Beaches In Gujarat – The Largest Coastline Of India

Gujarat presents a golden opportunity to the fun-oriented tourists for exposing the caliber, beauty, and delicacy of its beaches. Pleasant and peaceful beaches here are characterized by swaying elegant palm trees according to the jingling of the varying sea winds; sands in varied texture and color right from golden, gray, to silver; foam-topped waves bathing you and the dunes, and the glorious view of the sunset. Further augmenting your excitement, there is tremendous potential for sport adventures and the other nearby historical and religious attractions simply leave you with a memorable experience. All this together along with breathtaking scenic landscapes, architectural masterpieces marvels, and pilgrim centers materialize the rich coastal heritage of Gujarat.

Edging the largest coastline of India measuring 1600 km, the preferred way to start the beach journey is to first visit the island of Diu and then march ahead. Let’s now have a look of the popular, worth visiting beaches in Gujarat.

Ahmedpur Mandvi Beach

This is among the finest beach resorts of India. The splendid attractions here are its azure waters, bountiful chirping birds, scintillating sand dunes, lively fishing town, lazing in the beach, swimming, and water sports such as offer-water scooting, skiing, surfing, para sailing, and speed boating. If you intend or desire to lighten up under the shade of the Mother Nature, long walks are just recommended to you by the beach.

The beach lies on the border of the Union Territory Diu, which is an island away from the Gujarat mainland and makes you feel as being on the Mediterranean. Situated at 288 km from Ahmedabad, Ahemdpur Mandvi was the port town of Maharao of Kutch. Across the bridge from this town, is the Diu Island. It hosts the Portuguese colonial architecture exhibited from its churches, bungalows with shaded walls and terraces, and wide unspoiled roads. The town is approachable via rail, road, or air networks from Gujarat.

Listed below are the other attractions here.

• Beaches
  The curved Nagoa beach nearby is ideal for swimming, jetskiing, kneeboard surfing, pony riding, and camel riding. Others are the quiet Jalandhar beach, Chakratirth beach famous for the sunset point, Goghla Beach, Simmer beach that encourages water sports, and Gahirmata beach.
• Temples
  The Shiv Temple is worth visiting.
• Resorts
  Magico Do Mar, a cottage resort at the beach offers air-conditioned rooms, nice lawns, palm shades, and a cool view towards the sea. However, the beach has good number of resorts and private cottages for stay.

Diu Beach

This is among the pleasant beaches that lies across the Ahmedpur-Mandvi. An opulent fusion of sun, sand, swaying coconut palms, and azure sea; this is only at the Diu Island located at 125 km from Junagadh, a former princely state of Gujarat. Each time the tourists visit this island, they fall in love in it again such that they keep telling everyone about it thus, earning the fame for this splendid spot. The place is famous for its Portuguese style churches, forts, clean roads, and bungalows.

Beyt Dwarka Beach

This beach is a secluded island in Dwarka, where people reach after 30 minutes here by catching a ferry from the jetty of Okha. A strip of sea nearly spreading four kilometers covers the distance between the land of Okha and Beyt Dwarka Island. The island encompasses temples, a white beach (Beyt Dwarka), coral reefs, and bountiful marine life.

Dwarka was the empire of Lord Krishna, which has the mysterious history of getting submerged in the waters of the Arabian Sea for six times. Current being the seventh re-erected one from the marine excavations, the holy place hosts the famous Dwarkadish temple or Jagat Mandir. Although Dwarka is an important pilgrimage spot, it is mostly crowded even by the tourists due to its fine coverage of beach where you can always relax from the weary life of you busy city.

The most attracting view is that of the shore birds at dusk, which assemble in great figures along the coast. At the beach, you can find dolphins, porpoise, sea turtles, octopus, starfish, and sea urchins.

Somnath and Veraval Beach

This is the unshaded beach, but that does not affect your joy and peace on this beach. You can benefit from the cool breeze, fresh coconuts, camel rides, and roaring waves once you reach the shore. In addition, hawkers selling varieties and small amusement rides will bridge any gaps. As you walk along the seashore, the experience is just thrilling! The beach offers benches and a jogging pathway that makes it perfect for morning walks. Listed are the attractions here.

• Somnath Temple
  Along one end of the shore, is the marvelous temple of Somnath that hosts one of the 12 ‘Jyotirlingas (Lingas of Light) of Lord Shiva’. Undergone many reestablishments, the temple was first in gold created at the command of the moon god, which was again carved in silver created by the sun god, next in wood at the order of Lord Krishna, and lastly in stone built by Bhim, one of the Pandava brothers known for its mighty strength. Mahmud of Ghazni, who ransacked the temple, took its wealth to Afghanistan. The current temple at sight was erected specially under the supervision of Sardar Patel in 1950s. The temple looks extraordinary and the atmosphere of dedication is still more overwhelming, however, the remarkable aspect is its tactical arrow that indicates no land from the temple until the Antarctic Ocean.

