India · State of Gujarāt
Where to Stay in Rājkot, State of Gujarāt
Rajkot is a city of Gujarat in western India, an old princely capital on the Saurashtra plain, the town where Mahatma Gandhi passed his boyhood.
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Where to stay in Rājkot
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Where you stay in Rajkot turns on the old town or the new. The lanes around the clock tower keep the Gandhi house, the Watson Museum, and the bazaars within a walk, and staying in the old town suits anyone here for the heritage. The bazaars run late.
Trade fills the narrow streets. Out toward the ring roads and the river, the town gives way to the new colonies, the malls, and the quiet of the edge. A room in the new city trades the old lanes for wide roads, gardens, and the calm by the Aji.
The plain runs dry beyond. Stay in the old town for the heritage, or out for the quiet. Either way, the clock-tower streets are a short run from the door.
About Rājkot
Rajkot is the old princely city of Saurashtra.
What is Rājkot known for?
On the dry plain of the Kathiawar peninsula in Gujarat, it grew as the seat of a Rajput state and the hub of the region, and it keeps the family home where Gandhi spent his boyhood, the colonial Watson Museum of Saurashtra's past, the tall clock tower over the old town, and the cotton mills and craft bazaars of the trading city. The dry plain runs flat around. Bazaars fill the old lanes.
What are the main landmarks in Rājkot?
Kaba Gandhi No Delo is the pride of Rajkot. The old family house where Gandhi lived as a boy, kept now as a museum of his early life, stands in the old town, the emblem of the city, downtown. A clock tower marks the streets.
The tall Jam Tower rises over the old town, while the Watson Museum, the Alfred school where Gandhi studied, and the Aji river mark the country around Rajkot.
What is the history of Rājkot?
Rajkot rose as a Rajput capital. On the Kathiawar plain a Jadeja prince founded the town in the old days, and it became the seat of a small princely state and later the hub the British ruled the peninsula from. A boy here changed the world.
In a modest house in the old town lived the family of Mohandas Gandhi, whose father served the Rajkot court, and here the boy went to school and passed his early years. The old order passed with the British. When India won freedom, the princes gave up their thrones, and Rajkot the capital became a busy city of trade and mills in the new Gujarat.
Its boyhood home became a shrine. The house where Gandhi lived was made a museum of his life, and the old Watson Museum still held the relics of Saurashtra, while Rajkot grew into a maker of engines, bearings, and gold, keeping its bazaars, its clock tower, and its Gandhi shrines. The lanes still ring with trade.
Rajkot keeps its old town and its memory on the Saurashtra plain.
Where is Rājkot?
Rajkot lies in the center of Saurashtra, on the Aji river in the peninsula of western Gujarat. The city sits on a flat, dry plain of black cotton soil, ringed by low hills and scrub, with the Aji dam on its edge and the salt flats and the gulf beyond the fields. The river runs low in the dry.
Dust blows over the plain.
What is the climate of Rājkot?
Rajkot has a hot, dry climate. Scorching summers and mild dry winters cross the plain, with fierce heat before the monsoon and warm rains in the late summer months. The summer sun is harsh.
Monsoon greens the fields.
How do you get to Rājkot?
Rajkot lies in central Saurashtra, on the road and rail across Gujarat. Trains and the highway run to it from Ahmedabad and the coast, and roads lead south to the Gir forest and the shrines of the peninsula. Flights land by the town.
Ahmedabad lies east over the plain.
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Updated August 2026