at the Statue and had my breakfast at the restaurant within SoU - there is a food court and few popular outlets are there. Quite costly indeed but it is what it is at this location.
Dabhoi Fort
There is a small town, 40 kms before Vadodara, called Dabhoi enroute and planned to visit the Dabhoi fort. Once reached, it was very disappointing to see only very few remnants of the fort are still evident and can be seen. Just the artistic remnants of the fort entrance remains and rest all are gone. Spent few minutes visiting this place and was back on the highway to Vadodara.
Lunch at Vadodara
The driver was so kind and was particular to get me to the best Misal of the town - Mahakali Misal Pav. Vadodara's misal is very different from the ones you get in Maharashtra. Here, they give the condiment water seperately, misal and then loads of spring onions.
One has to mix them in their own way and enjoy the misal ! It was very different and thoroughly enjoyed every bit of the food. With extra pav and chaas, the lunch was fulfilling!
Sevasi Vav
We next reached Sevasi Vav alias Vidyadhar Vav - a beautiful stepwell. This is not a well known place for the tourists as per the driver, and I was particular about visiting this place. The driver had a wow once he saw it first time in his 3-4 decades of life at Vadodara! :-)
The place is in outskirts of Vadodara - around 8 kms, reverred to honour a leader - Vidaydhar. It has beautiful stone columns - very artistic sculptures - flowers, animals and torans. I spent around 15-20 mins walking all the day down to the well and capturing the views.
Laxmi Vilas Palace
Next, reached the Laxmi Vilas Palace. This is the grandeur of Vadodara - the palace of Gaekwads. This is located within the city. Entry tickets are quite costly - Rs.250 per Indian; and Rs.150 for the museum per India. Combined tickets are also available. Most importantly, one has to visit the museum as well as it hosts the original paintings of Raja Ravi Varma.
Camera is not allowed inside the palace; I left it in the car. Mobile camera is allowed outside the palace. The palace is open for visitors from 9:30 am to 5 pm, with a lunch break between 1 pm and 1:30 pm.
After buying the tickets, entered the palace and one can pick up the audio guide as part of the tickets. You can choose your language out of 5-6 choices and get it. There is a direction board driven tour all through and one can see the palace from the outside and appreciate the grandeur.
As the palace is a living place of Vadodara’s royal family, there is restricted access and tourists can explore only certain part of the palace. The palace is the biggest living private place in the planet and adorned with stunning Italian artworks, marbles, mosaics, chandliers and amazing paintings. This is said to be four times the size of Buckingham Palace. The Lakshmi Vilas Palace was built in 1880 AD by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III.
Paintings by the famous artist, Raja Ravi Verma who was specially commissioned by the then Maharaja of Baroda, adorn the palace. These pieces of paintings primarily focuses on the kings and their families and the Hindu dieties. As one sees these paintings, you can reflect that the visualisation of specific Hindu deities were done by Raja Ravi Varma and remain the foremost form of representation till date.
Maharaja Fateh Singh Museum
The Maharaja Fateh Singh Palace Museum has genuine paintings by the famed Indian artist Raja Ravi Verma. The museum though within the premises - quite big, needs to be reached by exiting the palace and entering through another gate.
The museum hosts large number of works of art belonging to the Maratha royal family, collected by Maharaja Sir Sayajirao Gaekwad III during his numerous trips out of India. The major works of art in this museum are the paintings by European and Indian artists including a collection of the paintings of Raja Ravi Varma. The Raja Ravi Varma collection includes portraits of the king and the royal family apart from events from Hindu mythology.
After spending around 30 mins at the museum, I reached Tambekar Wada.
Tambekar Wada
Tambekar Wada is located in narrow lanes of Raopura, Vadodara. This is an artistic tribute to the talent of artists of Marathas. This is 3 storeyed mansion hosting stunning colourful paintings. Many paintings are lost to time, but, those left are so awful that makes anyone awestruck!
Fortunately, I had a tourists bunch of people with a guide and piggy backed; thought after letting them know. Primarily, the place hosts various Hindu mytholigical events like Samudra Mandan, events of Ramayana, Mahabharata, Krishna leela and much more.
I spent around 1 hour here admiring these stunning paintings. This is truly a WOW place.
After that, it was 5 PM and almost all the places are closed by then. Went back to the room feeling very good as I completed whatever I planned to visit. After relaxing at the room, I decided to have a sumptous thali at Sasu Maa restaurant. Again, a, no disappointment place, great food!
Day-3
Morning, around 7, checked out of the hotel, and took the train to Mumbai. I had my tickets reserved on one of the 3 private trains in India. IRCTC Tejas from Ahmedabad to Mumbai Central. Took a good rest and got down at Mumbai Central by noon.
Walked around, found a good AC restaurant, ordered food slowly and had very good platter of starters and main course. Post that, took metro to the airport and back to home - having visited the biggest statue and the biggest living private place of the planet.
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