Travel Archives — Page 2 of 4

Statue of Unity – Visit to Worlds tallest Statue

We were planning trip to Statue of Unity from quite some time. This year in Holi holidays we finally visited Worlds tallest Statue standing tall at a height of 182 Meters.

It is around 420 Km from our home. We took NH 48 till outskirts of Bharuch and then took diversion on State highway 165 towards Statue.

We usually start our road trips early morning, this time was no different. We left around 5.20 AM from our home. I think this was the first time we got lost at the start of the trip.

Not exactly lost as we have Google but we took 1 or 2 wrong turns, due to this we went inside Biwandi. Maps showed us this route as there was some accident or work on NH after Thane.

As it’s National Highway there are tolls but the roads are in great shape. We misplaced the receipts so won’t be able to tell how much total toll we paid.

But due to Fast Tag we went in wrong lane and paid double the toll in one of the toll plaza. Most of the time there are clear signs for Cash lane and Fast Tag lanes but some how we missed it at one of the plaza.

Our experience with cash lane was like it was fast at most of the tolls, as most of the travelers have opted for Fast Tag so the rush on those lanes were little more at some tolls and took more time to clear.

We too have Fast Tag but the site was not working a day before so we couldn’t recharge it. The state highway in Gujarat is not in good shape, there were many patches which were in bad shape but manageable.

Our first stop was for B/F at Silver Miles restaurant. This is one of the most rated place on this route. It is big place with ample of parking, clean but not properly maintained restrooms.

Food was good and fresh and they accept card payment. Cost was little bit on higher side for normal Idly dosa but it’s Ok. It was around 100 Km from our place and took around 2 hrs.

After this we didn’t stop any where and directly stopped for Lunch around 12.30-1 PM at Hotel Narmada. It is around 400 Km from our place and around 20 Km from Statue so it was good point to stop.

Our visiting slot for Statue was 2.30 to 5 PM, so we had ample of time for lunch and relax before visiting the Statue. Food was Ok, not bad nor that good but it was fresh and service was fast as it was not that crowded at that time.

We reached the Statue at around 2 PM. There is ample of parking available around the Statue, there are different type of parking available like one w/o any shade.

It was more like a empty ground converted into parking. Then there is parking which has shade and tar road.

Parking with shade is little far from the Statue. No need to worry as the bus ride from parking to Statue main entry gate is included in the ticket price. Parking fee for both the parking is same i.e. Rs 150 no time limit.

First pose with Status from the parking area

You can find a detailed guide about this place here. Other then the statue there are lot of things to do here.

Now we entered the compound, there is one security check at the main entrance. Then you have to walk around 100-120 meter to the gate where the tickets are scanned.

We have taken Rs 350 ticket which include the entry to the viewing gallery which is at the height of around 124 meters i.e. in the chest of Sardar Vallab Bhai Patel.

If you don’t want to stand in line for ticket purchase book your tickets here well in advance. As there are limited tickets for each slot.

Other types of ticket are general ticket which cost Rs 150 and does not include entry to viewing gallery. Then there is express entry costing Rs 1050. If you buy this ticket then you don’t need to stand in any line.

Here you will find a long queue if you are going in season or say weekend evening time. As we booked the slot for little odd time we didn’t find that much of crowed but it took us around 10 min to enter.

There are Travelators on each side and is covered from the top so you will have shade most of the time. There are escalators every where which is wonderful and very thought full.

This will reduce the overall tiredness and keeps you fresh which is necessary to explore other things. Best part is you can come with full family as escalators are really nice facility specially with elders and kids.

When we first saw the Statue it was like WOW, this is simply a architectural marvel and a great tribute to Sardar who united India.

There is museum at the bottom of the statue. This is the only place which is air conditioned.

Entry to this place is given as per slots. It has huge metal head of Sardar and other details of the full construction. It also contain pictures and videos related to Sardar providing more details about his work and his life.

In the middle of this museum there is big wooden circular shape which contains the lifts to take people to the viewing gallery. There is big line here, bigger then the one we get on the main entry.

Behind this beautiful wooden wall are the elevators

Museum is made with proper sitting areas and benches all over the place. Their is two movie theaters where you can watch small documentary on Dam and Sardar’s life.

Relaxing a bit after the visit to viewing gallery

It took us 15-20 min to reach the Lift and then few seconds to reach the viewing gallery.

The view is amazing but you will enjoy more if you visit after rains. There will be water in Narmada and if you are lucky enough you can witness the open gates of the Dam.

Sardar sarovar dam — View of Narmada and Sardar Sarovar dam from 124 mtrs

There not much to do here, you can enjoy the view for some time, click some pics and then again get in line to get down. All these lines can be skipped if you purchase express entry ticket.

For us it was too costly and didn’t justify the price as we were visiting in a kind of off season.

After getting down you can again enjoy the museum or relax a bit. After getting out of museum we climbed to the feet of Sardar. They are so huge and one can’t even see the face of the Statue from the bottom.

The view is great from here as well. You can enjoy some time here click some pics. As I said earlier there are escalators so you don’t have to climb a single stair 🙂

After all this we started walking(basically standing on Travelator :)) to exit. It was great experience and one should definitely visit this. There is food court in the campus which is quite big and has different options to eat.

