Goa to Mangalore trip in 3 days

We had not taken a vacation for quite some time and the long weekend during the Gandhi Jayanti holiday on Friday-2nd, we thought was a good time to unwind.

Since the time we brought the Safari Storme, our idea of vacation has turned into “a trip to places where we can drive to, in a radius of 300-500 kms and which can be done in 2-4 days”.

After having explored most nearby places in Maharashtra, we decided to go the other neighbor – Karnataka. After my research on Google, I thought Mangalore was the closest fit to our ‘Travel criteria’.

I wanted to go to a place which is:

           A. 200-400 kms max, so that it can be done in 3 days’ time,

           B. which has some temples to visit and, 

           C. also have some good shopping malls and recreation activities.

and Mangalore had all of these.

On finalizing the holiday destination, the first thing I wanted to set right was accommodation.

After a spending some time on Google (BTW, the trip was planned completely based on internet reviews) I shortlisted on following hotels. (since we aren’t too fussy about hotel stay during travel, it was low on budget and quick to decide).

Finalized the deal on Mangalore International, even though the very first review title said "There is nothing international about it" but the further reviews were quite satisfactory. It is at K.S. Rao road, one can drive straight to this place as an extension to NH-66.

Earlier, I had plans of walking-in to a hotel, without prior booking, considering there are plenty to choose from in the city, however, it came to me as a shock, when I called the HMI (Hotel Managlore International, referred to as HMI) and they said, they are booked for the weekend while all major travel booking sites still showing availability. So, I decided to book this hotel online for following prime reasons:

To avoid the hassles of:

          A.  Driving around the crowded city seeking directions to various hotels,

        B. visiting each of them only to find some of them don’t have the availability and even if they had, go and inspect each room, amenities and so on and,

         C. importantly because, online booking had a discount to offer. 

I booked HMI at an offer of "buy one night and get second at Re.1 only" on ClearTrip. (That really sounded a great offer, though the total cost I paid for 2 nights - in fact should have been the price at which they be selling these rooms). Anyways, was happy that I didn’t have to pay excess price for these rooms.

About Hotel

Pros:

A. The biggest USP of this hotel is – its location! It is bang in the city, just across the famous City Center mall.

B. the second best (for us) being – 24 check-in/check-out policy (since we were driving from Goa and didn’t have a well-drawn schedule, this added a great flexibility and allowed us to drive leisurely)

C. complimentary breakfast (Vegetarian only, no egg/omelets, typical mix of Idli, Shira, Upma, cornflakes, juice, milk, tea, coffee, fruits etc)

D. complimentary internet (the connectivity was good, even though some reviews said it wasn’t so good)

Cons:

Not many, however could have been cleaner like they could have patched up walls with a paint coat, fixed some electrical points etc. Also, it does not have its own restaurant and we did not try room service.

Others:

• No covered parking; however there is place right in front of the hotel where one can park where the hotel security guard keeps a watch and the hotel assures you that it’s safe.
• There is 24-hrs hot water facility; however we faced some issues with it.
• Check-in/out was smooth.
• Telephone in the room did not work as some cabling work was being done.
• Air conditioner, TV, Cable channels everything worked. Towels, soap, shampoo provided. No toilet napkins/papers. No temperature control knobs or remote control for AC so we had to switch off main switch when it was too cold.
• Not sure if the rooms offered any views as our windows opened into a shabby building next door.

Itinerary planned:

Day-1: Friday

06:00 Leave from Panaji

13:00 Reach Mangalore, Lunch

16:00 Visit Citi Center and evening at leisure

21:00 Dinner at the Mall

Day-2: Saturday

09:00 Breakfast at Hotel

10:00 Visit Kudroli Gokarnath Temple

12:00 Visit Kadri Manjunath Temple

13:00 Lunch at Kadri Manjunath Temple (they serve meal as prasad)

14:00 Visit Animal Park at Pilkula Nisargdham

15:30 Visit Manasa water park

17:30 Tea at Manasa Restaurant

18:30 Visit Bharat Mall (Big Bazar shopping)

21:00 Dinner at Mall

Day-3: Sunday

09:00 Breakfast at Hotel

10:00 Visit Local market for window shopping, Stop by at Ideal's ice-cream

12:30 Lunch

13:30 Depart for Goa

20:30 Arrive in Goa

All of the above fell in line, except:

A. We started an hour late on day-1, which meant it was past13:00 and we were about 60kms behind schedule so we decided to have lunch at Udipi at a highway restaurant. The restaurant, surprisingly, offered good food at a very cheap rate of Rs. 50/- for a South Indian Thali. We decided to halt at the same place during our return journey to try their Punjabi Thali.

