Half Of My Heart Is In Gokarna!
Hi guys! Hope you’re all doing well!
I’m currently sat in bed writing this post while having a major holiday hangover!
Last week, at this time, I was swimming in the Arabian Sea with one of my best friends while we were on a vacation in Gokarna.
While I have vlogged all of our adventures on our two night, three days trip, I decided to write this blog to share with you some information (reviews and suggestions) that’ll hopefully help you have as great a trip to gokarna as I did!
Travel:
From Bangalore you can either take a train, a bus or drive down gokarna.
We opted for the bus. We booked a sleeper non/ac VRL while going and a sleeper non/ac SRS while coming back. Both of them started at 7PM from their respective pick up points and dropped us at our destination at around 8am the next morning. Personally, I found SRS a lot more comfortable and much cleaner but VRL stopped at a much better dinner stop.
Gokarna is a fairly small town so depending on your willingness to walk, the weather and/or the amount of luggage you have, and you could either walk/trek to all the important places or take an auto. Either way, the view is magnificent!
We trekked to kudle beach, to kudle hilltop and through the town on our way to the temple, took an auto to Om beach and were treated to a beautiful view throughout our ride, and sailed in a ferry to Half Moon Beach with bonus stops at paradise beach and the lighthouse! (All our auto and ferry rides cost us around 100-200rs.) If you are adventurous and extremely fit, you could also sign up for a day trek and cover all the five beaches in gokarna in just a couple of hours!
Accommodation:
We stayed at Zostel, which is a hipster hostel for backpackers! Zostel provides you with an option of either sharing a dorm with an attached bathroom with five other people where you get your own bunk bed, or staying at a private cottage. We chose the latter because diamonds are a girl’s best friends; UTI’s on the other hand are not!
I found the air-conditioned cottages to be quite spacious, clean and safe.
It’s also centrally located and offers the most beautiful view of Gokarna Main Beach!
Food:
Finding good food at most places in Gokarna is a little difficult which was also one of the reasons we chose to stay at Zostel as they have their very own, in house restaurant called Mantra café. The menu at Manta offers one a great variety of cuisines and items to choose from for all three meals of the day and does taste quite delicious!
The fact that we had to take no more than 20 steps to enjoy a delicious nutella pancake for breakfast and a yummy roast chicken pizza for dinner with the ambient sound of ocean waves breaking was a bonus!
At Om beach, I would highly recommend going to Namaste café purely to enjoy the view of the ocean while you sip on refreshing sweet limejuices and enjoy lip-smacking pastas topped with melted cheese.
If you’ve got time to spare, stop by at Christophe café located right on Middle beach to be served some authentic French food and definitely try their home made chocolate mousse!
Must Visit:
1. If your trip is too short to cover all the beaches, I’d highly suggest going to Kudle Beach to watch the sunset, Om beach for water activities like kayaking (which definitely is one of the highlight of my life), and go swimming in the pristine waters of the much less crowded Half moon Beach.
2. Watch the most glorious sunset you’d ever seen from Kudle Hilltop.
3. Gokarna is a town with great religious significance; click here to read more about it, so I would recommend visiting the main temple even for just five minutes.
If you’re still here, congratulations and thank you!
Your reward is a few pictures that I’m leaving you with from my memorable first trip to gokarna! (I’m definitely going back again!)
XOXO
Niyati Mathur
(Sunset from Kudle Hilltop)
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