Note – there is free water available in the premises, you can either refill your bottle or buy one as a souvenir. Do carry sun glasses and sunscreen in case you are visiting in day and if it’s sunny

There are other places to see near by, I’ll give more details about them in my next blog so stay tuned 🙂

Udaipur-Ramada

While planning our trip on Diwali to our home town of Ajmer we thought to Drive from Mumbai and make a small sightseeing vacation @Ramada Udaipur.

For this we were in confusion that should we go before Diwali or After Diwali, then we thought to do it before Diwali and while returning back we’ll stay @Ahmadabad.

Our 2 days details and how we planned and traveled and reach Udaipur @Day 1 & Day 2. Here I’ll share more details about our stay @Ramada

This time instead of choosing any kind of Home stay for our 2N stay we opted for a resort, reason being we were not getting any decent homestay with any view or any activity included in it.

So basically once you are back you need to sit in your room and watch TV or your mobile. We did booked a homestay for a night i.e. the night we reached Udaipur. Property was located in a residential area. The property itself was nice but our experience was not.

When we reached Ramada, check in didn’t took too much of time. They have different variety of rooms. we stayed in there premium villa rooms.

The reception area is hug with different sitting options, a travel desk, a check in counter etc. There is small handicraft shop at the end of the reception area.

These villa rooms were separate from main property and you need to walk a little to reach there.

Don’t get confused with the name villa, it’s just a big room with big bathroom. Why the name villa is coz they are build like a villa. In a single villa there are 2 room, one on the ground and other on first with separate entrance.

Ground floor one will get a porch and first floor will get balcony. In the Villa section the front row has the best unobstructed view as in front there is a garden.

We stayed on the ground floor on the row behind the front row. We did get the beautiful view of Sajjangharh Palace from the porch. You can read a newspaper or have your morning tea and enjoy the view.

Room was quite big and specious. After entering there’s a 2 seater couch on the left, then a king size double bed with comfortable mattress and pillows.

On the right we have a TV table and at the very end of the room we have a writing desk. After the bed on the left there is door which opens to the luggage and closet area.

This is really a nice add on, once you close the door you won’t see all the mess from your suitcases and cloths 🙂 From this area we have entry to the big and luxurious bathroom.

These Villas bathroom is huge with big rain shower in the shower area and a full size bathtub, yes you read it right a Bathtub.

The Property is quite big with lots of rooms in the main building and in villa section. They have a private pool with Jacuzzi which is accessible only to those who go for Spa.

There is a big common pool with a small waterfall as well which is accessible to all the guest. This pool is situated kind of middle of the property and @night you will have a great view of the property with all the lights on.

There are 2 garden on the property one was in front of the Villa section and the other was in front of the other category rooms in the main building and this was big.

The big garden has a cemented platform to play badminton and the smaller garden has swing, seesaw, slide and a board for archery.

They do have kids play area which is not a big area with lots of things to do, so your kid might get bored soon. They have indoor games for adults as well like TT table, pool and carom etc.

The restaurant is decent with decent food. Being in heart of Rajasthan they don’t serve spicy food and the reason we got to know is because maximum tourist that come is from the state of Gujarat.

There a open sitting option in the restaurant from where you’ll get the view of Sajjangharh Palace on the hill top.

When were there on our last night we had dinner at the property by the poolside. They were celebrating something which I don’t remember but I think it was related to earthen pot cooking.

they served the food in clay plates and clay bowels which is quite different. There was Rajasthani song and dance performance as well which was quite good.

Overall I would definitely suggest this place to all my friends and family for a comfortable stay.

Glamping @Nayalap Uttrakhand

It’s been so long that we have witness a proper cold climate, this time in January we got the opportunity to witness the same that too in beautiful Uttarakhand, India at Nayalap.

We wanted some relaxing holiday far from all the tourist place, to enjoy best of nature and get some mesmerizing view of mighty Himalayan range. For this we searched for a place on the hills and found an amazingly luxurious camp site in Shitlakhet.

Nayalap Rural Himalayan Glamping was a beautiful find. It is charming and boutique home/ retreat consisting of 4 luxurious tents, spread out from each other for privacy of the guests.

We have to attained one wedding in Delhi and my wife was going to her mom’s place in Agra for her cousins wedding, so we converted this opportunity in a relaxing glamping holiday ?.

We booked trains this time as from past so many years we have not travelled by train as from Bangalore it was too much time consuming. We booked August Kranti Rajdhani from Mumbai Central to H. Nizamuddin Delhi.

The train left around 4 PM and reached at 11 AM, as it’s a Rajdhani so no trouble for food on train. Due to more stops it took 2-2.30 hr more than Rajdhani.

Trains now a days are quite clean, and facilities have also improved, like cleanliness, seat cover in western toilets etc.

We stayed for a day in Delhi for a wedding. There are 2 good options to reach Nayalap, one is Ranikhet express which leaves from Delhi at around 10 PM and reach Kathgodam 5 AM, other is Shatabdi early in the morning at 6 AM and arrives 11 AM at Kathgodam which is the last station for this area.

