Digha Beach |Holiday Destination of Bengal

Digha is the most popular beach resorts and tourist destination in West Bengal, is located on the coast of the Bay of Bengal in East Midnapore district. It is a 187 km driving distance towards southwest from Kolkata. Digha has a low gradient with a shallow and hard sand beach with a length extends to 7 km wide. The beach is girdled with Casuarina plantations along the coast enhancing the beauty of this place. In Digha, sea starts about a mile away from the start of the beach.

Digha beach is very good for the tourist activities, but it losses beach area rapidly for the heavy coastal erosion. Some part of the Digha beach has been concretized to prevent it. Another problem of this Sea beach is overcrowded by tourist especially in the winter season, and congested shops to the beach, sometime even on the beach. So, a new beach has been developed for the tourist as an extension of the Old Digha beach, at a distance of 2 km away and called as New Digha. It is much wider and surrounded by plantation, which is very good for any kind of aqua-activities. Udaipur and Shankarpur are two other sea beach nearby to Digha beach, which are fewer crowdies than Old and New Digha. And you may easily get in for enjoy.

We had gone on a 4 day trip to Digha beach inJanuary. Digha is the most popular sea beach and tourist spot in West Bengal. It is known as “Brighton of the East”.

7th january 2019: It had got dark by the time we reached Digha station; all because we had missed the first train, took the next train to Digha and got delayed by three hours. Digha station looked quite new and clean. I guess to promote tourism, WBTDC has spruced up the place. Also there are 4-5 trains from Kolkata to Digha!

It had got dark by the time we reached Digha station; all because we had missed the first train, took the next train to Digha and got delayed by three hours. Digha station looked quite new and clean. I guess to promote tourism, WBTDC has spruced up the place. Also there are 4-5 trains from Kolkata to Digha

Nice carriage like rickshaws are available outside; something which I haven’t seen anywhere in Kolkata. Digha is divided into two areas – Old Digha and New Digha. We decided to stay at New Digha. There are many hotels,lodges and restaurants in Digha. We stayed at Hotel Prateek Residency. Rates in Digha vary seasonally. Hotel Prateek Residency is a good hotel located near the beach, with okay rates and an in-house restaurant on the ground floor with good service and ok food.

After freshening up, all of us went for a stroll on the beach. The beaches of Digha are flat and wide. The sea looked ominous in the dark. The tide gets high at night so there are stone embankments to prevent the water from flooding the town. Due to high tide and chances of theft, it is advisable to not go to beach side after 9-9.30 pm. New Digha has a lively market which we planned to explore the next day as most of the shops had closed down by that time. We came back to our hotel, had tasty dinner and retired to our rooms.

8th Jan 2019: Woke up to overcast skies and lovely cool weather. Had breakfast and went out to beach with our cameras. Had fun roaming and photographing around the beach and the sea.

One strange thing about Digha is, unlike any coastal area, the vegetation doesn’t consist of coconut trees. There are sort of pine trees along the beach! There are hardly any coconut trees in the area!

Beaches of Digha are interconnected and if you can walk, you can explore from Old Digha to Talsari Beach on foot. But we just explored till the end of New Digha Beach. (Screenshot from wikimapia)

Due to weekend, the beach was crowded as lots of people had come over from Kolkata. There were pony and horse rides available. Also there were several green coconuts i.e. daab stalls on the beach with long benches for people to sit. The daabs were very tasty!!

Roamed around till late afternoon. Was feeling ravenous by then. Headed for the hotel restaurant for lunch. At Digha, there are several cheap eateries too which serve good quality Bengali food and all sorts of fish delicacies. It is difficult to find a pure veg restaurant at Digha. I don’t remember seeing any. After lunch we retired to our rooms.

After lunch and a little afternoon shut-eye, we decided to go sightseeing around Digha. Our first destination was the Science Center established by the National Council of Science Museums at New Digha. The Centre offers a variety of mechanisms to make science an enjoyable learning experience. There is a biology section with few animals, a physics section, a planetarium which holds evening shows and a park. Had fun time exploring all the mechanisms.

At Udaypur beach bikes are available for rent to go roaming around the beach and to Talsari beach at low tide. It had got dark by the time we left the beach to go to Old Digha. Old Digha is a bustling part of the town. It would be cheaper to stay at the hotels there but there would be no peace. There is a much bigger and cheaper market at Old Digha. Also ATMs are located at Old Digha only. We made our way to the beach. As expected it was very crowded, especially because the tide was high and only few people had ventured into the water. Spent the rest of the evening sitting on the stone tables there, sipping hot tea and chatting. Then we went back to New Digha. Did some window shopping, had dinner at the hotel restaurant and retired to our rooms.

