Lesser Explored, More Beautiful: Malvan-Tarkarli

"Cover the Earth, before it covers you :" Anonymous

Introduction

What You Can Expect

How to Reach

Best Season to Visit

Ideal 3-day Itinerary from Mumbai

Cost

Our Experience

Introduction:

Malvan-Tarkarli are coastal towns in Sindhudurg District of the Indian State of Maharashtra. It is almost equidistant from the Ratnagiri district (Maharashtra) in north and Panaji (Goa) in south. This place is known for crystal clear water of the Arabian Sea & pollution free white sand beaches. It owns the most beautiful beaches in India. Sindhudurg Fort, which was built in the 17th century by Maratha rulers, is the pearl of this crown. You won’t find better seafood anywhere than here. The whole coastline of the Arabian Sea here is covered with beautiful palm trees. In fact, you will find lesser houses and more palm trees in this whole area.

What You Can Expect?

Clear Water of Arabian Sea; Cleanest and serene beaches of India with white sand; Scuba Diving in clear water; Water Sports including Banana Ride, Bumper Ride, Para-sailing, Jet Ski and Kayaking; Beautiful Forts standing tall unmoved in the middle of Gigantic Arabian Sea; Peaceful Cathedrals and Temples; Authentic Konkana Food & what not?

How to Reach ?

Malvan is not very well connected but also not too difficult to reach. Take a train from Mumbai and alight at Kudal Railway Station. Take the city transport bus from here to reach Malvan. The overall average time taken to reach Malvan from Mumbai is 9 to 10 hours.

Ideal 3-day Itinerary from Mumbai:

Take Tutari Express from Dadar at 00:05 AM which reaches Kudal at 9:30 AM.
Catch a bus from the Kudal railway station to Malvan bus stand. The frequency is half an hour for these buses. It takes an exact one hour to reach Malvan from here.
Check-in into your hotel, get fresh-n-up and get ready to explore by 12:30 PM.
Get done with lunch and other non-productive formalities by 2 PM. It is recommended to book two-wheeler well in advance for exploration. Contact details for the same are given in the references and contact details at the end of this blog. (I’m a blogger, not an agent. So, no commission involved: P)
Follow the route plan written below. It’s okay if you are not able to cover all the points. (Remember Deepika’s dialogue from Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani?)

Achara Beach,
Wagheshwar Temple,
Tondivali Beach,
Rameshwar Temple,
Ganpati Temple,
Sindhudurg Fort for sunset (It’s a western coast and Sun sets in the west, remember?: D)
Come to your room, take bath if you feel so (recommended after visiting the beach). Have dinner.
At around 9 PM, leave for Chivla beach (if you are in a group, take a volleyball with you).
Enjoy there till midnight. Witness the clear sky with a hundred thousand stars. Come back to the room and sleep with the excitement of Scuba Diving next day.

Refer below for the plan for 2nd day:

Wake up at 7 AM. Leave for Devbag by 7:30 AM after having light breakfast. No sense of taking a bath.
Reach to the destination by 8:15 AM and get ready for the adventures.
Done with scuba diving by 11:30 AM (tentative). Eat something and leave for your next boat ride and a bunch of adventure.
A boat will take you to the tour of Devbag Sangam - Seagull Island - Tsunami Island. During this visit .. WAIT, I will explain later in this post ('Surprises should be kept for later, right').
At Tsunami Island, Kayaking is a very good experience. You can try other water sports also, but I won’t recommend so.
By 3 PM, leave for Tarkarli beach. Here you should do water sports. Para-sailing, Bumper ride, Banana Ride and Jet Ski.
Done with this by 6 PM. Change quickly and leave for the rock garden.
Now you are going to witness one of the best sunsets of your life.
Repeat the last day’s process until dinner. You can visit dandi beach at night.

The Last Day:

Get up at 6 AM.
You have a little time to explore now. So, go to St Peter’s Church and On your way back, you can visit Tarkarli beach again for some time. You can also go to Dandi beach.

Come back by 10:00 AM. Check-out from the hotel by 10:45 and take a bus to Kudal Railway Station.
At 1:00 PM, board Veraval Express for your return to Mumbai. Reach Mumbai by 9:30 PM.

The above itinerary is prepared after our experience and not repeating the mistakes we committed. You can make your own, as per your plan; but experience does count, doesn't it? The places we visited and our experience is shared in the upcoming sections.

Cost:

Approx INR 5000 per person. Trust me, after the trip, there will be nothing to regret about.
Our Cost:

Approx INR 1000 for train both side, per person.

