Junagadh to Sasan Gir Taxi Fare, Distance & Travel Guide

Quick answer.

Distance and drive: 52-55 km via the Mendarda road, 1.25-1.5 hours in a car.
Rail alternative: 72 km of metre gauge reaches Sasan Gir station (SASG) directly in about 2h15.
Taxi fare: aggregator one-ways from Rs.1,500-1,700 for a sedan; outstation desks print Rs.2,400 one way.
Budget options: GSRTC buses from Rs.80, and the metre-gauge passenger at a counter fare in tens of rupees.

Sasan Gir is not a town you arrive in for its own sake; it is a gate you try to beat. The safari permit, not the driver, decides the clock: a winter morning slot opens at 6:30 AM, reporting closes an hour earlier at Sinh Sadan, and the drive takes 1.25 to 1.5 hours, so the cab that leaves Junagadh at 04:30 is the cab that walks into the reception with the permit still valid. Anyone pricing the forest first should keep our Sasan Gir National Park safari guide open beside this one. Always name the exact drop point to your driver: the Sasan Gir railway station sits 3-4 km before the main village, Sinh Sadan and the park safari gate stand at the end of the 52-55 km run, and Devalia Safari Park is another 12-13 km further west. Junagadh pickups run from the railway station, the bus stand or the Girnar Taleti Road; drops land at the gate reception, the lodge or the Devalia reception. Fares and timings on this page were last reviewed in October 2026; confirm current rates before you travel.

Junagadh to Sasan Gir Distance and Route

The road distance from Junagadh to Sasan Gir ranges between 52 and 55 km via the Mendarda route. Official portals cite 53 to 60 km depending on whether they measure to the village border or to the Sinh Sadan reception, so plan for an actual driving distance of 55 km. Allow 1.25 to 1.5 hours in a car, an hour and a half to two on the bus timetable, and 2h15 on the metre-gauge train, whose 72 km run drops south through Bilkha and Visavadar before turning north to the forest instead of cutting across like the road.

By road. The Mendarda road leaves Junagadh across its north-east edge, runs 25-28 km through mango orchard and farm country to the Mendarda junction, then turns south into the forest buffer for the last 12 km before the gate; two-lane asphalt, wide enough for buses, with not a single toll plaza on it, so there is no FASTag line to add to the quote. One pricing footnote for interstate visitors: a Gujarat-registered cab carries no road cess on this run, while a yellow-plate car hired from outside the state still carries its interstate permit taxes, which is why the same sedan can quote differently from two desks. By rail: Sasan Gir station, code SASG, is real but metre gauge only, one platform on the edge of the forest, and broad-gauge trains from Ahmedabad and Rajkot run only as far as Veraval, 40-42 km away, where a taxi or the next metre-gauge passenger takes over. By bus: the state board runs through the day and night from the Junagadh central stand for a fare that undercuts everything else on this page, and the Sasan Gir bus stand sits in the village, minutes from the gate and the lodges.

Route Stops Between Junagadh and Sasan Gir

Road conditions and sequence. The highway leaves the city fast, holds a rural two-lane rhythm through the orchard belt, and slows again for the last 12 km of forest buffer where the crossing boards mean what they say. Mendarda is the tea-and-fuel halt, and past it the villages thin out until Sasan appears: market, station road, reception campus. Buses schedule the run at 1h15-1h50, the speed check for this road, and a driver told the permit time at booking will leave without being asked twice.

Forest Corridor Rules, Luggage and Network

Five things neither the fare grid nor the permit table tells you, and each one changes how you pack, how you drive the last 12 km, or how you plan the day.