09th Jan 2019: We were due to checkout in the afternoon. So all of us went souvenir shopping at the market after breakfast at an outlet at the market. Do not try Aaloo Paratha at Digha!! Curios made of sea-shell, shell jewellery, moderate varieties of reputed Madur of Midnapore (hand-woven mat made of weeds) in colourful designs, cottage crafts of Digha and Midnapur are available. Rates are not that high and good bargaining skills can get you lesser rates.

After lots of shopping, we returned to our hotel for lunch. Checked out from our rooms, kept the luggage at the hotel lobby and had lunch. Post lunch, all of us went to the beach for one last time. It was so wonderful to see the shimmering waters of the Bay of Bengal.

After spending some time on the beach and drinking coconut water, we came back to our hotel. Picked up our luggage and left for the station. Hope to visit Digha again with more time on my hands and to visit places like Shankarpur, Mandarmoni, Junput etc too.

Digha was discovered as a sea beach resort in late eighteen century, when this place was known as Beerkul. Once, Warren Hastings, the first Governor General of British India, mention it as "Brighton of the East" in a letter to his wife for describing the beauty of Digha sea beach. A British businessman John Frank Snaith was lived here for many years since 1923 and exposes this place to the world in his writing. After the independence of India, he encourages Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, then the Chief Minister of West Bengal to develop this place as a sea beach resort. As we had other places to see we did not stay to watch a show at the planetarium. From there we went to the Udaypur beach. One should bargain hard with the rickshaw pullers there as they over charge tourists. Rickshaw pullers don’t take passengers right to the beach. One has to walk a bit to get to the beach.

Points of Interest in Digha Beach

The main attraction in Digha is the wide and hard coastal sea beach resort on the Bay of Bengal. It is also one of the widest sea beaches in the world. The scenic beauty of this place is charming and luring. The sea at Digha is calm and shallow for about a mile from the beach making it quite safe for any tourist activities – swimming, scuba diving, jet ski-ing and surfing. One can view both sunrise and sunset at the Digha sea beach. The sunset and sunrise reflecting the salty waters of the Bay of Bengal is something straight off an artist's canvas. This is the only sea resort in west Bengal, where a wide verity of hotels and lodges available with different budgets. Easy to accessibility from the major city of West Bengal, like – Kolkata, Kharagpur, Midnapore and Haldia, boosts its much popularity to the visitors. Digha also get a rapid popularity for its close proximity with several tourist destination.

New Digha New Digha is the extension part of Old Digha, located 2 km away and was built to reduce the overcrowd of the Old Digha. It is well decorated and well maintained, so its popularity increased day by day. It is very good place for your holiday stay. Some amusement parks and facilities are easily available for the tourists. Some aquatic sports also embedded recently for visitors attractions.

The latest attraction of new Digha is the Science Centre established by the National Council of Science Museums. The Centre offers a wide variety of rare experience of science with fun and games. There has a small park with a lake called Amravati Lake where you can enjoy a boat ride. Deepak Mitra's Snake Garden, near to the Lake is another attraction at New Digha.

Marine Aquarium and Research Centre (MARC) The Asia's largest Marine Aquarium, which is opposite the hospital in Digha. The major objective of the Centre is to display the marine biodiversity of the region and impart its values to the common people and to carry out the research activities. MARC has equipped with sea water circulation system and advanced filtration unit. The aquarium has 24 big sized marine tanks and 8 fresh water tanks which are equipped with compressed air supply, light and regulated supply of inflow & outflow of water.

Shankarpur Shankarpur, a virgin beach as yet, is a recent discovery. It is a twin beach of Digha, around 14 km from Digha, along the Digha-Contai Road. It is now developed as a sea resort with hotels. It offers nearly all the pleasures of a private beach with casuarina plantations. Shankarpur is mainly credited for all the advantages of Digha and decreasing the crowd of Digha. It can boast of a wide and unspoilt beach, casuarina groves by the side of a gentle sea and a good climate round the year. Apart from the long, tree-lined beach, the main attraction is the Shankarpur Fishing Harbour Project.

