The booming commercial centre of the Indian state of Gujarat

Ahmedabad is the largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It was founded in the early 15th century by Sultan Ahmed Shah as the capital of the Gujarat sultanate. Although it is no longer the state capital, Ahmedabad has grown to become a large sprawling city with significant industrial and commercial interests in the science and IT industries. Holidays in Ahmedabad offer a fascinating taste of the regional history that visitors can easily find themselves immersed in; such is the welcoming, friendly nature of the locals! Ahmedabad is the location of several beautiful temples, including the Hathi Singh Jain Temple, elaborately carved in white marble, and the Shri Swaminarayan Temple, a colourful nineteenth century construct. Because Ahmedabad is not particularly well known as a tourist destination, an Ahmedabad holiday will certainly offer a genuine Indian cultural experience. The locals are largely very helpful and welcoming of tourists, and most understand and speak English to some degree.

Why Go?
Experience an exciting north Indian city with a wealth of history and culture, as well as a modern progressive outlook. Discover beautiful temples, some great shopping, mouth-watering cuisine and wonderful people on Ahmedabad holidays.

When to Go?
The summer in Ahmedabad starts in the middle of March and lasts until around the middle of June, when temperatures get well into the high 30s and low 40s. After the summer the monsoon season starts, which despite the name is actually quite a fun time to visit the city. There are several Hindu festivals throughout this period but you do risk getting rather wet. Visiting Ahmedabad in winter you will enjoy much lower temperatures around the low 20s.

How to get there?
Finding flights to India is still not the easiest thing in the world, despite bilateral agreements between India and the UK to open up flight paths. Flights to Ahmedabad Airport, officially called Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, are available with Air India, flying from Heathrow. Emirates also have indirect Ahmedabad flights from several regional airports in the UK, including Glasgow, Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester and Gatwick.

Must see
There are countless architecturally significant religious buildings and monuments throughout the city that you can spend days exploring. The Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum contains a wide selection of traditional Indian miniature paintings, bronzes, sculptures and textiles, as well as Tibetan and Nepalese art works. Throughout the year there are several festivals in Ahmedabad, such as the January festival of kites celebrating the end of winter, when the sky is filled with kites and flying lamps of all kinds of shapes and colours. The Navratri Festival, or festival of nine nights, celebrates the goddess Shakti and consists of ceremonial rituals and traditional dancing which takes place on four separate occasions throughout the year.