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Nitin Maheta

A Blogger, YouTuber, & Traveler.

Home » Travel » My 3-Day Trip to the Statue of Unity and Nearby Places

My 3-Day Trip to the Statue of Unity and Nearby Places

Posted by Nitin Maheta | January 19, 2020 Comments: 0
In my very first article, I talked about how I started Travel Blogging and Vlogging. I always loved traveling around, and I visited a lot of places, but I had no thoughts of writing a blog of my travel experiences and no videos as well. So, when I started Travel Blogging, the first place I visited is the Statue of Unity.

This article is precisely my 3-day plan of the visit to the Statue of Unity.

In the beginning, I and one of my friends, Bhavesh Sondagar, planned a 2-day trip to the Statue of Unity. On 13th December 2019, Friday Morning, it was proposed that we both will reach the place, Kevadia, by any means, place where the Statue of Unity is situated. Bhavesh planned to come to Kevadia by bike from Surat, and I planned my trip through Bus from Rajkot. Then we expected that after reaching the place, we would book a hotel for the night and visit the Statue of Unity on the next morning, 14th December 2019, and will leave the area by evening for our hometown.

But, unfortunately, our plan didn't work well. And we made a lot of mistakes during this visit. So, let me allow you to tell "what happened," in brief.

DAY 1

Rajkot to Vadodara (300 KM)- My Experience of Traveling in a Bus

According to the plan, I boarded a Volvo bus on Friday morning, 13th December 2019, at 8 a.m. and left for Vadodara from Rajkot. The bus took 6 hours in reaching the destination; that is, it was 2 p,m. and believe me, I had never seated in a single place for this long ever. After 1 hour of travel, I felt like de-boarding the bus because it was dull. But I had to because we had already planned before. So, I started chatting with my friends over the phone, read a few articles online, watched videos over YouTube, and this drained my phone's battery to 60%. The first mistake I made is that I forgot to carry the power bank. And after realizing this, I turned off the NET of my phone, kept in the pocket, and started looking out of the bus window. After some time, when I checked my watch, I came to know that it's not been 1 hour and I am not able to do anything to pass my time. And the person sitting beside me was sleeping peacefully, or else I would have had a conversation with him. I also tried to sleep, but of no use. I even skipped my breakfast because it was a bus journey. And this way, I reached Vadodara at 2 p.m., but it took 1 hour more to reach the Pandya Bridge, where I had to de-board. So, sharp at 3 p.m., I reached my destination, and honestly, I was happier while de-boarding the bus rather than being happy about reaching the place.

For me, traveling on a bus for 7 hours long was the most annoying thing. And it is because I was going alone and wasn't able to use my phone because battery issue and I forgot to take my power bank along. But all the way, I was excited that I am visiting the Statue of Unity.

Now, I took an autorickshaw from Pandya Bridge and reached the Bus Station. Just in front of the Bus stand, my eyes caught a look of a restaurant, and I couldn't be able to control myself, and since I was hungry, I ordered a Gujarati thali and had a lip-smacking food. It was okay in taste, but I was hungry, so it worked.

Vadodara to Kevadiya (85 K.M.)- by S.T. Bus

By 4 p.m., I reached the Bus station and waited for 1-hour long for a bus to Kevadia. I took a bus at 5 p.m., and it took 2 hours to reach the place. I was full of excitement, and these 2 hours went so well that I didn't even get to know-how. Isn't it exciting? Yeah! So, I reached Kevadiya at 7 p.m. sharp from where the BRG Hotel is just 1 km away, and the Statue of Unity is 7 km away.

BRG Budget stay Hotel in Kevadia

My friend, Bhavesh, reached Kevadia 5 hours before me and searched for 3 long hours for a hotel and finally booked a home in the BRG budget stay hotel. When he reached the hotel, he did share a few pics, and I asked him to book a room in this only. This hotel has 350 rooms, but all were booked when we asked for one room booking. In the meanwhile, Bhavesh left BRG hotel. While searching for another hotel, he came across one person advertising the BRG hotel, who helped us in getting a room booked in the same by directly contacting the Manager.

The person who helped us with booking a hotel room named Mr. Mahendra helped us a lot in booking a room and even shared a lot more, including free bus service. I will talk about it further.

This way, Bhavesh booked the hotel room, and all I had to do is reaching the BRG hotel from Kevadia.

BRG Budget Stay Hotel (Kevadia) Review

I felt at peace, and I got time to relax after reaching the hotel room. I loved the infrastructure, facilities, including room service. The hotel room was clean, and the bed, along with other furniture, was excellent. I have no complaints or any negative thing to mention about the hotel except the hot water. And that too was missing because there was some maintenance work going on. Still, the room service people helped us with the same.

