The best way to explore and understand the city & its culture is by taking a walking tour. Walking alongside a guide, who takes you through the little streets & alleys, famous landmarks, eateries and old buildings, its a super fun way to discover a city. In my last trip to Gujarat , I got to discover that Ahmedabad offers an early morning special heritage walk. I actually went ahead to reschedule my afternoon flight to the first flight out of chennai to Ahmedabad. I landed there directly outside with my luggage, ready for the walk
With a short amount of time to spend in Ahemdabad, I wasn’t really able to cover the entire city (except for Sabarmati Ashram). So the 2 hour Heritage walk was like a wonderful refresher course to give a perfect summary of Amdavad.
Time & Location of Ahmedabad Heritage Walk
Address : Swaminarayan Mandir Road, Old City, Kalupur, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 380001
Time : 07:30 A.M for registration. Starts at 8 and ends around 10.30
What do you get to see in the Heritage Walk?
The 2 hour walking tour primarily takes you through buildings earmarked as Heritage structures by the Archaeological society . It also gives you a glimpse of how the society works, in terms of profession, living , trade among other things. From small bazaars, temples to Masjids to even bird feeding structures, you can discover so many things about the city.
As the guide famously puts it, the tour starts from the Temple and ends with Masjid, completing a full cycle.
Important: Definitely subscribe to the package with the food. The guide takes you to a very famous breakfast place which was frequented earlier by celebrities such as Amitabh Bachan and more importantly, Mahatma Gandhiji.
Attire
Comfortable clothes with a good pair of shoes can help you navigate around the streets. With plenty of places for an artistic photo op, also ensure you have your best yet comfortable clothes on. Dont forget to bring your DSLR. Early morning light with street photography can be an awesome combo.
Cost per Person
The heritage walk, in my opinion was charged very nominally at 200/person and 350 inclusive of food. This includes the guide charges as well.
My Review of Ahmedabad Heritage Walk
If Tripadvisor were to ask me , what would be the #1 thing to do in Ahmedabad, I’d say it is the Ahmedabad Heritage Walk. I’d even place this a tad higher than a visit to the Sabarmati Ashram (though definitely a must visit place).
With an extremely knowledgeable guide taking you through the old town area of Ahmedabad, it was a very enriching experience to be part of this. From heritage markers on buildings , secret backdoor tunnels to go to another building or bird feeders across communities, it would have been quite impossible to discover so much about this place.
I also got to learn a few Gujarati words from Ols,Pols, Chabuthros and Chowks 🙂
If you want to take this tour, pls directly visit their office. Its located at Swaminarayan Mandir Road, Old City, Kalupur, Ahmedabad at 7.30 AM . You can also visit their website https://heritagewalkahmedabad.com for more details.
I had been to Gujarat in the month of December 2021 . This was in collaboration with Gujarat Tourism, India Tourism Mumbai and Incredible India . This visit was part of a Fam Trip to the beautiful Rann of Kutch, starting from Ahmedabad.
