There are some trips that you plan months in advance. You book your flights, choose your hotel, make a detailed itinerary and count down the days. And then there are trips like this one. The kind where you board a train after 11 PM on a Friday night, surrounded by people you barely know, knowing that by the time you return home, you’ll have an entire story to tell.

Every year at Tour to Dreams, we plan a special Ahmedabad trip during Navratri. And every year, it somehow manages to be just as exciting as the last one. This time, our journey started late on Friday night. We boarded the overnight train to Ahmedabad with around ten people, most of whom were strangers at the beginning of the journey. Everyone was excited, but we knew the next day was going to be long, hectic and packed with things to do. So, instead of staying awake and talking all night, we did something very unusual for a group trip.

We actually slept. Because we knew Ahmedabad was waiting for us.

We reached Ahmedabad at around 7 AM, and before doing anything else, we had to start the day the right way—with fafda and jalebi. There are some food combinations that just belong to a particular place, and having hot fafda and jalebi in Ahmedabad in the morning felt like the perfect beginning to our Navratri adventure.

After breakfast, we checked into our hotel, freshened up and headed out to explore the city. Our first stop was the famous Lal Darwaza Market. The streets were already buzzing with people, shops and the everyday chaos of Ahmedabad. We walked through the market, explored the local shops and, naturally, stopped for some local food along the way.

There is something I love about exploring a city without trying to rush through a checklist. You walk, you look around, you stop when something catches your attention and you eat whenever you see something interesting. That’s exactly how we spent our afternoon.

Eventually, after a morning of travelling and exploring, our energy started disappearing. We headed back to the hotel, had some rest and took a much-needed one-hour break.

Because we still had the most exciting part of the trip waiting for us.

As the sun began to set, we headed towards the Sabarmati Riverfront. After the noise and energy of the market, sitting beside the Sabarmati felt like a completely different Ahmedabad. We walked around, took pictures, watched the evening settle over the river and spent some quiet time together.

But we couldn’t stay there for too long. We had a much bigger night waiting for us. We went back to the hotel and that’s when the entire mood changed.

Out came the Garba outfits. The jewellery. The makeup. The accessories. The tired travellers who had been walking around Ahmedabad all day suddenly transformed into a group ready to dance through the night.

And honestly, getting ready together was part of the experience.

There is something about dressing up for Garba in Gujarat that feels different. The colours, the mirrors, the jewellery, the music already playing somewhere in the background, you can feel the excitement building even before you reach the venue.

And then we finally entered the Garba event.

The first part of the night was full of DJ music, dancing and an incredible crowd. Hundreds of people were dressed in beautiful traditional outfits, and the entire venue was full of colour and energy.

But after midnight, something changed.

The DJ made way for the traditional Mandli Garba, and the sound of the shehnai filled the space. Hundreds of people formed circles and began dancing together. Round and round. Step after step. Everyone moving in rhythm, performing the same steps almost perfectly. And standing there in the middle of that crowd, watching hundreds of people move together to the sound of the shehnai, was something I honestly find difficult to put into words. It wasn’t just dancing. It felt like being part of something much bigger than yourself. The music kept going, the circles kept moving and nobody seemed to care what time it was.

We danced through the night. At some point, we stopped thinking about how tired we were. We were just enjoying the moment. And before we knew it, the sky had started getting lighter. Around 6 AM, we finally made our way back to the hotel.

We had barely any time. There was no long breakfast, no leisurely checkout and definitely no proper sleep. We gathered all our belongings, packed everything into our bags and headed straight towards the railway station.

Our train was at 8 AM. By then, everyone was exhausted but there was also this strange happiness among us.

That feeling you get after a trip where you know you’ve squeezed every possible experience out of the time you had. In less than 24 hours, we had travelled overnight, eaten Ahmedabad’s famous fafda-jalebi, explored Lal Darwaza, tried local food, watched the evening by the Sabarmati, dressed up for Garba and danced until sunrise.

And somewhere along the way, ten strangers became a group of people who now share the same crazy Ahmedabad story.

That’s what I love most about these trips.

As the Co-Founder of Tour to Dreams, I could easily tell you that we organise trips because we love travel. But honestly, it’s more than that. We create these trips because we believe you don’t always need a week-long holiday to create a memory that stays with you.

Sometimes all you need is one overnight train, one crazy idea, a group of people you’ve never met before and a city celebrating something as beautiful as Navratri.

That’s what Ahmedabad gives you. And that’s why we do this every year at Tour to Dreams.

Every Navratri, we bring together travellers who want to experience Ahmedabad not just as tourists, but as part of the celebration.

If you’ve ever watched Ahmedabad Garba videos and thought, “I want to experience this at least once,” take this as your sign. Next Navratri, come with us. This is how we travel at Tour to Dreams.

A little crazy. A little spontaneous. And always worth it.

Shivani Raghuvanshi
Co-Founder, Tour to Dreams