Cost

The cost per person at BRG is 470 INR (including taxes its 526.66 INR), and this isn't a bad deal according to the facilities we have been provided. Charges for the Ac or non-AC rooms were the same, so it's your choice to choose.

Food

BRG hotel has a restaurant, Hotel Plazzo, which serves lip-smacking food. The hotel is just in front of the reception. They had only a few options on their menu, which needs improvement, other the quality of the food was excellent.


We ordered Khichdi, Punjabi Kadhi, Buttermilk, Butter Roti, and Bhindi Masala. Khichdi and Bhindi Masala was good in taste, but Punjabi Kadhi made my mood off.

We ordered the food at 7:30 p.m. and got it served around 8:30 p.m. It got late because we entered and ordered the food before dinner time, and the restaurant was empty. So, it okay to deal with the same because Bhavesh accompanied me, and time went off well.

Feedback

The employees at the reception weren't well aware of the available rooms, and they informed Bhavesh of no-room availability without checking it before.

After having dinner, we went back to our hotel room and slept peacefully and were excited for our next day's visit to the Statue of Unity.

DAY 2

14th December 2019, Saturday
We both woke up early in the morning and got ready to visit the Statue of Unity, which is one of the gigantic statues in the world. Between, we didn't book the tickets for the Statue of Unity because we had the information about the ticket counter there.

We came outside the hotel and had tea with biscuits, left for the Shresth Bharat Bhavan from where we had to buy the tickets for the Statue of Unity.


The ticket rates start from 380 INR, which includes the bus service; another ticket rate is 1030 INR, which includes everything which you get in 380 INR ticket. The only difference is you don't have to wait in the long queues.

We didn't get the Tickets

We went to the ticket counter and found out that all the tickets for the day have been sold out. I even checked the availability of the tickets online, but my efforts went in vain. The person at the ticket counter suggested booking a ticket for the next day so that we don't miss out visiting the Statue of Unity on Sunday. So, we did book two tickets there and then without failing.

We booked the tickets online for the time slot from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. So, this way, we got one more day to explore Kevadia. We extended our hotel stay as well.

Recommended for you:
How to Book Statue of Unity Entry Ticket Online?

So where did we spent our Saturday?

We met our guide, Mr. Mahendra, who helped us with booking the hotel. He arranged a free bus service for both of us, which we used for the entire day.


He told us about the Orange colored bus, which is started by the Government for the visitors who stay in Kevadia and visit the Statue of Unity. This is a particular promo service by the Government. Soon, the official tickets and booking will be available for the same. So, we were lucky enough to have a free ride. And even we had tickets for the next day to the Statue of Unity.

We traveled to the free bus service, which took us through the route of Kevadia Colony. We captured beautiful pictures of the views, and spent the entire day traveling, views of beautiful nature, photoshoots, and video shots.



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Places to Visit Nearby the Statue of Unity

As we failed to get the tickets to the Statue of Unity on Saturday, we started exploring the nearby locations. Though the next day was Sunday, yet we managed to book a ticket.

Tent City Narmada-1

The bus took us to the Tent City Narmada-1, where there is nothing special but just a tent city which is developed for staying purpose. The view of the place is fantastic for photography and videography. You will find a small bridge, cold water, and a small construction site.


The people of the Kevadia colony are helpful, including the guards and the guides. Meeting new people on the way and while visiting places is quite fun. And here too, I met a security guard. He gave us the information which no one shared.


River Rafting

The next spot, the bus took us, is the Khalwani Ecotourism for River Rafting. We have to step walking down to the place. This is a special place for river rafting, but unfortunately, when we visited, there was no water.


Here we found another beautiful place, which seems to be a dam with a bridge over it and Narmada water. This is a lovely place combination of green trees, blue sky, river, mountain, and road. I found this place beautiful and fascinating.

The bridge is constructed with iron and wood above the river. Only ten people are allowed on the bridge at once. And believe me, walking down the bridge and clicking the pictures of the impressive view is fantastic.


On the River Rafting road, you will also see a beautiful park with tents, a place to relax, and have fun. The tents are being named as leopard, lion, etc. We had a stay for some time and then we moved to our next place.

Tent City 2

Tent City 2 is a luxurious place to stay in. This place has a high stay cost, which is around $100 per night, and they provide visitors with three different night stay packages.