INR 550 for the hotel for 2 days per person

INR 500 for bikes for 2 days per person,

INR 1000 for Scuba Diving per person,

Miscellaneous- Approx INR 1500.

Our Experience:

In the second week of Feb’20, when I was checking the yearly holiday calendar of my company, something struck me. Holi holiday was on 10th March (Tuesday), so we could take a day off on Monday i.e. 9th March and could plan a 3–day trip somewhere. First, I thought of Goa, but somewhere in my mind, I wasn’t satisfied with that. So, after an intense research of a complete day, I started planning for Malvan-Tarkarli, which is not far away from Goa but a peaceful place to spend 3 days. I started asking people. And 9 people, including me, got ready for that. So, I checked on Goibibo and Oyo for the hotel and booked 3 rooms for 2 days in Hotel Simon King (again, no promotion involved: LOL).

I looked for the trains and their timing but it was a disappointment as most of the trains were full from both sides. Meanwhile, two people canceled their plan, but luckily two other people joined the group. So finally, I (Himanshu), Manav, Murli, Milan, Rahul (Modi), Rajat, Chirag, Akash and Divanshu were going for the trip. Chirag would be coming from Ahmedabad, so we three people, I, Milan, Chirag booked our return tickets in Veraval Express (This train is recommended for everyone). Others booked their return tickets in CBE-Jabalpur express, which leaves from Kudal at 10 AM. Our Kudal tickets were booked in Jabalpur-CBE Superfast express, which leaves from Panvel at 4:00 AM (on paper). Don’t do this mistake the same as ours, book the tickets in the train mentioned in the itinerary.

Now, we also booked 5 bikes and scuba diving along-with water sports at Malvan. Tripling is not allowed and Malvan traffic Police is really serious about this, so we booked 5 bikes. So we were all done with packing and excitement in the evening of 7th March 2020. We left for the station at 2:30 AM on 8th March. Here, our trip started.

The train was running late by one and half hour, it reached Panvel at 5:20 AM. It was okay since then, but guess what; it reached Kudal at 2:20 PM whereas it’s on paper time is 9:50 AM. That’s why I said, don’t repeat this mistake of us. Anyway, the route to Kudal from Panvel was like a fairytale. The train was passing through Hills, Fields, and tunnels. We crossed 2nd longest railway tunnel of India which is 7 km long. The route was really beautiful that it doubled our excitement.

So, we got off the train and inquired from rickshaw drivers. They were asking for 1800 Rs for 9 people. It was way too much than expected. So, we waited for the bus. It didn’t disappoint us as the bus came in no time. We boarded that bus and moved towards Malvan. It took one hour to reach malvan city bus stand. The route to Malvan was full of palm trees. We crossed the Karli River in between. Most of the time, we passed through villages so it was a very soothing journey. We reached Malvan at 3:30 PM. Our hotel was just 170m from here, so we reached there within 5 minutes. The hotel room was really more beautiful than expected. We were so pleased to see the greenery around our rooms, through the beautiful balcony. The owner was also very polite and cooperative. We took a bath and were ready by 5 PM.

View from the hotel room balcony

It was already too late. Bikes had been delivered to the hotel itself before we reached there. So we picked up those and went out towards Tarkarli Beach. (Click for details and Photos)

Our plan was to cover at least three points today. We reached Tarkarli Beach at 05:30 PM and within a few seconds, all our tiredness had gone miles away. Sun was not too far from the horizon and its reflection in the great Arabian Sea wasn’t less than a healing therapy. Clearwater and clean beaches were tempting us to jump into the sea. But, our hunger didn’t allow us to do so. So, we ordered food first from one of the stalls available at the beach. Kanda Bhaji, Batata Bhaji, Tea, Maggi, Omelette, Vada Pav and what not; and the bill was just INR 430. Chirag, Milan and I couldn’t control ourselves and ran towards the shore.

Evening scene at Tarkarli Beach

We enjoyed there for some time and had tea-snacks. Gradually everyone joined us. Then the magic happened. The sunset. The beauty of nature. The mating of the sky and the land. The view was so mesmerizing that we forgot about the time. It was dark after that. Some of us didn’t carry fresh clothes so we had to go back to the room, canceling all plans. But we were satisfied.

Soothing Sunset, healing heart!

