(1) By road Tarkarli is approx 520 kms from Mumbai,
(2) By Train Alight at Kudal Station, there you have 2 choices one is you could hire an autorickshaw and proceed to Tarkarli the charges are about Rs 300.00 – 350.00, the second and best option is to hire an autorickshaw for Rs 20.00 and get down at Kudal Bus Depot, from here there are many ST buses that ply between Malvan and Kudal the distance is covered in approx 1hour and 20 minutes, once at Kudal Bus Terminal board a bus for Deobaugh, the conductors know the area and are very helpful.
Advice—if you are traveling by road please keep the digicam at hand, there are some scenic spots worth taking pictures.
Accomodation:
The tourist has various options of accommodation, but depending on season one should opt for a suitable accommodation do not go by hearsay, judge for yourself.
MTDC has a resort adjacent to the Tarkarli beach they have Konkani houses both AC and Non-Ac their bookings are available online at mtdc.com, there are various hotels that offer accommodation at Tarkarli, but the value for money I would recommend SAAGAR Beach Resort run by Ghanshyam Kubal 9422584154/9420209495, this place is bang near the beach, has a private access to the beach, he has six rooms to let out all Non AC, but you could bet your bottom dollar on the hospitality that this guy shows his customers, probably put a many class hotels to shame, personal attention is given to each of the guest.
The Houseboat :
Lesser known, but MTDC has two houseboats at Tarkarli, anchored in the creek, about 3 km from the Resort. Excellent for a one-day (overnight) stay. As expected, you need to make your own arrangements to get there (no transfers by MTDC).. The houseboat takes you for a 2-hour round of the creek in the evening, and another in the morning. Overnight, you’re anchored at the Deobaug Jetty, a nice place with lots of greenery around. The two rooms of the houseboat (with a viewing deck) costs Rs. 7, 100 each (including taxes) and each extra guest paid Rs. 1, 000 extra. Another option is the houseboat without the deck, at about Rs. 6, 300 per room, all inclusive.
The other places to stay are Sagar kinara, soham resorts, manali resorts etc
Caution: Please confirm with the so called beach resorts they tell on phone its just 2 minutes …but once there the 2 minutes could be by car, to walk to the beach takes a good 6 – 7 minutes, in my opinion there are only 5 beach resorts that are actually at the beach MTDC, Sagar Kinara, Sagar Beach resort are few of those.
If you are on a holiday and want to stay at a beach then the best option would be to stay at Tarkarli, but if the idea is to visit places and just visit the beach then probably the ideal place to stay is Malvan city.
Eating out :
The entire konkan region is a fish lovers and non-vegeterian diet zone, so finding a good place to dine should not be a problem in Tarkarli or Malvan.
During our 3 day stay we kept enquiring with the local people of places where we could find authentic Malvani cuisine and we would advice to surely try out these places Hotel Chaitanya, Hotel Ruchira, Hotel Bamboo, Hotel Sunitha, the last one is for sure the best place to eat, the place is very small but the food served is delicious home cooked food, of course at Tarkarli all the hotels and beach resort do serve food. Sorry Vegeterian diet tourists you may have to do a little bit of hunting to find exclusively vegetarian hotel, but I guess that too should be surely good, I wonder what makes this Malvani food so special…I ate, ate, and ate without suffering any acidity or stomach problems, and remember vegetarian or non-vegeterian no meal should be complete without a glass of Sol Kadhi.
Places to see:
Deobaug Beach: The local villagers state that this place is special to them, there is a story that this place was in ancient times had a lot of storm and would be battered by strong sea waves, however this place survived all the odds and remained intact that is why Deobaugh (abode of Gods), if you observe very carefully you will observe that this stretch ends into the open sea or rather the confluence of River Karli and the Arabian Sea , the locals call it the sangam.
Tarkarli Beach : this stretch of pristine beach rightly called the queen of beaches runs for a few kms with not many people around, this beach is famous for its white sands, clean waters and saddled all along with Carijuana (Suru) trees, you will find a few fishing boats that are anchored on the shore that’s because the local villagers houses are just away from the beach, it’s a beautiful place to take a walk around however to go across to the MTDC part of the beach you will have to cross a small river (the link between River karli and the sea) during low tide you could easily walk across, I have not seen the place at high tide so just be on the lookout) however on my enquiry with the local villagers they told me that the safest place to take a bath is the beach towards deobaugh, the MTDC beach is not very safe though for children, please check out with the local villagers there.
Dolphin point: There are various boating points along the Karli river where for Rs 800.00 per boat you will be taken about 7 kms into the sea to see the school of dolphins ( Not all tourists are luck to have spotted them, just in case you want to see them I would recommend you board the boat at 7:00 am thereafter it gets crowded and with so much of engine noise you are surely not going to see any ) we were very lucky to have seen a school of about 8 dolphins feeding on fish, the reason being since this place is a confluence of the River Karli and the sea the fish coming into the sea from the river become easy food due to the srong ocean current and that’s the reason the dolphins are there to feed on them.
*Note: Please do not forget to ask your boat operator that you want to have a bath in the island, they call it the island bhet, very safe surrounded on all sides with the sea and you could easily wade in knee deep water and enjoy the caress of the sea waves onto your chest or shoulder,
you will clearly see the seabed here very clear transparent water.
*End of part 1... pl read part 2