Tarkarli has become an alternative to Goa. Since many people who love a quiet and peaceful environment are traveling to Tarkarli instead of Goa.

Tarkarli is a small village near Malvan in Maharashtra, which is slowly becoming a famous tourist attraction. Tarkarli is home to long stretches of white sand beaches and pleasant tropic climate.

If you want to spend a quiet and pleasant time with your partner or family then Tarkarli is the place to be. Tarkarli beaches are famous for being not so crowded as its Goa counterpart.

Tarkarli beach

There are many things that differentiate Tarkarli from Goa. Tarkarli beaches are less crowded and not so tourist driven. Read till the end to know if Tarkarli is the place for you.

How to reach Tarkarli?

There are many ways to reach Tarkarli. The best way from Mumbai to Tarkarli is the Indian Railways. Take a late night train Konkan Kaniya which will drop you to Sindudurg station around 9 to 10 AM.

You can also get down at Kudal Station, but the road from Kudal to Tarkarli is not that good,so we decide to get down at Sindhudurg.

We asked our Tarkarli Hotel to arrange for an SUV from Sindhudurg station. It cost around 1500 to 2000 RS One way trip. The Konkan Kaniya Train is the best way to travel from Mumbai to Tarkarli,

People also opt to drive to Tarkarli, it is around 8 to 9 hours drive. Its completely up to you to decide your mode of transport.

Where to stay in Tarkarli?

Since Tarkarli is a growing tourist destination there are many hotels at Tarkarli that are offering good deals. MTDC Tarkarli is of the options that many tourists try to book. MTDC Tarkarli offers great accommodation with a scenic view of the ocean.

We stayed at Soham Resort Tarkarli. One of the best resort at Tarkarli according to me. Soham is a Tarkarli beach resort. OK, let the images do the talking. Below photo is the view out of our room window. Its a great place for family to stay . Yes, the rooms do need a little upgrade as compared the standards of other other resort.

Tarkarli Soham Resort

But the service and the view overshadows the okish rooms. 3 days at this place and at the end you don’t want to leave.

The Tarkarli Story.

The best thing about Tarkarli is its long untouched beaches. The quiet and serene beaches are what attract a huge amount of tourist and definitely cheap water sports.

You need a maximum of 3 days to explore Tarkarli and its adjacent areas. We left Mumbai from the late night train(Konkan Kaniya) and reached Sindhudurg station at around 10 AM. Since we already had booked the SUV, our transportation was waiting for us at the station.

It took approximately an hour and a half to reach our Tarkarli resort.

At first glance, the place looks like any other typical Konkan village. With all the coconut trees and the smell of fish drying in the sun.

Tarkarli is the place that you need to have in your budget list. The place is not only famous for beach resorts but also famous for Tarkarli scuba diving.

Once we reached the hotel, even after an exhausting and tiring journey we were still full of energy. We asked the resort attendant to arrange for water sports activities. He provided us with a contact of one of his guys.

We contacted the agent and got all the details regarding the activities. He created our entire schedule for the next day and even arranged for auto rickshaw from Tarkarli to the water sports activities site.

The next day started early for us. We were asked to reach the destination by 10 AM. The first activity was scuba diving.

A little disclaimer, the scuba diving is great here but don’t expect something like Andaman and Nicobar. Adamans are far better for scuba diving then Tarkarli or any other spot in India.


tarkarli scuba diving

The scuba diving at Tarkarli was the highlight of our trip. Many of us feared the vast oceans, but it was that day we overcame it. If it’s your first-time scuba diving then this is the place to be.

Even if you don’t know swimming then no problem, you can still enjoy the dive. The instructor will accompany you to the Corals and videos and photos will be taken underwater.

The scuba diving activity took us around 3 to 4 hours in total. Next, in our package, some amazing water sports activities were lined up.

Water Sports in tarkarli

Make sure you bargain your way to the package, to get the best deal. Since we were 7 guys we bargained and got an amazing deal for the water sports package.

The package included scuba diving, jet ski, sitting bumper, sleeping bumper, banana ride, and Parasailing.
All of this was priced around 2k.

We finished with all the mentioned activities at around 3:30 PM. Time flies when you are enjoying the most amazing time of your life.

It’s difficult to get a decent vegetarian meal at Malvan. Well, I am non-vegetarian but still for all the vegetarians out there, best of luck. But we found this amazing restaurant Shirgoankar in Malvan which had the best veg and Non-veg meal. We do recommend this place if you are around.

Hotel Shirgoankar

The next day we had planned for some local sight seeing. Apart from scuba diving, there are two main parts of travel around tarkarli. You can either go to Devbaugh and enjoy the beach and visit tsunami island or you can visit Sindhudurg fort and rock garden in Malvan.

We did visit Sindhudurg fort and revisited the rich history of the Maratha empire. The fort is located in the middle of the ocean. So you need to take a ferry to the place.

the fort is a really picturesque and great place to take some amazing pictures.

We decided to end our last day at Tarkarli with the visit to the fort. Since the next day, we had a train to catch back to Mumbai.

But on the way back to our Tarkarli resort the rickshaw driver took a little detour and took us to the cashew factory for fresh cashew. These factories are the best place to buy cashews in Tarkarli. So if you are here do make sure to visit these factories.

With the visit to the factory, we wrapped our visit. We did enjoy the rest of the day the beach and just sleeping at the hammock.

The next day we had a train back to Mumbai from Sindhudurg station at around 11:30 AM.

Final Thoughts

Tarkarli has grown as an alternative for Goa. If you are a party and booze-loving person then tarkarli is not for you. Tarkarli is more of a family place to spend quality time together.

Booze is very difficult to find here. And the village sleeps very early. So its not a very happening place. But you do get quieter and less crowded beaches than that in Goa.

We do suggest you to add tarkarli to your budget list and visit the sleepy town to enjoy some quiet and peaceful time with your loved ones.

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I am a Food, Travel and Tech enthusiast. I believe good content can make a difference and great stories are told with an Open Heart. Great content comes with great Learning..