[SNayak]

Couple of years back when we visited Shirdi Sai Baba temple in Maharashtra, we got a chance to stay in MTDC hotel. While going through the gallery saw a beautiful portrait of a beach and temple and the place was named as Ganapatipule. This was always in my mind to visit this place sometime in future and this got finalized around a couple of months back when we had planned to visit Mumbai in October.

October is normally hot in Mumbai but we were completely surprised when we landed there. The weather was cool and it was raining throughout. Needless to say clouds and rains makes this place more beautiful specially if you are in Navi Mumbai.

Next day we are supposed to start to Ganapatipule so started all the planning. Route was finalized and all the necessary items were listed. As this was family trip with 8 of us, detailed planning was essential. Took the trusted Innova and filled with tankful of diesel and checked tyre pressure. All well

Day -1 :

Route : Kharghar -> Pune -> Karad -> Malkapur -> Amba -> Ratnagiri -> Ganapatipule

The initial plan was to start at morning 7 however with so many of us, we got delayed to 8. Started driving on Mumbai - Pune express highway and needless to mention this is one of the best road to drive in this region. We zoom past Pune in no time and thanks to the week day , there was very less traffic on the road and no rush on the toll booths. This was the first time I was driving Innova and was quiet impressed with the ride quality and handling of this car.

It was around 11 and we were all hungry and decided to break for breakfast. Just after crossing Pune, saw the Kamat hotel and decided to break in. There was nobody in the hotel except us. Expectation was high as this was Kamat, but got disappointed with the quality of food they served. Wrapped up breakfast and started our journey to Karad. The roads were really good till Karad but remember this is NH48 and you pay couple of tolls on the way.

After reaching Karad, we had to take right under a fly over to catch the SH 144 to reach till Malkapur. From Malkapur, we took NH 166 to reach Amba and eventually Ratnagiri. From Karad to Malkapur, the roads were not great and we were slowed down a lot on the way. But the Amba ghat was beautiful and scenic.



Reached the resort around 4:30 PM and checked in. The resort had a very good sea view from the balcony and we enjoyed sunset from the balcony. Had dinner and called it a day. View from the balcony of the resort.





Day -2 :

As planned we headed to Ganapatipule Beach in the morning and had a nice time in the beach. Being week day, crowd was less and we found the beach to be very clean. My daughter had a great time playing in sand and water.



View of the sea from the road heading to the beach.







Spent around 2 hours in the beach and then headed back to the resort. Took bath and planned to have lunch outside as we planned to check the local taste of this place. Had lunch in one of the road side hotel and we tasted few sea fishes. It was delicious. After a delicious lunch again went back to resort and had some rest. In the evening went to beach to see the sunset and the views were simply fantastic.







Day - 3 :

We checked out around 10 from the hotel and headed to Jaigah fort. This is around 22 KM from Ganapatipule and passes through few villages. The drive was scenic as many of the streches on the route had a nice view of the sea. It took around an hour to reach the fort. The fort seems to be very old and not maintained at all. It disappointing to see this old architecture in such a ruined stage.



After seeing the fort, we headed to Nivali and the roads were fantastic on this strech. Lots of up and down and very thin traffic on this strech. The winding roads made the drive pleasurable. Had lunch in Nivali and took the Mumbai-Goa highway to reach Chiplun. The road is in bad condition and we could not go beyond 50 and many streches on this route were really very bad. So dropped the plan to continue further on this route to Mumbai. Then from Chiplun, we decided to catch NH 48 through Umbraj. We crossed the Kumbharli ghat on the way and the views were awesome in this area however you need to drive very carefully as sometimes visibility drops significantly due to mist.

We took this route just to ensure that we hit NH 48 before it becomes dark. We hit NH - 48 around 7 PM and now it was good 250 KM to reach Mumbai. However we were relaxed as the driving on this route is much better compared to what we had driven Today. Finally reached Home around 1 AM and we ended the trip with lots of good memories and a promise to visit back to this place again in future.

[Ddrive]

A short and sweet log. Photographs were very nice.
What is the name of the resort please ?

[SNayak]

Thanks Ddrive.

We stayed in Nakshatra Beach Resort and opted for solitare super deluxe rooms. These rooms have sea facing balconies and a small seat out area in front of the rooms. The resort is around 3 Kms from Ganapatipule beach.

[fiesta1.6]

Beautiful pics and great travelogue! Just to add to it, when you reach Jaigad you can board ferry and get down on the opposite shore at Tavsal, Velneshwar and Guhagar is half an hour dive from Tavsal. You can stop at Hedvi as well on the route.

[SNayak]

Thanks fiesta1.6 for going through the travelogue. The route suggested by you was in our mind as the same was suggested by the hotel guys. However when we checked with a local driver in Jaigadh regarding the ferry he guided us to go through Nivali route rather than the ferry and we followed the same.

Do u suggest the any benefit of going through Ferry ? Does it take less time or it's more of a ferry experience ?

[fiesta1.6]

Yes, it takes 15 minutes to reach other side and half an hour there after to reach Guhagar as opposed to 90 to 100 kms drive from Ganpatipule to Guhagar by road.

[Dead Head]

thanks for the pretty detailed travelogue.