It was Modi’s birthday on 9th, so I requested the hotel owner, Mr. Everest Fernandes, to arrange a chocolate truffle cake, which he accepted politely. After coming back to the room, I collected the cake from him and put it inside the bike and told everyone about my plan except Modi himself (Obvious, isn’t it?). We washed ourselves and went for dinner. We all are vegetarian so we had very limited options available, but still, we enjoyed the food as it was cooked in Konkan style. Then we leave for Chivla Beach. (Click for details and Photos)

Our plan was to celebrate his birthday on a beach, which is a dream for everyone, I suppose. At 10:30 PM, we were there. We played Volleyball, Football and Dos ball. No one else was there except us. The 14th-day moon was shining over our heads, the sea was at its peak with all the gigantic waves and healing noise of those. The feeling can’t be expressed in the words. We again got so much sand on us, but who cares! At 11:45 PM, I went to the bike to get the cake, without telling Modi, but I saw a mokshadham outside the beach. I asked one local guy there and he suggested not to cut the cake at that part of the beach. We aren’t superstitious, but still, for the sake of someone’s birthday, I told everyone to come to the other side of the beach. It was 00:05 AM by then and the celebration began. Modi was overwhelmed by this, so were us. At 00:30 AM, we left for the hotel room. After washing ourselves and discussing the next day plan, we slept!

One of the essentials at Beach: D

Birthday celebration at Chivla beach

The next day, we got up at 07:30 AM. Everyone was done with morning formalities within 45 minutes. We were told not to eat heavy breakfast today before scuba diving. So, we chose not to eat anything at all (not recommended, though). We took our bikes and reached a given location at Devbag by 09:30 AM. Roads were so beautiful that I wanted to sing loudly (Rahoon main Malang, Malang, Malang…). When we reached there, I had only seen that kind of blue water in movies and pictures of foreign countries. Our excitement was above par now. We kept our belongings in a bag and put it in a room given to us by the organizers.

Boarding the boat for Scuba Diving

We, along-with 15 odd more people, were taken into the middle of the sea. Some other boats were also there. We were instructed by the divers and guides, meanwhile. We could see many jellyfishes on the water surface. Jellyfishes are not human friendly, trust me. If it touches you, it leaves rashes and itching. Anyway, it was too windy, so we were already told not to expect too much as the clarity goes down with the wind. Still, I was feeling excited but nauseous as we hadn’t eaten anything since morning. Finally, it was my turn to go there. I was prepared with a kit and drawn into the water by my guide.

Getting prepared!

Each candidate gets a separate guide. You don’t need to do anything, just leave yourself free, they will do everything for you. All of them were so good, polite and cooperative. They won’t take you inside until you are comfortable. I was taken into deep water after my signal. And the rest I can’t explain. You just have to experience it. I didn’t want to come back, that’s all I would say. Anyway, coming back to reality, we all finished this by 12:30 PM and were taken back to the shore. We took our diving videos from organizers, washed ourselves and talked with Mr. Pintu about water sports. As we hadn’t had so much time left, we decided to skip this and hired a boat for the next part of our trip.

It’s a different world inside there!

We had our lunch at 2 PM. Manav wasn’t feeling well due to boat sickness. So, he decided not to come with us and went to the hotel room to take rest.

We then went to Devbag Jetty, where a boat was ready for us. It cost INR 500 for the boat. We were 8 people so per person expense wasn’t too much. We traveled through Karli River to Devbag Sangam Beach. (Click for details and Photos)

Where this river meets with the Arabian Sea. This was a spectacular scene. We were seeing such kind of thing the first time in our life. A beautiful white sand beach was there, which is called Devbag Sangam Beach. You can imagine the serenity of the place by the fact that you are asked to remove your footwear before boarding the boat itself. Two different colors were meeting and forming a mesmerizing view. Due to high winds, we couldn’t go closer to the Sangam Point. Even seagulls are also not seen in such weather so we skipped seagull bird island too.

Spot the parting line between two shades of blue color!

The helmsman pointed to an area and told us that one can spot dolphins there early in the morning, before 9 AM. At that moment, we wished we had one more day to spend here. Anyway, we headed towards Tsunami Island. On our way, the helmsman pointed to a beach, named Coco Shambhala. (Click for details and Photos)

Which has won the prize for best hospitality and cleanliness in 2019. He told us about other villages of Sindhudurg such as Vengurla, which can be seen from here. I thought of doing night camping at Coco Shambhala but again, time constraint spoiled that thought also.

Most serene and beautiful place in the town!

After 5 minutes of ride from here, we reached Tsunami Island. (Click for details and Photos)

We did kayaking there, a lifetime experience. Our two hours passed there and we couldn’t feel that. At 4:50 PM, we headed back to the Devbag jetty. Our next destination was Sindhudurg Fort, for which you can board a ferry lastest by 5:30 PM and this place was 12 km from Devbag Jetty.

