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Don Hill Station

Don Hill Station

hill station · Gujarat

Don is a hill village deep in the Sahyadris, in the Dang district of South Gujarat.

State
Gujarat
Type
Hill Station
Best season
Winter
Things to do
1+

Don is a hill village deep in the Sahyadris, in the Dang district of South Gujarat. At about 1,000 metres it matches Saputara for elevation, but none of the commercial development has followed it up here. Bamboo forest covers the slopes, the valley drops away steeply on all sides, and small streams run off the hill. A small indigenous tribal community lives here; what visitors get is clean mountain air, a great deal of biodiversity and very little else.

When to go

September to March, after the monsoon and through the winter: misty mountain mornings, the seasonal streams still running, and cold nights.

Why visit

A Dangi village on a plateau in south Gujarat, promoted as a hill station only recently, which means very little has been built on it. The Anjani Mata cave here is tied locally to the Hanuman story. Come after the monsoon, when the Dangs are green and the roads are passable.

Cultural notes

The village's name is traced locally to the warrior sage Guru Dronacharya, a link that runs back into scripture. The Dangi tribes who live here still hold their prayers in the forest and still play instruments such as the Kahalia.

How to reach

By Road: Don is roughly 30 km from Ahwa (the district headquarters) and 165 km from Surat. By Train: The nearest railhead is Waghai, on a narrow-gauge line, though Bilimora Junction, 120 km away, is the more practical major station. By Air: Surat Domestic Airport (STV) is the closest airport, about 170 km away.

Don Hill Station in 2 days

See the full itinerary

2 days in Don Hill Station

Take the whole plan, or add any single stop.

Day 1

Day 1

Sunrise from Don's meadow ridges

Sunrise from Don's meadow ridges

Day 1

Anjani Kund & mythology trail

Anjani Kund & mythology trail

Day 1

Village walk among terraced farms

Village walk among terraced farms

Day 2

Day 2

Monsoon waterfalls around Don

Monsoon waterfalls around Don

Saputara

Day 2

Saputara

Saputara is the most built-up of Gujarat's few hill stations — Don, at the same thousand metres, has almost nothing on it — which makes Saputara modest by Himalayan standards and genuinely useful if you are anywhere near Surat or Ahmedabad. It sits at about a thousand metres in the Dang forests near the Maharashtra border. The lake at the centre is the focus — boating, a promenade, and a ropeway up to the sunset point. None of it is dramatic. What is good is the drive in through the Sahyadri forest, the Gira waterfall after the monsoon, and the tribal museum, which is small and better than it needs to be. The monsoon and the weeks just after it are when this place justifies itself. The Saputara Monsoon Festival runs through those months, the forest is fully green and the waterfalls are actually falling. By March the hills have gone brown and the lake is low. Set your expectations to a cool weekend in the woods rather than a mountain trip, and it holds up. Two nights is right; a week would be too long. July to November.

Day 2

Tribal Dang craft stalls

Tribal Dang craft stalls

Don Hill Station guide & itineraries

Don Hill Station is perfect for

offbeatbudgetnature

Shopping

It is remote, so there are no proper markets. Visitors can buy organic wild forest honey, hand-crafted bamboo baskets, traditional tribal wooden arrows, and local farm-fresh finger millet (Nagli) directly from the village residents.

Frequently asked questions

Can we find luxury hotel stay options inside Don Hill Station?

No, luxury resorts are not available. Accommodations are restricted to basic tribal home-stays, rustic eco-camps managed by local forest groups, and small village guesthouses.

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