The bus then took us from there, and we visited our next destination, Sardar Sarovar Dam.

Sardar Sarovar Dam

Here we met a lot of people, and the main attraction of the place is the Dam. The bus takes us to the viewing point 3 and got more information about the Dam from the guiding room.

The Statue of Unity is the tallest in the world facing this Dam. Even this Dam is viewable from the Statue's viewing gallery.

The reason behind the face of the Statue of Unity facing towards the Dam is the dream of Sardar Patel; the Dam should be constructed. From the viewpoint 3, you can easily view the Sardar Sarovar Dam.

Valley of Flowers

The next destination is the Valley of Flowers. This place is beautifully crafted with beautiful flowers, and even the Statue of Unity is visible. The flowers have been sown in the 250 hectares of area. The flowers are the only main attraction of the place.

The Statue of Unity

This is the final destination the bus will take you. We couldn't be able to visit the place because we had a ticket for the day after. Still, they allowed us to enter through the main gate, and we managed to click a few pictures.

Our day ended with this, and we came back to our hotel. Since we spent the entire day traveling, we were tired. We had our dinner, and in no time, we both slept.

DAY 3

15th December 2019, Sunday
So, finally, the day when we visited the Statue of Unity. And the best thing is 15th December, which is the Death Anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

World's Tallest- The Statue of Unity

The main gate entrance doesn't have much security, but if you have the bags, then you have to go through the proper security process. Avoid taking tobacco or cigars with you, as it is prohibited in the place.

Wall of Unity

Once you enter the place, the left side wall is made of soil, which is collected from 169000 different villages of India. The slogan was exciting. This wall spreads a great message about Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, a man who united the states and called it India. The word on the wall is written in English, Hindi, and Gujarati. This is interesting as if foreign people visit the place, it is easy to understand.

Ticket Verification Place

We booked the tickets online from the official website, soutickets.in, and timing we selected was 8 a.m. Since we had the tickets, we weren't in a hurry.

Here, I have mentioned the ticket copy from the online booking. If you book a ticket online, then it will look like this.


It was Sunday, a public holiday, and a lot of people were standing in a queue at the verification gate. Each ticket has a barcode that gets scan at the entry for verification. This whole thing lasted for 1 hour.


When I saw the Statue from the road, it looked a smaller one, but surprisingly it is too big. WOW!

We entered in at 10:15 a.m. and reached the museum, audio, and visual gallery.

The Museum, Audio-Visual gallery

This place is all about the visuals from the life of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. It also has a short movie, identical small Statue, and a feedback counter.


An interesting thing about the museum is that it is just under the main Statue and can withstand earthquakes measuring on the Richter scale of 6.5 within a radius of 12 km and a depth of 10 km.

The image above is the feedback counter, where you can share your experience. Just behind the counter, you will find a small identical Statue of Sardar Patel with audio, visuals, documents, and historical information.

Queue at Lift

Just behind the face there is a feedback counter and behind it, there is a round pillar with a lift that takes the visitors to the chest part of the Statue (45th-floor). There are two different rows, one is individual, and the other one is for the groups.

If you have the express ticket, then you need not stand in the queue. You can directly enter the lift. And this is the only difference between the general ticket and the express ticket.

Viewing Gallery

The best thing about the lift is that it takes 30-35 seconds to reach to the 45th floor. Isn't it amazing? This is the place where you can enjoy viewing the beautiful sight from the viewing gallery.

What to see from the Viewing Gallery
The main attraction from the viewing gallery is the Sardar Sarovar Dam. A beautiful view and the primary reason behind the Statue facing the Dam. The horizontal line in the image below is the Sardar Sarovar Dam.


We met a lot of people here who were excited about visiting this beautiful place, and here's the best shot with them:


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What's Next?

We were already inside the Tallest Statue in the world, and it was time to view it carefully. From there, we went back to the lift and came down to the museum and took another elevator, which took us to the other part of the Statue.


Here we viewed the foot and toe of the Statue, which looks quite more significant. And you can imagine how tall the statue will watch from here.

My Experience

So, its time to say GoodBye to the Statue of Unity. I spent three days here, and it was awesome. Waiting for two days to get the view from the Viewing gallery is worth it.

I must say that this is one of the best places to visit on the weekends. People of this place are helpful. So, if you are planning to visit the tallest Statue of the world, then you can ask your queries in the comment section below. I will try my best to resolve the same from my experience.

Last but not least, in the recent news article by hindustantimes.com, the Statue of Unity has been declared as the 8th Wonder of the World.

Watch my full vlog on YouTube: (Hindi)

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