We got down at Haldwani which is second last stop where our driver, Heera Singh was waiting for us. Tanuja the owner of Nayalap helped us in booking the cab. You can either ask her to book it for you, it will cost you around Rs 2500.

Kathgodam is the place where plains end and Mountain region begins. It is a 3.5 hours drive from Haldwani to Shitlakhe. As you leave the plains and drive up the hills, the drives becomes beautiful with the mountain vistas, terraced fields and beautiful villages.

We reached Nayalap at around 3 PM, there our host Tanuja was waiting to welcome us with warm herbal drink. She showed us the property and introduced us with the wonderful staff of Nayalap – Prem, Chandan and the cook Basant.

Nayalap is located on Hill slope on a land that was used for farming long time back. We came to know that now a day’s people are migrating from hills to plains in search for better life, education and career opportunities. The name Nayalap is a reverse of ‘Palayan’ meaning migration in Hindi.

Tanuja’s thought was to give back to the people of hills and provide them a better opportunity in their native land, instead of moving to the cities at least a few people can work near their home and can stay with their family which is simply amazing thought and she executed it as well by building ‘Nayalap’. All the staff who helps to make your stay happy are local peoples from the nearby village.

This place has 4 luxurious tents with amazing view of the Garhwal & Kumaon side of Himalayan range. All the necessary amenities are present in the tents and they have private and quite spacious bathrooms with geysers, handmade soap with all-natural ingredients, a shampoo and a body lotion.

There were super clean towels, a dinning table to seat 4, a small 2-seater sofa, a chair and a king size bed with clean and soft sheets with hand woven sheep’s wool blanket and electric heaters to keep you warm in cold winters.

Instead of stone flooring in the tents, Tanuja has done it with mud which helps in keeping the temperature little warm during winters and cold during summers. The mud floors are covered with dry grass floor mats which are hand made by locals.

The property is adjacent to the main road and has enough parking space. One tent is adjacent to parking but far enough to avoid any disturbance from parking and then when we walk down, we have another tent and their kitchen. Then wakling further down the hill, we have 2 more tents.

Out of 4 tents the 2 new one has wooden doors and the initial 2 has a zip to close the tent will gives little more feel of living in a tent. There is an open dining area, covered from the top and then we have a fireplace right adjacent to the dinning space to enjoy the bon fire during winters.

You can enjoy your morning tea with view of the Himalayas facing the mighty Trishul, Nanda Devi peaks, and listening to the chirping of the birds around. We really enjoyed our stay here, we did some reading, played with our little one in open ground, she liked exploring the ground on her own, climbing up and down, touching different plants, dried grass, wood etc.

This will really help the kids living in big cities to know the wilderness up close and experience the nature. We went to a local house and introduced our little one to rabbits, cow and baby goat (kids). She really enjoyed feeding them and was not ready to leave from there.

As this place is quite far from any of the major cities so you won’t find any restaurants nearby which a plus point is again as in this way you can taste the local specialties and all the ingredients are sourced from locals.

The food here really tastes good and homely and another amazing thing which we have not seen this till now is they do prepare dishes as per your request which is great hospitality.
We really enjoyed our stay here, the cold weather, mesmerizing view, great food it was such a relaxing trip, what else does one want in life ?

Other then relaxing and enjoying nature, one can go for a 5 km long treck to hilltop, which we could not do due to our daughter as we won’t be able to carry her, and we didn’t bring her baby carrier. Then you can do a village walk which is not that long but a nice experience to have.

If you want to do more touristy things then you do excursions from Nayalap to Kasar Devi, Almora, Ranikhet, Katarmal Sun temple which are about 1 hours drive one –way each from the camp. Tanuja can help you plan your visits according to your interest and time. You can visit Kosi dam built on Kosi river, also you can visit a beautiful small stream and enjoy the fresh cold water.

We visited Kasardevi temple which is an ancient temple and well known with the nature seekers, yoga practitioners and it is said be one of the three places in the earth where magnetic fields are the strongest.

We had a beautiful stay at Nayalap and enjoyed every bit of our vacation in the hills, exploring this wonderful corner of the world, where only the lucky ones tread. We are glad we were lucky to be there and experience the joy of glamping in the beautiful foothills of Kumaon.

You can also enjoy here, book your stay at Nayalap by using my code BABYNMOMMY20 and get 20% off on your booking.

Udaipur City Tour – Day 2

After our happening day 1 in Udaipur we planned our day 2 (somewhat 🙂 ). Do check my previous blog Udaipur Day 1.

For this day we have planned little less and want to explore the resort and relax a bit. So today we planned to start with Sajjan ghar Palace another name is Monsoon Palace, then to Moti Magri/Maharana Pratap Smarak and Nehru Garden.

After heavy b/f we started with Monsoon palace as it was quite near to Ramada. You can take your car to the top, there is open parking space but little small so in peak season it could be difficult to find a spot there.

This palace was built by Maharaja Sajjan Singh so the palace is named after him. It is said that he built it to get a glimpse of his ancestral home i.e. Chittaurgarh or to get a beautiful view of city during monsoon time.

