Sindhudurg Experience: The Sindhudurg district is a part of Konkan, the coastal region by the Arabian Sea. I was surprised to know it has around 122 km of coast. And all I thought was there is just Tarkarli there. Jabki, Tarkarli is not even 2% of the existing sea shore.
It has beaches, a lot of them. Hill stations, wildlife, temples, waterfalls, history, forts and what not. And not to forget, food. Especially seafood.
But there's a other side to this coin. The roads are confusing. No proper information available on net. Localites, at times, sound so unfriendly. Due to all this day one of our trip we were absolutely freaky. We couldnt site a single place. But thankfully, we found a young energetic Sindhudurg Guide at Malvan Jetty who assured to take care of us for next five days. And he actually did it.
All in all, Sindhudurg is a perfect holiday destination. But believe me, you must hire a guide, like we did to show you around this paradise.
Food, sight-seeing and shopping: The guide sat with us on day 1 to draft an itinerary as per our interest. Same evening he took us to Tondavli Beach. The drive was lovely and the beach was amazing. We could see lot of dolphins from the beach. Lovely site. Day 2 was full of water sports activities. Water sports on the island, scuba diving at Malvan and then rain showers in mid of a thickly wooded spice farm.
Day 3 an island hospitality program awaited us. Traditional meals, backwater boating trips, swimming, Maadi sampling and spending the whole day on a backwater island was just out of the world experience.
Day 4 we went for a full day sightseeing trip of Vengurla. Lovely beaches this place has. The best was sunset at Kondura. We sat there for hours.
Day 5 we visited lot of sites in Devgad. This place is a unsung tourist destination. Khazana of exotic beaches, lunch at a Mango farm and a evening boat cruise on backwaters. Can't forget participating in a fish auction. For just Rs 2000 we bought almost Rs 6-7000 worth of a fish (Bombay prices).
Last night we went on a night jeep safari organized by Sindhudurg Guide. We sighted few foxes and a bison (was quite far). A stay on a riverside machan was a hair raising experience for sure.
All this could be possible just because of guidance we had. The Sindhudurg Guide.
Activities & things to do: Tsunami Island: Water Sports
Malvan Jetty: Scuba Diving followed by boat trip to Sindhudurg Fort
Backwater Trip from Tarkarli to Bhowe beach.
Island hospitality organized by Sindhudurg Guide.
Mango farm lunch.
Spice Farm trip (ran showers, spice plantation trip and lunch)
Backwater boating in Devgad
Fish auction at Devgad beach
Night jeep safari organized by Sindhudurg Guide.
Travel tips, How to reach, travel warnings etc: We traveled from Bombay. You can take a road drive on NH17. Or travel on Konkan Railway.
The roads in the district could be confusing. So hiring a guide would help. Costs almost nothing considering the attention and service you get in return.
Sindhudurg Experience: Sawantwadi is beautiful place which is situated around the lake
in a valley in sahyadri ranges. Amboli hill station is just 20 mins drive from there. Vengurla beach is 21 km from sawantwadi.
Food, sight-seeing and shopping: fried Local fish variety,fish curry in coconut gravy, Amboli, mixed vegetables khatkhate, kokam kadhi, Wooden toys, gift articals, food stuff out of mongo, jackfruit, kokam
Activities & things to do: sawantwadi palace ,Narendra hills , sawantwadi water station,
Amboli sunset point ,Vengurla beach, temples
Travel tips, How to reach, travel warnings etc: from pune it takes 6 to 7 hours to reach Sawantwadi by car.Breakfast of wadapav before shirwal.Take lunch before Kolhapur on Highway restaurent As afterward ther is no good restaurent for lunch.
Use Pune - kolhapur- belgaum highway . Take right turn after Nipani .Then Hajara, Amboli & Sawantwadi.
Sindhudurg Experience: Tarkarli, a beach town in the district of Sindhudurg, Malwan, has a great beach front, excellent food, and very clear waters and makes snorkelling good. There is a fort also that you can look. You need to board one of the boats to reach the fort
Food, sight-seeing and shopping: Dont go to any restaurant but try the home food at any of the family run restaurants. Sea food, Malwani style is just superb.
