Ganapatipule Beach Resort

The Ganesh Temple at Ganapatipule




It is a great feeling to come back home from a refreshing holiday and that too when it was much awaited.We had been to Ganapatipule Beach Resort,about 370 kms from Mumbai on the coast of Maharashtra. [ View of the temple from the beach ] [ View of the beach from the room Balcony.]
We had to do a lot of planning as this was the only weekend convenient for all.In late January we booked the sea side cottage and also train tickets to and fro. The few times I had been here was by road and so I had to do a lot of home work to get oriented to the approach by train.
[ The tents area of the resort complex ]
I visited the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation [ MTDC ] site on the internet.I got a lot of information about the resort and the ways to approach it.It is mentioned that by train the nearest station is Ratnagiri and that it is 50 kms to the resort .That's all no further details. I then went to various Google links about this resort but nowhere did I get the exact way to arrive. [ View of the resort from the beach ]

Ultimately I took the help of Google Earth.Oh !! what wonders !! you cant imagine what fine details I got from this lovely site.I got the exact layout of the railway track as it approaches Ratnagiri from Mumbai. The east west direction of the station,the position of the Airport which I had heard of but did not know its position.The city to the west and the direction of the seaside. The exact layout of the station and that I had to get out to the south to come out of the station.The rickshaw stand and the driveway out to the main road connecting Ratnagiri city to the Mumbai Goa Highway at Hatkhamba.Then the direction northwards on the highway to Nivali,the place to take a turn left that is westwards to the Resort.

With all this knowledge and my past visit by road more than 18 years ago,I was ready to start my vacation at this wonderful beach resort. We had left home at about 5.30 in the morning and reached the resort at 12.30 noon,thanks to the superfast Janshatabdi Express train and the rickshaw journey from Ratnagiri station to Ganapatipule.

I will be writing shorter posts on varied experiences in the train, the rickshaw , the resort itself, the return journey in the scary and rickety ST [ State Transport ] bus and lastly the final train journey by Mandovi Express though late by 50 min to start with reached Thane in time. Very enjoyable trip indeed ...