B. Return trip took longer due to heavy rains at Honnavar, Karwar belt.

Total Distance: 400 kms

Road: Cannot be categorized as ‘good’ since lot of work was underway at NH-66, because of which had to take diversion every 2-3 kms. Some stretches were really bad and the vehicle had to be brought down from 80-100 to 20 instantly.

Route:Panaji - Karwar - Ankola - Kumta - Honnavar - Bhatkal - Kundapur - Manipal/Udupi - Mangalore

Weather: Pleasant as it was drizzling, warm during day time, about 30 degrees (this was during our visit, otherwise I believe the mercury starts rising during this part of the year).

Hotels: Plenty; few we had shortlisted based on TripAdvisor reviews:

Hotel Poonja International

Rs. 1847/- per night

Address: K.S. Rao Road

Phone:0824 244 0171

My take: Some of the reviews that I read weren't really good, so did not go for it.

Hotel Srinivas

Rs. 1168 per night

Address: Ganapathi High School Road

Phone:0824 244 0061

My take: Reviews were ok nothing spectacular about it.

Ginger Hotel

My take: This was in my mind, however shockingly, reviews of this Tata hotel weren’t that great vis-a-vis their rates.

Hotel Suman Residency

About 5k for 2 nights

Near Bendorewell Junction | Kankanady - Balmatta Road

My take: Good reviews, HMI won over this on the price front.

Goldfinch Mangalore

About 12k all inclusive for 2 nights.

236-2A Bunts Hostel Road | Near Jyoti Circle

My take: This one was the best, however out of my budget.

Places of interest shortlisted (we did not do all):

City Center Mall

K.S.Rao Road | Hampankatta

We visited this mall, because based on reviews, this one was meant to be the best among all other malls in the city, we had time only for 1 of them so we decided to go with this one. Besides, this was just across our hotel.

This is a typical mall bustling with youngsters huddling around and kids running up & down on the escalators. It has most well-known brands besides some distinct stores like a Khadi store doing good business, shops selling 1gm Gold and so on. Besides, you have a floor for all eateries with brands like BBQ Nation, Pizza Hut, KFC to name a few.

Pilkula Nisargdham

15-20 mins drive from Mangalore (outskirts), a must visit animal park. Need about 2-3 hrs time to see the entire place if one decides to walk. There is motor-cycle buggy that can take you around for a mere charge of 300 bucks and can be done in about 40 mins to 1 hr time.

Manasa Amusement & Water Park

Small park, good for kids, walking distance from Pilkula Nisargdham. Entry: Adult=300/-, Children=200/-

Tip: closed on Monday.

Bharath Mall

Address: Opp KSRTC Bus Depot | Kavoor Road, Bejai, Lalbagh

Only mall which has Big Bazar. Also has Pizza hut, CCD - ok place to visit.

Empire Mall & Pio mall – The review said these aren’t as good as City Center, so were left out of the itinerary.

Mahatma Gandhi Museum 

(Canara High School, Mangalore, India) – based on reviews, decided to skip as not a must visit, however good to visit.

Sammilan Shetty’s Butterfly Park – I am not into butterflies so skipped this as well, but most reviews said, it’s a good place to visit.

Address: Butterfly Park Road, Belvai Village | Santhadi House, Mangalore

Phone Number: +91 98 45 993292

Kadri Manjunath Temple - good to visit

From Bunts circle, one can hire auto to reach this temple which will cost you around Rs 30. The temple offers Prasad (lunch) between 12:30pm to 2pm.

Kudroli Gokarnath Temple - good to visit

Address: Kudroli | 3 Km from Hampankatta

Best visit during evenings, day time will be hot.

Shri Sharavu Mahaganapathi Temple - not a must visit, can visit if time permits.

This is a small temple, old, right in the city in the middle of bustling Hampankatta, close to the end of the GHS road in Mangalore.

Panambur Beach - if at all you want to visit a beach, you can try this as its closer to Mangalore. Nothing great about the beach though. Since we hailed from a place of beaches, we didn’t wanted to visit another one.

Observations

• Lot of 1gm gold shops around.
• People give and accept worn-out currency notes
• Traffic is same as any other city (didnt experience much due to holiday weekend)
• Local market is same as any other metro.
• People usually speak Kannada or Tulu, most understand Hindi.

