Planning a Gir Trip: Where to Stay Around Sasan and Talala

Gir National Park closes for the monsoon each year and reopens in mid-October. For 2026 that means the season starts in a few weeks, and the properties around Gir Somnath that sit empty through the rains are about to fill.

The exact reopening date is set by the forest department and is worth confirming before you fix travel, as is safari permit availability — which is the part of a Gir trip most likely to go wrong. This piece is about the other part: where you actually stay.

The three areas

Sasan — closest to the park gate

Where the safari infrastructure is, and where you want to be if early-morning permits are the priority. Prashiv Stay is here: a five-bedroom air-conditioned farmhouse for thirty, with a swimming pool including a kids' section, a garden, a children's play area, parking, CCTV and a restaurant on a paid basis. It is a vegetarian property and alcohol is not permitted, which is standard for this area.

Talala — the mango belt

Talala is Kesar mango country and the drive in is through orchards. White Wood Gir sits here — nine rooms, a common swimming pool, air-conditioned rooms, and rates quoted per room with meals included: lunch, dinner, breakfast and tea. Pricing runs per person with a minimum occupancy per room, and a separate couple rate. Worth working out against your group before comparing to a whole-property listing.

Borvav and Chitroad

Vatican Serenity in Borvav is the most family-oriented of the set: a large swimming pool with a separate circular kids' pool, a full children's playground with slides, a lush garden with swings, air-conditioned rooms, and breakfast, lunch and dinner included. Ten rooms, fifty guests. Also vegetarian, also no alcohol, and pets are permitted.

Planning the trip itself

Safari permits are the constraint, not the rooms

Permits for Gir are limited and released on a schedule. Book those first and the accommodation second — the reverse order strands people with two nights and no safari. Devalia Safari Park, the smaller enclosed interpretation zone nearby, is the usual fallback and is easier to get into, though it is a different experience.

Two nights, three if you can

A single night gives you one safari and a lot of driving. Two nights gives you a morning and an evening slot, which is what most people come for. The morning slot is the one worth prioritising.

The rest of the region

Somnath temple is roughly an hour and a half from Sasan, and Diu is about two and a half. Most families combine at least one of them with the park, which is a good argument for the third night.

Expect vegetarian and dry

Almost every property we list here is vegetarian-only and does not permit alcohol. That is the norm for this region rather than a property-by-property choice, and it is worth setting expectations with your group before booking rather than after.

Browse all Gir Somnath properties, resorts, farmhouses or villas. Elsewhere in Saurashtra: Rajkot and Bhavnagar. Further north, Saputara and Sabarkantha cover the other end of Gujarat.

How the pricing works here, because it is different

Most of the platform sells a whole property for a slot. A good part of the Gir market does not, and comparing the two on headline rate produces nonsense.

White Wood Gir in Talala is the clearest example: nine rooms, with rates quoted per room and a per-person structure inside that — a minimum occupancy per room, a separate couple rate, and an additional-person charge. Lunch, dinner, breakfast and tea are included.

Vatican Serenity in Borvav similarly includes breakfast, lunch and dinner in its rate across ten rooms for up to fifty guests.

Prashiv Stay in Sasan runs closer to the standard model — a five-bedroom property for thirty at a whole-property rate, with the restaurant available on a paid basis.

The practical instruction: work out your total for your actual group and number of nights before comparing anything. A property that looks expensive per room is often cheaper per person with meals than a property that looks cheap and then charges for four meals a day.

Building the trip around the safari, not the other way round

The single most common way a Gir trip goes wrong is booking accommodation first.

Permits for the main sanctuary are limited and released on a schedule, and they sell out for weekends and holiday periods well in advance. Book those first, then the rooms. The reverse order strands people with two nights near the park and no way into it.

Devalia Safari Park — the smaller enclosed interpretation zone a short drive from Sasan — is the standard fallback and is considerably easier to get into. It is a genuinely different experience, closer to a large enclosure than to a forest drive, but for families with young children it is often the better of the two anyway.

Two nights is the working minimum, giving you a morning and an evening slot. The morning slot is the one to prioritise. Three nights lets you add Somnath, roughly ninety minutes away, or Diu at around two and a half hours — and most families end up wanting one of the two.