SOU is in Kevadia, after Baroda on your way to Mumbai. This means if you are in Mumbai, you must drive towards Baroda and take a right into Kevadia.
How to reach SOU?
1. Rent a car from Ahmedabad and reach Kevadia in 3.15 hours or from Mumbai in 5.5 hours
2. You need to park your car usually at Bharat Bhavan since one cannot take the car without permission, which is only available in Gandhinagar, possibly since it is the capital of the State or need special contacts (I do not know how that works).
3. You can hire e pink rickshaws (driven only by women) for 2 hours or 4 hours or 1 entire day. Rates are better compared to the time you lose in catching the free govt bus from Bharat Bhavan to main station.
The main station is next to SOU premises and there are 6 to 8 stations that take you to locations like parks, jungle safari etc.
4. If you buy the ECO tourism ticket, you don't have to pay Rs. 50 (per pax) which takes the bus from the station to the parks, then you can just hope onto the bus for free!
5. Yes, you can travel by Vista dome too from Ahmedabad to Kavadia (Ekta Nagar) station and hire e ricks for entire day. (Simpler if you are going to manage all travels in and out of the city by TRAIN).
What to carry?
1. You cannot miss your sports shoes.
2. Carry a jacket during winters as after 5 pm it gets cooler, and you will feel cold after full sundown.
3. Glares and caps/hats are a must since there is almost 10 to 15K steps to walk during each day
How many days?
2 nights are enough if you want to cover most of the special places and 3 nights to be easy and not tired till you get out.
What must you do?
Reach as early as you can and check in to tent city (Rs 25000 for 4 people for 1 night) or better stay at Ramada (near Bharat Bhavan) or the Fern (Rs. 11000 per night for 4 pax).
Directly begin with gardens like Ekta Nursery, Cactus Garden and Butterfly. Entries close at 5.30 pm and you will be asked to leave from the gardens by 5.45 to 6 pm.
You go to the Sound and Light show inside SOU or if you cannot manage that, seeing light show from the main station is also worth seeing. Parallelly, you will hear sound and laser show at Sardar Sarovar Dam when you reach the Unity Glow Garden.
All the above you manage on day 1. Keep snacking and sipping AMUL chaas, milk, cold coffee during your internal commute. Places are far off from each other, possibly 3 to 4 kms minimum.
SOU - Buy a slot either 4 to 6 pm for day 2 and start with Jungle Safari and Valley of Flowers after breakfast. We had done slot of 8 to 10 am for SOU.
Slots mean that you have to be at the elevator (45 minutes walk from the main entrance) to the statue to go up his chest for Viewing gallery. Thereafter, you spend time inside the museum beneath the statue and go upto his feet using the escalators. It is an experience that you would have never seen such a marvel. You will also observe Sardar's shawl threads made up of the metal wonder.
This entire place is made with finesse and has been made to look like a foreign city. No wonder Make in India concept was the driving force and it took the GOVT and the companies 5 years to bring the best possible trip you can ever have.
You can eat at Sankalp at Ramada Inn, Subway or the food court inside SOU.
