Our first Indian road trip was to the beaches within the bounds of our local state of Maharashtra to what's called "Poor Man's Goa".
We drove down about 4 hours as far as Murud to see the Janjira Fort. The fort stands 2km from shore and is a pretty impressive sight. You can get to it by sail boat from the Rajpuri village pier for Rs 20 (15 minute trip). Here are some good photos of the Fort.
We stopped for lunch at the Golden Swan Beach Resort in Murud which had a nice enough Indian/Chinese buffet and no one got sick : ). We could not find the one that was recommended called "New Sea Rock Restaurant". A couple of other options are the famous "Patil Khanaval" Restaurant where you can eat alfresco under the coconut trees - supposed to be cheap and yummy seafood served konkan style and "Patel Inn" which also serves great seafood.
After lunch we drove back up the coast to Kashid Beach which we had passed along the way. There are heaps of cute bar shacks on the edge of the beach where you can lay in a hammock and sip fresh coconut milk all day. The beach was clean but the sand was way to hot to stand on and the water was the colour of poo (apparently only because it was high tide) but I am a sucker for a hammock any day.
Onto the Radisson Alibaug for 2 night where we were pleasantly surprised with an upgrade to a Sap Villa which was more like a small house than a hotel suite. The pool was huge and had a good sized children's pool.
Some of the ground floor rooms had direct access from the garden to the pool - nice!
Managed to indulge in a trip to the Spa - who could say no to 65% of a facial and 50% of a massage : ).
The main restaurant was 24 hours and had a large Indian buffet and also a la carte menu which included Aussie lamb chops & local lobster. My favourite was the Masala Dosa station at breakfast.
The wine service was pretty bad on the first night in the fine dining restaurant but by night two they had straighten things out. I don't think they had seen any foreigners for a while : ).
We didn't make it to the beaches at Alibaug but apparently Kashid is the nicest so we didn't feel so bad about chilling by the pool some more. Akshi Beach and Kihim Beach are supposed to be undiscovered and unpolluted and both close to Alibaug - maybe next time!
Overall would recommend it as a quick weekend away from Mumbai but expect to empty your wallet at the Radisson. Apparently there is a couple of tent resorts among the palm tree's at Kihim & Mandwa beaches which might be a fun and cheaper option.
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