The forest stretch is a no-stop corridor after dark. The road between Mendarda and Sasan enters the forest buffer zone. The state highway itself stays open to traffic, but the forest department prohibits stopping, honking or getting out of the vehicle anywhere along that corridor between sunset and sunrise, and the checkpost discipline is enforced rather than suggested. Settle photo breaks and comfort stops at Mendarda before the buffer begins near 40-43 km; horns stay for emergencies, and the driver keeps moving until the reception campus.
The hire car stops at the reception, not on the trail. Private and rented cars, self-drive 4x4s included, are barred from the Gir Jungle Trail core: beyond Sinh Sadan only registered forest-department open Gypsies run, so the Junagadh cab is a drop-and-hold vehicle that parks while you are on the slot, never a safari vehicle of its own.
The buffer barrier and the document check. The forest department runs a checkpost at the buffer entry: the driver slows for the barrier and keeps the commercial permit, vehicle insurance and passenger list ready for the standard vehicle inspection. Travellers keep the printed e-permit and original photo ID to hand too, because the same corridor check can ask for them before Sinh Sadan.
Mobile data thins out between Mendarda and Sasan. Airtel and Jio coverage drops noticeably on stretches of the buffer run, and the data link at Sinh Sadan can crawl during the morning reporting rush when the whole reception is on the same tower. Download the e-permit PDF, the ID copies and an offline route map in Junagadh before you leave, keep screenshots of the permit and the booking SMS, and treat a live map as a luxury after Mendarda rather than a given.
Child ages are checked at the counter. Forest guards at Sinh Sadan verify child ages against an Aadhaar card or a school ID, not against a parent’s word. A child booked in the 3-12 band who looks older without proof is charged the full adult permit surcharge on the spot, so carry that ID with the printed permit, and book the age honestly rather than hoping the gap does not show.

Junagadh to Sasan Gir Taxi Fare

How much does a cab from Junagadh to Sasan Gir cost? A one-way sedan runs Rs.1,500-1,700 on an aggregator app or Rs.2,400 on an outstation desk, an Ertiga Rs.2,561-3,000, an Innova Crysta Rs.4,200, a 12-seater Tempo Traveller Rs.6,500, and a full-day safari package from Rs.2,800, against GSRTC buses from Rs.80.

Taxi quotes on this route split into two groups: aggregator one-ways that open near Rs.1,500-1,700 for a sedan, and desk boards that print Rs.2,400 for the same car, and the gap is not a scam, it is arithmetic. Aggregators sell the drop to fill a return; outstation desks bill a 90-100 km minimum on a 53 km road because the driver is paid for a day he cannot re-hire. Savaari’s grid opens at Rs.1,582 for a hatchback, Rs.1,665 for a sedan and Rs.2,561 for an SUV, Wonderway quotes sedan drops from Rs.1,500, and the reverse-direction desks on our Sasan Gir to Junagadh car rental page print the mirror image: Rs.2,400 sedan, Rs.3,000 Ertiga, Rs.4,200 Crysta. These are third-party boards dated October 2026 and they move; confirm at booking.

Pick the car by what you carry, not only by what it costs. Avoid standard CNG sedans if you are travelling with rigid camera cases or multiple trolley bags: the CNG tank occupies most of the boot, which forces bulky gear onto passenger seats. For camera equipment, a tripod and three or four bags, opt for an Ertiga or an Innova Crysta, whose boot takes a hard case comfortably, and give the desk your case dimensions at booking so the car that arrives is the car that fits.

Where the car starts prices the pickup. Junagadh Junction and the city hotels near College Chowk are the standard bases and cost nothing extra; a hotel on the Girnar Taleti Road is a city-edge pickup that quietly saves the old-city bottleneck, while anywhere inside the old city deserves an extra fifteen minutes at that hour. Pre-dawn pickups need a gate address. Travellers sleeping near Girnar Taleti to ride the ropeway, timings for which live in our Girnar ropeway and nature safari guide, before dropping down to this road usually roll out at 04:00-04:30, and at that hour auto-rickshaws into Junagadh city centre are scarce to nonexistent. Book the cab to the hotel gate itself: give the Taleti address, the room and the pickup hour at booking, and let the driver hold at the gate rather than assuming you will walk out and find a car on the road.