• Veraval City
  6 km away from Somnath, is the Veraval town, a fortified port of the imperials of the Junagadh. House of the splendid Junagadh Gate and Patan Gate with elaborate sculpt works and ancient Nawabi Palace faceting the sea, the place is worth to visit. In addition, the fishing port where innumerable country crafts and dhows creating sea vessels is another major attraction.
• Sasan Wildlife Sanctuary
  This is the headquarters of the Gir national park & wildlife sanctuary hosting the famous lions of the Gir forest.

Chorwad Beach

This is a small fishing town hosting an isolated joyful beach situated at 66 km from Junagadh and 23 km from the fishing spot of Veraval. Famous long beach walks, rocky shores, and boat riding, the sea here cannot be always trusted for its calmness, but its delightful atmosphere still attracts many tourists annually. The town forms the base to reach places such as Porbandar and Somnath.

At the beach, originally a palace of Nawab Saheb Mohabbat Khan, is now a resort as a picnic spot. In his days, the Nawab used to hold weddings of his dogs, royal banquets, and processions.

Madhavpur Beach

Situated in the Madhavpur road, this beach encompasses sunny sun-soaked sands lined with the swaying coconut trees. As per the legend, Lord Krishna married Rukmini here on the 12th day of the waxing moon of the Hindu month, Chaitra (April). Some of the major attractions here are the Haveli temple of Madhavraiji and Bethak of Mahaprabhuji as Shri Vallabhacharya who gave a discourse on the Holy Book Gita for seven days here.

Gopnath Beach

Situated at 75 km from Bhavnagar and a hot favorite summer home of Maharaja Krishna Kumar Singhji of Bhavnagar, Gopnath is famous even today due to its mind-blowing seashore, fabulous limestone cliffs, attractive views, cool breezes, and chirping birds.

• Sea
  Offering stiff sands for strolling and safe waters for swimming, despite this, it is not worth swimming for long as the water ahead becomes dark due to high tidal variance.
• Sightseeing
  Talking about some magnificent sightseeing; Talja, a Jain temple on a volcanic hill at 350 foot and Alang, the world’s biggest ship breaking area are the attracting ones.
• Shopping
  For shopping lovers, the beach offers furniture, food items, cutlery, utensils, textiles, home appliances.
• Religious Sites
  Looking for the religious visitors, there is a 700-year-old Gopnath Temple, which is famous as the only shrine in India hosting flags of two colors – white signifying a Vishnu Temple and saffron denoting a Shiva Temple.

A fine-looking settlement on the shore of the Gulf of Khambhat and at 10 km from Talaja, Gopnath is the headquarter of Bhavnagar. This area is struggling to get its fame from the tourists and so in that desire, a heritage hotel, Gopnath Bungalow, is developed; which in ancient days was a congenial haven of the Bhavnagar’s Gohil rulers.

Kutch Mandvi Beach

The Mandvi beach offers nice blue waters ideal for swimming, many chirping birds, sunny sand dunes, and vibrant fishing spots. Further, just next to the beach, you can visit the amazing docks for exploring how wooden ships are created. Considered as among the finest beaches in Gujarat and also in India, Mandvi is also an ancient port town of the Maharao of Kutch located at a distance of 60 km from Bhuj in Kutch. This port of Mandvi was a chief trade center for the near east and the far east routes, which were responsible for bringing wealth and fame to the royals.

Commemorating the prosperity, the town Mandvi holds some stunning palaces and historic buildings even today. Among them is the Vijay Vilas Palace erected somewhere in 1940’s that exhibits a few beautiful arcitectural works such as umbrella domes and cupolas. If you are seeking peace and serenity, feel lighter to pay some worth for visiting the Maharao’s private beach and observe the sunset from the porch. In addition, if you are in a mood of shopping, the town offers some of the world famous kutchi embroideries and handicrafts like silverwares.

Porbandar Beach

Porbandar is another sight in Gujarat, which is adorned with a scenic beach – an ideal vacation spot for relaxing and dozing around roaring waves and wearied globe tourists. This Chowapatty beach is for the ones who are not too fussy about the beaches, although it offers superb sunset view, stylish walkway, appetizing dishes, and vacationer bungalow and hotels facing the sea front. It is situated on the southeast coast and lies in between Veraval and Dwarka in Gujarat. You can view building of the dhows and fish-drying activities.

The former princely state along the Arabian Sea, the Porbandar city is world wide famous as the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of Nation. Gandhiji’s dwelling place, Kirti Mandir, is converted into a memorial museum that exhibits a sequence of memorabilia and library. Another attraction includes the Daria Mahal Palace that faces the sea and is worth visiting due to its splendid architectural work. The city is thoroughly linked with the other cities and towns of the country via rail, road, and air.

Beaches of the Surat City

The city being located on the bank of River Tapi, there are a number of interesting beaches spotted around this city also famous as the port. Dumas at a distance of 16 km and Hajira at a distance of 28 km are the two most famous ones. The beaches surrounding Surat are considered as exclusive in the sense that each one is an enamored seaside where just upon reaching anyone can fall in love with it that further deepens on sunrise and sunset of superb splendor.