Diu

I'm glad to say this is still one of the most laid back places in India. We're staying at Resort Hoka out at Nagoa Beach, owned by one of the members on this website - indiawise. It's a great place - review to follow in the hotels section but internet connectivity is erratic.

He's not serving you food on the back of a "frisbee" by any chance

hi mike,
came across this thread, surfing indiamike after a long abscence. Yes that frisbee, advertising indiamike and fairly large budget! i still remember.
Benoit and lekha married and settled in brussels and life is good.
Whats news?
regards

Hey Indiawise, nice to see you back after a long time.

Mike doesn't visit indiamike these days, he's busy with other things I imagine, the website is owned by someone else now.

How's Diu these days?
How's the hotel going?

hi steven,
Good to receive your mail. yes its been a while. Alan and Caroline dropped in last year for a meal. Diu is good. Wonder how indiamike is doing. I mean the site and mike himself. Have you been this side and to diu in the recent?
In meant time Diu, like most places in india has changed (same same but different) and i try to find placs where its special to travel as before! But its usuaally always good as usual..
Visited Goa last month. Very special as always. But very very very diff from what i remember. Trafic and more.
regards
indiawise

hi, sorry to hijack this thread but i think i might be able to get a quick response (from indiawise in particular) to my question...

on my travels early next year i'll be visiting diu, with my next major stop being mumbai. is there a ferry service that runs out of diu to mumbai, maharastra or even somewhere like surat? mumbai is my last stop before home so i want to maximise my time on the beaches of diu before heading off.

i have scanned the forum but cant see if its been asked before which is surprising as it was the first thing i thought of!

Any ferries between Diu and Mumbai have long been suspended yes.

However in the later nineties there used to be a hovercraft service between somewhere to the north of Diu + the coast opposite it. (I think Bhavnagar to Surat, in fact; or close to either.) Largely a commuter affair mind, and I wonder how much time it would actually save a traveler, except if commuting just that way is what you had in mind. (Realize by the time you get to Bhavnagar you'd be practically across the Gulf already anyway. It could be far faster or if not simply convenient to push on by whatever transport you're already taking.)

No idea if it's running still; maybe IndiaWise or someone will be able to tell you.

nb And on rereading,

Diu has a small airstrip; while at the time this had been newly started up and so was a little iffy, I'm quite sure it's pretty dependable these days. It should have direct flights to Mumbai; daily even, I think. If not, several times a week I'm quite sure.

If you can afford it and I don't think it has to be very costly either (try and book well ahead), this could be a worthwhile option.

Saw a reference to such elsewhere so do a search on ferry. Note the seasonality.!

You never know when such a thing may be started up again, but I think they really belong to a grey past (I found myself wondering now is my recollection correct at all that I had heard they used to exist?) I thought IndiaWise who I believe lives there had confirmed so above. It gets asked about here quite regularly moreover, and I've never seen different (but we may all just keep feeding each other the same spurious information).

Your note though inspired me to do a web search on +hovercraft +surat. There is a blog entry with a station pic here http://suratfirst.blogspot.com/2008/...t-station.html dated September 22, 2008 that reads

So I guess save for any new developments, that's bye-bye hovercraft...

thanks for the replies guys. it was worth a shot

Sure was, and it's a natural question.

Diu-Mumbai shouldn't have to be crazy long btw, but leaving from the latter I'd get moving say two days ahead just to be sure.

(There are overnight* sleeper coaches, as in buses, plying a direct route between both btw. Reports on how luxurious that is exactly vary, but anyway should be fairly fast. I'd still work in some leeway to avoid any mishaps though, and then some time to take it easy and do some final souvenir hunting and stuff in your port of exit I never mind anyway. Time tends to fly with last-minute stuff anyway.

* Well, checking on that in my Lonely Planet '07, they say they leave from Diu at 10 AM, take some 24 hours. I thought they were overnight, or maybe just the other way around then. Or then maybe they don't know everything. Quite the ride btw, but then what are you gonna do. And I suppose looking at it that way, they're gonna be overnight no matter what you do, heheh )

thanks, thats quite helpful, i havent got to the diu section of my LP yet so i'll look it up. i've planned most of my journey using rail links mostly and havent considered coaches/busses, but its definitely an option.

I think by train the usual route is something like one or two buses or trains (I forget, was ill when I did it) to get to Ahmedabad, then a direct train on to Mumbai.

Those direct buses might (and likely will) be the swifter option though. Conversely, the journey could be broken along any number of places along the way to make it a little less grueling, but then you wanted to make the most of your time in Diu, which I can't blame you for

Have you considered a flight like I mentioned? (Hm, well, checking now with my Dutch travel agent for a random date in late Jan. I find just a Jet Airways flight at 122 Euros one-way. That's not exactly as affordable as I'd have hoped for.

Wait, that may have been a weekend day; I find the same at 77 Euros on a late January Wednesday. It's just a 2.5-hour flight.)

It's been asked a few times, one of the first threads I started on indiamike was about the same subject.

amusement - Diu tourist office

Bhavnagar is 3-4 hours away from Diu, there are cheaper (than Diu-Mumbai flights) flights from Bhavnagar to Mumbai, and also an overnight train to Mumbai.

Bhavnagar-Mumbai flights.

Bhavnagar-Mumbai train.

Click on the train number and look at the stations, just outside Bhavnagar is a station called Sihor, this station is something like 20kms from Palitana, a tourist spot in Gujarat, I remember reading about a train from Sihor to Palitana, but I know nothing more about it.

Great tip as usual; that same Wed. from there gives me flights for 52 or 62 Euros. (Flight now 1 hour.)