The Southern part of West Bengal houses the most admired beach called Digha on the eastern coastline, with its unique features of flat and hard beach location, claiming the privilege that it was identified as a beach location as early as the period of Warren Hastings, the first Governor General of Bengal, in British India, who called it ‘ Brighton of the East’ and the commoner referring it as Beercool at that point of time, while this beautiful destination is girdled so well with casuarina plants along the coastline, making the beach further beautiful and swimmer friendly.

Travel agencies and West Bengal tourism organise a number of excursion trips for Kolkata residents and other tourists, each one of them invariably having Digha beach  in its itinerary, which is  187 km away from Kolkata city, and people throng about this place from various parts of the country, to enjoy the serene atmosphere and tranquil environment, breathing undiluted air.

What is special about Digha beach is its calm and soothing sea shore , which feature  fascinates tourists from all the parts of the world, as John Frank Smith an English tourist  who was so mesmerized by Digha beach’s beauty, made him decide to settle down here to spend the remaining days of life, whose writings about the beach brought the fame of this location to the limelight, while in later years, a civil servant Mr. Smith  made sincere efforts with West Bengal Government after Independence, to make it an established beach resort of West Bengal,  which was responded by the Government, when it was under the chief ministership of Dr. B.C.Roy.

This famous beach of the eastern coast, has the scope for one to drive along the hard sands of the  beach when the sea has low tide, while at the same time, the sea will be calm and shallow providing a safe swimming atmosphere, and the beach is so located that one can watch the sun rise and sunset from this  beach location., however, the present  Digha beach location having been affected by sea erosion, a new beach is being formed in about 2 km away from the present location, which promises more cleanliness and well organised facilities.

Location

Digha beach is situated in about 187 km distance from Paschim Bangla’s State Capital Kolkata.

How To Reach

By Air

To go to Digha Beach , one can take a flight to Kolkata to which place there are a number of flights landing at its NSC Bose International Airport and proceed to this beach by road in a 210 km drive.

By Rail

Train connection is available to Digha from Kolkata, while the nearest Railway Station Kharagpur is a major point where a number of trains from all the parts of the country have stopping.

By Road

There are frequent public transport buses ply between Kolkata and Digha, almost every half an hour during the day times,  and buses start from both Shaid Minar and Howrah bus Terminus points of Kolkata, while those who take a drive can choose NH6 upto Kolaghat and then change to NH41 to reach Digha which journey will take about 5 hours travel.

By Local Transport

Taxis and auto-rickshaws , which are not metered , but on flat rates are available at Digha for local commutation, while cycle rickshaws are also available.

Temperature And Weather

The tropical type of climatic conditions of  Digha beach resort, like most of the places in India, experiences all the three seasons, namely summer and winter seasons, besides monsoon in between, high temperature preavailing in  Summers with  humid atmosphere making the visitors very uncomfortable due to the closeness to the seafront.  At the sametime,  Monsoons are equally heavy and giving continuous rainfalls  in this part of the country making it difficult to the  traveler to visit Digha resort during the period of monsoon too, besides roaring high waves preventing the swimmers to enjoy their time. Winter time commencing around November of the year going upto March of the following year will be the best period to visit Digha beach resort, when weather conditions  will be  cool and the day temperatures  never going high. Tourist come in large numbers during this season only.

The summers commencing in March and  ending in  May, temperature levels  expected to make the weather conditions harsh, and monsoon time from June to September, although temperature will not be bad, rainfalls will make the visitors have irksome feeling than enjoying the wonderful seaside relaxation, although people take chance to visit because of less crowd during this period.

The best of winter season will be  during the months of  December, January and  February, barometer level not soaring up, the highest degree of temperature remaining within 26 degrees Celsius, which is the period people throng about to spend their lovely vacation here.

Attractions

Water Sports

Water sports and adventure sports are the best features  at Digha beach resort, adequate facilities provided  by the tourism department of Paschim Bangla, like the nearby beaches Tajpur, Mandarmani  etc, making  Tourists  enjoy  different types of water sports, which include snorkelling, diving and scuba diving.  It is worthwhile to note that  Tajpur closer to Digha is undergoing development  as the most attractive  adventure-tourism spot providing  a host of sports activity opportunities,  such as  water-skiing, para-sailing, water zorbing, snorkelling etc.

Beach Sports

Beach Cricket, Beach Kabaddi, Beach Volley ball, and some of all-terrain bike sports activities are organised for the benefit of tourist in Digha beach resort, availing the 23 km stretch of hard sand beach, running along Digha and Mandarmani seashores, while live performances of Bangla band will be enthusing the sportsmen all along from the watchtowers temporarily structured in the beach resort.

Sea Food Festival

For the tourist interested in Bengali food varieties, Digha is the right place to visit because a seafood festival is celebrated during season times, where one can opt for one’s favourite sea fish  which will  be cooked right in front of the visitor, and those enjoying the fish varieties such as  Hilsa, Betki , Pomphret, and Prawn will have a good time when visiting Digha.

Other Attractions

Exciting fireworks are cracked in the beach to entertain the visitors on one part, and for the art lover big screens are temporarily fixed in the beach area  showing films of eminence, not only in Bengali, Hindi, but also in English.

Nearby Hotels

Quite a few good hotels are available, mostly budget hotels, at Digha providing comfortable bed and bath facilities, while there are Luxury hotels available close by, to name a few, Hotel Aditya International, Palm Resort and Hotel New SagarPriya, besides budget hotels such as Hotal Sonar Bangala, Hotel Sea Hawk, Hotel Dolphin, and Larica Holiday Inn will equally be comfortable to stay.

West Bengal Tourism also runs a Tourist Lodge, accommodating visitors offering good comfort with reasonable tariff, besides there are youth hostels available for group accommodation.

Restaurants

Digha Beach resort also houses a good number of restaurants offering good Bengali food, at reasonably comfortable prices, while for continental and different varieties of food one has to walk a little distance , never the less, people love Bangla cuisine with just caught Pompfret, Parshe, Rohu, Bhetke and Tiger Prawns, fried with talented hands, would excite a gourmet visior.  Some of the restaurants have an annexed Bar, while some beer shops will also be present at the beach side during seasons.

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