The Places of Interest at Wonderful Veraval in India

The town of Veraval in the State of Gujarat is famous for the Somnath temple of Lord Shiva. The tourists come to this small town to see one of the twelve Swayambhoo jyotirlingams of Lord Shiva at Somnath temple. However, there are many other equally vital site seeing spots available here at Veraval in addition to the famous temple of Somnath. I am going to write about such places in this article. I have visited Veraval three times in my life and hence, am fully familiar with such other spots of tourist's interest.

Veraval is well connected by train, road, and air from almost all the major cities of Western India. There are regular daily flights from Mumbai for Rajkot and Keshod and Veraval is around 60 miles away from both these cities. The train starts from Ahmedabad at around 9 pm in the evening and reaches Veraval at around 8 am in the morning. The Gujarat State Transport runs bus service to Veraval from all the major cities of the Gujarat State. There are many places of tourist's interest in the vicinity of the Veraval city. The first vital spot is triveni sangam. The three Rivers namely Hiranya, Kapila, and Sarswati meet here just near the sea shore. There is a lot of religious importance of taking a bath here at triveni sangam. The water is salty though due to the nearness of the sea. Bhalka tirth is the next place to be visited. This is the place where Lord Krishna died when he was sitting with one leg over the other and one hunter killed him with an arrow thinking that there is a deer. There is a Samadhi of Lord Krishna here. This Samadhi reminds us that nobody is immortal in this world and everybody has to go sooner or later from this world. The holy shoes of Lord Krishna are kept at the triveni sangam where the body of Lord Krishna was cremated. There is a sun temple ahead of the triveni sangam. This temple is around 3000 years old and has some artistic sculptures of various sexual positions of human beings. The cave of Hinglaj Mata is next on the left hand side of the sun temple. There is one old stepped well here, which is full of water even today, after around 1500 years of its construction. The famous Sharda Math is the next spot of tourist's interest. There is a seat of holy guru Shankaracharya here and a temple of Lord Shiva. Gita mandir can be seen next on the way. The impressive large statue of Lord Krishna is kept here in the temple. The ancient cave of Balaramji, elder brother of Lord Krishna is just ahead of Gita Mandir. It is a belief that Balaramji had entered Patal lok, under ground world from this point at the time of his death.

All above places can be covered in around four to five hours in all in hired auto rickshaw or taxi. The auto rickshaw charges can be around Rs.200 ($5) and the taxi charges can be around Rs.500 ($10) for visiting all above spots. It is suggested to make use of guide services that is operated by the State Government of Gujarat. There are many decent hotels available at Veraval for the tourists like Hotel Krishna, Hotel Somnath, Hotel Mansarovar, and Hotel Kailas. Most of these hotels offer two start facilities at the room charges of around Rs.800 ($18) per day excluding all meals. The conventional Gujarati meals are available at the restaurants of all above hotels. We had stayed at the Hotel Somnath, which is situated just outside the famous temple of Somnath. It is certainly a nice place to stay offering excellent facilities in this small town of Veraval. The stay of around two days can be sufficient to cover most of the vital site seeing spots at Veraval.

I would advise all my AC friends and readers to include Veraval in their travel plan to India to see, feel, and enjoy many holy and beautiful site seeing places as enlisted above in this article.