One-Way vs. Round-Trip Taxi Billing Dynamics

How they read the quote. A one-way drop price that looks too good usually excludes the pieces the desk includes: the driver’s return duty, and on longer boards GST and night allowance. On this corridor the extras are mild because there is no toll at all, so compare the drop price against the 90-100 km minimum rather than a fuel surcharge that does not exist here. Round-trip boards bill differently again: aggregator per-km rates near Rs.12-15 apply to the 106 km your car actually drives, while desk day-rate packages enforce a minimum distance, which is why a same-day Junagadh-Sasan Gir return with a three-hour safari wait prices near Rs.3,500-4,000 for a sedan rather than double the one-way. Wonderway’s full-day safari package opens at Rs.2,800: pickup in Junagadh, the driver holding through your safari with local sightseeing folded in, evening return. Ask which of the three bases your quote sits on before comparing it with anything else.

Peak dates carry a premium. Diwali, the Christmas and New Year week and Janmashtami are the surges this corridor runs on: local Junagadh operators quote 20-35% above the off-peak desks printed here, and the aggregator grid follows a step behind. Festival weeks also fill the safari slots first, so the car and the permit get booked in the same week or not at all.

Five rules this route’s gate-side fare drifts on:

Safari waiting time: settle the hourly waiting rate before departure; a three-hour jungle hold on a cheaper per-kilometre board can rival the fare itself.
AC engine idling: AC while the car is moving is part of the fare, but drivers bill the engine idling at a summer halt as waiting time.
Devalia extension: the interpretation zone sits 12-13 km west of the village, so name it at booking rather than discovering the add-on at the gate.
No highway tolls: the Mendarda-Sasan Gir road carries zero toll plazas, so decline any FASTag surcharge on this route.
The drop is not a return: one-way aggregator drops into Sasan Gir are easy to find, but app-based cars rarely wait inside the village for the road back; book the return with the outbound leg, or plan the village desk, the state bus or the 52951 instead.

Round trip. The same-day loop works because the safari fills the middle of the day by itself: leave Junagadh early, hold through the slot, two local stops after, and the car runs back on your ticket. DDcab’s one-day Junagadh package folds the sedan return into Rs.3,300, and the reverse grid opens near the forward one because the car was coming back anyway. A two-day loop adds one line that same-day trips never see: the driver’s overnight bata, normally Rs.300-500 a night in Sasan Gir, which is better settled at booking than argued at the gate on the second evening. Book the single leg if the exit date is soft, then add the return when the permit firms up and ask if the rate holds for a return added two days out.

Gir Safari Permits and Slots

Everything on this page bends around one document: the e-permit, issued only through the forest department’s official portal at girlion.gujarat.gov.in, sold for a date and a time slot, and shown with an original photo ID at Sinh Sadan. The permit is the reason a cab from Junagadh leaves at 04:30, and it is also the reason the drive is pointless between 16 June and 15 October, when the Gir jungle trail shuts for the monsoon every year. Slots are capped and weekend mornings go first; no printout at the gate, no forest.

One clarification the closure line usually hides: only the core jungle trail shuts. The Mendarda-Sasan Gir state highway stays an open thoroughfare through every month of the year, Devalia keeps running its monsoon schedule except on Wednesdays, and Kamleshwar Dam and the village stay reachable, so a June-to-September trip still buys the drive, the interpretation zone and the buffer scenery, just not the trail itself.

The permit price itself is modest; the day costs more because the permit deliberately excludes the wheels and the guide. One e-permit covers a maximum of six adults plus one child aged 3-12; the rates below are the official 2026 ones.

| Item | Weekday (Rs.) | Weekend or festival (Rs.) | Note | | — | — | — | — | | Gir jungle trail permit, Indian | 800 | 1,000 | Up to 6 persons; extra child 3-12 adds 100/125 | | Gir jungle trail permit, foreigner | 7,600 | 9,500 | Passport number required at booking and counter | | Safari Gypsy, Gir Jungle Trail | 2,000 | 2,000 | Flat standard hire at Sinh Sadan; Type A new 4/6/8-seaters bill 2,500 / 3,500 / 4,500 | | Eco-guide, Grade 2 (G2) | 400 | 400 | Grade 1 (G1) senior guide bills 500; grade fixed by the allotment at Sinh Sadan, paid at the counter | | Devalia bus safari, Indian | 150 | 190 | Zone 12-13 km west; Devalia Gypsy runs 1,600 Type B to 2,500 Type A and needs an online permit in advance | | Camera fee, amateur | 200 | 200 | Indian nationals; foreign nationals are billed a fixed INR rate on the forest department’s counter schedule, never a floating Forex rate |

What your Rs.800 permit does not cover. An e-permit reserves your entry slot and nothing else. First-time visitors often reach Sinh Sadan unaware that the safari vehicle and the guide are hired and paid for separately, on the spot.

