Travelogue-Daman and Silvassa

Our journey to Daman began with a lot of doubt, as what we had heard about the place was that, it is a small place with no real attractions and no good hotels. However, for a weekend getaway from Mumbai we were looking at something close-by and some place unexplored. Therefore, we decided to give it a go. We pre-booked our stay at Hotel Gold beach resort, which was one of the best hotels in Daman as per internet.

We started on a very excited note from Mumbai despite all the doubts, as it had been a while since our last vacation.

Travel to Daman from Mumbai: Daman is almost a 3.5hr comfortable drive from Mumbai Western Suburbs. The best feeling was when we crossed Gujarat and you could see signboards have everything written in Gujarati. Someday I wish to visit Gujarat; it is on my bucket list.

The other way to reach Daman from Mumbai is to take Gujarat Express from Mumbai to Udvada then take a taxi from Udvada to Daman. There are no direct buses to Daman.

Place where we stayed: Once we reached our hotel, our check-in was easy at the hotel the only regret is not getting a beach facing room. The hotel is a beach facing one but you do not have direct access to the beach from the hotel. 

We wanted a beach facing room but those were all booked. The room in general was good. It was spacious, clean and well maintained. The stay became more comfortable as my little one had ample space to run around in the hotel as well as in the room. She enjoyed watching the moving traffic from the window. Next to the room was a big balcony it was a common balcony for all the rooms. The hotel had a swimming pool with a separate kiddie pool. The pool was clean. There was also a gaming zone, which had a kids’ play area along with the TT table, pool table and some board games for adults. We chilled out at this gaming zone in the evening on Day 1.

The next morning we enjoyed the breakfast buffet by the beachside in the hotel. It was quite good considering the reviews I had read on Trip-advisor. By the time, we finished our breakfast, it was almost the check-out time. We left from Daman to cover a few places in Silvassa, before we hit the road to Mumbai.

Places that we visited:

a.    Jampore Beach-During the day, we covered Jampore beach. The beach is quite commercialized; they have some adventure sports, horse ride, camel ride etc. The Jampore beach road is a newly built one and is an attraction in itself. It has beautiful arch shaped boundary wall, which runs for almost 2-3kms and add to the beauty of the beach.

b.    Nani Daman fort-We also covered the Nani-Daman fort, which was a disappointment.

c.    Devka Beach-Even Devka beach was quite dirty so we decided to chill in the hotel.

d.    Madhuban Dam-In Silvassa we visited the Madhuban dam on Damini Ganga river. You are not allowed to go to the dam, but there is a place from where you can see the dam and the river. It is a huge river and for security reasons people are not allowed to go near the dam.

e.    Hirwa Van Garden-Next we visited Hirwa Van Garden. This was nothing big, but my daughter found some place to run around after sitting in the car for almost 40min, so she enjoyed it a lot. There is a play area for kids, so it is a good place to visit if you have kids.

After Hirwa Van Garden, we decided to head back to Mumbai. All in all this was a good short trip.