Somnath is a pilgrimage beach located on the shores of Arabian Sea in Veraval City of Gujarat. It has one of the most speactacular beaches I have come across at least in Gujarat. The twin advantage of having a famous temple along with the beach definitely helps to add variety to your holidays. The newly constructed temple looks astonishing and also gives the calmth one usually searches for in pilgrim places. There is a constant chanting of ’’rudrams’’ in praise of Lord Shiva which adds to the glory and power of the place. The main idol faces east so the first ray of the sun falls on it and you wont want to miss this if you are to visit Somnath. As soon as you come out of the temple there is a big lawn well maintained for having a stroll. You can spend hours here without doubt. Every evening, the temple is lit wonderfully with decorative lights. This starts at around 7 till 9. Its worth seeing.
The beach is on the other side of the temple. The temple is constructed at quite a height from bech level. So you have to climb down quite a bit to reach the water. The beach is NOT well developed. But at the same time it is not commercialised too. Only during festive seasons it is visited by more people. Usually it is not populated AT ALL. But it is very clean and if you are in a mood to enjoy the water in the calm Arabian sea, this is the place.
Somnath is easily aproachable from Ahmedabad in an overnight train journey. You need to get down at Veraval from where you can catch either a taxi or an auto rickshaw to reach there. There is not a very good option of hotels available. At the same time the place would start boring you in 2 to 3 days. So if you have more time in your holiday schedule make Somnath one of the places while visiting Saurashtra. The weather would remain hot so the best SEASON TO VISIT IS WINTER.