Best Places To Visit In Puri With Some Valuable Travel Tips!

According to Hindu mythology Puri is one of the original 4 pilgrimage sites (Char Dham) of India. It is at a distance of 67 kms from Odisha’s capital Bhubaneswar. It is a very famous pilgrimage place in the country. Every year thousands of people come here from different cities of India to offer their prayers to Lord Sri Jagannath at Puri Jagannath temple. Also, thousands of foreign tourists from different parts of the world visit here every year.

Along with the temples, the place has some fabulous beaches in and around the city, that are worthy of spending an evening away from a stressful life. Here, the center of attraction for tourists is the Puri sea beach, local foods, and shopping in the streets. Also, the district is famous as an artistic land in the country. It has produced so many skilled artisans in Sand art, Applique art, Pattachitra paintings, Stone and Wood carvings. 

There are several best places to visit in Puri. But I suggest you should witness some of the famous places in Puri and for your convenience travel I have mentioned those places sequentially. Also, I have shared some other important information like; When to visit, How to reach, where to stay, and many more, so it will save you both time and money.

Puri Jagannath Temple

Puri is known by several names from the ancient periods, and also popularly known as “Sri Kshetra” and the Puri Jagannath temple is known as “Sri Mandira” or “Bada Deula“. The temple was built almost thousands of years ago. It holds some great religious value, especially among the Hindu people, by counting one of the Char Dham pilgrimage shrines. 

The architectural structure of the temple is highly rich. Four majestic gates stand by protecting the temple. Some of its architectural miracle works are still beyond any scientific explanation. 

From ancient times there has been a belief of never sending a visitor back with an empty stomach. The Maha Prasada has been prepared with the following centuries-old process; Also the food here is never wasted. 

Lord Jagannath comes out of the temple once a year during the famous Rath Yatra (Chariot Festival), happening in the months of June or July. The Chariot Festival provides an opportunity to not only Hindus but thousands of devotees from different religions to witness their lovable god Lord Jagannath in the open sky and offer their prayers.  

Puri Beach

Puri sea beach is one of the most enjoyable places for tourists. It is also known as the Golden Beach of India. The beach is located near Marine Drive road. Whenever you come here, you will get lots of tourists on this beach. Here, you will get lots of options to eat and shop. If you wish, you can also enjoy horse riding, water bike rides, camel rides, etc.

If you like a less crowded beach, then you can choose either Chakratirtha beach or the new Marine Drive beach. Sea bathing in Puri is so much fun. You will find people of every age, from a child to older age enjoying here. If you want, you can hire some chairs to sit on the beach. Three such chairs and one big colourful umbrella rate in the morning and afternoon are priced at 100 rupees per hour, and in the evening, one chair rate is 20 rupees per hour. 

Some workers have enrolled here to keep the beach clean, but as a tourist also it is one’s responsibility not to litter on the beach. Here, lifeguards are also available for the safety of tourists. 

Markandeshwar Temple 

There is an ancient belief about Markandeshwar Temple that it is the holy place where sage Markandeya meditated on Lord Shiva for a long time. At this place, a Shiv Temple was built by sage Markandeya. The ancient temple is situated by the side of the Markandeshwar tank, at the Markandeswar street, to the north direction of the Jagannath temple. You can visit this place through the right side of Markandeswar road leading from Markandeswar chowk to Puri-Brahmagiri road.

Gundicha Temple

It is another sacred Hindu temple located at one of the ends of Puri Bada Danda. The main deity here is the goddess Gundicha Maa also known as aunt of Sri Jagannath. It is a sacred place because the importance of the temple rises as it is the end destination of the annual Rath Yatra.

Narendra Pokhari

Narendra Pokhari is a holy tank built in the 15th century AD and is one of the largest tanks of Odisha. It is situated at a distance of only 2 Km away from the Jagannath Temple. The tank has many Ghats where devotees can take holy baths.

The famous tank is the place where plenty of rituals are performed during the festival of Chandana Yatra. At the center of the tank, you will see a small temple also called Chandana Mandapa, and the main deity here is Lord Jagannath.

Puri Golden Beach

Golden Beach is a part of Puri main beach with a dedicated name. It covers an area of 870 meters stretched from Mayfair Heritage to Digabareni square. Last year on 12th Oct. 2020, the beach was awarded Blue Flag certification by FEE Denmark by conforming to the stringent environmental norm and ensuring world-class sustainable tourist amenities.

