Hotel raj palace — Hotel in Gujarat

The Lilavati Guest House is a great place to rest for the night if visiting Somnath for a pilgrimage. I am an NRI from London who was visiting Somnath for a pilgrimage to Somnath Mandir with 2 children under 5. We travelled from Kutch as a party of 6 adults & 2 children. We stayed 1 night in a 2 bed AC room (rs950) & 4 bed AC room with 2 bathrooms (2 showers and 2 toilets) (rs1700). The 2 bed AC room is not liable for tax, however the 4 bed AC room has a tax levy of 12%, that is 6% state tax and 6% government tax. Bear that in mind if booking a 4 bed AC room, it will work out to be rs50+ more than booking 2 seperate 2 bed AC rooms. I am not sure why the 4 bed AC is liable for a tax levy & the 2 bed AC isn't.

The Guest House accommodation is very clean & good if your looking for a no frills visit just to stay the night. The Guest House is best booked online via Somnath.org using an Indian credit card. International credit cards are not accepted. You can ask a relative to pay the room rates which include a deposit payment. The deposit is refunded in cash when you check out.

The Guest House has hot water for a shower till midday noon. You must checkout by 10am.

I wasn't too keen on the budget restaurant within the facility. It's pure Gujarati cuisine but okay for the local palate who like no frills food at a very low budget, its rs70 for unlimited basic Gujarati dinner. Nevertheless I'm still giving this a 5 star review.

Somnath old and new temple is 5 minutes walk away. The new temple doesnt allow any pooja or ceremonies. Nor does the new temple allow any bags or electronic devices to be taken into the temple premises, you can keep your belongings free of charge in the lockers, it's safe and no one from the staff will access your locker without the key.

In terms of pooja, this is done at the old temple. The temple has a set minimum price of rs3100 for any pooja which includes the maraj and ceremony things, you can of course give extra to the maraj as token of appreciation if you wish. The old temple is small and cramped, only 2 families of 5 adults are allowed inside at any time for pooja.

The pooja experience is very good and you get to do the pooja on the actual shivling using Hindu ceremony things which also include bhang (Cannabis).

Watch out for the beggars in Somnath, especially the females with kids. Once they see you giving 1 beggar money, you will find 20 beggars surrounding you like a pack of dogs and they will harrass and follow you for 1km. My recommendation is don't give any beggars money, instead ask them if they want food items and buy that for them. If they decline, walk away but don't give any money unless your happy to be harrassed by a pack of shameless people. I gave 1 begger girl rs100 and suddenly an elder lady with a child snatched the rs100 from the child's hands with no shame. Disgusting behaviour stealing from a child.

Don't let the beggars put you off, it's one of these things in India. Begging is a profession in India, not all beggars are the same. The genuine beggars will accept food donations.

Go to Somnath and wash away your sins accumulated from your past 7 births.

Jai Somnath Mahadev - Har Har Mahadev

Amz Wag - Gaam Madhapar,...

This place can be reached easily by car. There is enough parking space. To get an AC room for Rs 950 one has to book in advance.But non Ac rooms for Rs 750 are easily available. But advisable to book in advance through online booking. After booking and reaching there, you have to walk to the booking office to get a receipt and room number. Then you have to come to the guest house and show the receipt to get the keys of your room. Rooms are very basic but large. Not clean linen, bathrooms are dirty. Food is provided i their dining hall which has specific timings for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast for Rs 30/20, Lunch/dinner for Rs 40. Lunch and dinner very ordinary but looking at the price the quantity and taste is justified. The non AC rooms can get very warm and humid during summers. Water cooler is present in the dining hall. Lift is provided, Help to bring your luggage to your room is available. Battery operated golf cart is available to carry the disabled and elderly persons from the guest house to the temple lift. Parking near the temple is available for Rs 20 at 500 metres away. Near the guest house there are many shops and restaurant kiosks selling food items and other wares. There is light and sound show in the temple at 8 pm for Rs 25. It is worth watching. Photography is not allowed in the temple. Free luggage and electronic items deposit safe is available. You have to leave your camera, cell phone, remote car key in the locker room free of charge. They give you your locker keys. Footwear is also deposited for free. If you want to get good photograph of the temple, go to the road on the north-west side of temple (right side if you are facing the temple and the sea). From here you can get full view of the temple well lighted by sunlight during the morning time. There is nothing much to do in Somnath. One full...

4 bed room Experience - I opted for 4 bed a/c room which costed me 1900 rs per night. The room was spacious and had good facilities.. For 4 bed rooms there were 2 bathrooms provided which was really helpful (for the rest of the rooms 1 bathroom is provided) . There's also a canteen where breakfast, lunch and dinner is provided, you do have to pay extra for it, the prices are as follows - Breakfast - 35 rs, Lunch & Dinner - 70 rs, although I wouldn't recommend the canteen as the food there was not great. You dont have to worry about security reasons as it is Somnath trust funded, also because of this the pricing is reasonable as well.

Near Locations - The main advantage of this guest house is that it is close to a lot of location - Shree Somnath Temple - 5-7 min walk Balka tirth Temple - 4 km Panch pandava gufa - 1.2 km Somnath station - 1.6 km Somnath bus station - 900m

The overall experience was good. The canteen does need some improvements but other than that this place was nice. I would...