Entry cost to this place is Rs 65 Pp and Rs 220/Car and Rs 10 as Emitra amount. Timing is 9 AM to 5.30 PM during winter time i.e. 21st Oct to 15 March and 9 AM to 6 PM rest of the year.

After spending some time inside enjoying the beautiful view with lovely breeze we had tea and paneer pakoda in the restaurant at the entrance. Pakode and tea were both good and fresh. Then we left for Maharana Pratap Smarak and Nehru Park both are situated near by.

Entry fee for Maharana Pratap Smarak is quite cheap Rs 20 Pp, here also you can take you car to the top entry is free I think and there is sufficient parking. There is nothing much to do there. On top you can click some picks with the great warrior Maharana Pratap and Chetak and also Fate sagar at back.

Then there is a Moti Mahal Museum where you can find some really interesting painting and a model of Haldighati war with some replica of Maharanas weapon and Armour. Over all it’s a nice place to visit and learn more about our history.

Then we went to Nehru Park, one has to take a boat to reach there, there is no entry fee to the garden but one has to pay for the boat ride which will take you to the garden and back. I think the cost was around Rs 80 – 100.

This place is not that well maintained overall we could see the algae in the fountain area, damaged railing etc. We can take some snack, sit and relax there and enjoy the beautiful lake and view.

It was around evening so we went back to our hotel Ramada, to check some of there amenities and relax.

After a wonderful day we have a wonderful dinner by pool side with some traditional folk dance and music and this brings end to our short and happening Udaipur Trip.

After this our road trip continued to our home town Ajmer which is around 250 Km from Udaipur and there we celebrated Diwali with family and had a great time.

Will be sharing a detailed post on our stay – Ramada Resort and Spa soon, so stay tuned.

How to plan Udaipur city tour – Day 1

After our long and tiring journey from Mumbai to Udaipur, and a good night sleep in the homestay . We checked out and went to check in to Ramada, Udaipur for next 2 nights. Let’s see how we planned our Udaipur city tour.

But before that we must get our car clean as while leaving from Mumbai it was raining and the car was dirty. This took around 2 hours of our time, but as we were not in hurry and don’t want to be like we need to cover all the tourist points in Udaipur, so it was ok with us.

We usually plan our sightseeing leisurely. We checked in before lunch and relaxed for some more time in our room. Then we left for the sightseeing in Udaipur .

Planning of the day in Udaipur

First, we went to the Udaipur City palace as it will take around 2-2.30 hrs. to visit it completely. Few things I would like to mention about this place are –

Udaipur city Palace

Roads leading to this place are quite narrow and from one of the sides it’s one way and you can’t take your vehicle and after certain point must take auto.
Even though it is just 1.2 km from that point the auto driver will charge you a fixed Rs 100.
There is parking available in the palace and cost Rs 300 for 4-wheeler.
The ticket price is also quite high as it’s a private property and is maintained by the current King and his family, ticket will cost Rs 300/pp.
There are guides available and I would say you should take the guide or take at least an audio guide to know more about the history and palace. Guide charges are Rs 150 only and he will take around 1.3-2 hrs.
Boating to Jagmandir is different and it is even more costly then the palace ticket. Till 2 PM the price is Rs 550 and after that Rs 800 around.

The palace itself is built on a small mountain which you can see once you walk from the ticket counter to the main entrance or even before that when to drive towards the palace.

More details about Udaipur City Palace

The place is quite nice and maintained well, the stairs and some of the corridors are so narrow and congested that only one person can walk at a time, and the reason for this is security so that when enemy attack they won’t be able to come in a group.

Current king and his family lives on the other side of the palace. Which is quite new as compared to the main palace. As this palace is situated on a hill, it has magnificent view of Udaipur city on one side and Pichola on other.

We didn’t take the boat ride as we found it quite costly, instead we took the boat ride in Fatesagar next day which is relatively very cheap.

After finishing our tour came out did an auto for rest of the day as we were not sure about the parking at all the places. He showed us 3-4 places and dropped us after dinner to the place where our car was parked. We did this auto right outside the palace and booked it for Rs 500.

First, we visited Karni mata mandir on Machla Magra Hills and it has magnificent view even when you climb via rope way and from the mandir itself. It is situated near Doodh talai and you will see beautiful Aravalli and lake Pichola and the city on the other.

Karni Mata Temple

It was my first time sitting in a rope way and I really enjoyed it and the visit to the top. Ticket price is Rs 110-120 around and kids’ ticket is as per there height and age. You should plan to visit this place during sunset it should be beautiful from the top.

After visiting Karni mata mandir we stopped for some tea & snack and then went to do boating in Fatesagar, but our auto driver was not sure about the timing and we missed the last boat by 10-15 min. Last boat leaves at around 6 PM I think, and it was already getting dark.

Saheliyon ki Bari

After this he took us to Saheliyon ki bari. As name suggest it was built by the king for his queens and her friends/helpers. No man other than king could enter this place. It is famous for its natural fountains. Yes you read it right all the fountains present in this place are working on natural water pressure.

There are no water pumps or any kind of mechanism to make the fountain work. It’s directly coming from the nearby lake and due to height difference and water pressure water comes out with some force and that’s how fountains work here.

