Places to visit in Gujarat
86 places to visit in Gujarat, each with LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own: Great Rann of Kutch, Bhadra Fort, Champaner Pavagadh and more. Stand at any of them with the app open and the stamp is yours, confirmed on site, in your Gujarat volume.
1 Wonders of the world · 6 UNESCO World Heritage sites · 16 National monuments · 4 State heritage sites · 27 Famous places to visit · 4 Offbeat places · 28 Hidden gems
Wonders of the world in Gujarat (1)
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Great Rann of Kutch
A salt marsh the size of a small country, under water in monsoon and white and cracked for the rest of the year.
UNESCO World Heritage sites in Gujarat (6)
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Bhadra Fort
The citadel Ahmed Shah built in 1411 when he founded Ahmedabad, with the Bhadrakali temple in it.
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Champaner Pavagadh
A sixteenth century capital abandoned almost as soon as it was finished, left standing complete and empty.
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Dholavira
A Harappan city with the world's oldest signboard.
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Jama Masjid
Two hundred and sixty pillars holding fifteen domes, built in 1424 with stone taken from demolished temples.
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Rani ki Vav
A stepwell built as an inverted temple, seven storeys of carving descending to the water.
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Sidi Saiyyed Mosque
Ten stone screens, one of them a tree of intertwined branches that became the emblem of the city.
National monuments in Gujarat (16)
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Adalaj Stepwell
Five storeys down, built in 1499, with Hindu and Islamic carving on the same walls because both masons worked it.
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Dada Harir Vav
Built in 1499 by a woman of Mahmud Begada's household, with Sanskrit and Arabic cut into the same walls.
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Dhank Caves
Buddhist and Jain caves cut in a hill near Upleta, with Tirthankara reliefs.
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Dwarkadhish Temple
A five storey temple on the Gomti creek, one of the four dhams, its flag changed five times a day.
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Galteshwar Temple
A twelfth century Shiva temple where the Galati meets the Mahi, octagonal inside.
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Jami Mosque, Khambhat
A mosque of 1325 at Cambay built from the stones of Hindu and Jain temples, and not hiding it.
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Lothal
A Harappan port of 2400 BCE with what may be the earliest known dock, connected to the sea by a channel.
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Modhera Sun Temple
Built in 1026 so that the sun at the equinox falls directly on the sanctum, with a stepped tank in front of it.
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Rudra Mahalaya Temple
What is left of a great Solanki temple at Siddhpur, pulled down by Alauddin Khalji and never put back.
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Rukmini Devi Temple
A twelfth century temple outside Dwarka to Krishna's wife, standing apart because of a curse.
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Sarkhej Roza
The complex Le Corbusier came to look at.
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Shah-e-Alam's Roza
A tomb complex at Ahmedabad with a mosque and a tank, and marble screens.
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Sidi Bashir Mosque
What is left of a mosque is two minarets that shake: push one and the other answers.
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Surat Castle
A sixteenth century castle in Surat, built to hold off the raids that kept wrecking the city.
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Surkotada
A small fortified Harappan site in Kutch, and the earliest horse bones anybody has argued about.
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Vadnagar Kirti Toran
Two pillars and an arch, standing since the twelfth century.
State heritage sites in Gujarat (4)
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Kadia Dungar Caves
Seven Buddhist caves in Bharuch with a stupa and a stone lion on the hill above.
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Khambhalida Caves
Three Buddhist caves near Gondal with two large figures flanking the chaitya door.
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Navghan Kuvo
A well cut into living rock around the eleventh century, its staircase spiralling down fifty two metres.
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Sana Caves
Sixty two Buddhist caves cut into a hill in Gir Somnath, among the oldest in Gujarat.
Famous places to visit in Gujarat (27)
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Ambaji Temple
A Shakti Peetha with no idol, only a yantra.
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Atal Pedestrian Bridge
A walking bridge over the Sabarmati, three hundred metres long and shaped after a kite.
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Bet Dwarka
An island off Okha where Krishna is said to have lived, reached by boat, with a temple, a beach and dolphins in the channel.
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Bhalka Tirtha
The spot near Somnath where a hunter's arrow struck Krishna in the foot, and the last chapter of the Mahabharata began.
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Dumas Beach
A beach southwest of Surat that was once a burial ground, and that people still tell stories about after dark.
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Gir National Park
The only place outside Africa where lions live wild, down to twenty animals a century ago and now several hundred.
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Girnar
Nine thousand nine hundred steps up a extinct volcano to Jain and Hindu shrines that share the summit ridge.
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Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary
Nearly five thousand square kilometres of the Little Rann of Kutch, kept for the wild ass.
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Kankaria Lake
A polygonal lake dug in 1451 with an island garden in the middle, and steps all the way round.
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Khodaldham
A temple to Khodal at Kagvad, opened in 2017 and built by the Leuva Patel community for their own goddess.
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Kirti Mandir
The memorial beside the house in Porbandar where Mahatma Gandhi was born in 1869. The old family house still stands next to it, and the memorial tower is 79 feet tall, a foot for each year of his life.
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Laxmi Vilas Palace
Four times the floor area of Buckingham Palace, built in 1890, and still lived in by the Gaekwad family.
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Nageshvara Jyotirlinga
One of the twelve jyotirlingas, under a colossal seated Shiva visible from the road to Dwarka.
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Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary
A shallow lake and marsh west of Ahmedabad, filled with migratory birds through the winter.
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Palitana Temples
Nine hundred temples on Shatrunjaya, and no one sleeps up there.