In all, this was a compact budget holiday.

Tip: Leave your vehicle at the hotel, especially if it’s a big one and hire an Auto-Rickshaw to go to places.

• No need to seek directions
• No need to look for parking
• No worries of jumping signals/traffic rules, paying fines and so on.

Chivla Beach - weekend getaway from Goa

Like last year, this summer too, we decided to give Goan beaches a miss and instead visited a serene, virgin beach at a not-well-known place called Chivla in our neighboring state. Chivla beach is located in a tiny village at a walking distance from Malwan in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra.

Set for a perfect evening...

 

While the Goan beaches are flooded with tourists from all over the world, over the years, my love for them has reduced. It could be because of the overly crowdedness and commercialization of these beaches. Somehow, I don’t find that same tranquility which I witnessed here during my regular summer trips to these beaches, since my childhood.

 

Goa no more has a tourist season now! People flock to this place all throughout the year and some even don’t return to their home land.

I was looking for something, where I could be all by myself with the nature – just the roaring sea and me! And Chivla Beach was a wise choice.

Malwan too is getting highly commercialized and many tourists prefer it, mainly for two reasons – the place is not as crowded as Goan beaches and most importantly it’s cheap compared to Goan exorbitant Dining and Accommodation rates.

I had known of Chivla, since last year, however we chose to visit Tarkarli last year and hence the obvious choice for this year was Chivla beach.

Disclaimer

You may NOT continue reading further, if you are looking for the following at a beach holiday:

·         Ogling at Semi-nude Hippies

·         And a similar avatar of Desis [semi-nude again, but Males] holding beer cans

·         Indian newlyweds with hands full of traditional bangles and Shorts – a little short for her.

·         A pampered resort style luxurious stay

·         A dubious massage

The beach – the location

This place is for someone looking for a secluded, serene and 'almost your own' private beach, where one can relax on the hammock outside your room, watching tiny boats taking on the sea, hard-working fishermen busy sorting their daily catch and local kids immersed into a match of cricket at the shore…

The Beach is all yours...

 

If this is not enough, in the evening you can be one with the nature, watching the sun set over the roaring sea hitting the shore incessantly! A view worth capturing on a canvas!

And at what cost is this? The entire vacation for a 2-night’s stay for couple with child was less than half the cost of a beach aside resort (stay only) in Goa!

However unfortunately we also noticed, the shore had turned ugly at places – because of Mother Nature throwing back at us, the same nonsense we quietly immerse inside her!

The Stay – Mayekar’s Holiday Home

Chivla offers many home-stays – a more traditional, affordable and acceptable form of accommodation.

Having read good reviews, we chose ‘Mayekar’s Holiday Home’ [MHH] for our 2 nights stay. The guesthouse is at a splendid location, just few meters away from the sea shore. The rooms are basic however offer a superb sea-view with plenty of breeze to keep you company throughout the day. It’s a treat to watch the sun set, while you sip tea alongwith hot Bhajiya lazing on the hammocks outside your room.

There are options for AC and Non AC rooms.

 

MHH is owned by a local Mr. Prasanna Mayenkar. He lives with his wife, a 3 year old daughter – Swara and a maternal uncle – who looks after your needs during your stay. Mr. Mayekar shares his home with the air conditioned Blue rooms, while the Non AC Red rooms are besides the house. Red rooms are much closer to the sea and bigger in size to accommodate a family of 4. Blue Rooms are smaller suitable for a couple.

The place offers basic amenities: a double bed with bed-side tables, a table with 4 chairs in the verandah, hot water from 7:00AM, mosquito net/coil, a service bell in the room. The linens could have been better and should have provided soap or a hand-wash! It serves morning tea/coffee options with breakfast and evening tea/snacks on advance notice. If you don’t want to go too far for dinner, there is a home-food option behind the property of Mayekar’s.

Room cost: Non AC 1800 per night. AC: 2000 per night.

Breakfast options: Upma, Poha, Shira, Bread-omelet, Tea/Milk/Coffee. Chilled Water bottle@Rs.20/-

Evening tea with snacks like Bhajia can be ordered. The preparation takes about 20-30 mins.

Lunch/Dinner: This guest house does not offer Lunch/Dinner options. For this, you can visit any of the nearby home-turned-restaurants.

 

Security/Safety: One could feel kind of insecure when the place gets darkened with not many lights around and not much security around the home-stay. However, Malwani people are known to be softhearted and we felt at home during our long stroll on the empty road in front of the guest house in the night.