Due to this the fountains here are not that high and many of them does not even work properly. Here also you can do a guide and it’s very cheap just Rs 100. He will tell you all the interesting stories and history and take you to all the spots to click some pics. Ticket price was around Rs 20/pp

Sukhadia C

Last destination of the day before dinner was Sukhadia circle. It is a big circle which has activities like paddle boat ride in it and outside there is camel ride, horse ride and Tonga/Tanga/Carriage ride. Then if you want to eat fast food then there is a big open-air place with variety of food options.

We took the boat ride even though the pond was small and circular we enjoyed it our daughter enjoyed even more at all the places we visited.

After the event full day our auto wale bhaiya took us to a nice Rajasthani restaurant Chappan Bhog were we had one Dal Baati thali and one regular thali. The taste was good, and the quantity was way too much for 2 of us. Cost wise it was not that high and doesn’t feel like a tourist trap at all.

Finally, we reached our resort fully tired and after some time crashed and a very good night sleep.

Day 2 in Udaipur

Click here to check all blogs for Rajasthan road trip 10 days road trip in different regions of Rajasthan

Road trip from Mumbai to Udaipur and Ajmer

Every year going to hometown on Diwali is a task in itself, as you need to plan 3-4 months prior if you are going via train else you won’t get tickets same with flight but there you will get tickets but as it’s main holiday time in India the pries are sky high.

This year we moved back to Mumbai after some 4.5-5 years, so we decided to drive to our hometown Ajmer which is around 1035 Km. This time we didn’t do much of planning of route or place to stop on the way or place to stay in Udaipur.

We have done the booking 2 weeks before we were supposed to leave as we were in confusion that should we visit Udaipur on our return journey or while going to Ajmer. Hotel prices played a major role in finalizing this.

We stayed in Ramada Resort & Spa, the price of same room after Diwali was equal to the price we got before Diwali only the difference was in the same price, we booked it for 2 nights before Diwali ?. Lesson learned is always check the prices before and after any major holiday and what destination you are planning to visit. If you want to save some money, then adjust your holidays accordingly.

There is this straight rout to Udaipur which is the shortest which is –

Mumbai – Vapi – Surat – Bharuch – Vadodara – Godhra – Modasa – Rishabhdev – Udaipur

Other routs are little longer in terms of distance and time. Till Vadodara it’s national highway and after that it’s state highway but in good shape. Full rout is mix of 4 & 6 lanes, but on state highway the traffic is little more. After Rishabhdev till Udaipur it’s again national highway.

This was the first time we were driving this long in a single day. Previously I had driven 500 km i.e. Bangalore to Belgaum for our Bangalore to Mumbai road trip.

If you want to take Ahmedabad rout then you will go via Himatnagar which will meet again at Rishabhdev and from one of our friends who stays in Ahmedabad that Himatnagar rout is not that good, not sure about the reason.

If you have read our previous travel blogs, then you might be knowing that we prefer day driving and we leave our house early morning. This time also we did the same we left from our home at around 5.20 AM, but this was first time we were driving from Mumbai were not aware of traffic jam on Ghodbunder road due to a small ‘Ghat’ section.

As it’s a ghat and fully loaded truck are there on the road, they climb the road very slowly due to which there was a 30 min congestion . Literally we were at same place w/o moving a bit for 5-10 min in that congestion.

Finally, after 30-40 min we were out of that horrible traffic we have witnessed till date that early in a day.

As we must cover more than 700 km in a day, we didn’t make too many stops throughout the journey. I think max we made 4 stops including b/f and lunch. Due to this we covered the lost time in the congestion, we covered around 1 hr and reached Udaipur around 8.15 PM which was around 16 hr for 768 Km distance.

Overall toll paid for that day was Rs 495 as on state highway in Gujrat cars are exempted, but in Rajasthan they have again implemented it(before there also we don’t have to pay for car on state highways). Total diesel consumed was one full tank i.e. around 40-42 ltr Rs 2750.

We know that we will reach Udaipur late in the evening so didn’t book Ramada for this night instead we saved few bucks by booking a reasonably good homestay in the main city. We have booked Aloukik homestay. It has very good reviews on all the sites and it was quite cheap, so we booked it. It costs us Rs 1600 around including b/f.

Check in was Ok and didn’t take much time, room was also good and specious, bed was comfortable.

We were not happy with few things which are –

One of the staff members was not able to understand even in Hindi.
We asked for 4 aloo parathas with poha and tea for b/f and staff member said will be done, but in morning at bf time they said they will only give 2 parathas and for rest we must pay. This is something we didn’t understand as in our previous experience at homestays we didn’t face such thing.
Lastly when we were about to check out, they owner lady asked us to pay Rs 60 for the tea we have a night before as if we were leaving w/o paying her. We said that all our stuff is still in room and we have not checked out yet and we had small argument on it.

Stay tuned for more updates on our journey, Next blog coming soon.

Florence & Vatican City

After all the thrill to catch the train experiencing Paris evening traffic and finally finding that it is cancelled, we reached Florence. Do ready my previous blog about the journey here.

