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Mumbai to Goa, Bangalore & Chennai: A 4,000 km trip in my Kushaq

24th March 2025, 12:08 by Ananth Iyer

Total distance for the trip was 3935 kms !

BHPian rohan_2911 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Coastal Travelogue Part 1 - MUMBAI to FORT TIRACOL (Goa)

Prologue:
Our last road trip was a memorable 2,000 km journey from Mumbai to Jodhpur and back, which included stops in Ahmedabad and Udaipur, and even a camel safari near the Osian, about 50 km from Jodhpur. That trip was done in August 2023, and it had been quite some time since we embarked on a long drive. An opportunity arose when my cousin's wedding was scheduled in September 2024 in Thiruthani (outskirts of Chennai) . This provided the perfect excuse for another road trip from Mumbai, allowing us to attend the wedding and spend time in Pondicherry, where my wife is originally from.

The Plan:
My wife and I had previously completed a long road trip in 2022, driving from Mumbai to Pondicherry and back via the Goa-Karnataka route. This time, I wanted to explore new places we had missed during our last trip. Additionally, my parents had always expressed a desire to visit Coastal Maharashtra, specifically Ratnagiri. Therefore, I planned our first stop to be Ganpatipule for an overnight stay and temple visit before heading towards Ratnagiri. From there, we would head to Goa for about two days with my parents before they flew to Chennai.
However, at the last moment, some relatives were scheduled to visit us in Mumbai. Consequently, we modified our plans so my parents could return home by Tain after visiting Ratnagiri while my wife and I continued further on the road trip. I booked tickets for my parents to fly down to Chennai closer to the wedding.

Since both me and my wife have jobs that allow us to work from home - the thought was to make this into an extended trip where we would take the first week off (when the major part of the road trip would be done) and then take a few leaves here and there before coming back to Mumbai. My brother’s place in Bangalore would also serve as a very strategic pit stop enroute!

By my rough estimates this was going to be a > 3500 km road trip and I would be doing ALL of the driving.

The Preparation
The vehicle had already been serviced in May. I had to get the rear right brake lights replaced and also top up the engine oil as well as the coolant which was done. I was also monitoring the tyre pressures closely in the weeks leading up to the road trip and I noticed that the front left tyre was deflating at a faster rate and when I got it checked there indeed was a puncture which was fixed promptly. It had also been close to 2 years since the purchase the car and I was aware that the batteries in The key FOB would be at the end of life so I replaced the battery in the main key that we had and had a spare battery handy for the spare key which my wife had in her purse (more on this later).

Replacing the Key Fob Battery ; Getting the puncture fixed

Day 1 (30th August) (Mumbai - Ganpatipule) :
We started from Mumbai at around 0730 in the Morning of the 30th of August - we were a bit delayed as I had to use all my Tetris skills to make sure all of the luggage fit in the boot since the rear seat was going to be occupied by my parents The first stop for breakfast was at Go Green restaurant near Karnala - it had rained a little and I was very disappointed to see that the sides of the car was already covered in fine mud.

Pantree restaurant at Go Green - You can see the car covered in fine mud spray. Pictures on the right show the weather and drive along NH66

The drive towards Ratnagiri was on NH66 which was a refreshing change from the usual route taken when heading towards Goa (Mum - Pune expressway) - since it was just the end of monsoon season - the surroundings were lush green which made for a pleasant drive
We reached Chiplun around 1:30 -2 pm - we were searching for a good place to eat and finally ate lunch at a restaurant called Swad about 50 kms south of Chiplun.

Left: Parked at Swad, The Thali; Right: Ride along NH66 and Stopped by a cop to check my paperwork and to see whether I had some fines pending

Post lunch we crossed the River Bav at the Parchuri bridge - the location was quite remote and scenic and we stopped to click some photos.

The car parked over the Parchuri Bridge

Some more pictures of the drive from the dash cam

Thereafter there was a slight incline on the road and we actually passed over a tunnel that was a part of the Konkan railway followed by a drive on a plateau region on top of the hill. Finally the coast came into view and we descended towards Ganpatiphule.

We had chosen to stay in a Beachside Hut which was a part of the MTDC resort at Ganpatipule . I was surprised to see how big the MTDC property was - I had to drive for a few minutes to reach the Beachside hut from the entrance of the property. By the time we had settled into the hut it was already around 5 pm. We spent the next few hours by the beachside and soon it was time for dinner.

Car at the entrance of the MTDC Resort, Ganapatiphule

Picture of the drive , car parked at the resort and the beach

I wanted to eat in one of the many eateries near the Ganpatipule temple but my wife had other plans and insisted we go to a restaurant that she had found on Instagram - the restaurant was called Mehendale's Swad Dining which was about 3 kms from the resort.

Cows on the narrow road leading out from Ganapatiphule

Dinner Thali at Mehendale's Swad Dining - easily the best thali we had on the entire trip

Day 2 (31st August) :

We went to the Ganpatipule temple early in the morning and then had a simple breakfast in one of the small roadside hotels surrounding the temple

It was then time to check out and head towards Ratnagiri.