Junput Initially Junput was not consider as a beach resort, but used for scientific and industrial research, marine study centre, fishing hub and also for shark oil extraction. Junput also used for duck breeding centre and sea-water fisheries & research under the Depertment of Fisheries, Government of West Bengal. But now-a-days, Junput gradually expose its beauty as a sea beach, and also for the fishing. It is about 40 km away from Digha.

Nearby Temples Chandaneswar at Talsari, a century old famous temple, dedicated to Lord Siva, situated only at a distance of 8 km from New Digha, in Orissa. Every year an annual fair organised hera, at the Bengali month Chaitra (md-march to mid-april) and thousands of visitors and pilgrims are participate on the occasion of the Shiva Temple. Kapal Kundala Temple at Dariapur near to Contai, 45km away from Digha, famous for an ancient temple associated with Bankimchandra‘s novel Kapal Kundala.

Some of the other tourist places in the region include Subarnareskha River, the Subarnareskha Delta and the Mandarmani Beach.Points of Interest in Digha Beach

The main attraction in Digha is the wide and hard coastal sea beach resort on the Bay of Bengal. It is also one of the widest sea beaches in the world. The scenic beauty of this place is charming and luring. The sea at Digha is calm and shallow for about a mile from the beach making it quite safe for any tourist activities – swimming, scuba diving, jet ski-ing and surfing. One can view both sunrise and sunset at the Digha sea beach. The sunset and sunrise reflecting the salty waters of the Bay of Bengal is something straight off an artist's canvas. This is the only sea resort in west Bengal, where a wide verity of hotels and lodges available with different budgets. Easy to accessibility from the major city of West Bengal, like – Kolkata, Kharagpur, Midnapore and Haldia, boosts its much popularity to the visitors. Digha also get a rapid popularity for its close proximity with several tourist destination.

New Digha New Digha is the extension part of Old Digha, located 2 km away and was built to reduce the overcrowd of the Old Digha. It is well decorated and well maintained, so its popularity increased day by day. It is very good place for your holiday stay. Some amusement parks and facilities are easily available for the tourists. Some aquatic sports also embedded recently for visitors attractions.

The latest attraction of new Digha is the Science Centre established by the National Council of Science Museums. The Centre offers a wide variety of rare experience of science with fun and games. There has a small park with a lake called Amravati Lake where you can enjoy a boat ride. Deepak Mitra's Snake Garden, near to the Lake is another attraction at New Digha.

Marine Aquarium and Research Centre (MARC) The Asia's largest Marine Aquarium, which is opposite the hospital in Digha. The major objective of the Centre is to display the marine biodiversity of the region and impart its values to the common people and to carry out the research activities. MARC has equipped with sea water circulation system and advanced filtration unit. The aquarium has 24 big sized marine tanks and 8 fresh water tanks which are equipped with compressed air supply, light and regulated supply of inflow & outflow of water.

Shankarpur Shankarpur, a virgin beach as yet, is a recent discovery. It is a twin beach of Digha, around 14 km from Digha, along the Digha-Contai Road. It is now developed as a sea resort with hotels. It offers nearly all the pleasures of a private beach with casuarina plantations. Shankarpur is mainly credited for all the advantages of Digha and decreasing the crowd of Digha. It can boast of a wide and unspoilt beach, casuarina groves by the side of a gentle sea and a good climate round the year. Apart from the long, tree-lined beach, the main attraction is the Shankarpur Fishing Harbour Project.

Junput Initially Junput was not consider as a beach resort, but used for scientific and industrial research, marine study centre, fishing hub and also for shark oil extraction. Junput also used for duck breeding centre and sea-water fisheries & research under the Depertment of Fisheries, Government of West Bengal. But now-a-days, Junput gradually expose its beauty as a sea beach, and also for the fishing. It is about 40 km away from Digha.

Nearby Temples Chandaneswar at Talsari, a century old famous temple, dedicated to Lord Siva, situated only at a distance of 8 km from New Digha, in Orissa. Every year an annual fair organised hera, at the Bengali month Chaitra (md-march to mid-april) and thousands of visitors and pilgrims are participate on the occasion of the Shiva Temple. Kapal Kundala Temple at Dariapur near to Contai, 45km away from Digha, famous for an ancient temple associated with Bankimchandra‘s novel Kapal Kundala.

Some of the other tourist places in the region include Subarnareskha River, the Subarnareskha Delta and the Mandarmani Beach.