This blog is about a day in Florence, don’t be shocked I know its way… way… to less and a day in Vatican which is a country.

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After reaching the Florence station which is called as ‘Firenze Santa Maria Novella’ we tried to figure out how to reach our guest house ‘Affittacamere Benedetta’. It was Just 1 Km walking and 10 min via Tram, there is stop just outside the main station and the stop to get down is next one named ‘Porta Al Prato’ and from there it is around 300 mts.

We got little confused due to Google Maps directions and took us some time and few calls to reach there but we finally managed to reach.

It’s a small guest house which I think has around 4 rooms and our room was the last one and was quite specious or say huge as per normal room standards we have seen in India. It has all the basic facilities and as the owner did not provide any b/f he has arranged some ready to eat stuff which was complimentary ? and such a nice gesture.

Even though room was big but there was only one source of natural light and that was also covered with heavy grill and room was very dimly lit. Over all only drawback in this room was the bathroom and light, light I have already mentioned and bathroom was way too small. Just to compare we use to have bigger bathroom in our flat in Mumbai.

As we travelled for more than 10 hrs. (Bus + Train), so we decided to take some rest and then go out to explore. As this place is in the city so it is near to all the tourist places and market. He suggested one place to eat and that was good and not too costly was not a tourist trap.

Our luck was not that great as first we missed to book the ticket for the Dome which is top of Cathedral of Santa Maria Del Fiore. It has specific timing and slots as it’s a small space on the top and as per the pics the view is Amazing. Other thing that happened that day was rain.

As soon as we reach the main area of the Cathedral it started raining and we didn’t have any umbrella or rain coat, so after taking shelter in front of some shop for some time we finally return to our guest house and it continued to rain for rest of the day.

So, in all we stayed in our room and didn’t see much in Florence ☹ but what ever we saw was beautiful and we need to go again to explore more.

Next morning, we had a train to catch to reach Rome. Rome was 2-day trip and my brother in law and his family also joined us there. This was the first time we had planned something together and it was fun with all the kids.

They were supposed to come by evening, and we reached in the morning. Here we have booked an Airbnb. It was a 1 BHK flat with 2 beds, sofa, kitchen with utensils a washing machine etc. It was a good place with few drawbacks. This place was little far from the center, but tram/bus station was near by.

After taking the keys of the flat and fresh up we stepped out to go to Vatican via Bus. In Paris and here as well there is one good thing about the bus is there is space to park your stroller.

It was amazing seeing live what we have seen only in TV. Once again, we missed the opportunity to book the fast access tickets and on the spot were way to high to visit the museum and basilica ☹. For Basilica there was a huge line to enter and with my little one it was quite difficult to stand in one place for that long.

So, guys do book your tickets early and be there on time as everything work as per slots.

There were so many people that I was afraid to handle her alone otherwise we could have thought of standing one by one. So finally, we just clicked pics from outside and had some snacks at one of the local stalls then went back as my brother in law was about to reach the flat and we only had 1 key.

Rest of the day we spent with family chitchatting and relaxing as we were meeting after a long time.

This is how our first day ends in Rome.

Stay tuned for last 3 days of our trip, in which we covered Rome, Venice & Amsterdam.

I am taking my blog to the next level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa. You can read my other articles for this #MyFriendAlexa campaign here #forbabynmommyblogs.

Road trip Bangalore to Mumbai

Road trip to Bangalore to Mumbai

This blog is about our journey when we left Bangalore and shifted to Mumbai…. again ?

We had given lot of thought for choosing the best way to travel with our little one, considering the cost and time. After considering all the options like transporting the car through packers and then coming via flight or train or bus, I had good experience via bus from Bangalore to Mumbai, I have jotted it do read it here.

We finalized traveling around 1000 Km via road. This was due to 2 main reason first being safety of our vehicle as we have heard few bad instances with car transporting through packers. Second I love driving and finally cost as there was not much overall difference in transporting it or driving it.

Route – it’s a straight road means NH 48 via
Tumkur – Hubli – Belgaum – Kolhapur – Satara – Pune and then Mumbai.

After doing a lot of research, going through lot of travel logs of different people (on TeamBHP) we came to know that it is good to leave Bangalore as early as possible so that we can get ahead of all the heavy traffic and cover more distance. So, we decided to leave around 5 AM or before that.

As we are traveling with kid and we has never driven this long in a single day, so we decided to make it a break journey. We finalized Belgaum for our stay as we got a 5* property at a very good price and Belgaum is mid-way for this journey.

Our first stop was Shree Ratnam at Nelamangala at around 7 AM. It was around 1 hr 30 min drive from Bangalore, here had our b/f and it was cheap and good. Washrooms were also clean. Then we continued with our journey. We didn’t take many stops as our thought was to reach the hotel as early as possible and then rest as we didn’t have good sleep the night before due to packing.

In total we stopped 3 time till we reach Belgaum, our second stop was at some CCD and then finally we stopped for Lunch before Belgaum. For lunch we stopped at this place named Hotel The Cult

After traveling for around 500 Km and eating at all those different places we reached our hotel UK 27 The Fern. It’s a 5-star property and the check in was easy and completed timely. The room was quite big with all the facilities. We didn’t try the food here instead went to a place nearby, but yes, they have 2 restaurants right next to reception area which is quite big and nice.

