Experience the best of Rajkot

Rajkot lies in the Kathiawar peninsula, also called Saurashtra, and was the seat of a princely state before independence. Mahatma Gandhi spent his school years here: his family home, Kaba Gandhi No Delo, is now a museum, and the high school where he studied still stands. The Watson Museum, in a colonial building in Jubilee Garden, keeps coins, sculpture and relics from Saurashtra's history.

Lal Pari Lake and the Aji Dam are popular local picnic spots, and the Rotary Dolls Museum shows costumes and dolls from around the world. Junagadh and its Girnar hills, the Gir forest where Asiatic lions live, and the coastal temple of Somnath are a few hours' drive to the south, while Jamnagar lies to the west.

Kathiawadi cooking is robust and spicy: sev tamatar, ringna no oro, a smoky mash of roasted aubergine, millet flatbread with ghee and jaggery, and a garlic chutney served with almost everything. Breakfast is often fafda and jalebi, and buttermilk is drunk through the day. Winter is the pleasant season, summers are extremely hot, and the monsoon arrives between July and September.