The Gypsy: registered Gypsies are hired separately at Sinh Sadan, Rs.2,000 standard for the Gir Jungle Trail, with Type A new 4/6/8-seaters at Rs.2,500 / 3,500 / 4,500; the counter arranges one when permits allow. Nothing else runs beyond the reception: private cars, rented SUVs and self-drive 4x4s are prohibited inside the Gir core zone, so the cab from Junagadh parks at Sinh Sadan for the length of the slot and only open forest-department Gypsies take the trail.
The guide: the eco-guide runs Rs.400-500 on top, Rs.400 for a Grade 2 (G2) guide and Rs.500 for a Grade 1 (G1) senior guide under the Gujarat Forest Department’s own grade list, the grade being whichever the counter allocates to your vehicle at Sinh Sadan; it is booked with the vehicle, not with the permit.
The small cash items: camera fee Rs.200 for Indian amateurs, food and water at the reception, printed copies of everything; the gate takes the printout and original ID together.
The bags: a morning one-way arrival usually means checking out of the Junagadh hotel with a full suitcase, and large luggage cannot ride the open safari Gypsy, where the trail runs with the driver, the guide and a day pack on your lap. Sinh Sadan keeps a staffed cloakroom at the reception campus that takes trolley cases for the three hours of a slot, the 05:30 reporting shift included, for a nominal cash charge, with the tag handed back for collection on the way to the car. The better option is free: if your cab is holding, the bags stay locked in the boot in the Sinh Sadan parking area, since the driver waits on the campus through the slot anyway. Carry the camera bag, the printed permit and the original ID on the Gypsy itself.

Booking rules that decide your departure time. The calendar opens up to three months ahead on the portal (the site’s own FAQ cites 45 days for some windows), and bookings close two hours before the slot, so there is no tatkal queue and no walk-in guarantee. One person can hold one jungle-trail permit per slot per day, confirmations arrive by SMS, and reporting is an hour before the slot at Sinh Sadan, e-permit printed, same ID you booked with. Foreign travellers clear the same counter on the original passport, with the valid visa or OCI that matches the name and passport number on the booking; a photocopy will not do. Devalia works on a different clock: closed every Wednesday, Gypsy slots hourly through the morning and afternoon, and its two tickets are bought in two different places. The 30-45 minute bus safari is sold at an on-the-spot counter at the Devalia Interpretation Zone reception, but a Devalia Gypsy permit has to be reserved in advance online on the same portal, girlion.gujarat.gov.in, since Gypsy slots are quota-bound like the jungle trail. The spot window is not a fallback: on a peak weekend, once the online quota for Devalia Gypsy slots is exhausted, the reception counter cannot sell one, and the 30-seater safari bus becomes the only drive still buyable at the gate. The bus safari at Rs.150 is the cheapest lion-country ticket in Gujarat, covered in full in our Devalia Safari Park guide.

Junagadh to Sasan Gir by Train

The railway here needs one sentence of truth before any timetable: Sasan Gir station, code SASG, exists, but it is metre gauge only, one platform at the forest edge, and no broad-gauge train from Ahmedabad, Mumbai or Rajkot will ever set you down there. Big trains end at Veraval Junction, 40-42 km short, where a taxi or the next metre-gauge passenger takes over. The direct option is the Junagadh-Delvada passenger, which reaches the gate’s own station in about 2h15; the hybrid is the coast train to Veraval plus that last stretch by road. Both metre-gauge passengers, 52952 down and 52951 back, run as unreserved local services: no seat for them can be held through IRCTC or any online agent, so the ticket is bought in person at the station counter on the day of travel, in tens of rupees, against a printed photo ID. The tables below are direction-correct, but both metre-gauge passengers sit inside an ongoing Western Railway maintenance and gauge-conversion window across Saurashtra, so the clocks move: check NTES on the morning of travel rather than building a slot around the schedule printed here.