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Pavagadh
A hill above Champaner, climbed for the Mahakali temple at the top.
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Sabarmati Ashram
Gandhi lived here for twelve years and left in 1930 for the salt march, saying he would not return until India was free.
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Saputara
The state's only hill station.
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Sardar Sarovar Dam
The dam on the Narmada at Kevadia, whose foundation Nehru laid in 1961 and which took decades of argument to finish.
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Shatrunjaya
A range of hills above Palitana whose name means the place of victory over one's own enemies.
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Shri Hanuman Mandir
Salangpur's Hanuman, called Kashtabhanjan Dev, which means the crusher of sorrows.
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Somnath Temple
Destroyed and rebuilt at least six times over a thousand years, and standing now on the coast with nothing between it and Antarctica.
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Statue of Unity
The tallest statue in the world at a hundred and eighty two metres, of Sardar Patel, looking at the Narmada dam.
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Sudarshan Setu
Two and a half kilometres of cable stayed bridge out to Beyt Dwarka, opened in 2024.
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Sudarshana Lake
An artificial lake first cut for Chandragupta Maurya and repaired by one dynasty after another since.
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Ukai Dam
The second largest reservoir in Gujarat, built across the Tapti in 1972 and called Vallabh Sagar.
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Wilson Hills
One of the few hill stations in India from which the sea can be seen, at 750 metres above Dharampur, named for a Bombay governor.
Offbeat places in Gujarat (4)
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Barda Wildlife Sanctuary
Hill forest near Porbandar, protected since 1979 and a hundred kilometres west of Gir.
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Chari-Dhand Wetland Conservation Reserve
A seasonal wetland on the edge of the Banni grass, between the desert and the Rann.
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Marine National Park, Gulf of Kutch
A park over the coral flats and islands along the southern shore of the Gulf of Kutch.
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Shivrajpur beach
A white sand beach near Dwarka, given Blue Flag certification in 2020.
Hidden gems in Gujarat (28)
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Aina Mahal
Mirror work that survived the earthquake.
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Akshardham, Gandhinagar
The Swaminarayan temple of 1992, carved in Rajasthani sandstone without steel.
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Ashoka Rock Edict
One rock, three dynasties, and the first Indian public writing.
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Bai Harir Vav Steps
The octagonal well shaft behind Dada Harir, where the water level is still read off the carved courses.
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Banni Grasslands
The largest grassland in Asia, grazed by Maldhari herders and their buffalo for at least five centuries.
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Bhuj Prag Mahal
An Italian gothic clock tower in the desert.
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Bhujodi Weavers Village
Two hundred weaving families working wool and cotton on pit looms outside Bhuj, a trade six centuries old.
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Dandi Beach
Where the salt was picked up.
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Hamirsar Lake
The tank at the middle of Bhuj, filled by three channels, and the town takes a holiday when it overflows.
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Jhulta Minara
Shake one minaret and the other answers.
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Kalo Dungar
The highest point in Kutch at four hundred and sixty metres, looking north over salt that runs to Pakistan.
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Kalupur Swaminarayan Mandir
The first temple the Swaminarayan sampraday built, 1822, in Burmese teak and paint.
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Khavda
The last village before the salt, known for rogan art painted with a stylus and for its mud mirror work.
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Little Rann of Kutch
The only home of the Indian wild ass, on salt flats that flood each monsoon and bake solid by March.
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Mandvi Beach
Ship builders still working in wood on the same shore.
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Marine National Park
India's first marine park, walked at low tide.
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National Salt Satyagraha Memorial
Dandi, where Gandhi picked up the salt, with statues of the eighty who walked with him.
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Patan Patola Heritage
Double ikat woven by three remaining families, each sari taking months, dyed thread by thread before the loom.
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Polo Forest
Fifteenth century ruins inside a teak forest.
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Sanskar Kendra
A city museum Le Corbusier built in Ahmedabad, raised on pillars with a ramp through it.
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Shamlaji
A river, a fair, and stone carving from the sixth century.
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Taranga Jain Temple
Solanki stonework high on a lonely hill.
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The Pols of Ahmedabad
Dense residential lanes with shared courtyards and bird feeders, the reason Ahmedabad became India's first World Heritage City.
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Thol Lake
An artificial lake of 1912 that became a bird sanctuary, with flamingos and cranes in winter.
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Uparkot Fort
Two thousand years of siege, and stepwells cut into rock.
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Vansda National Park
A patch of moist deciduous forest in south Gujarat that was a maharaja's shooting block.
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Velavadar Blackbuck National Park
Grassland, blackbuck and harriers coming in at dusk.
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Vijay Vilas Palace
The Maharao's beach palace, and half of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.
Collecting in Gujarat
What are the best places to visit in Gujarat?
LOQAH lists 86 places in Gujarat. The best known include Great Rann of Kutch, Bhadra Fort, Champaner Pavagadh, Dholavira and Jama Masjid. Each has a stamp of its own to collect when you are there.
How many LOQAH stamps are there in Gujarat?
86, and more are added over time. Each place has LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own.
How do I collect a stamp in Gujarat?
Open LOQAH at the place and get its stamp. LOQAH checks where you are once, at that moment; at the place itself the stamp is confirmed on site, with a gold badge.
I have been to places in Gujarat before. Can I add them?
Yes. In Earlier trips, choose Gujarat and swipe through its stamps, or import your Google Timeline. Each one goes into your volume with the date, if you know it.
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