Dapoli-Murud-Harnai. Review on Dapoli Beach

I went to Dapoli via Mahabaleshwar from Pune so for continuity you can check my article on Mahabaleshwar. This was in May to coincide with my kids vacation.

We left for Dapoli early morning from Mahabaleshwar, the road next to MTDC resort going down to Pratapgad fort heading towards Poladpur. Started at 6 am in the morning and after crossing lots of winding ghats arrived at Poladpur(9:30am) where you meet the National Highway 17 from Mumbai. The road from Mahabaleshwar to Poladpur was in good condition but I somehow liked the more scenic route via Mulshi Taluka if one has to go from Pune. Since I did this route on my way to Harihareshwar I opted for this option and cut down the journey by halting at Mahabaleshwar for 3 days.

The Poladpur to Khed drive was superb and I managed to make up sometime here though there were a lot of trucks enroute. Mahabaleshwar to Poladpur was 39 km but we halted at Pratapgad fort for half an hour to show my son some proof of Afzal khan & Shivaji’s encounter. This stretch would normally take about 21/2 hours though because of the ghats.

Anyway I arrived at Khed just about past 10 amand this stretch was 35 km on the speedo.

Khed is where you turn off right for Dapoli and I was to proceed to Murud where we had our booking at Kamat Beach Resort at Murud. This stretch was 42 km and the drive was nice. Once you get close to Murud(not the Murud Janjira) the road gets real narrow but this is a very small stretch. The Kamats resort is right on the beach and we took the suite as the other rooms were very dingy and dark. The resort looks real beautiful but not maintained at all. The rooms were real shabby and dingy. Since we arrived at 11 am we had a sort of bruch of vada pav and eggs. The restaurant is nice and said they would prepare fresh catch, so we ordered lunch in advance and asked it to be sent in the room after we return from our first dip in the Arabian Sea.

The sea was beautiful but nowhere close to Ganpatiphule. We spent about an hour in the sea and headed for fish curry & rice. The fun started when we got back to our executive suite (1200 bucks per day) , no power and the sweltering heat was real bad, they say you don’t need a/c here as its very pleasant. Anyway we all snoozed in our sweat and hoped that the evening would be pleasant. At about 4:30pm it was getting unbearable so we decided to get in the car and roam around a bit with the a/c.

Drove to Harnai which about 5 km and enroute found the other resort which is much better located and much better maintained. Checked out the rooms but they also told us about the power cut problems. they had a/c though they don’t put it on when the power cut takes place. Only the fan runs on genny.

We proceded further to Harnai where all the fishing boats gather in the evening to auction their catch. Loads and loads of fish but I would not dare buy any as our resort was putting me off.

We decided to check out the next day but not before some more agony as the power cuts continued throughout the evening. To add to our agony there were creepy crawlies all over our room, frogs, scorpions, lizards and what not. By now my wife was cursing me and the kids well I think you can guess. So we put the tv on and tried to sleep it off. Just as we closed our eyes the power went off permanently. Went out and woke everyone up but they said its the authorities who are to blame etc etc. finally they managed to get the generator running and we got our two winks.

First thing in the morning we were all headed for the car and zipped back to Mahabaleshwar. Had our lunch there and were really relived to get back to the cool climate. Picked up our supply of chocolate fudge and fresh strawberries and headed for Panchgani. At Panchgani halted at the Tableland, nothing great and had ice golas before leaving for home sweet home.

All in all an adventure filled holiday but Kamat Beach Resort was the icing on the cake,

Please stay out of this place specially in the summers, sea princess is a much better bet.

One more suggestion if you can omit Harnai/Murud as a holiday destination you would be betteroff atleast not until they develop it further and look at Ganpatiphule or Harihareshwar instead.