Toward the forest (Junagadh Jn origin):

| Train | Days | Junagadh Jn | Sasan Gir / Veraval | Run | | — | — | — | — | — | | 52952 MG Junagadh-Delvada passenger | Daily | 08:00 | SASG 10:15 | 2h15 on 72 km of metre gauge via Bilkha and Visavadar; through stop 8 of 19 on the 160 km Delvada run; sites print 07:15-08:00 starts, confirm on NTES | | 22957 Somnath SF Express | Daily | 04:00 | VRL 05:45 | 1h45 to the broad-gauge railhead, then 40-42 km by taxi, about Rs.1,200-1,500 | | 19252 Okha-Veraval Express | Daily | 03:14 | VRL 05:15 | 2h01, the day’s first wheels, then the last kilometres by road |

The timing arithmetic decides who this section is for. A winter morning slot reports at Sinh Sadan by 5:30 AM: the 08:00 passenger lands at 10:15 and misses it entirely, and even the 04:00 Somnath SF with a taxi dash reaches the gate near 06:45, also late. So same-day rail plus morning slot does not exist on paper: take the evening slot after the 10:15 arrival, which fits the 3:00-6:00 PM winter band, or sleep at Sasan the night before. Slot-chasers book the cab or the 03:30 first bus instead.

Back toward Junagadh (Sasan Gir and Veraval origin):

The 52951 passenger train is the only direct rail service out of Sasan Gir station. If you miss its 14:54 departure, you will have to take the highway back or head 40-42 km to Veraval Junction for broad-gauge connections.

Classes and fares. On the metre gauge you buy ordinary unreserved class at the counter, in tens of rupees: 52952 and 52951 take no reservation at all, nothing shows up on IRCTC, and there is no seat number to carry, so the routine is the physical counter at Junagadh or SASG on the day of travel, cash and ID in hand. The ride is the slow Saurashtra countryside at about 25 km/h; on the broad gauge the same corridor’s general seat runs near Rs.150 and the Somnath SF buys back an hour. Sasan station has a waiting room and one chai stall, no taxi stand of its own, so the last 3-4 km to the gate is an auto from the stand outside or the pre-booked car on the road.

Junagadh to Sasan Gir by Bus

The state board runs this corridor harder than the distance suggests: nine to thirteen departures a day on current boards, first bus a 03:30 sleeper out of the Junagadh central stand, last around 19:25-19:55, with trackers showing later night services toward 23:30 worth confirming rather than planning around. Journey time prints at 1h15 to 1h50 for the 55-58 km run, fares band from about Rs.80 for an ordinary class to Rs.220 for the air-conditioned or sleeper seats, and the drop is the Sasan Gir bus stand in the village, minutes from the gate and the lodges. The 03:30 departure reaches Sasan near 05:00-05:30, which lands a winter 6:30 slot’s reporting hour exactly. Book through the official GSRTC portal or at the counter, the bus being the budget twin of the early cab.

Junagadh to Sasan Gir by Air

No flight lands at the forest; the question is only which airport shortens the ground leg. Keshod’s airport, code IXK, is the closest by the forest department’s own reckoning at 60 km from Sasan, with an Alliance Air Ahmedabad service worth checking rather than assuming. Diu sits 100 km east on the coast, Rajkot 160 km north with its Hirasar International Airport about 30 km outside the city on the Ahmedabad side, so treat Hirasar (HSR) as roughly 190 km of road to the gate, which is 3.5 to 4 hours of driving via Mendarda, the Junagadh bypass and NH 27; put that much slack between the safari checkout and the flight, or move the drive to the previous evening. Porbandar sits at 180 km. Ahmedabad is the big-metal option at 370-375 km, a full day’s drive after the landing. The cab from the terminal is always the last stage, and the road from Junagadh wins on price whenever the flight saves little.

What to See Around Sasan Gir

The forest is the sight; the other stops fill the hours around a permit slot, and all three are priced in local taxi rates rather than outstation ones.

