Harihareshwar-Srivardhan trip

[spadival]

This is the trip me and wife did a month back.. but was too lazy to upload the pics. This was a weekend getaway trip and we stayed overnight at the MTDC resort (booked the room online!) in Harihareshwar.

I'll let the pics describe the trip (well.. I am a bit lazy right now too ).. we have better beaches in M'lore (my home town), but the black sand and sea gulls was a novelty factor for us.


@ Tamhini Ghat - Start of the journey




Some more Tamhini ghat pic







Beach @ Harihareshwar









View from the Delux hut @ MTDC, Harihareshwar. Beyond the trees, is the sea



Beach @ Srivardhan (Close to Harihareshwar).



Walkway from Harihareshwar temple to the sea side along a cliff



Cliff side - Guess it goes underwater in high tide becoz the ground was a carpet of dead seaweed. Also, lots of dead fish and live crabs around.



Pali "Hills"? @ on the way back to Pune via Pali-Khopoli-Expressway.

[snaronikar]

Nice pics. Put some more details like which car you have travelled, what's the FE and what's the route etc etc. If you are not lazy

[akroy]

Originally Posted by snaronikar

Nice pics. Put some more details like which car you have travelled, what's the FE and what's the route etc etc. If you are not lazy

, well said, I was just about to pen the same thing. Eagerly waiting for some more info.

Abhi

[spadival]

hehe.. ok. All right.. here it is

Car: Maruti Baleno (obviously)

Milage: Not checked. Expect around 12-14kmpl anyway

Onward journey: Time taken - 3.5 hours driving non-stop.
Decided to go via Tamhini ghat as I heard a lot about how beautiful this route was. It didnt disappoint as far as the scenery was concerned. But the road is a mess in some stretches. From Pune, you need to take the Paud road from Chandni Chowk, go past the beautiful Mulshi lake till you hit the ghat section. Again nice scenery around, but the state highway has been reduced to rubble in some places.. Just after you descend from the ghat, there is a fork - you need to take a left turn here towards Nizampur, othewise, if u head straight, you will end up in Kolad (close to Murud). Once past Nizampur, the road joins NH17 @ Mangaon. Just a short distance afterwards, you need to take a right towards Srivardhan (there is a board in Hindi/Marathi). Initial stretch of this road is good.. I actually hit 100kmph on this stretch.. but the road starts getting narrower and surface quality starts to go downhill.. some stretches near the resort is like a giant sandpaper - No pot holes, but road surface is a stones glued together with tar . You pass thru a place called Mhasla and at the next junction, you need to choose between going to Harihareshwar (left) and Srivardhan (right).

I had the entire trip logged on the CarPC using Goops (GooPs). However, I don't know what happened, but only the last part of the trip was saved in the KML file. Can anyone suggest a decent program which logs GPS data onto a KML file and doesnt lose it !!

http://spadival.googlepages.com/Harihareshwar.kml


MTDC Resort: Everything well maintained, except for the restaurant. The rooms are nice and clean, air conditioned and there is a small beach close by. The restaurant has been out sourced to a private party, who employee a bunch of stupid locals in the guise of waiters. The menu is as per their convenience of course . The restaurant has a nice view of the beach and the sea. Harihareshwar town is close by - you can visit the temple and walk up the path to the cliff and the sea shore (as seen on the pic). Srivardhan is around 30km away - we went there as we had time and we really couldnt get into the water in Harihareshwar.

Return journey: Decided to come via NH17 as I wanted to try out this route. NH17 here is in excellent condition.. a far cry from the situation down south (Refer to the Coastal highway thread by Samurai). There was a right turn off to Pune which confused me initially. But I guessed its Kolad-Tamhini ghat road and continued onwards to take the right turn off to Khopoli/Pali/Pune. The route gets better here.. scenic, yet the roads are in a pretty decent shape and you get to drive along a river for some distance. Maintained a pretty decent speed all the way till Khopoli.. and zoomed off to the sunset once I reached the e-way.

[cediafan]

You said you booked the hotel online. Can you please give me the link? I tried to search but could not find the link.

[spadival]

Originally Posted by cediafan

You said you booked the hotel online. Can you please give me the link? I tried to search but could not find the link.

Its Maharashtra Tourism --- The Offical website of the Maharashtra Tourism ..

The beach near the MTDC resort at Harihareshwar isnt as good as the one near the temple or the one at Shrivardhan. If you plan to stay in Srivardhan/Harihareshwar, I suggest you book at Exotica (Pruthvi Development & Marketing Pvt. Ltd.) which is recommended by other people on the forum.

Are you planning to drive all the way from Chennai? Just not worth it.. I suggest you try the beach resort at Tarkarli or even Goa for that matter.

[cediafan]

spadival - I have moved to PUne recently (I will update my location). I am planning to drive from Pune.
Thanks for the tip.

[VJ_MAVRICK]

Nice pics and it seems that you couple had good time, once again nice pics there brother.

[Technocrat]

nice trip, I have few questions:

- Whats the distance?

- What are the charges at MTDC resort

- What would be an ideal route for the trip & time.

Thanks

p.s. I thought your car had some issues

[spadival]

Answers below in Bold letters..

Originally Posted by Technocrat

nice trip, I have few questions:

- Whats the distance?

Its around 150kms.

- What are the charges at MTDC resort

I think it varies from season to season. You can check the current charges at the MTDC website. Please note that you will have to pay some taxes extra (Rs 200/-) over and above the price shown on the website

- What would be an ideal route for the trip & time.

Both routes I have done (onward and return) are quite scenic. The return journey was longer, but the roads are much better.


p.s. I thought your car had some issues

Technocrat, I did this trip last year!!

[Technocrat]

great thanks for the info..

I asked route becasue being in an Alto I would prefer a route with better roads

Oops missed the date

[cediafan]

Originally Posted by spadival

Its Maharashtra Tourism --- The Offical website of the Maharashtra Tourism ..

The beach near the MTDC resort at Harihareshwar isnt as good as the one near the temple or the one at Shrivardhan. If you plan to stay in Srivardhan/Harihareshwar, I suggest you book at Exotica (Pruthvi Development & Marketing Pvt. Ltd.) which is recommended by other people on the forum.

Are you planning to drive all the way from Chennai? Just not worth it.. I suggest you try the beach resort at Tarkarli or even Goa for that matter.

I checked out MTDC and the Pruthvi resort and both of them are booked for this weekend. I plan to drive there anyway. Do you I think I can get hotels there? If so do you recommend any hotels?

[Technocrat]

you plan to drive down from Chennai ?

[cediafan]

No, I recently moved to Pune. I have changed my profile so that the location says Pune.

[spadival]

Check this thread for one more option at Dive agar -> http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...tml#post770899 (Pune -Diveagar)

You can PM wanderlustindia for contact details of the resort. If it wasnt fully booked on that long weekend, you have even better chance of getting rooms now.