Last time when I had been to Dapoli, many had suggested that Tarkarli is also good or better. We went to Tarkarli on 5th December 2009 and were there for three days. We were office colleagues, so no kids. The place is very beautiful, clean beach and well of course the ever friendly Konakani manus, I guess the locals believe that unless you have spoken to any stranger for at least fifteen minutes and given all the gyan, it will be impolite. You only need to ask for a small direction and the other person will tell you much more than that.
Travelling:Our train was late and hence we reached at noon to tarkarli, so the start was not great. The nearest train station is Kudal and you need to take a rickshaw, where they charge you Rs.350/-. Better still if you are in a bigger group contact the Hotel/resort and try and arrange for a vehicle, it will save you some trouble.
Food: The first day, since we had not ordered food at the resort, we had to go to MTDC, since everyone caters to their own customers and hence we need to give order to them before hand. MTDC is a bit far away from the other resorts, but the food was really good at MTDC, probably the best we had during our stay at Tarkarli. In the evening we had food at our resort, which was good, since I had only Fish, the quality was great, vegetarians however do not have much choice at the resorts. MTDC however had a larger variety of vegetarian food.
Resort: We had stayed at Sagar Beach Resort whose owner is Mrs.Anagha Kubal, however everyone is Mr. Kubal at Tarkarli and all of them face the sea and yes all of them do have a "Sagar" in their name :). Since the place is just developing, I would not criticize them, but yes there is a room for improvement, which I can see he is already doing. the owners are friendly people and they too give you more information than you asked for:), but that is the way it is. there is no Geyser, so he will provide you with hot water buckets, since it is not too cold in the afternoon it is OK, in the mornings however if you need more than one bucket than you will need to adjust.
Sea in the day: The Sea is very clean and safe, we had a good swim in the sea for a long time, we can see our feet in the water and since it is not yet greatly commercial, there is less pollution.
Back waters, snorkeling, Dolphin Gazing? The ride through the back waters into the sea and through an island is a different experience altogether, you have to be there to believe that. We did not get to see any Dolphins this time(we did see many at Dapoli).
We did experience Snorkeling, it is good, I would say, but probably my expectation were too high, I saw only three fishes and the coral also, but that is all, but yes we should experience that, it does feel nice after the stint.
Damages: The room charges are not high, Rs.600/- for a double room, plus food, say Rs.90/- for non veg and 50 for Veg food and the normal tea and coffee we have, plus the breakfast. The snorkeling costs Rs.250/- per head and the boat ride was 1500/- for 9 people, since we did not see any Dolphins, it seems high, but if you get to see any Dolphins, I think it would be great. In Dapoli they had switched the engines off and we had waited patiently, here however we did not switch the engine off nor did we wait, the boat man said that this is what he does always.
The rooms are OK, but do not expect a very good quality for the living, but the only consolation is they are taking feed back and improving, electricity is pathetic, but we need to blame our Government for that. The owner is trying hard to be good and hence I am supporting him, he will improve with time, but for Rs.600/-, it is a good deal.
Sight seeing: We had hired a jeep and taken a little tour of Kokan, saw Redi, Sawantwadi, Terekhol Vengurla. But I think you can avoid that, we spoke to the owner and he suggested some places to visit, which we did . Initially we had planned Amboli which is about 60 k.m, but were advised against that, after seeing what we saw, I think Amboli would have been much better to relax, since I have been to that place can tell it is good deal then moving around the places. The roads are pathetic, though we traveled on the state highway and I don't see any improvement coming there.
We then visited visited the famous fort Sindhudurg at Malvan built by Chatrapati Shivaji Maharj on the next day, if you respect history and want to learn, this is a great place to visit, just the foresight of the great man is to be seen there. the architecture, the material the whole thought put behind this is tremendous. Some of the things may not seem significant due to advancement of science, but we are talking about 1650, so about 350 years, if we could look in that perspective, we will respect the architecture, Probably if this is taught in a management school we would pay more attention rather than a guide telling all this, we still listen to who says rather what is said, but all in all a visit to the fort is must, though it is not properly taken care of, the palace inside the fort was demolished by the Britishers long time ago like all the good things. The view of the sea from the fort is just amazing.
Sea in the night: During the night when most of us from the group were on the beach, the fisher men had brought in their catch and hence we were able to see the catch and realise how difficult it is to bring back the nets and why the fishermen have six pack abs:), the place is safe as the group included girls and were at the beach till the wee hours. It is a nice feeling sleeping on the beach and watching the stars twinkling in the sky, I never realised staying in Mumbai that we still had so many stars in the sky.
Some things we did not do: there are some water sports which are arranged at Deobagh, but we were not able to locate that.
Carry a spare slippers to go on the beach, the normal sandal/ chappal will irritate when you venture out. Carry medicines, we did not see any chemists nearby, the nearest city is Malvan, which is about 5-7 kilometers and the rickshaw charges Rs.50/-(since we were 9 we were charged 140 for two Rickshaws) to go to Malvan. There is also a bus service available to go to Malvan and private jeeps.
While returning we had packed some vadapavs for the night, since we were not sure how the food would be in the train, but the food was really good in the Konkan Kanya express and thank fully the tarin was only 20 minutes late.
All in all I would say it is a good experience.
