For those who just want to laze around and enjoy watching time pass at leisurely pace, Diu is the right choice. It is the best beach holiday option for those in Gujarat, famous as Mini-Goa sobriquet & paradise for gujju booze lovers (Diu is a union territory and Gujarat is a dry state). Predominantly one finds Gujarati community here everywhere. But season wise would not recommend April as the month when we visited, as it was very hot here too.
*Ahmadabad to Diu Journey
*After surfing through couple of internet sites we zeroed down on the route, from SG highway till Bhavnagar via Bogedara, Dholera & to Diu from there via Talaja, Mahuva & Una. We advocate this route which is short (378km) compared to other one via Rajkot & Junagarh, Veraval (530km). We covered the distance between Ahmadabad to Diu in 6.5hrs in contrast to 10 to 12hr as claimed by many of fellow travelers in different travel sites. As a whole the journey was smooth, one can say for all the highways in Gujarat, be it state or national. The only exception was bumpy last stretch of journey, approx 40km to Diu.
*Stay Options
*Diu is not very big place, so options are limited, both beach resorts and budget hotels are available here. Radhika Beach Resort & Hotel Kohinoor in Diu and Suzlon & Magico Do Mar in Ahmedpur mandvi or Ghoghla area are best. We stayed at Radhika Beach Resort which is best in Diu by all means. I have reviewed the resort separately, kindly refer for further details.
*Sight Seeing
There are few places of interest here both natural and man-made; all one can easily see in a day time. Diu being beach paradise, the famous two are Nagoa and Jallandhar or Chakratirth beach. Former is commercial one, one can see lot of crowd here on weekend, later one is more reclusive but beautiful. Our first leg of trip comprised of **Panikotha-Fortim Do Mar, St. Thomas Church – Museum, Fort, St. Paul’s Church.
Panikotha, looks beautiful in night lighting, the sea view from the heights of fort is its best feature, even when sun is dancing over ones head; coolness of sea is very emphatic. One part of fort is still used as sub-jail now. All above monuments are testimony of bygone Portuguese era & their architecture but currently all are in pathetic shape, suffering the ignorance of tourism dept or govt whoever is responsible for maintenance. Not much to write about them.
Do visit them, but not with any expectation. At other end of city is sunset point or Chakratirth beach or Jallandhar Shrine, which is really beautiful, cleaner and less crowded. Another attraction of here is INS Khukri Memorial built in memory of the officers and the sailors who chose to go down with the warship when it was hit in Indo-Pak war of 1971 just 40 nautical miles from DIU. Here names of all the 176 sailors and 18 officers are engraved along with the model of the ship, must visit. A real attraction is Sea Shell Museum which everyone should visit (one would not find it mentioned in many travel sites), a 38 year long effort of retired merchant navy Captain. It houses 1800-2000 varieties of sea shells, exotic fishes and sea life from all over the world with their scientific name that is awesome, kept along with magnifying glass so one can enjoy the real beauty. We wish he gets govt support to maintain this invaluable treasure in better shape.
*Gastronomic Experience:
Multi cuisine restaurants are there everywhere, but I was especially interested in sea food and was not disappointed. One should also try out Portuguese style food, which we missed (lazy enough to search for). **Bad Experience: We learnt sea food was good at Apna Restaurant which is in Diu town, but even on menu card there is no mention of sea food. After some prying and staff consultation, we zeroed on Prawn Koliwada, but for much of my chagrin it tasted like another Chinese style preparation of any roadside eatery. Even the taste of egg fried rice n paneer chilli ordered was turnoff, would not recommend this restaurant to anyone except its sea facing view.
*Conclusion:
*So for those whose idea of holiday is to spend time in leisure and not checking out all the possible tourist destinations, Diu is sure shot bet& the Hoka trees (branching palms) all over the island give it a very romantic appeal.