Maharashtra Homestay: Review Atithi Parinay near Ganpatipule

About Atithi Parinay

Atithi Parinay is a Homestay located about 13 km away from Ganpatipule and Ratnagiri. It's located in a fully-functional farm and that makes it quite a charming place to visit.

Inside view of one of the rooms

The Home stay has a stream that is adjacent to the property and apt for swimming in the monsoons when the stream is full and flowing. I was there in winners and the stream was just a stagnant pool of water. Atithi Parinay was originally developed by Mr. Manohar Sahasrabudhe for his own retirement; from January 2010 its opened for the travellers.

Rooms

This Home stay set amidst banana plantations and surrounded by hills offers 8 guests rooms that have a village ambiance with all modern amenities.

The Treehouse at Atithi Parinay

Our hut from outside

Of the 8 guest rooms, 2 AC rooms are located in the main bungalow where the hosts stay, 2 Non AC cottages with each room having an en suite bathroom and individual entrance. There are 3 tents and a tree house, and I think the tree house would be totally fun to stay. The tents are sort of fake with walls and ceiling made of fabric but the base is like a cottage. The main bungalow and the cottage is constructed with the local laterite stone, and the cottage has Mangalore tiles and cow dung plastered flooring giving it an authentic rural village appearance.

My experience at Atithi Parinay

We spent two days and three nights at the property and our time there was more or less good. This was our second Homestay in Konkan after Tural and we reached here after taking a detour to Marleshwar Temple. So by the time we reached on Day 1, we were quite tired and the cup of tea we got on arrival was blissful.

I relaxed on this and also fell down when I fell asleep :P

Apart form us there was just one more family, so the place was relatively empty and we could easily disappear within the banana trees in the plantation. I would have ideally preferred to stay at the Treehouse but it was a little out of our budget so we settled for a regular hut-like room. The room was nice but I had one complaint - poor acoustics! We could practically hear our neighbours shift in their bed and so knew that they had a small tiff and the wife simply refused to let the husband even touch her! It also meant that they could hear everything that we did in our room :p

Acoustics apart, the place is quite nice. Much of the plantation is not overly developed and has grass and trees growing rather randomly, which was nice. We had very few plans so we spent quite sometime just reading our books or playing boardgames. And not to forget the multiple chai cups through the day. Evenings were cool and mosquitoes were plenty, and that forced us to move to our rooms after dinner.

A short walk away there is a stream in the village...

Chai and reading time :)

I really liked the dinner here as well. Its not cooked there, but tastes like super tasty home-cooked meal. On the first night there were modaks, and both of us gobbled them down. We even kept two for eating the next day.

There is a river stream behind the property but there was barely any water when we went there. All I could see were washerwomen busy washing clothes and some kids playing in water. It was not tempting at all to jump in. My guess is that it would be a nice place in monsoon.

Things to do

You can either spend time at the plantation itself, or walk or drive around and explore the areas as well. My recommendation is to try and see as much as you can. You can ask the owners for suggestions, but they also do not know everything. So be ready to explore :)

Here are some of the things that they suggest:
1. Village Visit
2. Mud house visit
3. Bird watching in and around Atithi Parinay
4. Visit to the creek and mangroves guided by the fisherman and sometimes the host is an experience
5. Visit the Bharatiya Ship Yard (for big groups only) where one can see the making of a ship
6. Swimming enthusiasts can have a dip in the river touching the property, in rainy and winter season
7. Fish pedicure
8. Board games
9. Beaches, temples in and around Kotawade
10. Ratnagiri and Ganpatipule

Directions to reach

Come to highway- take right turn towards south from Tural. Take right turn at Niwali, (after niwali ghat) and drive 10kms and take left turn at Police Checkpost for Kotawade village, follow "Konkan Vadi" board up to Kotavade village (about 10kms, its little lonely road, but we need keep going), take right turn at Mahalaxmi Mandir after passing Grampanchayt and ICICI bank. Atithi parinay is 800mts on right hand side.

Video Review of Atithi Parinay

Here is a video review of the property. Also, I also launched my Travel Channel, do subscribe below for Travel Videos from India :)