Malvan - Tarkarli beach
Everyone knows about Goa, there is indeed no comparison between places, but when you are wondering a new place, you consider going to lesser known place! And if you are planning a small trip to a peaceful and lesser known, lesser expensive place then here you go!
Have you heard of Malvan?
Everyone knows about Goa, there is indeed no comparison
between places, but when you are wondering a new place, you consider going to
lesser known place! And if you are planning a small trip to a peaceful and
lesser known, lesser expensive place then here you go!
How to Reach?
Malvan can be reached via national highway from Mumbai,
Pune, Kolhapur as well as Bangalore. The road trip will add more fun to your
vacation, as the highways are covered with beauty and many good places to take
rest.
I found three ways to reach from Kolhapur - there can be
some other ways
1. Gaganbawda,
2. Radhanagar
3. Sawantwadi
I preferred 1. Gaganbawada as it's the scenic route and
famous ghat. Around 20-30 km from Kolhapur, the road full of potholes after
that it was not as bad but not too smooth too, one can go with 40-50 km/hr
speed. Rangala-Gaganbawada-Vaibhavwadi-Kankawli-Malwan is the good to start.
The route includes Ghat areas so in the rainy season there are chances of the
landslide.
It will join NH17 at the point called Tarele. Then we took
left on the highway and go to Kasal via Nandgav, Langkawi.Reach Malwan ST bus
stand via Kudal-Malvan road. The road is pretty good.
Where to stay?
Staying is not a problem here, but do not expect 5-star
luxuries. You will find a nice and cool stay with decent food at reasonable
rates. MTDC has the pretty good lodge here, also the food was very good but for
MTDC, 2-3 months prior booking is needed. Other than this there 4-5 more good
lodge for a peaceful stay.
Day 1 :
We spent the first day in traveling and reaching to the MTDC
lodge. Then we just took rest and enjoyed the peace after a long travel.
Day 2:
a.Dolphin school: Feb-March is the odd season to find Dolphins. However, we were lucky to find them. They weren't very close but found schools of Dolphins. For Dolphin sites early morning is preferable. The person we booked took us to Devbaug. We took a boat from the small jetty and we reached Karli River. The Karli river meets the Arabian sea, One can easily differentiate between the colors of water. Along with the dolphins beautiful morning, cool breeze and cheering sound of birds was adding joy to our day. Dolphins hunt river water fish and eat them at river delta. Watching them hunting in a group was the moment of the day. Dolphins are more of a naughty kind of nature, and watching them hunting and jumping in the groups was creating more and more endorphin in our bodies.
We spent the morning time watching dolphins and did some sightseeing at Devbaug.
b. Tsunami Island:
The latter part of the day we visited tsunami island. This island is in low tide zone and formed after Tsunami, that is the reason behind the name.
The island was for the water rides like a banana ride, sofa ride, speed boat, jet scooter, paragliding, and
swimming. The water and the beach were clean. We really had a good time swimming around. We enjoyed all the rides too. The prices for the rides are also pretty reasonable.
Day 3:
c. Scuba:
There was the place called Malvan Jetty beach area, where we had to catch Scuba guys.
Again I would like to say, don’t expect that luxury set up and costumes here. Price for scuba was some 1500 bucks. They bargain, if you have that typical Indian in you, I am sure you can get that guy for half price. They also take photos and videos of you, underwater.
The guide will take you underwater and show you the underwater world. It is indeed a great experience, you need not know swimming for this, just don’t fear water.
d. Sindhudurg fort:
From Malvan jetty, buy a 50 Rs. ticket for a ferry ride. The boat person will take you on a ride to the fort. The fort is a really superb memory of great Maratha king Shivaji Maharaj.
Day 4:
We decided to spend time at the lodge and spend some time capturing moments nearby. So no plans for the day. We enjoyed Seafood at a place near our lodge, it was good. If you are not fond of seafood or vegetarian, they also don’t worry. We also tried north Indian, South
India, Chinese all other days and the experience was really good. Though we decided to spend the day without any plan, the bug under you keeps on poking and ask you to go out from the room, so at last, we made a plan for shopping.
They had a small local market in Malvan. There were plenty shops selling cashew of different varieties. Other than that we could not find anything worth taking, but we had a good time exploring the locality and place.
We met many tourists in the market, they were all heading for goa. So if you are traveling to goa, people do consider Malvan as a stop for 1-2 days and also explore a new place.
I personally got a great small vacation at a very reasonable price.