Hotels near the Puri Lighthouse and Narendra Tank

Puri Beach runs for several kilometres, and the difference between its southern end near the temple town and its northern end past Narendra Tank is large enough to change a trip. Photos rarely convey it, because almost every photograph of Puri Beach is taken in the busier half.

What the northern stretch is like

Heading north from the town you pass the lighthouse and then Narendra Tank, a working fishing harbour where boats are worked and repaired on the beach itself. Beyond that the coast opens out: the sand is broader, the water is often cleaner, and in the evening there is a fraction of the crowd that fills the beach opposite the town.

Hotel Sonar Bangla is at Baliapanda, in this northern half. Guests reach the sand from the property without crossing the beach road, and the northern stretch is what they walk onto.

What you give up

Honesty requires the other side of it. The southern beach is closer to the market, the temple and the busier restaurants. At night it has more going on, in the sense that more people are on it. If you want to walk to dinner in the town each evening, the north end costs you a short ride.

Who the north end suits

Couples who want quiet, families with young children who need the beach to be manageable, and anyone who has been to Puri before and found the town beach too crowded. It suits them less well if the plan is mostly the temple, market and town food.