Vadodara Hotels

Vadodara (or Baroda as it's often known) is a cultured, harmonious university town 100km southeast of Ahmedabad, which explodes into life during festival season. The impressive museum, overwrought Indo-Saracenic palace and beautiful Tambekar Wada can be visited in a day or two, but the main reason for coming here is the nearby, wonderful Unesco World Heritage site Champaner, with its mosques lost in the landscape.Prior to Independence, Vadodara was the capital of the princely Gaekwad state, and today prides itself as an educational centre, and home to the sprawling MS University.Although it is the number one industrial city in Gujarat, it still shows its Gaekwads legacy. The Gaekwads, who once ruled in Vadadora and made it into their own capital, gave the city a second name, Baroda, which is still occasionally used these days. The city has large parks and several impressive palaces, such as the Laxmi Vilas and the Pratap Palace and a handful of impressive museums. The Baroda museum and its Picture Gallery are definitely worth a visit.Modern Baroda is a great and fitting memorial to its late ruler, Sayaji Rao Gaekwad III (1875-1939 AD). It was the dream of this able administrator to make Baroda an educational, industrial and commercial centre and he ensured that his dream would come true. Baroda is situated on the banks of the river Vishwamitri (whose name is derived from the great saint Rishi Vishwamitra). The city was once called Chandravati, after its ruler Raja Chandan, then Viravati, the abode of the brave, and then Vadpatra because of the abundance of banyan trees on the banks of the Vishwamitri. From Vadpatra it derived its present name Baroda or Vadodara.
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