Dwarka or Bhatiya, where should you sleep?
Dwarka town is right next to the temple, and in yatra season and at festivals it behaves accordingly. Rooms get scarce, rates climb, and parking a car near the temple becomes its own small pilgrimage.
Bhatiya is 40 km back down the highway. You lose about 50 minutes of driving. In exchange you get a quiet night, an open compound to park in, a fair tariff, and a kitchen that is not feeding four hundred people at once.
There is a second, better reason. Bhatiya sits between Dwarka and Harshad. From here you can do Dwarkadhish one day and Harsiddhi Mata the next without packing your bags and changing hotels in between. Most of our guests are doing exactly that.
Distances from Keshav Residency
| Destination | Distance | Drive time |
|---|---|---|
| Dwarkadhish Temple, Dwarka | 40 km | 50 min |
| Shivrajpur Blue Flag beach | 52 km | 1 hr |
| Nageshwar Jyotirlinga | 58 km | 1 hr 15 min |
| Bet Dwarka (ferry from Okha) | 75 km | 1 hr 40 min |
| Harshad Mata Temple (Gandhvi) | 30 km | 40 min |
| Bhogat coast | 10 km | 20 min |
| Porbandar | 68 km | 1 hr 20 min |
| Bhatiya Railway Station | 2 km | 5 min |
A two day plan from Bhatiya
Day one: the Dwarka circuit
Take an early breakfast and leave by around 6 AM. Do Dwarkadhish darshan first, before the queue builds. Then head north towards Okha, stopping at Nageshwar Jyotirlinga, and carry on to the Okha jetty for the ferry to Bet Dwarka. On the way back, if there is light left, turn off for Shivrajpur beach. Back at Bhatiya for a late dinner.
Day two: Harshad and the coast
A gentler day. Drive south to Gandhvi for Harsiddhi Mata, roughly 40 minutes, and time it for the evening aarti if you can. On the way back, Bhogat coast is 10 km from the hotel and is the quietest sunset you will find on this stretch. Details on our hotel near Harshad Mata Temple page.
What you get at the hotel
- AC rooms for couples, families and groups, all with attached bathrooms
- 24 hour hot water, useful when you are leaving at 5 AM for darshan
- Pure vegetarian kitchen, Gujarati thali, Jain food on request
- Free CCTV covered parking, big enough for a yatra bus
- Early breakfast on request, so you get on the road before the queue
- Reception staffed 24 hours, so late arrivals off the highway are fine
Getting here
Bhatiya is on the Dwarka to Porbandar highway (NH-51), so if you are driving from Porbandar, Junagadh or Somnath you pass straight through it on the way to Dwarka. Bhatiya railway station is about 2 km from us, on the Okha to Ahmedabad line. The closest airport is Porbandar at roughly 70 km, and Jamnagar is around 110 km.