Nature’s magic: Tsunami Island

At 5:08 PM, we checked on google maps, it was showing 31 minutes to reach there. So, we picked up our vehicles and showed our driving skills by traveling the distance in 25 minutes (Task for mathematics geniuses: calculate the square-root of the difference of squares of our average speed in both cases: D). We ran to collect the ferry tickets and finally got those just before it was going to close. This was fun, right? So yeah, we boarded the ferry for Sindhudurg.

Sindhudurg Fort entrance gate!

At 5:50 PM, we reached Sindhudurg Fort. (Click for details and Photos)

It was huge and wasn’t possible to cover within an hour. So we canceled our plan to watch the sunset at Rock garden. We don’t regret that because sunset at Sindhudurg was way par to our expectations. There was one Mahadev temple, Bhavani temple, Hanuman Temple and Shri Shivrajeshwar Temple inside the fort. Very well maintained and peaceful appearance.

Mahadev Temple inside the Fort

We again witnessed the most beautiful sunset of life. We came back to the jetty quickly and boarded the boat at 7:00 PM. It was dark by then. Come on man, it was full moon today. The atmosphere was so peaceful, so charming and so healing that you wouldn’t ask anything else at that moment. It was the moment of my life. We reached the shore and without any further delay, we headed towards rock garden.

Like a dream came true!

Captured the full moon while returning back from Sindhudurg!

We then reached Rock garden. (Click for details and Photos)

It was about 7:45 PM. Manav also joined us. It had been 6 hours since our last meal. So we had Sev Puri, Pani Puri, Dahi Puri, Roasted Bhutta and Bhel Puri. Again so delicious and so cheap. We entered the garden. It was looking like a normal children’s park with some rides. We also tried them though it wasn’t allowed for elders.

It’s difficult to distinguish between garden light and the moon!

After 10 minutes, we found out why it is called Rock Garden. We went through the back gate of the park and found that the whole area was covered with rocks, bigger than expected and including cliffs. Again, such a scene had been only seen in movies by me. The full moon high tide waves were colliding harshly with the rocks. We 9 people were there only, no one else. We played Hindi slow songs on the speaker and had gone to our own world of imagination. The place, the beauty and the serenity were made to fall in love with that place every passing minute.

Suddenly I realized that we had to drop our bikes to the hotel because 10 PM was the check out time for the same. I called the bike owner Mr. Mohsin and requested him to extend the time to keep the bikes, which he accepted after some negotiation and some charge. We sat there on the rocks till 09:15 PM. We realized that it was late so we got up and stepped towards the front entry. We were right, all the garden lights were off, even the front gate was locked. Luckily, some stall keepers were there who opened the gate and we came out. We went straight to our room and washed ourselves. At 10:30 PM, we headed out for dinner. Only a few restaurants were opened at that time, so we faced some difficulty to find one. We came back after having dinner and I explained to everyone about our next day’s plan. We slept at 11:45 PM.

So, it was 10th March 2020; and it was Holi. The festival of color. It was my dream to celebrate this colorful festival on the beach and today it was going to happen as we planned this Holi on Dandi beach. I made everyone wake up at 5 AM and we left for Dandi beach. (Click for details and Photos)

It was about 05:30 AM. People from our group were saying that they wouldn’t go into the sea but I still packed a towel and al with me. It was still dark at 6 AM when we reached there. As usual, we were the only living being there. But as I have mentioned, it was a full moon last night and that full moon was just over the sea surface, the reflection of which was spreading milky lights everywhere.

Reflection of the moon in water, mesmerizing!

Slowly it started to dawn and we unboxed our color packets. We were playing softly and dry Holi. Suddenly Akash and I lifted Modi and threw into the sea. He abused us first but then helped us in throwing others one by one. This turned out to be the best Holi of my life.

A traditional way to celebrate Holi: Colors, Music, and Dance

At 7:05 AM, when we started to go back, a tragedy happened. The key of one bike was missing, which was being driven by Akash. We searched for that but all in vain. Then I told those 6 guys to leave and wash themselves as they had to leave at 8 AM. They did so. I had a talk with Mr. Mohsin and he charged some money for that. We rest 3 people Chirag, Milan and I went to Dandi beach again, sitting there and watching two cross waves colliding. We had light breakfast there (Poha, Vada Pav and Tea). We came back at 10:30 AM, took a bath and checked out from the hotel at 11:45 AM. Boarded 12-noon bus from Malvan to Kudal and reached station by 1 PM. Had lunch there as our train was 2 hours late, we had already checked. Thus after reaching Mumbai at 11:30 PM, our trip ended with lots of memories and beautiful experiences.