How To Reach Tarkarli

Tarkarli is a small village in the taluk of Malvan in the Sindhudurg district of the western coasts of Maharashtra. Located in the southernmost parts of the state bordering Goa, the coastal village is renowned for its long, narrow coastline and its sandy beaches, temples and ample choices of water sports. Tarkarli lies on the confluence of the Karli River that meanders along the village to join the Arabian Sea. Tarkarli lies about 8 km to the south of Malvan and about 540 km from the capital city of Mumbai, about 410 km from Pune and 147 km from Goa.

Tarkarli is easily accessible by air, road or rail, being a touristy beach town and the most ideal way to reach the town would be by rail. We will tell you about the best way to reach Tarkarli and the local transport options available there.

Goa’s Dabolim International Airport, located around 28 km to the southwest of Panaji, is the airport nearest to Tarkarli. The airport serves domestic flights to and from Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi, Chennai, Indore, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad. The airport also caters to international flights from Singapore, Muscat, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait and Tel Aviv. You can book a cab from Goa to Tarkarli or ride a bus as well.

Other nearest domestic airports are the Belgaum Airport (159 km), Kolhapur Airport (193 km) or Ratnagiri’s Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak Airport (147 km) that flies domestic services to cities like Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Thirupathi and Mysuru. You can hire a cab from either of these airports to Tarkarli.

Tarkarli does not have a railway station, but can be easily accessed from the nearest towns of Sindhudurg (about 31 km), Kudal (about 32 km) or Kankavli (about 50 km) railway stations that run on the Konkan railways. From any of these railway stations you can hire a cab, an auto rickshaw or board a state transport bus to Tarkarli.

There are weekly, bi weekly and daily trains from Goa, Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi, Thiruvananthapuram, Patna and Jabalpur etc that halt at Kudal and Sawantwadi stations. A number of trains, like Konkan Kanya Express (Mumbai CST – Madgaon), Shri Ganganagar Kochuveli Express (Rajasthan – Kerala) halt at Kudal. If you are getting a cab from the railway station to Tarkarli, you could even use the cab for a sightseeing trip for a day or two.

You can drive to Tarkarli from Mumbai that’s about 540 km on the Mumbai Kolhapur route and about 475 km on the Panvel Kochi route. Private and state transport buses are available from Pune, Mumbai and Goa to Malvan, wherefrom you could hop onto a bus to Tarkarli. Malvan is easily accessible by road from all parts of Maharashtra and Goa. A drive to Tarkarli from Mumbai that meanders along the beautiful ghat roads at Lonavala, Amboli and Satara are worthy of a beautiful holiday trip.

Tourists, who are on a tour of Malvan, usually take a journey to Tarkarli as there are good transport facilities with auto rickshaws or cabs that can be hired for the short trip from Malvan to the beach town. Local buses also run from Malvan to Tarkarli village.

Since Tarkarli is a small coastal fishing village, there might not be any upmarket means to travel. There are the buses that ride all the way from Malvan that you can use to hop off at the nearest stop. You could hire an auto rickshaw or better still, hire a cab from Malvan for a day’s trip around town.

If you are staying in a resort, the manager might help you call in a cab for sightseeing. Or you could hire a two wheeler from Malvan. If you are travelling to Tarkarli in a good season, you might as well hike around town, taking in the sights for the place is a small one and a walk would be a lovely way to sightsee.