Sinh Sadan and the reception campus, 0 km. The permit desk, the orientation centre and the Gypsy boarding point all sit here, and the first hour of any safari day is spent between this campus and the village: ID checks, vehicle allotment, the last water and ATM before the buffer. Devalia, 12-13 km west. The Gir Interpretation Zone is 412 fenced hectares with three bus routes and a Gypsy option, opened to spread the pressure off the core park, and it is the closest thing in Gir to a predictable sighting: 45-minute loops leave hourly, the bus ticket is Rs.150 on a weekday and is sold on the spot at the zone reception, while a Gypsy inside Devalia must be permitted in advance online through girlion.gujarat.gov.in, and the zone rests every Wednesday, the one day Kamleshwar Dam, the crocodile breeding centre at Sinh Sadan or the Somnath coast west of Veraval take over the afternoon instead. The full circuit, slots and prices sit in our Devalia Safari Park guide. Kamleshwar Dam, about 19 km. The park’s water lifeline on one of the seven rivers that drain Gir, known for marsh crocodiles and the banks worked by Indian skimmers and pelicans; an afternoon hour here pairs cleanly with an evening slot.

The village itself carries a small museum and a market street that supplies what the lodges forget, and the station road matters mainly for travellers riding the metre-gauge passenger out of SASG at 14:54. Locals quote the Devalia turn and Kamleshwar as the two standard add-ons; anything further, Jambur or the Talala line, needs a second half-day that most slot schedules do not carry.

Return and Onward Travel

The return leg is the same road read backwards, with the boards mirroring the outbound grids: a sedan back to Junagadh runs Rs.2,400 on desk boards, the Ertiga Rs.3,000, the Crysta Rs.4,200, and a same-day loop with the safari folded in lands near Rs.3,500-4,000. The one-way aggregator drops that open near Rs.1,500-1,700 run both directions when demand allows, so quote both before you assume the return costs double; the fuller grid lives on the Sasan Gir to Junagadh car rental page. On rail, the 52951 is the only train that leaves from the gate’s own station: it reaches SASG at 14:53, pulls out at 14:54 and sets you down at Junagadh Jn at 17:10, so a same-day road-plus-rail exit means booking the afternoon and not the evening. Every other return starts with the 40-42 km run to Veraval Junction, priced on our Sasan Gir to Veraval car rental page for that station transit, where the evening departures at 17:00 and 21:50 cover the coast line to Ahmedabad and the night services run toward Okha.

One warning a one-way drop hides. App-based aggregators rarely keep cars stationed inside Sasan Gir village, so a clean drop inward does not buy a clean ride back. Secure the return before you leave Junagadh, either folded into the same booking or held as a written return quote. Travellers who arrive one-way and leave the return open end up hiring at the Sasan Gir village taxi stand, where the union counter quotes unmetered flat rates: near Rs.2,400-2,800 for a sedan back to Junagadh, Rs.3,000 for an Ertiga, Rs.4,200 for a Crysta, and Rs.1,200-1,500 for the run to Veraval Junction, all of it negotiated and paid at the counter. The two returns that never depend on finding a car are the GSRTC bus from the village stand and the 52951 passenger, ticket bought at the station counter.

Onward, the options branch wider than they look. The coast road turns at Veraval for the Somnath Temple evening aarti, five to seven kilometres past the harbour town, with Somnath temple taxi fares for that chain in our Junagadh to Somnath car rental guide; east, the Una and Diu line runs along the coastal belt for anyone pairing lions with the island; and north, the Mendarda junction points at Rajkot and the Dwarka road for the longer Gujarat circuit. Say the onward date at the first booking: a car held for the safari and the coast costs less than two cars booked in two towns.

