Two days is the honest length for Karwar. One day covers the town — and the town is small — and the second buys you the thing that needs a boat or a hill. Every distance below is routed on the real road network from the town centre, not measured in a straight line.
- Go between November and February. Between June and September the sea is dangerous, the rain is measured in metres and the boats do not run.
- Karwar station is at Shirwad, 6.85 km out — plan an auto at both ends.
- Carry cash: the museum, the boats, the water sports and the autos all work in it.
Day one: the town
Morning — start at Baithkol, the fishing harbour at the south end, while the catch is still coming in. Then the Rock Garden on the seafront and its sculptures of the district communities. Late morning, the INS Chapal warship museum at the Tagore end of the beach: a decommissioned missile boat you walk through, with a retired maritime patrol aircraft beside it, and a small charge at the gate. Ask at your hotel first — its opening days are not published.
Afternoon — eat fish. Karwar curry is coconut, cashew, ginger and turmeric, and the eating houses through Kodibag and along the harbour road are where it is actually served. Then wait out the heat. Evening — the town beach in the last hour of light, which is when the whole town comes out onto it. The Tagore bust and its plinth are a two-minute stop at the southern end; the sentence on it is worth the two minutes.
Day two: across the river
Morning — drive over the Kali bridge to Sadashivgad, 6.3 km and about six minutes, and climb the hill. The dargah of Shah Karamuddin and a Shantadurga temple are on the way up; the fort at the top was named in 1715 and taken by Shivaji fifty years before that; the view over the estuary, the sea and the islands is what you came for. Unmade path, loose stone, no handrail — shoes, and not in the wet.
Then pick one of three, depending on the sea and on who you are travelling with. **Kurumgad** — the tortoise-shaped island four kilometres offshore, a hilltop Narasimha temple, snorkelling around it in the clear months; the boat is a private hire, so ask for life jackets and do not go if the sea is up. **Devbagh** — the casuarina spit across the river mouth, usually reached by a short boat rather than the road, with the state-run Devbagh Beach Resort on it. **Majali** — 11.4 km north and about eleven minutes by road, shallow and calm behind rock barriers, and the easiest of the three with children.
If you have a third day
Use it on the district rather than the town. Gokarna and its beaches are south down NH-66; Yana and its karst spires are inland; Mirjan Fort is on the way to both. Karwar is the practical base for all of it — the district hospital, the banks and the trains are here and not in any of them.
Where to stay
The state tourism operator, Jungle Lodges and Resorts, runs two properties here — the Devbagh Beach Resort on the spit, twenty cottages, food-and-stay packages from about ₹4,500 plus tax per person twin-sharing, and the Sadashivgad Sea View Resort from about ₹3,460 all in. In the town itself the largest branded hotel is the three-star Sterling resort on the coast south of the centre, and there are small hotels and homestays around Sadashivgad and Kodibag. Almost none of the small places publish tariffs, so telephone.