 

The food: relish on Sea-food!

There is a place at the backyard of MHH, which serves home cooked meals. One needs to place an order at least 2-3 hours in advance. For vegetarian there is a typical Maharashtrian meal with Rice, Chapati, Bhaji, Papad, Pickle, Daal, Solkadhi. For others, there is variety of Fish options to choose from.

The food quality was average while the rates though apt for a beach location, were higher than what it would cost you to have a Fish/Rice meal at a Goan city restaurant.

Malwan has many other restaurants which are famous for serving fresh fish preparations. To name a few: Chaitanya, Saiba, Atithi Bamboo, Ghar Mithbaunkaranche (they are also the caterers for MTDC resorts at Tarkarli).

We had a day meal at Chaitanya – our repeat visit. However, felt the taste had degraded since our last trip to Tarkarli. You would find plenty of good reviews of it and the place is usually over-crowded. When I say I did not like the preparation much: it could be because of my liking for Goan way of cooking sea food and the same may not be true for people traveling from various other parts of the country as at the table next to us, we were hearing a Mumbai party going all praises for the food!
 

Again, there are plenty of fish & sea-food options with prices same as what I mentioned earlier. To give you an idea of prices, we had a Surmayee [King-Fish] Thali for 250/- (medium size rawa fried piece of Kingfish, Kingfish Curry with Chapati and Rice], a ‘Kalwa Thali’ at 280/- (One portion of Kalwa Masala, one small rawa fried Crab, Kalwa Curry with Chapati and Rice].

You can try Fruitkhand – srikhand with fruits or ‘Aamrakhand’ for desserts.

The cost of the meal was 700/-. (Our return journey cost of a much tastier lunch at Spice Goa, Karaswada, Mapusa-Goa was just under 500/- for two Modso Thalis and a beer!)

One can also try Prawns Malwani, Kombadi Vade etc.

 Downside

Crowded!! and obviously this is the reason for other problems like delay in taking orders and eventually in serving. The place is on a busy congested lane of Malwan market and hence taking your car and parking is a big pain. I would recommend parking the vehicle in an open space, just when you take a right turn to go to Tarkarli. From here, the restaurant is just about 5 mins walk.

Quality: as I mentioned above was a big letdown. We had to add extra salt in almost every item in our meal.

 

The attraction

Besides Malwan, which has multiple options, Tsunami Island at Devbag is one of the major attractions to enjoy some watersports. Devbag is about 4 KMs from Tarkarli, which is about 7 KMs from Malwan.

You will need to hire a motor boat, which will take you to an amazing place - a small island in the middle of nowhere, close to ‘Sangam’ of Karli river and Malwan sea.

The boat is costly affair if you have a small family as it charges 1000/- for a return trip. Best is to bargain and look for sharing options. We shared the boat trip with another family of 4 at total cost of 800/-.

One can enjoy variety of water sports like Jet Ski Ride, Speed Boat, Banana Ride, Bumper Boat, Water Scooter, Kayak Ride and so on.

There are various food stalls right in the middle of the water serving mouth-watering local snacks like ‘Chutney and Pola’. It’s an amazing experience to have food at these stalls while your seats almost submerged in the water.

 What else to do/see:

Malwan has various other attractions (we had visited these during our last trip to Tarkarli). The activity that has caught on highly with tourists here is Snorkelling and Scuba diving!

While at Malwan a visit to Rock Garden, Sindhudurg fort and Jai Ganesh Temple is a must. One also has option of visiting few other near-by beaches: (I would suggest stay put up just at one beach)

·         Tarkarli Beach

·         Tondavali Beach

·         Kolamb Beach

·         Vengurla Malvan Beach

 

Ganesh idol made in Gold at Jai Ganesh Temple

The route

The route from Goa to Kudal via Sawantwadi (on Goa-Mumbai highway) is awesome and had it been monsoon, the drive would have been a real pleasure!

From Kudal one can take either take a polished longer route via Chauke or an internal shorter road. Don’t expect too many signages on the way or while driving in Malwan. It’s best to ask locals.

Panaji to Chivla is about 110 kms.

You will find a lot of local vendors’ enroute which are good option for buying some local green vegetables and Devgad Hapus mangoes!

