Travel | A Relaxing Vacation in Diu Beach Resort Part - I

Continued from here.
To me the best thing about vacation is brainstorming the places to visit and then write down a tentative plan for the entire trip. Online reviews and Google comes to rescue for searching a comfortable hotel/resort, book safaris in advance and design the itinerary all by myself.

Years of traveling together to some known and some unknown destinations made the nature lover, an adventure enthusiast and the history buff in us go places.

I have been visiting mom's place in Udaipur, Rajasthan almost every year after my marriage in 1996 and I  cross Ahmedabad each time to get connecting flight or train from there.
My brother who is working in Ahmedabad was cajoling me for long to make a travel trip to Gujarat, as he has traveled extensively to almost all the interior parts of Gujrat regarding his office work.  

Finally I zeroed in on Gujarat this summer holidays...not a good decision though. The dry weather and sweltering heat in Gujrat during May is certainly not a good time to travel. But then nothing matters much for those who love to travel for travel's sake.

I made a rough itinerary and selected three components for our travel...relaxation, adventure and devotion. 

And the destinations were planned accordingly, Diu, Gir and Somnath in Gujrat.

We took a flight to Ahmedabad and from there boarded a pre-booked night train Somnath Express to Veravel.

There is no direct train to Diu. 

We reached Veravel early morning around 6 AM and our driver was waiting with the taxi. 

Morning drive was pleasant, we stopped in a small village, had tea made with fresh cow's milk on the way and  reached Diu around 9 AM. 

 
There are many good resorts in Diu, my brother suggested Radhika Beach Resorts and Sugathi Beach resotr where they often stay put during official visits. I selected Radhika after browsing it on the net.

 
The resort has beautiful cottages spread out in more than two acres of beautiful ground. The cottages are well maintained with spacious rooms, pool facing balcony, sit outs and all the ultra modern gadgets.




Swimming pool is open from morning 6 am to 8 pm and is guarded by security and safety guards round the clock.


Children literally lived in swimming pool...and yes, they still are heavily tanned.

 
I could not control myself seeing children play and splash water and was right into the pool next day...got a few swimming lessons from children...and scoldings from hubby for overdoing and choking myself at one point...

This chair swing was outside our cottage and most of my time was spent sitting and brooding on that cute swing.


The gardens are very well maintained with a separate play area for children.


Right outside the resort there were many vendors selling steamed corn on cob. I was skeptical to try out the corns but could not resist after seeing many nibbling on the same inside the resort.


Every now and then I would run outside the resort to get a steamed corn smeared with extra spices, sit under the pool umbrella, watch children swim and chomp...chomp..


I did try my hands on table tennis after almost 30 years....not bad, I could still hit some good backhand shots...that is me playing TT right after a small work out in the gym.

I loved the cool breeze and the occasional crazy sound of crickets breaking the silence in the wee hours of morning in the resort. Son clicked this picture from the balcony while I was playing with the tiny droplets of dew on grass trying to gather the roses of life.   .
I would get up at 5 AM, go for a small walk on the beach, come back and sit on the swing in the wee hours of morning till the silence was broken with "Good morning mam" and I see a smiling staff greeting me with morning tea.
How I wish time stops and I could live in those moments forever....


Breakfast is included in the tariff and the spread is a mix of Indian and continental cuisine.



Our Diu stay was quite relaxing, in fact we did not even think of venturing outside the resort for first two days. We hired an auto right outside our resort on our last day in Diu which took us to many tourist places in and around Diu.

Continued here.

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