Pune to Delhi Road Trip with Our Dog

This blog post can be helpful for not only travelling with a dog but also anyone who is doing a road trip from Pune – Delhi by car. On this trip, we travelled in Honda City. We had done few short trips with our dog Jenny to check how much she is comfortable in travelling by car and we were very excited for this upcoming trip as this was going to be the longest road trip of our so far. Before starting our journey we read many articles, consulted with Jenny’s vet and got confident that this trip is going to be the memorable trip for us. We divided our trip in 3 days as we were going to cross 4 states and covering over 1800 km.

Pune to Surat –

We started our travel around 1:30 noontime from Pune, Magarpatta city and our target was to reach Surat. While travelling with a dog you need to be very careful, taking regular breaks after some 100kms or 150kms depends on how much comfortable your dog is. We wanted to cross Mumbai as early as possible to avoid traffic so we took our first break just after crossing Mumbai.

We were all refreshed now and with happy tummy 🙂 headed towards Vapi. We decided to stop maximum by 8:00 pm and we crossed Vapi on expected time too. We did not have any booking there but the very first hotel on the highway allowed us to stay with our dog 😀 After a hearty meal all of us slept to glory.

Surat to Ajmer –

We got up early, had breakfast and started towards our next destination – Ajmer. We missed the route which goes via Godhra and went straight to Ahmedabad – Ajmer route. Highways are really smooth and you can drive really fast. The only turn off was when we missed the Ahmedabad bypass and had to drive inside the Ahmedabad city. The traffic was really bad, people were not giving side at all. Almost nobody was following the signal too. It was quite surprising and we wasted almost an hour due to all this chaos. After hitting back on the highway, we took a halt for lunch and treated ourselves with Kathiawadi thali. 😀

To reach Ajmer we were following Ahmedabad->Udaipur->Ajmer route and we had done a prior booking in a dog-friendly hotel  “Hotel Mittal Inn” at Ajmer.

After 150 km from Udaipur, we faced more challenge since the sun was about to set and we had to now take the single lane state highway so we can’t drive fast as well. It was already dark and we were crossing small villages on the way. We drove almost 2.5 hours in dark and it was a little scary too as we were driving first time in kind of remote villages due to which we got more late and reached Ajmer around 9 pm. We checked in to the hotel and settled down quickly because this was the only time we had to go out on the road to taste the local food and to see the market.

We had hot small samosas, kachoris, different types of dahi vadas, chaat and other delicacies which is very famous in Rajasthan. Don’t forget to taste Ajmer’s special desi ghee “Sohan halwa”, it is a traditional Persian sweet. Ajmer is famous for the “Ajmer Sharif dargah” and “Nareli Jain Temple”.
1. Ajmer Shariff is a shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti consists of several white marble buildings arranged around two courtyards, including a massive gate.
2. Nareli Jain Temple is a beautiful Jain temple located on the outskirts of Ajmer and lies on the national highway NH8. This temple is getting popular for its beautiful architecture and intricate stone carvings.

There are some lake, museum and temples as well in Ajmer city to visit but due to time constraint, we could not explore much in Ajmer except local market food and next day we had to reach Delhi.

Ajmer to Delhi –

Next day morning, we took a little detour to Pushkar which is just 15 km -20 km away from Ajmer. The route is hilly and took around an hour to reach there. Pushkar has many temples, around 500. The most famous among Pushkar temples is the Brahma Temple built during the 14th century. The temple is very colourful with red shikhara and blue pillars. Pushkar is famous for its annual fair “Pushkar Camel Fair” as well held’s every year for 7 days in the month of October or November.

After visiting the temple, we had “Kadhi kachori” and “Malpua”. It was the best kadhi kachori and Malpua we had, it is highly recommended. So if you visit Pushkar don’t miss to have these 2 dishes usually served hot throughout the day.

After this we resumed our drive to Delhi via Jaipur, we had to cover around 430 -450 km. Within 2 hours we were in Jaipur. We wanted to see city palace, fort and some market in Jaipur but unfortunately, everything was closed due to lunch time and it wasn’t worth to wait since we have been to Jaipur before too. The old city was chaotic due to metro work and less area to park, we decided to be on the highway instead to reach Delhi on time. We reached Gurgaon sharp 5 pm and thought we had all the evening by ourselves. But to our shock, it took us 5 hours to reach Delhi from Gurgaon due to Friday evening and Diwali extended weekend.

There is a lot of toll booth you will get but I did not felt bad because the roads were really great you can drive constantly with 110+ speed. In total drive, we paid approx 2000 rs, but it is value for money due to superb roads. Throughout the journey, my dog was pretty comfortable and it was a wonderful experience to drive so long with a dog.

Some tips for travelling with a dog:

1. Always have food and water handy for your pet.
2. Take frequent quick breaks for their bio breaks, they might need little time to sniff around to do their business.
3. Check with their Vet and carry some recommended medicines in case they feel dizzy or pukish on the way.
4. Depending on the breed you need to maintain the AC temperature in the car.

5. You can also consider travelling by train with your dog if you think that road trip is too much and tiring.

P.S: Delhi to Pune road trip will be covered in another blog post which includes a stopover in Kumbhalgarh and Udaipur. Stay tuned.