The place we went was walking distance from the hotel named Wild Sugar. It’s a nice small shop with sitting inside and outside, the only drawback of outside sitting is people smoking there. The food was quite good, and we really liked the food, we had Veg pasta, tandoori momos(veg), and there most famous dish i.e. paneer stuffed kulcha.

After having a good night sleep and freshen up we started our rest of the journey towards Mumbai – City of Dreams ?. We started at around 6.30 AM again we want to beat all the bus and truck traffic on the highway.

This time we stopped just once for b/f at Hotel Amar and then directly in Pune at cousin house. We reached Pune at around lunch time i.e. 12.30 to 1 PM. Our initial thought was to directly go to Mumbai but then we thought to stop at there place and enjoy some time with them, also her daughter is of same age as of our daughter, so they enjoy playing with each other.

Overall it was a nice pleasant and memorable journey, one could complete it in a single day also in around 14-16hrs but if you have time then it’s always better to take rest.

Roads throughout the journey was amazing, just few diversions as they are creating some bridge’s/flyovers to bypass the diversion/traffic of small towns on the highway.

One main thing to tell about the rout is that – as you get such a nice highway to be prepared to pay heavy toll charges. In all there were 16 toll booths on this route, and we paid a total of Rs 1,185 as toll, this includes the Mumbai – Pune express way toll as well.

It took around one and half tank of fuel to reach Mumbai, ours is a diesel car so it was little cheap and good on mileage. Total fuel cost was around
Rs 4,000.

Total cost of trip –
Hotel – 3662
Fuel – 4000
Toll tax – 1185
Food – 1550, Total would be around Rs 10,500 with some misc. amount.

But yes, we had freedom to stop anywhere, take pics, enjoy the natural scenery on the way ? We really enjoyed this road trip.

I am taking my blog to the next level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa. You can read my other articles for this #MyFriendAlexa campaign here #forbabynmommyblogs.

Bangalore-Mumbai-Bangalore

Hi Guys this blog if about my sudden strip from Bangalore to Mumbai and return. I have to go to Mumbai from Bangalore urgently so immediately I looked for flights. As we all know immediate booking of flights are always costly, so I looked for alternate ways.

After flights my first choice was train but trains takes a way lot more time like around 22-26 hrs, so this option is also removed.

Then I checked for road route, AC Sleeper buses. To my surprise bus takes around 16-18 hrs with min of 3 stops. Then my search begins for best bus operator.

Usually all bus operators are more or less same, so I thought I will try one for onward journey and one for return.

Beautiful Pune-Mumbai express way

So for onward journey I selected VRL Travels, as this was one of the best rated and reviewed. Other than this was SRS and National which were in most rated but less rating.

So I booked VRL through Redbus.in and ticket cost was 2400/pp for AC Sleeper. Ticket price are totally fluctuate as per date/day & season. I was little skeptical about the bus punctuality but to my surprise bus was just 15 min late and did not got delayed anywhere in b/w.

There are many pickup point in Bangalore and I opted for Yashwantpur as kind of it is the last part of city traffic, also it was at similar distance with other near by pickup location. There was just 1 or 2 more pickup stops after it.

VRL Office at Yashwantpur
VRL Office at Yashwantpur

The bus was neat and clean and there were no cargo load inside or even in the luggage area of the bus like what people have mentioned for other bus operators. Official timing was around 4.30 PM at Yashwantpur but it came 15 min late and left from there at around 5 PM.

Sleeper sections were neat with clean bed-sheets and blankets. There were no separate pillows provided. There is individual LCD in each sleeper which can be turned off. In double sleeper there is separate storage to keep your shoes or small bags/backpacks/handbag, which is not there in single sleeper.

Single Sleeper TV
Double Sleeper

Every sleeper has curtains for privacy. There was no foul smell in the bus throughout the journey which was good else full journey will be unpleasant. After leaving Yashwantpur it stopped at around 6.40 PM which was first official midway stop.

VRL mid way restaurant
Main enterance

It stopped at VRL’s own restaurant. The washroom was clean and there they have separate Western section. This was a large property with ample parking and decent options for eating with prices on little higher side. I had tea and it was Ok.

It’s self service
Big tower which was I think water storage

Total stoppage time was around 15 min max. After this we can either watch the movie they play or if you got something on your phone or laptop. Yes there was a charging point and it was working perfectly fine. After running for around 3 hrs it stopped for dinner break at around 10 PM at Deol Punjabi Dhaba. Till this place total distance covered was around 315 Km from Bangalore.

Deol Punjabi Dhaba — Dhaba Stoppage for dinner

Here it stopped for around 30 min, it was not like some other operators that they say 30 min but don’t move for 40-50 min, these guys were very punctual didn’t delayed more then 5-7 min. After dinner bus stopped at Hubli at one of VRL’s own fuel station.

Not sure if this is fixed stop or due to less fuel they made it. Toilets were Ok here. Time stopped was around 12 AM. As it was a fuel stop it didn’t took much time and we were on road quickly.

