'Life is short. Travel as much as you can'
Can it get a better start?
A small town at the western coast of India,on the coastal line of Gujarat.. This is supposedly the oldest human township exiting since the times of Lord Shri Krishna, a Hindu God, said to have existed sometime during the 1000 BC.
I was super bored by my office work. Hence, decided to plan a trip with family. Now, in my family, trips mean pilgrimages. And out of 1000 times, it is to Gujarat 999 times.
So, following the tradition, it was a Gujarat Pilgrimage again. Being fascinated to Krishna, I suggested to go to the His place, His Dwarka, along with Somnath. My mom wanted to go to this place since last 20 years. And there we were to this beautiful place..
This is the line which inspires me a lot and makes me think of different places I can travel..I always had a long list of places to visit.However, I could not travel much earlier. Now, I have decided to check the items in this list and travel as much as I can.
In this blog, I am going to share my travels in and across India. Hopefully, you will like it :)
Can it get a better start?
A small town at the western coast of India,on the coastal line of Gujarat.. This is supposedly the oldest human township exiting since the times of Lord Shri Krishna, a Hindu God, said to have existed sometime during the 1000 BC.
I was super bored by my office work. Hence, decided to plan a trip with family. Now, in my family, trips mean pilgrimages. And out of 1000 times, it is to Gujarat 999 times.
So, following the tradition, it was a Gujarat Pilgrimage again. Being fascinated to Krishna, I suggested to go to the His place, His Dwarka, along with Somnath. My mom wanted to go to this place since last 20 years. And there we were to this beautiful place..
I had planned this trip on my own. Here is how you can plan it:
We plan budget trips. Hence, my budget for this trip was around 5000 per person.
Thus, preferred travel choice was train. It costs around 1000 Rs per person return tickets for sleeper class. Can it get cheaper than this 💓
I chose Pune-Veraval express to directly get to Somnath. Our itinerary was Pune->Somnath->Diu-> Dwarka->Mumbai. Saurashtra mail was for our return journey.
Day 1: Somnath
Somnath has some really nice stay options on https://booking.somnath.org/GuestHouse/
If you really want to spend a nice day together with family in the hotel itself, I would highly recommend Sagar Darshan Guest House. But if you want budget stay, Lilavati and Maheshwari have some decent AC accommodation available. We stayed at Maheshwari Bhawan. It costed us around 900 Rs for a nice AC room for 3 per night. We stayed here for 2 days.
It is hardly 2 KM from the Somnath temple. You can easily walk down the road or can choose shared auto for fairly cheap commute.
Nearby places in Somnath:
Bhalka teerth, triveni sangam, Ram mandir, Geeta Mandir, Surya Mandir, Hanuman Mandir and more. However, Bhalka teerth and Krishna Samadhi Sthal near Triveni Sangam is a must visit after the actual Somnath temple. You can choose to visit the beach. I preferred staying in the temple itself which has a wonderful sunset view and sea view.
The temple has a light and sound show. But frankly speaking, I did not find it that interesting.
Please avail the commutation service for senior citizens which is freely available inside the temple if applicable.
TIP: Do not take you digital devices, big bags, etc to the temple. You will be asked to deposit those before entering the temple. Although there are facilities to keep your camera and mobile phones in a deposit, it would be safe to leave them in Hotels.
If you want to click pictures, you can get them clicked from the photographers present outside the temple.
The temple is open till 9.30 in the evening. But make sure you check the timings on website before visiting.
Thus, on day 1, we covered entire Somnath. We visited all the nearby places in an auto(he took around 300 Rs for entire Somnath Darshan). You can opt for the available bus service (20 Rs per person), but it does not give you the convenience of time :)
Day 2: Diu
We had planned to visit to Diu, which is around 60 KM from Somnath. We had booked a cab from Somnath. It costed us around Rs.2200 along with the Diu sight seeing.
Diu is a nice place to visit. It is a union territory. It has various points of interests. Google shows many but I would say hardly 8-10 points are worth visiting. We covered the entire place in merely 4 hours.
Of all, I would recommend, Diu fort, Gangeshwar Mahadev mandir, Naida caves, INS Khukri memorial and St. Paul's church and the museum if you are interested in the Portuguese history .
Jalandhar and Chakrateerth beaches are silent and small beaches. You can visit those if peace is what you love. Nagoa beach is a renowned beach of Diu.It is crowded beach. But the level of cleanliness really disappointed me and we decided to leave the place within minutes.
If you want to shop, Diu has a small market where you can do a bit of shopping.
That's it for Diu. It is bit overrated place as per me as I have visited various awesome beaches in Maharashtra. I still wish I would have opted for Gir-Sasan jungle Safari instead of the Diu visit.
If you have time, I would highly recommend to visit Gir Sasan Safari with prior online booking and let me know the experience.
And we were back to Somnath after this. Rested for the day at our guest house.
Day 3 and 4: Dwarka
Now comes Dwarka! We started for Dwarka on the next day. It is just 200 KM from Somnath. Since, this is a budget travel, we opted for a private bus commute from Somnath to Dwarka. But it took 7-8 odd hours for this journey(220 Rs per person). I would say, better opt for a taxi for this.(around 4500 Rs for Dwarka). On the way, you can go to Porbandar if you are going by Cab and visit Gandhiji's birth place.
Now, Dwarka is a crowded place. I had stayed in a budget hotel very near to the Dwarkadheesh temple. Hotel Nand Nandan. I would not recommend this hotel. Please choose some other hotel there.
We reached Dwarka around 2.30 and immediately left for Nageshwar Mahadev temple, which is considered to be one of the Jyotirlingas and then for Bet Dwarika. (Around 45 minutes ride from Dwarika) Bet Dwarika is an awesome place with a mythological importance. You need to take a jetty ride from Okha till Bet Dwarika (10 Rs per person one side). You reach Bet Dwarika in around 15 minutes of Jetty ride. It is a pleasant ride.
You have to visit the Kanha temple at Bet Dwarika and return to Okha.phones and devices not allowed inside the temple. On the way back to Dwarka, you have Rukmini temple. Do visit this temple. A small temple with lot of mythological importance.
Then next day, we visited Dwarkadheesh temple. Again, phones and devices not allowed. This is a beautiful stone temple. Just behind the temple is Gomti Ghat and the way to Dwarka beach. There is Sudama Setu and Panch Pandav gufa. This is a small place to visit but of a great mythological importance as Lord Krishna used to administer the entire state of Dwarka from this place.
You can shop for some traditional Gujarati Stuff from the lanes of Dwarka. Remember, bargaining is key ;)
This was the last point of our trip. It was a wonderful experience overall and I just loved Somnath. This place has my heart 💗
If you are thinking of the budget, then it is as follows:
3000 train return journey
1800 AC hotel in Somnath for 2 nights
1200 AC hotel in Dwarka for 1 night
1200 Dwarka darshan AC cab
2200 Diu AC cab
0300 Somnath auto
0500 additional commutation costs
0660 Somnath Dwarka bus commutation
3000 food for three days for 3 people
===
13860 for 3 people
So, effectively, less than 5000 per person :)
But, I would say take a cab from Somnath to Dwarka(would add to the cost, but it would add to the fun and comfort as well)