You will reach the beach via Harihar Square and Raj Bhavan way. The beach is litter-free and clean, and it works as per the Blue Flag norms. Here, you will get a lot of quality facilities within the beach surrounding. By providing all these services, authorities charge a certain amount to visitors as the entry pass, which is quite worthy of spending. 

To know more about it in detail, you can also go through the article Blue Flag Golden Beach Of Puri.

Sakhigopal Temple

Sakhigopala is one of the sacred tourist destinations of Odisha. It is a village with historical importance. It is situated 19 kms north of Puri on the way to Bhubaneswar. The place is very popular in the country because of the famous Sakhigopal temple, and the main deities here are Lord Krishna with Radha. At festival times like Anla Nabami, Dola Purnima, Chandan Yatra, Kartika Purnima, etc., a lot of pilgrims visit the place. The place is also famous for its coconut industry within the state.

Ramachandi Temple

The temple of Goddess ‘Ramachandi on the bank of the Kushabhadra river is a great picnic resort for tourists. It is one of the good places to visit in Konark area. The temple is situated 7 kms before Konark on the Marine drive road from Puri to Konark. Ramachandi is popularly believed the presiding deity of Konark and the most benevolent Chandi known. 

It is certainly more ancient than the Sun temple at Konark. From the architectural point of view, the temple of Ramachandi might not have that much importance, but from the religious point of view, it is one of the famous Shakti Pithas of Puri.

Chandrabhaga Beach

It is a beautiful golden sand beach. It is located three km away from the Sun Temple Konark on the way from Puri to Konark Marine Drive road. It will take nearly one hour to reach Chandrabhaga beach from Puri.

Chandrabhaga beach is also the venue of the famous “International sand Art Festival” where renowned sand artists from all over the world participated to showcase their craft. The festival continues for five days and attracts a large number of tourists to the spot.

Konark Sun Temple

The Konark Sun Temple is one of the best places to visit in Puri. The temple is situated at a distance of 35 kms on the northeast corner of Puri and is dedicated to Sun God (Surya Dev). The place is also known as Arka Kshetra. The Sun Temple of Konark, built in the middle of the 13th century, is a majestic conception of artistic magnificence and jaw-breaking engineering skills. 

The temple is a huge form of a chariot. Some part of the major portion of this temple is currently in a ruined stage and supported by iron rods. Still, you can see a lot of marvelous stone carvings on its walls, especially the huge stone-carved wheels of the chariot. 

At the entrance of this temple, you will find some local stalls from where you may collect some local handcrafting products. You will definitely enjoy some quality time here by witnessing its treasure of architectural designs. Also, by clicking some happy moments in a frame from different sight views of the temple with your near and dear ones.

Pipili 

Puri has a very wide and distinctive collection of handicrafts. One of those popular places of handicraft is the gorgeous applique work of Pipili. It is 40 kilometers from Puri and is located at the junction where the Konark route branches from the Bhubaneswar to Puri road. 

There are many shops on the main road at Pipili selling Applique work products. It is famous not only in Odisha but also in India for it’s applique craft. Most of the families of the village engaged themselves in this applique craft. Normally tourists visiting Puri also visit Pipili and buy these applique products from here. The applique handicraft products are popularly known as ‘Chandua‘ in the local region.

Raghurajpur Village

Raghurajpur, a small village in the Puri district also known as Raghurajpur Artist Village. The place is popular, especially for Pattachitra work. Here you can see many local artists painting beautiful pictures, especially of gods and goddesses. Also, they do wooden and stone handicrafts. There are many shops where you can purchase some of these amazing products. 

The unique point about this village is they loved to decorate their house with some amazing paintings. The outer walls of most of the houses are beautifully decorated with paintings of mythological scenes from the epics like the Ramayan and the Mahabharat.

To visit Raghurajpur first, you have to reach the Chandanpur bus stop, which is around 10 km from Puri and 50 km from Bhubaneswar on National Highway No.- 203. From Chandanpur, you should take a Rickshaw or walk on a 1.3 km road to reach this village. If you want, hire a cab either from Puri or from Bhubaneswar to reach the village.

