Here is How You can Do A Road Trip From Goa to Delhi in 12 Days.

Karan and Ashima took a road trip while coming back from Goa to Delhi. They ditched the flight and planned to explore interesting destinations on their way. Ashima was unsure if they could do this but got convinced by Karan's words. As planned, the itinerary was framed for 10 days of the journey by road. Places they visited on their way back to Delhi:

1. Mahabaleshwar
2. Lonavala / Khandala
3. Mumbai
4. Ahmedabad
5. Dwarkadheesh
6. Bhuj
7. Kutch
8. Jodhpur
9. Jaipur

Goa – Mahabaleshwar

Goa- Mahabaleshwar Our road trip starts with the drive from Goa which kicks at around 8:00 in the morning. We passed some beautiful boulevard and also crossed places like Dhudhsagar waterfall, Amboli waterfall, Chorla Ghat, Belgaum, etc. We didn't halt there as they already explored it during their stay in Goa. These places are a must visit locations of Goa-Karnataka-Maharashtra border area. Driving the roads of Maharastra, they finally reached Mahabaleshwar by 6:00 PM. We found Mahabaleshwar beautiful and serene. As it is the month of December, the temperature was low and it's chilling at night. To their surprise, they found marvelous wax statues in Mahabaleshwar. We spent a night in the city which is famously known as "Queen of all Hill stations".

Mahabaleshwar to Lonavla

After exploring the beautiful Mahabaleshwar morning, we started our drive to hit Lonavla by evening but to their surprise, the roads of India had improved big time in such a way that we could cover up the distance quickly and reached there by afternoon. As per the plan, we were about to stay in Lonavla and Khandala for 2 days at least looking at the popularity of these 2 cities. But things have changed completely or maybe December is not the right month to visit there. Lonavla was hot and humid during that season. And since it’s popular, it felt like it is got all the visitors from around. Anyways, we limited their 2 days plan to 2 hours and decided to start for Mumbai at 3:30ish.

Lonavla / Khandala – Mumbai

Once we reached Mumbai, we were plagued by the terrific traffic in Mumbai. We took almost 4 hours to reach Andheri. As Mumbai was not in our itinerary, we managed to arrange for their accommodation and planned to hit the road early morning. Though we left at 7 a.m., we took around 2.5 hours to reach the highway which was 20-25km from the hotel.

Mumbai – Ahmedabad

Food at Manik Chowk, Ahmedabad The drive from Mumbai to Ahmedabad began and the beautiful scenic beauty sideways skimmed off their tiredness of Mumbai.  Within just 6.5 hours drive we reached Ahmedabad. The roads were smooth, there were beautiful trees around and almost negligible toll tax in comparison to what all of us would pay in other states. Out of all the roads that came by, Gujarat’s road was the best. Since we had reached before 7, we could easily locate an affordable hotel where we stayed for 2 nights. Ahmedabad is a foodies paradise. When rest of the city goes to sleep, Manik Chowk in Ahmedabad awakes. It looked like half of the city had gathered there at 11 pm to have amazing Gujarati food like Khakhra, phaphra and the pineapple-chocolate-cheese sandwiches which you can’t find anywhere else. It was simply amazing. The food was so tempting that we decided to ditch visiting the Sabarmati ashram and try more food there. We did take a good one hour jogging around the Sabarmati River which is so well maintained. It felt like the 2 days had passed within minutes.

Ahmedabad – Dwarkadheesh

Dwarakadheesh- Nageshwar Mahadev Jyotirling From Ahmedabad, we started at around 8 am & by 5 pm we reached Dwarkadheesh. Dwarkadheesh was not a part of the original plan but well as Karan says “Improvising is the essence of travelling” we took this detour. Lodging & food in Dwarkadheesh is quite reasonable. We stayed at Dharamshala at Rs 300 / night and ate at the dining area of another ashram which was almost free of cost (Just Rs. 20 which also they call donation). Dharkadheesh, the majestic Krishna temple is so full of love and peace that devotees don’t want to leave the place. We also explored the Nageshwar Mahadev Jyotirling ( one of the 12 Jyotirlings of Shiva) & Bet Dwarka (Sudhama dham), a beautiful place across the serene blue sea where Sudhama had stayed while visiting Krishna at that time (reference from Krishna story). After exploring this amazing place, we get started for Delhi around 3 P.M.

Dwarkadheesh – Bhuj – Kutch – Bhuj

Kutch It took almost 7 hours to reach Bhuj, booked a hotel online while we were on the way and stayed there for the night. Next morning we took an hour drive to Kutch to explore the beautiful salt desert that words won't be able to justify. Kutch is more serene as it is explained ever. The white surface and bluish-white sky make it a beautiful destination to visit. Kutch is a thousand times more serene that it has been explained ever. You can see the white surface as far as your naked eyes can see and the bluish-white sky is reflected perfectly on the white desert that you will have to look twice or thrice to differentiate between the land and the sky. This was one of the best things happened to us during this road trip. The feeling is simply superb. While there is a pathway to reach somewhere in the center kind of area where they give you an option to climb up on using the staircase and watch the beautiful area as far as you can. Try to stay on the pathway only because the white salt has water inside and the stepping up on the sand could be dangerous. Since we were traveling in December we got the chance to explore the famous Kutch festival too that happens every year and bought the beautifully handcrafted Gujarati things like a purse, duppattas, and suits. We reached back to Bhuj, stayed for the night and started for Rajasthan in the morning.

Bhuj – Jodhpur

Jodhpur-Mehrangarh fort Roads of Rajasthan are amazing roads and we enjoyed our morning drive from Bhuj to Jodhpur. We didn't take much of a break this time and reached Jodhpur by evening in about 8 hours.  We decided to stay for 2 nights where we were accompanied by my brother who took a train from Delhi only to drive back with us from Jodhpur. When in Jodhpur, how can one forget to explore the famous Mehrangarh fort? So we explored it during the day, did some shopping in the evening and spend the night in the beautiful green haveli owned by a retired travel guide and his family.

Jodhpur – Jaipur

Next morning we started from Jodhpur to reach Jaipur. Since we were 3 now, driving was more convenient. We could easily reach Jaipur by evening and decided to relish the authentic Rajasthani food – gatte ki sabzi, roti etc from there which was another awesome part of this beautiful long journey of 12 days.

Jaipur – Delhi

Jaipur-Delhi After spending the night in Jaipur, now we started driving towards our final destination, Delhi which took around 6 hours and we wrapped our journey with a big smiley face. It took us around 2.5 hours to reach from Jaipur to Manesar(Gurgaon border) and another 2.5 hours to reach home from there. The moment we reached near our house, both of us felt like an achievement in some way. Goa to Delhi road trip is one of the best things ever happened to us. All the locations we covered made us realize that there is so much to see, eat and explore in the world but we have confined ourselves to the monotony of 9-5 jobs and don’t wish to free ourselves from. To read such interesting road trip stories, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Download our magazine Spunky Indian for exclusive stories. This post is originally posted on 25 September 2017 by Trippius