8 Things to Know Before Booking Your Cab

Departure time is back-solved from the permit. Time your morning backward from the safari cutoff: reporting at Sinh Sadan closes one hour before the slot and the drive takes roughly 1.5 hours, so a 6:30 AM winter opening means the cab rolls out of Junagadh at 04:30 AM.
The trail shuts for the monsoon. The Gir jungle trail closes from 16 June to 15 October every year, so a July booking buys a drive to a closed gate; the season this page prices for starts 16 October.
Devalia rests on Wednesdays. A mid-week plan built around the interpretation zone needs reshuffling, and the Devalia Gypsy itself must be permitted in advance online on girlion.gujarat.gov.in, even though the bus safari is sold on the spot at the zone reception. Kamleshwar Dam, the crocodile breeding centre at Sinh Sadan and the Somnath coastal circuit all run on a Wednesday instead.
The e-permit is not transport. Budget the Gypsy at Rs.2,000-4,500, the eco-guide at Rs.400-500 (Grade 2 or Grade 1, allotted at Sinh Sadan) and the camera fee at Rs.200 for Indian amateurs, all settled at the counter with the printed permit and the original ID in the same hand. No private car, rented SUV or self-drive 4×4 goes past Sinh Sadan: only a registered forest-department open Gypsy takes the trail.
Desk and aggregator prices bill on different bases. Desks charge a 90-100 km outstation minimum on a 53 km road, which is why the same sedan sits Rs.700-900 apart on the two boards; compare the billing basis, not the headline figure.
Put the drop point in writing. The gate, the lodge, the Sinh Sadan campus or the Devalia reception 12-13 km west are four different fares, and drivers ask twice when the name is only spoken once.
Mendarda is the last easy halt. Fuel and tea on the way in; Sasan village holds the last ATM and supplies; after that the reception campus runs on card, cash and UPI.
Check NTES on the morning of travel. Metre-gauge clocks shift under Western Railway maintenance and gauge-conversion windows, so treat the train section’s timetable as the shape of the day rather than a guarantee; the 52951 return still runs once a day, with no second service behind it.

Suggested Itineraries and Day Plans

Plan one, the dawn-slot day. Cab from Junagadh at 04:30, Mendarda coffee in the dark, report at Sinh Sadan by 05:30, winter morning slot 06:30-09:30 through the buffer, then the 12-13 km turn west for a Devalia loop and home by evening light. This is the plan the Rs.2,800-plus full-day package was written for, driver waiting through the forest hours included. Plan two, the rail hybrid. Train 52952 out of Junagadh at 08:00, Sasan Gir station at 10:15, auto the last 3-4 km, lunch in the village, Kamleshwar’s crocodile banks in the heat, then the 3:00-6:00 PM evening slot; night at a lodge near the gate, then home the next day by first bus or cab, or stretch the stay to catch the single 52951 out of SASG at 14:54, into Junagadh at 17:10.

Plan three, the Girnar-first day. Dawn at Junagadh’s Taleti for the ropeway or the steps, Uparkot and Mahabat Maqbara after lunch, then the Mendarda road by 13:00 for a Sasan night with the evening slot at 3:00 PM; travellers who want lion country without this corridor at all should read the Girnar Nature Safari guide first, because that sanctuary sits on Junagadh’s doorstep. Plan four, the two-day forest and coast. Day one this road, the morning slot and Kamleshwar after; day two Devalia at opening while the queue is short, then the car east to Veraval for the night and the coast line onward at first light, the same booking covering both towns.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the distance from Junagadh to Sasan Gir by road?

52-55 km on the Mendarda line, a 1.25 to 1.5 hour drive in a car and 1h15-1h50 on the bus timetable. Published distances run from 52 to 60 km depending on whether they measure to the village, the gate or the reception campus: the Junagadh district portal says 53 and the forest department’s portal says 60.

How much is a taxi fare from Junagadh to Sasan Gir?

Aggregator one-way drops run Rs.1,582-1,665 for a sedan while outstation desks print Rs.2,400 for the same car, because they bill a 90-100 km minimum on this 53 km road; Ertiga runs Rs.3,000, Innova Crysta Rs.4,200, Tempo Traveller Rs.6,500, and a full-day safari package opens near Rs.2,800.

Is there a direct train from Junagadh to Sasan Gir?