Activities & things to do: Snorkelling, Fort view, swimming, boating or just driving.
Travel tips, How to reach, travel warnings etc: Carry your booze since the town does not have a bar or wine shop.
Sindhudurg Experience: sindhudurga is goa in maharashtra.much better beaches, clean and serene. less explored. people in konkan are not tourisum educated, not aware of the needs of an urban tourist. boatman on a trip to fort sindhudurga will rudely tell u to shift ahead,but dont mind that cause they dont want to insult u, but this is the way they are. roads are good all over except they are narrow in villages.
Food, sight-seeing and shopping: malvani food is great, fish fry, solkadhi, fish curry is a staple diet. dont ever try Chinese, punjabi food in konkan, u will fall on your face (not even in any good resort.). stick to local basic food. me and my family hogged on fish and malvani chicken day and night. when you take a dolphin ride from bhogwe or tarkarli they take u to a small island which came up after tsunami has 2 huts serving breakfast, one serves poha, upma etc. the other one smaller only serves narial paani and ghawne (very soft rice pancake) and usal (pulses). must have that. one ghawan and usal will cost u 15 rs. only. there are 2 ways u can enjoy sindhudurga, one, go to tarkarli, stay at mtdc or small resorts near the beach. stay at one place for 2/3 days and just enjoy the beautiful tarkarli beach,sleep eat drink swim take a walk along the beach, watch the star fish on the shore, thats it. second plan.go for atleast 5/7 days, take a home stay option at parule, achra, malvan, (i stayed at mr.samants house at parule) home stay is a good idea since these properties has a typical village home feel with good amenities. beetalnut, coconut plantation etc, its fun. samants stay on gr.flr. and first flr has 2 rooms with western poty. attached terrase, where the food is served couple of charpais to rest and a aaram kursi. rooms and terrace is all yours,surrounded bu trees, and many beautiful birds will watch u from the branches. they cook their food on chulha,that gives the food a different aroma. charges 800 per pax per day food and stay. (visit madhuramparyatan.com). reddy ganesh temple, kunkeshwar tempel and beach,bhogwe beach, niwti fort, vijaydurga,devbag, tarkarli, wegurle light house(open till 5.30pm) wegurle port, dhamapur dam,fish auction at malwan in the evening, sawantwadi, there are so many places to go. dont go to sindhudurga fort since it has only walls remaining, absolutely nothing inside, guide will charge 100rs.to explain the fort which is useless. still u want to go? then take a rs27 return ticket from malvan jetty,sit on the floor of a packed small boat,with that rude boatman and come back in 1 hour, we returned in 20 mins. 6.30 pm is the last boat from the fort.
Activities & things to do: early morning dolphin rides from tarkarli and bhogwe,100rs. per head. one motorboat sits 8. u can book the entire boat for rs800. starts at 7.30 am. if u wakeup late take the same boat to take to karli river back waters its equally good. they arrange for fishing trips also. wegurle light house, they take u to the actual light room and explain how it works,its intresting. there is a emu farm and turkey farm near tarkarly,10rs per head to watch the ostrich look alike birds, which lays a half a kg. egg which is emerald green in colour.
Travel tips, How to reach, travel warnings etc: having your own vehicle is always good, that helps u to visit all the places around. kudal and kankawli are the nearest rail heads on konkan railway tarkarli malwan is aprx 30 km.from kudal and u can take an auto or go for state trasport bus,that will take u to one destination but what about siteseeing? so drive down in your own car.
Sindhudurg Experience: Sindhudurg district is the most beautiful one in Maharashtra in terms of Natural beauty, flora, & fauna ! Lot many Sea beaches, temples of historical importance and forts !
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Food, sight-seeing and shopping: lot of site seeing places - temples, forts, sea shores. Pleasant atmosphere. Lot of Sea food as well as fruits.
Activities & things to do: touring
Travel tips, How to reach, travel warnings etc: nearest railway station -kudal.
lot of trains from Mumbai.
nearest airport- Goa - Dabholim
