Mandvi Beach in Kutch: The Beach with the Iconic I Love Mandvi Icon (2024)
Mandvi Beach is in the Mandvi Village in the Kutch District of Gujarat. Mandvi Beach has a cultural connection to India, as it was the summer retreat of the King of Kutch, the Maharao. Mandvi is also famous because of its four-hundred-year-old and still functional ship-building industry, which makes the dhow, a small boat used for short trips in lakes and rivers for tourists as well as local travel purposes. Mandvi Beach is a popular tourist location in the Kutch area, and you see several locals and tourists making a beeline for the beach. Mandvi Beach is also famous as the Swaminarayan Holy Beach.
The road to Mandvi Beach is clean, and it’s a nice drive. Like most other beaches in Gujarat, you do not need to drive through the inner roads to reach the Mandvi beach. At the beach, you see the iconic I Love Mandvi beach signage that the Government installs at popular tourist locations. Since then, it has become a popular area for influencers, tourists, and those looking for selfies. Mandvi Beach also has a locker system, so tourists can rest assured of their belongings. And the locker prices beat the cost of boarding at a hotel anyway.
The Mandvi Beach Experience
Mandvi Beach is a clean and beautiful beach, and you can spend hours at it, strolling, tasting the cuisine, and taking part in the watersports that are available at the beach. Mandvi Beach is one of the few in the state that offers ATV rides as well as paragliding. You will also see some windmills surrounding the beach. Mandvi Beach also offers speed boat rides. Mandvi Beach has black sand on some patches.
Because the beach has so much space, you will see locals sometimes drive their vehicles on a patch of the beach land.
Apart from the watersports, you also see other vendors offering camel, horse, and horsecart rides. You can take a dip in the water or take a stroll by the beachside. Mandvi Beach has enough tourists to keep it the hub of tourism, but it’s a hassle-free experience.
An outing at any beach is an excellent experience, and so is the one at Mandvi. However, brace yourself for the harsh weather of Gujarat, and pack sunglasses and sunscreen. Make sure that you dress for a day out at the beach. Make sure that you wear clothes that dry quickly and that they don’t soak in a lot of water, so they don’t become too heavy after a dip in the water. While you should pack for a day under harsh weather, Mandvi is one of the few beaches that offer shade in the form of a beach chair and a beach umbrella.
Mandvi Beach has enough commercial activity around, and you will be able to spend a typical day at the beach with utmost ease and on a low budget. You have the kiosks selling all kinds of beach cuisine. Another aspect of the beach is a well-maintained bath area, which means that you don’t need to book an expensive room to freshen up.
Places to Visit Near Mandvi Beach
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Apart from that, there are some places that you can visit near Mandvi. As noted above, Mandvi has a burgeoning ship-building industry, so you can go to some of the yards nearby and learn about this line of business. You can also visit Mazar-E-Noorani, Rukmini Bridge, and other such tourist locations.
You will see many tourist companies offering complete tourist packages in Kutch, and Mandvi Beach is on the top of the list.
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Mandvi Beach is one of the most famous beaches here, and it is the perfect blend of natural beauty and commercial activity. If there’s one beach that you should visit when you are in Gujarat, it’s Mandvi Beach. It’s as beautiful as the ones you see in Goa and it as accessible as the Juhu Beach in Mumbai, complete with all the shops selling food and beverages that are on the Juhu Beach. Not to mention, Mandvi Beach is the I Love Mandvi sign, which makes it popular among influencers and tourists who love to put up their tourism posts on social platforms. Mandvi is also popular as a sunset point, and you will see many photographers – amateur as well as professional – coming here to capture the sunset. Like many other beaches in Gujarat, you will see windmills around, as there’s a windfarm nearby.
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Even so, some hotels around Mandvi Beach offer rooms at low budgets. The prices for a day’s stay at the hotels like Mandvi range from about 1000 rupees to 3000 rupees. Some of the hotels here are Hotel Madhuvan and The Fern Leo Beach Resort. If you are looking for budget accommodation, you can also look at the dormitories in Porbandar, which offer accommodation at budget prices.
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Dormitories are large halls that have separate cots and a place for you to store your valuables. Dormitories are different from guesthouses, and some of them have better services, amenities, and are more comfortable. The dormitory system is becoming popular in India, and you will find dorm accommodation for as low as 400 rupees per day.
However, there are some downsides to staying in dormitories. There’s little privacy, you will not have private washrooms and bathrooms, and you might have a curfew hour to return to the dorm at a set time.
How To Reach Mandvi Beach?
Mandvi Beach is in Kutch, which connects to destinations like Mumbai, Bangalore, and Ahmedabad via air, road, and train. Mandvi Beach is about a 60 km drive from Bhuj. The nearest airport to Mandvi Beach is Bhuj. The nearest railway station is Okha, which is about 50 km away. You can also reach Kutch via bus, and there are some State Transport routes as well as private bus routes plying. You will need to travel to Vadodara first and then travel to Mandvi.
