The sleepy town of Gholvad is the perfect getaway from the maddening rush of Mumbai. Yet to gain popularity as a weekend destination from Mumbai, it is a clean, peaceful and restful place for recharging one's senses. The biggest events scheduled daily are the beautiful sunrises and sunsets on the empty beach. There is absolutely no fear of missing out anything as one spends hours sitting on the beach watching the sea.
One of the last villages of Maharashtra before crossing over to Gujarat, Gholvad is a quaint little village in the Palghar district and Dahanu taluka. Located about 156 kms to the north of Mumbai, in an ecologically fragile zone the only industry encouraged is tourism. Yet it is not crowded as it is still popular only for corporate gatherings due to the lack of "must-see" sights.
The Place
Gholvad literally means 'round tree' and is famous as the Chikoo Bowl of Maharashtra. As per local history, it was at Gholvad that the first sapling of chikoo was planted by an Irani family in 1901. In Gholvad, one can find huge chikoo orchards, a serene beach and ancient Parsi-Irani bungalows and schools.
Points of Interest
1. Bordi beach where one can spends hours with the sea as the only companion. It is ideal for a quiet picnics and get-togethers with family or friends.
2. Walking around the chikoo orchards admiring the old Parsi houses.
3. Zai pronounced as Jhai is 3 kms from Bordi is the northern most village of coastal Maharashtra where one can take photos of hundreds of fishing boats.
4. Best visited in the monsoons, the Aswali Dam is located about 6 kms from Bordi.
5. Umbergaon, about 10 km form Bordi is famous for Vrindavan Studios where the bulk of mythological and historical serials including the TV epic Ramayana have been shot.
6. Dahanu beach about 25 minutes drive away is a larger and way more crowded beach compared to Bordi.
Stay Options
With the pick-up in tourism lot of hotels and home-stays are coming up in the vicinity of the Bordi beach. We had stayed at the Treat Beach Resort & Spa which was then a new resort with on-going construction. The hotel has an open layout with the pool in the middle and lot of space around it. The rooms while on the smaller side have a modern design and technology equipped with sensors etc. (The ground floor rooms look onto the hotel grounds and lack privacy.) Food was very good. There was lot of parking space despite being a long weekend. Bordi beach is a short walk from the resort.
Travel
It is easily accessible with public transport from Dahanu which has good rail connectivity with Mumbai and we observed most passenger trains to/from Gujarat make a short halt at Gholvad. The drive can Mumbai is smooth as the roads are very good. The route passes across huge chikoo orchards.
