Alibaug

As every year, this year also I couldn’t plan the year end long vacation for my family. But I managed to arrange a quick trip along with my wife. We decided to visit Alibaug which is just 3-4 hours drive from Mumbai or 1 hour ferry ride away from Gateway of India till Mandwa harbour or 1.5 hours from Baucha Dakka harbour near Dockyard Road till Rewas harbour. From both the harbours, further one hour bus or auto-rickshaw journey is required to reach Alibaug. Well, this was really quick one,  we finalised the ferry mode so that our kids could enjoy the ferry ride. Our journey began from the Gateway of India.

Alibaug is a small town in Raigad district of Maharashtra, India. This town is located in western coast with beaches spread across its area. There are some well known and most visited beaches such as Alibaug Beach, Kihim Beach, Akshi Beach, Thal Beach, Kashid Beach, Nagaon Beach and Revdanda Beach. The main attractions are Kolaba Fort, Agarkot Fort and Korlai Fort. The Birla temple of Salav village is also closer from Alibaug, approximately around 22 kms.

We were on the way to Alibaug beach in an auto rickshaw after reaching Alibaug. The same auto rickshaw driver claimed to be a tourist guide, who offered us a package to take us around Alibaug Beach including Kolaba Fort, Agarkot Fort, Revdanda Beach, Museum of Blue whale skeleton and Birla temple in just Rs. 1000. Auto rickshaw driver offering tourist guide service in Alibaug, this was something new for us and worth a try. We agreed, as the package was attractive. Here is a quick snapshot of the places we visited in Alibaug.

Alibaug Beach is close to Alibaug bus stand. You can take a auto-rickshaw or take a walk to reach the beach. There are lot of water sports facilities available apart from regular horse and camel rides as well as tonga rides.If you’re feeling hungry, you can have a quick bite at various food stalls available near the beach. Sunset from this beach looks beautiful as it appears in a background of Kolaba Fort.

Kolaba Fort is in amidst of water reachable from Alibaug beach through a boat ride during high tide and during the low tide you can take a walk or hire a tonga to reach the fort. It’s a historic fort built by maratha warrior the Shri Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to protect western coastal area from mughals, british ships and other foreign invaders. There is a beautiful Ganesh temple on the fort.

Agarkot Fort (Revdanda Fort) is located at Revdanda Beach which is just 17 kms from Alibaug. The fort was built by Portuguese and later captured
by Marathas. This fort is famous for a lookout tower which was used by Marathas to keep close watch on the enemies. There are also some historic cannons on the ground near the lookout tower. It was interesting to see some bungalows and small houses in the fort area. As per locals, some are very old houses and some newly looking houses are rebuilt ones.

As we were moving out of Revdanda, the tourist guide took us to somewhere in interiors of this village where the museum of blue whale skeleton was located. We were amazed by looking at the huge skeleton of blue whale preserved by Mr. Satish Kolvankar at his bungalow which is open for tourists. This place is named as Blue Whale Eco-tourism Centre. Besides the skeleton there is a separate room with photos and story boards of Blue whale. The efforts taken by Mr. Kolvankar in terms of preservation of skeleton of the blue whale and creating awareness of marine life is really commendable.

After returning from Revdanda, we were informed by the guide that there is an event happening near Alibaug Beach for tourists which has been named as
Alibaug Paryantan Mahotsav 2017. It was a funfare kind of event with more than 30-40 stalls of local food, handicraft items and other snacks spread across a big ground. The objective of this event was to serve tourists with Maharashtrian vegetarian & non-vegetarian dishes and promote tourism in this region. We were lucky to be part of this event and enjoyed visiting different stalls.

Our overall trip was very good. The sunset at Alibaug beach gave us a nice feeling of year ending with this trip and more such quick trips to be a planned in the year to come. With some historically learnings from Kolaba Fort and Agarkot Fort, kids were thrilled and enjoyed the trip.  Although, we missed some beaches of Alibaug, this quick trip experience will be memorable for us 🙂

Here are some photos captured by me during this trip.

Alibaug beach

On the way to Alibaug via Mandwa

Beautiful view of Kolaba Fort from Alibaug beach

Tourists at Alibaug beach

Beautiful view of sunset from Alibaug beach

Beautiful view of sunset from Alibaug beach

In search of shells on Alibaug beach

Finally found some shells

Let me go ahead and search few more shells

Kolaba Fort

Ganesh temple on Kolaba Fort

Idols of Lord Ganesh and other God/Goddesses in the temple

Beautiful view of the temple just after sunset

Same view on the other side of the temple

Tourists taking pics from the edge of the Fort

Gulmandir on the Fort

Deepstamb in just front of the Ganesh temple

Agarkot Fort

Lookout tower on Agarkot Fort

Cannons lying on the ground

Cannons view from a different angle

Inside view of the lookout tower

Inside view of the lookout tower

Lookout tower view from other side

A way to Revdanda beach from Agarkot Fort

Revdanda beach

Clean Revdanda beach

Cocunut trees at Revdanda beach

Blue Whale Eco-tourism Centre

Welcome board

Entrance of the Blue Whale Eco-tourism Centre

Blue Whale Skeleton

Blue Whale Skeleton

Dedicated room where Blue Whale details are diplayed

Alibaug Paryatan Mahotsav 2017

Beautiful entrance

Sand art at the mohatsav

Replica of Lord Vittal

Replica of Merlion statue

Christmas Tree

How to reach:

From Mumbai by Ferry: 
Daily catamaran services are available from 6:00am to 6:00 pm from the
Gateway of India and Baucha Dhakka . It takes around 1 hour to reach Mandwa from Gateway of India. From Baucha Dhakka to Rewas, it takes around 1.5 hours. From both the harbours, further one hour bus or auto-rickshaw journey is required to reach Alibaug.

From Mumbai by Road:
The distance between Mumbai and Alibaug is approx. 110 km.
The best route is through Panvel -> Pen -> Alibaug

References:
1. Blue whale eco tourism