The beachside huts at the resort , me with my Wife and parents

Left: Entrance to the temple; The temple

The drive was on the scenic Arrey Warrey road - I’ll let pictures that we clicked from one of the viewpoints do the talking

The Drive towards Arrey Warrey Road - you are driving along the coast with the sea to your right - there are numerous 'view points' with small shacks serving food

The view from one of the 'view points'

I had my eye on the Arrey Warrey Zipline for quite some time - this is a 400 mtr zipline over the sea. Here, it was by sheer coincidence that I bumped into one of my childhood friends who also happened to live in my apartment complex in Mumbai ! He was with some of his friends in another Skoda Kushaq (yet another coincidence) driving from Ratnagiri to Ganpatiphule while I was going the opposite way.

So me, my wife, my Mom and my friend rode the zipline. Now - I had already done the zipline at Mehrangarh fort in Jodhpur - but this 400 mtr zipline over the sea was a different and thrilling experience. We were ferried back to the starting point by an activa that the zipline operator had for this purpose.

The silver Skoda Kushaq driven by me friend ; My Wife, Me and My Mom on the Zipline

Next stop was the Ratnadurg fort in Ratnagiri - where we could see a rolling mass of clouds heading straight for us - it was surreal to be in an area that is dry and see the approaching rainfront , and in a few minutes the rain was upon us. It rained quite heavily for about 10-15 minutes and then the rain front passed further inland. One advantage of this burst of rain was that it gave the car a free and thorough wash !

Top : The entrance to the Ratnadurg Fort ; Bottom : Rain clouds moving towards us

It was already about 1:30 pm and we were quite hungry - so I found a good restaurant in Ratnagiri and had our lunch.

Some pictures from my dash cam, Top Right shows the car parked on Narrow lanes opposite the restaurant where we had our lunch

My parents were supposed to catch the Madgaon - LTT express from Ratnagiri to Mumbai at 5 pm so we had about 2.5 hrs at our disposal. We visited the Thibaw Palace in Ratnagiri next. King Thibaw was a burmese king who was forced by the British to abdicate his throne and then coerced to move to Ratnagiri around the year 1885. The British built an official residence for the king in 1906 which was the Thibaw palace. The palace was built of lava and laterite rock and cost about 125000 Indian rupees at that time. Although we were not allowed to click pictures inside the Palace, I did manage to get a wonderful shot of the car with the palace in the backdrop.

My Car with the Thibaw Palace in the background

It was already about 3:30 pm and we started driving towards the Ratnagiri Railway station. There was construction work going around the approach Road to the station so we had to park the car and then walk towards the platform. The train was delayed by about 45-50 minutes, so I located the correct coach position and since it was getting quite late me and my wife then proceeded towards Goa.

Left : Ratnagiri Railway Station ; A random beautiful spot with small temple along the shores of a mini waterfall - we didn't have time to dip into the water unfortunately

Goa was about 270 kms away and I did not want to exhaust myself driving all the way there - so we planned to stop at Devgad which was about 130 kms away. We booked a place to stay (Aalayah Stays) as we were driving. This place was a container hotel - basically they had transformed shipping containers into rooms where each room was made up of 2 containers placed side by side.

It was already past 8 pm when we reached Devgad. I took some time to reorganise the luggage in the car till Dinner arrived. We had dinner and slept off by 10 pm.

Day 3 (1st September) :

We woke up by 6:30 - 0700 the next day, had some tea with a nice view of the Kunkeshwar Beach, checked out the hotel and the surroundings now that we had daylight.

The approach to 'Aalayah stays' at night ;few shots of the container hotel room; the hotel is on a cliff overlooking the beach ; the car with the luggage being reorganized

Just a few kms into the drive we stumbled upon the Kunkeshwar Temple - a temple situated right at the coast. We visited the temple - it was fairly early on a weekday ( 0900) so there were hardly any people present. I will again let the pictures do the talking

Car parked along the shore at Kunkeshwar temple

The small eateries that were present near the periphery of the temple were just opening up and we had VadaPav and Misal Pav from one of them - it was just heavenly to eat spicy fast food sitting at the edge of a beach and listening to the sound of the waves hitting the rocky shore

My wife standing in front of the temple entrance ; Spicy Wada Pav and Misal Pav ; The road leading to the temple

Some pictures of the drive along the narrow roads of coastal Maharashtra ; we also came across the Sindhdurg Airport on a nice flat area near the Tarkarli beach

Continuing our journey and searching for other places of interest on Google maps I stumbled upon a ‘Dutch Factory’ that was located in Vengurla. However, on visiting the site we found out that it was closed for renovation by the ASI.

Some pictures from the drive ; Right : Car parked in Vengurla in a random housing complex near the closed Dutch Factory

At this point we were only about 4 km away from the Maharashtra- Goa border and our first stop in Goa was ‘Fort Tiracol’ which is located in Querim and is also the northernmost point of Goa.

Entering Goa - the police check post at the border of the Querim Village

Fort Tiracol is a Portuguese fort and dates back to the 17th Century - the fort has a very rich history behind it and was a part of several skirmishes - most notably it was also the symbolic location where freedom fighters from Goa (after India’s independence) would demonstrate from time to time and protest against the Portuguese. At present the fort has been converted into a heritage hotel with a few rooms and a restaurant. There is also a quaint little chapel inside the fort. Our initial plan was to stay overnight at the heritage hotel, but we decided against it as booking it at the last moment would be quite expensive.

The monument to the Goan freedom fighters beside the entrance ; The entrance to the Hotel

The chapel inside Fort Tiracol

The fort is open for visitors to explore - which is what we did and also had our lunch in the restaurant. We had a splendid view as the fort is located on a hill just at the mouth of the Terekhol River and the Querim beach was on the opposite bank.