Somnath Dwarka Tour Package by Car

Start with the honest part. A GSRTC bus from Dwarka to Somnath costs a couple of hundred rupees and runs every few hours. A car costs many times that. Anyone telling you the car is better value is selling. What the car buys is not comfort. It is a clock.

Here is the arithmetic that decides this trip. Dwarkadhish closes at 13:00 and does not reopen until 17:00. The Somnath evening aarti is at 19:00. Between them lie 237 km through Porbandar, four to five hours of driving once you allow for the coast road and a stop. So you have to be out of Dwarka by about 13:00 to stand at Somnath for the 19:00 aarti, and no public timetable on this corridor lets you do that.

The single direct train, the Okha to Somnath Express, leaves Dwarka in the evening and reaches Veraval before dawn, a journey of roughly eight and a half hours, and Veraval is still six to seven kilometres short of the temple. The bus takes close to six hours and does not stop at Kirti Mandir in Porbandar for you. The car leaves when your darshan finishes and turns the drive into the part of the day where you see Sudama's town and the Madhavpur coast rather than the part where you are waiting.

That is the entire case for the car on this route. Not luxury. Two darshans in one day.

Group size decides the vehicle, and we quote the class that fits rather than the one that bills best.

The price includes the vehicle, the driver, fuel, toll, parking and the driver's allowance. There is no per-kilometre meter running and no separate night charge to discover at the end. What it does not include is your food, your entry tickets and anything you buy. The full exclusion list is below.

The itinerary itself is the standard four day plan. Arrival and evening Dwarkadhish darshan, a full day on Bet Dwarka, Nageshwar and Rukmini, the 237 km run to Somnath through Porbandar for the 19:00 aarti, then a final morning of darshan and Triveni Sangam. It is set out hour by hour on the 4 days 3 nights plan, and rather than repeat it here we would rather use this page to answer the question you actually searched.

Two or three, light luggage — Sedan: Enough for the corridor, easiest to park at Gomti Ghat and around the Somnath gates

A family of four to six — SUV: Boot space for four cases and headroom on the 237 km leg

Seven and up — Tempo traveller: One vehicle beats two cars for a group that wants to arrive together for aarti

Read that table before you book anything. If the aarti timings do not matter to you, the bus is a perfectly good way to see Gujarat and we will say so on the phone.

Private car — Four to five hours over 237 km with a Porbandar stop: Leaves when you do

GSRTC bus — Close to six hours: Roughly every four hours

Okha to Somnath Express — About eight and a half hours: Once a day, evening departure, arrives Veraval before dawn

Leaving Dwarka late. Every other problem on this trip is recoverable and that one is not, because the aarti does not wait. If the morning darshan queue runs long, we take the shorter inland road instead of the coast and lose Porbandar rather than lose the aarti, and we would rather make that call at noon than at five o'clock. The second thing is the monsoon: Somnath's light and sound show does not run in the rainy season, so a July or August traveller should plan the evening around the 19:00 aarti alone. The third is Dwarkadhish's 13:00 to 17:00 closure, which makes a mid-afternoon arrival on day one a wasted half day whatever you are travelling in.

Day three leaves Dwarka by about 13:00, because the Somnath aarti is at 19:00.

Dwarkadhish closes 13:00 to 17:00, so a mid-afternoon arrival on day one waits.

Somnath's light and sound show does not run during the monsoon.

The one daily train on this corridor is an overnight service arriving before dawn.

Veraval station is six to seven km from the Somnath temple.

Vehicle class is quoted to headcount and luggage, not to the biggest available car.