Chilika Lake

Chilika Lake is India’s biggest inland lake. It is also known as the Swiss-lake in the continent. It flows along the borders of three districts of Puri, Khurda, and Ganjam and finally meets the Bay of Bengal through a narrow mouth. Chilika is the largest brackish water lagoon of Asia situated on the east coast of India. It will take approx two hours to reach Chilika from Puri by cab and the fare would be around rupees 3000 to 4000. Also, you can travel by train where the fares will be very cheap and journey time will be reduced to nearly one and half hour.

If you visit the Chilika wildlife sanctuary in winter, you will find thousands of migratory birds and water-fowls from different countries gathered here for feeding, resting, and roosting. Every year the birds start coming to the lake around the second and third week of October and stay up to March. They start their homeward journey at the commencement of summer. Also, you can enjoy a boat ride here. It will cost you around rupees 2500 for 10 to 12 people.

Some Valuable Travel Tips

Now it’s time to know some other valuable information related to travel. It will make your journey a little easy. So before you plan to visit Puri, It would be good if you have some information about the Best time to visit? How to reach? Where to stay? So let’s go to know more one by one in detail:

Best Time To Visit Puri

Tourists visit the holy city throughout the year, but the best time to visit Puri is between October to February, when the heat and humidity are low. So this time is ideal for outdoor activities and sightseeing. 

If you want, you can also visit at the time of Jagannath Rath Yatra in the months of June and July. But at that time it is difficult to find any hotels due to the huge number of tourists. You have to book the hotels in advance. 

How To Reach

If you want to travel by flight, then Biju Patnaik International Airport at Bhubaneswar is the nearest airport to reach Puri. The distance from the airport to Puri is 67 kms. You can hire a cab from the airport to reach the city. The fare would be nearly 800 to 1500 rupees. 

Direct train services are available from many popular cities of India, including Bhubaneswar, New Delhi, Kolkata, etc. Just outside of Puri Railway station, you will get many autos to reach your hotel. The fare of that auto would be approx 150 – 250 rupees. If you are unable to get tickets for direct trains to Puri, then you can book your tickets for the nearest railway station Bhubaneswar. 

From Bhubaneswar railway station, you will get so many direct trains to Puri. But if you want to travel by cab or by bus only, then I recommend you should exit through platform number one. Just outside of the railway station, you will find the Master Canteen Bus Stand, and there you will get several buses frequently for Puri. Also, you can easily get a cab from there. 

Where To Stay

In Puri, you will get hotels in different budgets. Hotel in Puri near sea beach, most of visitor’s first choice to stay in. Especially at Marine Drive Road, there are a lot of hotels to stay in facing towards the sea. Due to the prime location, the prices of these hotels are quite high compared to other locations. The price range here is between 1500 to 5000 rupees. Here, you can enjoy the view of the sea while sitting on the bed or from the balcony. 

If you are looking for some budget hotels, then so many of them are present on Swargadwar Road. From outside the hotel, you will easily get autos or cabs for traveling around. 

Where To Shopping 

Shopping is an important part of traveling. Whenever people travel to any place, they definitely buy some souvenirs for their family and friends. In Puri, there are two places most famous for shopping, the Swargadwar market, and the Beach Market. The statue of Shri Chaitanya is an important landmark here; it will help you to point out the marketplace easily. 

On one side of the statue, you will find the Swargadwar Market from where you can buy Odisha handloom products, like Katki and Sambalpuri sarees, salwar suits, different types of bedsheets, and much more. On another side of the statue, you will find Puri beach market from where you can buy different varieties of things which are good and price worthy.

Street Foods And Sweets

You will get lots of options to eat street food in Puri, but the most popular is the seafood fries. If you want, then you can select seafood according to your preference and then ask the stall owner to fry it for you. You can also try the Motar Ka Paani in the city street.

You came to Puri, but if you have not tasted the famous Khaja, then your Puri trip is incomplete. The one more sweet name Chhena Poda is also a great choice to have. There are many other sweet options available like Jhilli, Rosgola, Ras Malai and Gaja, etc. You can buy these sweets from near the temple and also some other corners of the city. 

Lastly, I will say there are a lot of best places to visit in Puri. Every year many tourists come here to spend their quality time. They enjoy the places and the golden sand beaches in and around the city. They also like the foods and the culture of the state. To know more about the state of Odisha and its many other incredible places, you can also visit my other posts here.

Dear Reader, If you find the article helpful, then kindly share your thoughts here. Also, If you have visited some of these places before, then share your experience. if I have missed something to mention here and need to update within this list, please let me know below in the comment section. – Odisha Darsan