Like last year, this time of the year too, we decided to give Goan beaches a miss and instead visited a serene, virgin beach at a not-well-known place called Chivla in our neighboring state. Chivla beach is located in a tiny village at a walking distance from Malwan in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra.
I was looking for something, where I could be all by myself with the nature – just the roaring sea and me! And Chivla Beach was the wise choice. I had known of Chivla, since last year, however we chose to visit Tarkarli last year and hence the obvious choice for this year was Chivla beach.
Disclaimer You may NOT continue reading further, if you are looking for the following at a beach holiday:
•Ogling at Semi-nude Hippies
•And a similar avatar of Desis [semi-nude again, but Males] holding beer cans
•Indian newlyweds with hands full of traditional bangles and Shorts – a little short for her.
•A pampered resort style luxurious stay
•A dubious massage
The beach – the location: This place is for someone looking for a secluded, serene almost your own private beach, where one can relax on the hammock outside your room, watching tiny boats taking on the sea, hard-working fishermen busy sorting their daily catch and local kids immersed into a match of cricket at the shore…
If this is not enough in the evening you can be one with the nature, watching the sun set over the roaring sea hitting the shore incessantly! A view worth capturing on a canvas!
And at what cost is this? The entire vacation for a 2-night’s stay for couple with child was less than half the cost of a beach aside resort(stay only) in Goa!
The shore had turned ugly at places – because of Mother Nature throwing back at us, the same nonsense we quietly immerse inside her!
The Stay – Mayekar’s Holiday Home(MHH) Please read my review about Mayekar’s Holiday Home at MouthShut:
https://mouthshut.com/review/Mayekar-Holiday-Home-review-oqntlptqls
The food: relish on Sea-food!
There is a place at the backyard of MHH, which serves home cooked meals. One needs to place an order at least 2-3 hours in advance. For vegetarian there is a typical Maharashtrian meal with Rice, Chapati, Bhaji, Papad, Pickle, Daal, Solkadhi. For others, there is variety of Fish options to choose from.
The food quality was average while the rates though apt for a beach location, were higher than what it would cost you to have a Fish/Rice meal at a Goan city restaurant.
Malwan has many other restaurants which are famous for serving fresh fish preparations. To name a few: Chaitanya, Saiba, Atithi Bamboo, Ghar Mithbaunkaranche(they are also the caterers for MTDC resorts at Tarkarli).
We had a day meal at Chaitanya – our repeat visit. However, felt the taste had degraded since our last trip to Tarkarli. You would find plenty of good reviews of it and the place is usually over-crowded. When I say I did not like the preparation much: it could be because of my liking for Goan way of cooking sea food and the same may not be true for people traveling from various other parts of the country as at the table next to us, we were hearing a Mumbai party going all praises for the food!
Again, there are plenty of fish & sea-food options with prices same as what I mentioned earlier. To give you an idea of prices, we had a Surmayee [King-Fish] Thali for 250/-(medium size rawa fried piece of Kingfish, Kingfish Suka with Chapati and Rice], a ‘Kalwa Thali’ at 280/-(Small plate of Kalwa masala, one small rawa fried Crab, Kalwa Curry with Chapati and Rice].
You can try Fruitkhand – srikhand with fruits or ‘Aamrakhand’ for desserts.
The cost of the meal was 700/-.(Our return journey cost of a much tastier lunch at Spice Goa, Karaswada, Mapusa-Goa was just under 500/- for two Modso Thalis and a beer!)
One can also try Prawns Malwani, Kombadi Vade etc.
What’s not good at Chaitanya: Crowded and obviously this is the reason for other problems like delay in taking orders and eventually in serving. The place is on a busy congested lane of Malwan market and hence taking your car and parking is a big pain. I would recommend park your vehicle in an open space, just when you take a right turn to go to Tarkarli. From here, the restaurant is just about 5 mins walk.
Quality of food: as I mentioned above was a big letdown. We had to add extra salt in almost every item in our meal.
The route: The route from Goa to Kudal via Sawantwadi (on Goa-Mumbai highway) is awesome and had it been monsoon, the drive would have been a real pleasure!
From Kudal one can take either take a polished longer route via Chauke or an internal shorter road via Kasal. Don’t expect too many signage on the way or while driving in Malwan. It’s best to ask locals.
Panaji to Chivla is about 110 kms.
You will find a lot of local vendors’ enroute which are good option for buying some local green vegetables and Devgad Hapus mangoes!
Attractions at the beach: Besides Malwan, which has multiple options, Tsunami Island at Devbag is one of the major attractions to enjoy some watersports. Devbag is about 4 KMs from Tarkarli, which is about 7 KMs from Malwan. You will need to hire a motor boat, which will take you to an amazing place a small island in the middle of nowhere, close to ‘Sangam’ of Karli river and Malwan sea. The boat is costly affair if you have a small family as it charges 1000/- for a return trip. Best is to bargain and look for sharing options. We shared the boat trip with another family of 4 at total cost of 800/-.
One can enjoy variety of water sports like Jet Ski Ride, Speed Boat, Banana Ride, Bumper Boat, Water Scooter, Kayak Ride and so on.
There are various food stalls right in the middle of the water serving mouth-watering local snacks like ‘Chutney and Pola’. It’s an amazing experience to have food at these stalls while your seats almost submerged in the water.
What else to do/see: Malwan has various other attractions(we had visited these during our last trip to Tarkarli). The activity that has caught on highly with tourists here is Snorkelling and Scuba diving!
While at Malwan a visit to Rock Garden, Sindhudurg fort and Jai Ganesh Temple is a must. One also has option of visiting few other near-by beaches:(I would suggest stay put up just at one beach)
· Tarkarli Beach
· Tondavali Beach
· Kolamb Beach
· Vengurla Malvan Beach
Itinerary
Day-1
•Started at Panaji-Goa at 10:00 AM, reach Chivla at 1:30 PM
•Lunch: Packed food for lunch from home
•Evening Tea: Onion Pakoda and Tea MHH
•Evening spent in around MHH on hammock enjoying the breeze and later playing at the beach
•Dinner: Vegetarian meal at the property at the backyard of MHH. Rs. 70/- per Thali. Regular home cooked meal with Chapati, Rice, Daal, salad, Tamdi Bhaji, Solkadhi. No Sweet dish.
Day-2
• Alarm at 7:00AM. I did my Suryanamaskars on the beach when the Sun had just started shining
• Breakfast: at MHH. Tea, Upma and Bread Omelet
• Left for Tsunami Island at 10. [11 kms from Chivla]
• Lunch: Returned from Tsunami Island for lunch at Chaitanya in Malwan
• Evening: Spent at MHH on hammock and playing at the beach
• Dinner: again at the property behind MHH. Fried prawns medium size Rs. 150/- plate with about 15 pieces
Day-3
• Alarm at 7:00AM and hit the beach for light jogging
• Breakfast at MHH: Shira, Bread omelet and black tea
• Left Chivla at 10:00AM
• Visit Jai Ganesh Temple on return journey
• Lunch at Spice Goa, Karaswada, Mapusa Goa
• Dinner back at home