Yes, on metre gauge only: train 52952, the Junagadh-Delvada passenger, leaves Junagadh around 08:00 and reaches Sasan Gir station in about 2h15, covering 72 km via Visavadar. For the way back there is exactly one service, the 52951, which is at SASG for 14:54 and into Junagadh Jn at 17:10. Both metre-gauge passengers are unreserved: IRCTC cannot issue a ticket or a seat for them, so buy at the physical station counter on the day of travel. No broad-gauge train comes here; those end at Veraval, 40-42 km away, where you change to a taxi at Rs.1,200-1,500 or pick up the next metre-gauge connection.

How do I book a Gir safari permit online?

Only through the forest department’s official portal, girlion.gujarat.gov.in: register, pick the date, product and slot, enter the ID you will carry, and pay online. The same portal is also where a Devalia Gypsy permit has to be reserved in advance, while the Devalia bus safari is the one ticket still sold on the spot at the zone reception counter. The calendar opens up to three months ahead, bookings close two hours before the slot, one permit covers six adults plus one child 3-12, and the printed e-permit reaches Sinh Sadan with the original photo ID; foreign travellers clear the same gate on an original passport with a valid visa or OCI matching the booking.

When is Gir National Park closed?

The Gir jungle trail closes from 16 June to 15 October every year, and Devalia rests every Wednesday. Open-season clocks run 6:30-9:30 AM and 3:00-6:00 PM in winter from 16 October to late February, and 6:00-9:00 AM with 4:00-7:00 PM evenings through the summer band of 1 March to 15 June.

How much does a Gir jungle safari cost in total?

For Indians, the e-permit is Rs.800 on a weekday and Rs.1,000 on weekends and festival days; foreigner permits are Rs.7,600 and Rs.9,500. Add the Gypsy at Rs.2,000 standard hire (Type A new 4/6/8-seaters Rs.2,500-4,500), the eco-guide at Rs.400 for a Grade 2 (G2) allotment or Rs.500 for Grade 1 (G1) and the Rs.200 camera fee, because the permit reserves the slot, not the wheels.

What is the difference between Devalia Safari Park and the Gir jungle safari?

Devalia, the Gir Interpretation Zone, is 412 fenced hectares 12-13 km west of Sasan village with 45-minute bus loops at Rs.150, sold on the spot at the zone reception counter, and a Gypsy option at Rs.1,600-2,500 that has to be permitted in advance online through girlion.gujarat.gov.in; sightings there are far more predictable, and the zone rests on Wednesdays. The jungle trail is the open forest itself: 35 km routes through the core zone, sighting odds that depend on the day, and the permit that most travellers mean when they say Gir safari.

How early should I leave Junagadh for a morning safari slot?

Two and a half hours before the slot: reporting at Sinh Sadan closes one hour ahead of the permit time, and the drive itself takes 1.25 to 1.5 hours. A winter 6:30 AM opening means leaving near 04:30 by cab, or boarding the 03:30 first GSRTC bus, which lands near 05:00-05:30 with the reporting hour cleared.

Are there GSRTC buses from Junagadh to Sasan Gir?

Nine to thirteen run a day, starting with a 03:30 sleeper from the Junagadh central stand to about 19:25-19:55, with trackers showing later night services worth confirming. Fares band from around Rs.80 for ordinary class to Rs.220 for AC or sleeper seats, the journey takes 1h15-1h50, and tickets book through the official GSRTC portal.

Can we do a same-day Junagadh-Sasan Gir return with the safari?

Yes, if the cab leaves by 04:30-05:00: the morning slot runs 06:30-09:30 in winter, the car holds through the forest hours, Devalia or Kamleshwar fills the afternoon, and the road home is under two hours. Desk packages for the full loop land near Rs.3,500-4,000 for a sedan; the 10:15 train arrival is too late for a morning slot but fine for an evening one, and the rail exit home is the single 52951 at 14:54, so a road-in, rail-out day has to be back at the station by then.

Booking and Dispatch Support

Booking and dispatch desk. Somnath Yatra’s own dispatch desk handles this run: message the drop point, the permit slot and the passenger count, and you get one quote back with the billing basis, minimum distance and wait terms stated, the return folded in or left out as you prefer. Message on WhatsApp at +91 99789 02166, or call the same number; the desk answers from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM, which covers every permit reporting hour this route produces.

Junagadh To Sasan Gir Car Rental