Road Trippin - Diveagar & Shrivardhan

You cross Kolad and reach Mangaon where you have to take a turn towards Mhasala. We reached Mangaon by 10.30am and it was still damn cold so we stoppes for breakfast. One thing is that you wont really have to struggle outside to find good places to eat. Even if the place is small you will definitely get good basic food. We stopped at Goodluck Restaurant and stuffed ourselves with omlette pav and misal pav. We eyed some really yum looking kheema and paratha on the next table but unfortunately we were full and couldn't stuff ourselves more.

Then we continued on from Mangaon to Mhasala and headed towards Diveagar which is to the north of Mhasala. Not much of a distance to cover but again a decent stretch of road.

We reached Diveagar at around 12noon and although the beach was not too crowded there were more people than we expected. Frankly, we thought it would be a little more peaceful so we decided to move ahead after 30-45mins. You'll get some snacky things to munch on the beach if you wanna hang out more.

The ride from Diveagar to Shrivardhan was spectacular. This is the Maharashtra tourism ads kinda picturesque location. The distance between these 2 places is a about 20kms but you can't help but stop at every 3kms to just admire the kickass view of the coast line from small cliffs and the coastal roads. We took about an hour to reach shrivardhan. There's also Aravi beach just before shrivardhan which is almost like a virgin beach. White sand beach, untouched by civilization. You could spend half a day just lazing on the beach.

Shrivardhan has a lot of good options to eat and stay. There is a small home kitchen called Atharva in the main market which serves nice home cooked food. You must try the sea food here. Inexpensive and really delicious fish thali, surmai fry and other local stuff.

There's a place right on the beach at one end where there are cottages and tree houses to stay. About 1500 bucks per night for a room which is negotiable. Checkout the other places as well. Tents and all can be arranged. We chose to stay with one of the locals. These guys have small rooms adjoining their houses which they give on rent and also arrange for food. Good, basic place to stay would be around Rs. 500-700 and a filling fish/chicken thali would just be about Rs. 120-130.

So we spent the night with some barbeque and all with a late night visit to the beach. I must say, Shrivardhan surprised us. The beach is absolutely clean and beautiful with raised promenades with antique street lamps and ample dustbins to keep the place clean. I wish we could achieve 1/3rd of this for the beaches in Mumbai.

The next day we left after a hearty breakfast and rode back non-stop to Mumbai. The only 2 stops were for lunch at Kolad and tea at vashi. We started at 11am from Shrivardhan and reached Mumbai at 4.30pm.

All in all, its a place worth visiting over the weekend. And yes, Maharashtra Tourism doesn't Photoshop images.