It was my wish for quite some time to visit lord Ganpati’s temple in Ganpatipule. Although I usually don’t like visiting temples, somehow, I had some kind of inclination to visit this place.
Finally, my wish came true this year in March when we were in Mumbai to attend a family function. And from there, planned our short trip to Ganpatipule.
Ganpatipule falls in Ratnagiri district on the western side of Maharashtra and is also referred to as coastal ‘Konkan.’ Konkan in Maharashtra is nothing but a coastal belt, so all districts situated on this belt are commonly referred to as Konkan.
Due to its serene beaches & outstanding location, Konkan attracts a lot of tourists. It is also a weekend gateway/picnic spot for locals in Maharashtra. The entire Konkan belt is famous for its association with pilgrimage and the serene beaches. Like Ganpatipule is famous for lord Ganpati, Harihareshwar for Lord Shiva, Guhagar for Goddess Devi….etc. This place caters to all age groups. People who like to visit religious places, young couples for picnics/honeymoons, families for a weekend gateway for relaxing, water sports…etc.
Our journey began on Friday morning. We hired a car and started early in the morning, around 6.00 AM, to avoid city traffic as it was a working day for schools/offices. It was a lovely morning, and luckily, the weather was very pleasant that day (Usually, it starts getting hot in Mumbai in March). After a couple of hours on our journey from Mumbai, we stopped to have breakfast and later for lunch.
It took us about 7 hours to reach Ganpatipule. The entire road journey was spectacular- foliage all around, mountains, rivers, etc. Very beautiful, I must say. On our way, we also visited a place Pali before reaching Ganpatipule. It is among the famous “Ashtvinayak” tour.
This was the first time that we had not booked our hotel in advance, as it was an off-season due to school exams. But we had shortlisted a couple of hotels in advance for our stay. A few shortlisted hotels were – MTDC (government-owned & Hotel Abhishek. Reviews for both resorts were good.
So we first thought of visiting MTDC, as it was our first choice due to its good location. Honestly, I was not expecting much from MTDC property, but when we checked the various rooms & locations, I found it to be really nice. The rooms were neat and clean. We checked both AC and non-AC rooms. Both rooms were good, but AC rooms were a little better than non-AC in terms of room size and furniture.
We decided to settle for non-AC, as these rooms had nice balconies facing the beach right outside. The rooms were a little more economical than AC, and we were there only for a night. But I think it was a really good decision to take non-AC. It got really cold at night; there was no need for AC.
We didn’t go to check other shortlisted hotels as we decided to stay in MTDC only. Generally, during peak season & weekends, this property needs to be booked 4 weeks in advance. It is always fully booked. But we were really lucky that we got the booking on the spot. And I would suggest going with MTDC. It has an unbeatable location, situated right on the beach and within walking distance from the famous temple. And with all the basic amenities.
We checked–in around 3.30 – 4:00 PM. After refreshing ourselves and having the much-needed tea, we went sightseeing.
We went to Konkan Village/Museum – the konkan culture, its heritage was shown in a very interesting manner. Not typical, museum style, otherwise it would have been boring. It was depicted/presented in the most natural way; we had a guide who showed us an entire village. The tour usually takes around 2 hours, depending on one’s speed. It gives a lot of opportunity for camera lovers. One can get himself clicked at every 5 steps of walking.
Later, we went to the beach, we enjoyed a lot of snack items like – chat, goal…etc, and enjoyed the famous sunset. The view was so beautiful; it was difficult to distinguish the boundaries of water where it meets the sky. Skyline was a million shades of red, which we promptly captured in our camera.
Post sunset, in March, the night started getting colder. I guess it was set for us by god. It was his style of welcoming us. And we truly enjoyed it. After dinner, we went to our room for a good night’s sleep.
The next day, after breakfast, we checked out from our hotel and went to Ganpati temple. We had such an amazing “darshan” of the almighty. We could spend as much time as we wanted in the temple. Otherwise, it is very difficult to stay there even for a minute due to the rush & crowd of devotees. At the time we went, there were very few people, and the temple was almost empty, so we really had a good time.
After offering our prayers, we proceeded to Mumbai. Taking a couple of breaks in between for lunch and evening tea to reach home comfortably late evening.
This trip of ours was very relaxing, there was no hurry for reaching anywhere/covering so many places…etc ….and the best combination of god’s blessings and beach beauty.
Would love to go there again….
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