Itinerary

Day-1

• Started at Panaji-Goa at 10:00 AM, reach Chivla at 1:30 PM
• Lunch: Packed food for lunch from home
• Evening Tea: Onion Pakoda and Tea MHH
• Evening spent in around MHH on hammock enjoying the breeze and later playing at the beach
• Dinner: Vegetarian meal at the property at the backyard of MHH. Rs. 70/- per Thali. Regular home cooked meal with Chapati, Rice,Daal, salad, Tamdi Bhaji, Solkadhi. No Sweet dish.

Day-2

• Alarm at 7:00AM. I did my Suryanamaskars on the beach when the Sun had just started shining
• Breakfast: at MHH. Tea, Upma and Bread Omelet
• Left for Tsunami Island at 10. [11 kms from Chivla]
• Lunch: Returned from Tsunami Island for lunch at Chaitanya in Malwan
• Evening: Spent at MHH on hammock and playing at the beach
• Dinner: again at the property behind MHH. Fried prawns medium size Rs. 150/- plate with about 15 pieces

Day-3

• Alarm at 7:00AM and hit the beach for light jogging
• Breakfast at MHH: Shira, Bread omelet and black tea
• Left Chivla at 10:00AM
• Visit Jai Ganesh Temple on return journey
• Lunch at Spice Goa, Karaswada, Mapusa Goa
• Dinner back at home

Ended the trip with a scrumptious meal at Spice Goa

 

Mercure Lavasa: Good Place to Stay

Welcome to Mercure Lavasa

The hotel is a brand of Accor and is worth the bills we paid. It offers over 100 decent rooms for guests and one would not be really disappointed for having stayed here.

 

The hotel does not have its own pool in the premise, however offers complimentary Swimming Pool and Gym facilities at the nearby clubhouse which is about 15-20 mins walk. The complimentary coupon for this is offered on enquiry.

 

Room

 

Some may feel the rooms are small, however I would say they are just about right for a couple stay. It comes with almost all basic facilities like flat screen LCD, mini fridge, iron and board, complimentary tea/coffee makers and 2 bottles of water, and regular toiletries including a hair-dryer.

Did not try a la carte and room service.

No great views from the room. From our balcony, we could only see some construction sites.

Nice, plush room

Check-in and Check-Out

Check-in: 12:00 noon and check-out: 10 AM. The hotel was fine with our request for late c/out (though we checked out in time, the next day).

Dining - Lunch

The hotel has a multi-cuisine restaurant – Celebration, offering good variety spread of buffet of mostly Indian food for lunch. Few delicacies which  were on the menu during our stay included Mutton, Chicken, Vegetable Makhani, Bhindi, Daal Fry, Pulao, Hakka noodles, Roti, Naan, Veg/N.veg soups, variety of salads, pastries, Sevaiya and so on. The food was delicious and would say, aptly priced. The cost per head was Rs. 650/- (plus taxes).

It also had a live cooking counter, which served some of your favorite dishes, right out of the frying pan.

Breakfast:

Our booking included Bed & Breakfast. There were, again, various choices with a blend of English, Maharashtrian and South Indian options. The counter had Khichdi, Idli-Sambhar, Omlette, Toast/butter/Jam, Paav-Bhaji, Cereals, Cakes, Fruits (limited choice though), Yogurt, Juices, Tea and Coffee.

Bar

The hotel has a cozy little place called Zen Bar, with lounge style seating where you can relax with your favorite poison. One can enjoy wine and various other drinks here. (We did not visit the bar J and I read about the happy hours at the bar, after we checked outL)

Negatives

Overall, the hotel was nice and there are not many things to write against this place, however few points that could have been handled in a better way:

a.       Our check-out and bill settlement process was extremely delayed. We had done an online booking/payment through the Hotel’s website and were expecting to pay, just the balance including our lunch. However, the staff mentioned that the payments are not reflecting for some reason – which was hard to believe. Finally, after confirming with Bank/Credit card that the amount has not been debited, we made the full payment and it was sorted. However, we spent a lot of time at the reception counter, with multiple staff members verifying, cross-checking, calling others etc to sort this.

Why and how the payment was not received is still a mystery to us, secondly, how did hotel confirm our reservation online, without receiving the payments? Anyways, not our headache!

 

b.      We had a twin sharing room. In our neighboring room a group of boys arrived late in the night and continued with the party, they had returned from. The whole conversation and noise was audible in our room, which was quite disturbing.

 

c.       Finally, the hotel should have offered some recreation activities like swimming pool in its own premise.

 

Overall, the place is worth a stay with good location, service and food.