If I had to select my most favorite trips till date in Maharashtra, it has to be Ganpatipule. Situated on the Konkan Route in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra is this beautiful breathtaking place.
Obviously, do a Road Trip, taking the route via Chiplun to Ratnagiri from Mumbai.
Do stop on the way at Chiplun to enjoy the beautiful waterfall.
The waterfall has full access and you can go right up to it.
All through your drive in the western ghats you will come across beautiful scenic views and never hesitate to stop and click 🙂
Keep driving on the beautiful scenic landscapes
And you will enter the Konkan region with beautiful views that will give you those Konkan feels.
Now that we are talking about Konkan area, what better place to stay apart from Konkan Nest.
You have ample parking space around the homestay.
This is how the entrance looks like.
Just at the entrance, is this old style couryard which welcomes you.
A cosy place to have buffet is set up.
There is nothing fancy about this place. Infact the food served here is very simple.
The rooms are given old type traditional look.
The view from the room is damn pretty & totally deep in nature.
If you are there around monsoons, then the drizzle outside will make you want to just sit there enjoy the beauty while sipping chai & pakodas.
Do go around visiting places and enjoying the natural green carpet.
The village feels this place has a beyond explanation. You got to be there to experience it.
An entire history of the village has been recreated called Prachin Konkan (Old Konkan). It is a must visit. It tells you about the entire history of this place.
It talks about how the people were…
How the day to day life was…
Who used to lead the village…
…and many more aspects of each sects of people from blacksmith, farmer, goldsmith, cobbler etc.
I skipped a place called Magic Garden which seemed to be more for kids. In case one wants to explore they can visit this too.
By evening you should come back and enjoy the quietness of the place.
That should be it for Day 1 and retire for the day and go off to sleep.
You can then move out of this place, and drive away to another place to stay.Konkan feels will not leave you though.
I wanted to explore more about the place. So after the village deep feel, I shifted to another place with modern amenities. A Club Mahindra resort is a good place for relaxation.
The resort is super well maintained. It has a lot amenities.
Swimming pool on road trip is must needed 😛
A walk around the resort is a must.
The balcony of the rooms open up towards the swimming pool. So most of all rooms are pool facing.
And it goes without mention, your evening should be spent in the pool.
The night view is also not to be missed.
Next morning, drive down the resort to enjoy mindblowing landscapes.
During day time, best is to spend it visiting the Ganpatipule Temple. The reason why this place is called so.
Once you have darshan, you can do the parikrama around the temple. A perfect path is carved out for that. The stones are said to have a natural acupressure feature
After this you should make your trip to the Ratnagiri Fort
It is a well maintained fort.
The view from the top of the fort is amazing which overlooks the ocean.
The other side of the fort also has amazing landscape views where the sun shines on the ocean among the clouds.
This seems to be out of bounds and appears to be a dockyard.
By evening when the sun is settling down. This is the best time to vist the beach. Doesn’t this pic looks like a beach in a foreign country?
Then why wait for it. Drive down and enjoy the beach.
The beaches are virgin beaches and it feels like you have the entire beach to yourself.
Though a word of caution. The beach is not rough but rocky. It has huge boulders of rocks underneath, so be very careful.
Next morning, you can drive out to travel back to Mumbai. There are some places which have backwaters, which again is very serene.
Before driving out, do visit Thiba Palace. There is nothing inside to see, but is a must to tick off your list while visiting Ratnagiri.
On the way back enjoy the drive back through the Shayadri Ranges.
Oh yes, dont miss the sunset.
Tips when traveling for Ganpatipule.