Surat Travel Guide — Best Time, Things to Do & Where to Stay

Why Surat

Surat is a major city in the western Indian state of Gujarat, serving as the commercial and economic center of South Gujarat as well as the administrative capital of Surat district. Situated on the banks of the Tapti River (also popularly known as the Tapi) near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, the city lies 284 kilometers south of Gandhinagar, 265 kilometers south of Ahmedabad, and 289 kilometers north of Mumbai. In Gujarati, Hindi, and Urdu, the name Surat translates directly to the word face.

Once a prominent maritime seaport, Surat is now the second largest city in Gujarat and one of the largest urban centers in western India. It is internationally renowned for its diamond cutting and polishing industry, which processes approximately 90 percent of the world's diamonds. The city is also a major supply center for textiles, apparel, and accessories. Reflecting its commercial prominence, Surat hosts the Surat Diamond Bourse, which holds the record as the world's largest office building by floor area. It has also been involved in major technology initiatives, including selection as India's first smart IT city under the Microsoft CityNext Initiative and inclusion in the national Smart Cities Mission.

Early mentions of the settlement date back to the tenth century under the name Suryapur. Local account credits a wealthy merchant named Gopi with building up the city around 1500, though historical references indicate the location and its name predate his time. Following Portuguese raids on the nearby trade center of Rander in the 1500s, commercial activity shifted to Surat. Mughal Emperor Akbar conquered the city in 1573, turning it into the most prosperous port of the Mughal Empire. Over the centuries, it attracted diverse merchant groups, including an active Armenian community that traded in gems, silk, and cotton, leaving behind detailed gravestones that survive to this day.

During its era under Mughal rule, Surat featured waterfront mansions, active market bazaars, and specialized Jain-run hospitals for animals and insects. Although the city faced two major raids by the Maratha king Shivaji in the seventeenth century, it maintained significant shipbuilding and textile operations along the Tapti River. The British took control of the city in 1800. After facing nineteenth-century fires, epidemics, and periods of economic stagnation, the opening of the railway network helped revive local prosperity and restored traditional crafts, such as manufacturing fine muslins, brocades, silks, and metallic thread items.

Following Indian independence in 1947, Surat initially became part of Bombay State before joining Gujarat. It experienced rapid industrial expansion in chemicals, textiles, and broad trading activities. Despite managing urban health challenges and population surges over time, the city has continuously implemented civic sanitation campaigns, frequently securing top positions in national cleanliness surveys and sharing the award for India's cleanest city.