Main cabin
VRL Fuel station
Toilet area at fuel station

After the last stop they didn’t stop anywhere till morning or I was in sleep if they had made any stop. This stop was after we crossed Pune, around 7.20 AM and 50 Km before Mumbai. You can freshen up here and can have you morning tea with some snack.

One thing to mention is about this place is I think all the buses stops here so the toilets were crowded and you can’t expect them to be that clean. Name of the place was Nishi Sagar. Food here was nice and fresh and price was also decent. So after a stop of around 15-20 min bus was back on road to Mumbai.

Morning stoppage
Beautiful view on the way to Mumbai

It reached Vashi around 8.30 AM, which was right on time as per there schedule. So total time taken was around 16 hrs with 4 stops total distance covered is around 1000 Km. The roads are very nice, maximum part is either 6 or 4 lane with some small diversions in Karnataka region, other than that nothing to mention about roads.

Now when it was time to come back I though to come back by bus as decided with another operator but when I checked the air fare it was quite comparable with bus fare if you book 15 -20 days advance.

Air ticket costs us Rs 2500 with some discount on credit card and time taken by flight is around 2 hrs from airport to airport. Travel time too and from airport is different plus the additional cab cost.

So we took shared cab from CBD Belapur in Navi Mumbai to T2 and it cost me around Rs 370 with Uber share, then in Bangalore I took the bus(Vayu Vajra) till Banshankari Stage 3 Kathreguppe signal and ticket cost was Rs 280 then a Uber to my home which cost Rs 65 so total additional expense was around Rs 715 which was not bad.

I booked Spicejet late night flight i.e departed from Mumbai at 1 AM and arrived at 3 AM, this was the only reason I took bus instead of cab it took around same time to reach (approx 15 min more then cab) but way less money as cab was costing me around Rs 800-1000 just from kempegowda Airport to my home.

One more thing I would like to mention is that SRS and other bus operators tends to stop more and keeps waiting at stops more. This was my observation at Vashi stop point. Also SRS left early from Bangalore and was left behind by VRL in the night time only.

Over all I would say road route is also a good option if one needs to go urgently and wants to save some money.

Paris To Florence Italy

This is 4th evening of our small 9 days 🙂 Europe holiday, do check my previous post. On our last day in Paris we need to board a train to Milan & from there to Florence Italy.

This was the first time my husband forgot’s the departure time and also didn’t thought about the evening traffic. Our train was scheduled to depart at 7.10 PM from Paris-Gare-De-Lyon station and we left the hotel at 6.20 PM.

Ticket cost was Euro 196 for 2 berth in 4 berth couchette and Euro 66 for Milan to Florence in Thello Premium.

We didn’t book flight as the airports were far from Paris city and Florence and also we want to experience the sleeper trains of Italy. There are different categories and early you book cheaper it will be.

There are 6 berth couchette, 4 berth and then business class where it is 2 or 1 berth and in that you will get bedding and other perks. Then there are option to select if you want to book in mix, only women or only men couchette.

Premium cabin
6 Berth Couchette
4 Berth Couchette

We didn’t took the metro because Paris metro is not at all stroller friendly and with luggage and a small kids it will be too difficult if you are short of time.

First there was issue with Uber, the first diver was taking too much time and then cancelled the ride which again wasted some time. Finally we left and there was bumper to bumper traffic in most of the way till the station.

Due to the tension of missing the train and ruin further bookings and plan we were not able to enjoy our luxury ride, can you believe it was Mercedes as our Uber cab.

Finally we reached the station quite late, trying to figure out where to find the Thello authorities. While looking for help, help found us 🙂

As we were on holiday so didn’t check the news. Our luck was on full swing that day, there was strike of workers due to issues related to salary etc.

Because of the strike all the trains were cancelled. So we actually didn’t miss the train :). Thello has arranged buses for all the passengers and were looking for last passengers by carrying small hoardings on the platform.

When we came to know about all this then we got little relaxed. We were the last passengers so in a full 40-50 seat bus we were the only passenger, other than us there were 2 Thello officials.

They arranged for some food and drinks as complimentary due to the inconvenience caused. It was a 2×2 semi sleeper bus. We are not used to travel in bus and with small kid it was quite difficult.

Some how we managed to get few hours of sleep and reached Milan. As it was via road and bus left little late, we reached the Milan station late and due to this the connecting train to Florence was missed.

As it was not our mistake the officials arranged the seats in the next available train ours was in Premium, they were not able to provide the same sitting but it was same category.

From Milan to Florence it was Frecciarossa. There are mainly 3 categories –
1. Standard – very basic with no additional perks
2. Premium – additional perks like better seats, welcome drink and snacks
3. Business & Business Quite – here seats are more comfortable and wider as it is 2×1 arrangement.

Business sitting and features
Premium sitting and features

Finally we reached Florence the capital city of Tuscany region of Italy.

This is for all the people reading this and planing a vacation abroad please double check the scheduled departure time of the trains and buses. Also consider the time you will spend in traffic.

We really appreciate how Thello management took the responsibility of there passengers and managed everything.