Udupi : Malpe and other beaches

 Udupi Beaches(Karnataka)

Chasing love

Place - Udupi, Karnataka
Closest airport - Mangalore
Closest train station - Udupi

Distance from Bangalore - 430KM (~10 hours with breaks)
Place we stayed - Malpe sea front cottages (https://malpeseafrontcottage.com/) part of paradise group (https://paradiselagoon.in/)

Itinerary - 

Day 1 - Malpe beach

Day 2 - St mary's island + water sports @ Malpe

Day 3 - Delta beach + Sea walk

Day 4 -  Water sports @Maple + Kaup beach

Day 5 - Back to Bangalore

Motivation - It has almost been 1 year and 4 months since I went to beaches. I was getting restless and craving for sea water, sea sound, and moist air. So we decided to travel to Goa, but with the increased cases in Maharashtra, and lockdown uncertainties we decided not to book any tickets(I faced that situation last year when my money was stuck in airline). But the wait was endless because we were not getting any confirmation or news on any events. So we decided to go by road. My husband suggested Udupi and I started the research and booking process. We finalised on Paradise Resort's sea front cottages. 

Morning Tea @ Sea front cottage on Malpe beach

Evening view of resort with our cottage

Day-1 - We started from Bengaluru at 6.30 AM. Never have we ever started in time, but it was beach motivation which made us start in time. The roads are overall good except for a few bad patches from Hassan to Sakaleshpur. We had lunch at Mangalore; restaurant called "Machali", this is must visit place if are seafood lover and travelling to Mangalore or Udupi. 

            After a few breaks ( for breakfast & lunch and other 2 short breaks), we reached Malpe sea front cottages resort around 4 pm. After finishing the check-in formalities, we were at beach at 4.30 PM. I was not aware much about the Udupi beaches, So I did not had any high hopes. But as soon as we reached at beach. my first expression was "Wowww!!!!!" I did not expect this clean, beautiful and happening beach. We spent rest of the evening on beach. We had toddy and fish for dinner at Kaliyuga restaurant on Malpe Beach itself.

  

Toddy

Day-2 - Malpe beach is a happening beach, with all the water sports and other fun activities for kids. We did parasailing and then a family bumpy ride. After that we took a boat to St Mary's island. 

             I had heard about St Mary's island, but again this place amazed me with it's unexpected beauty and crystal clear water. St Mary's island is small island for a day's trip with no accommodation. Food is also not allowed on the island. you need to drop all the edible items at the counter which you can collect while going back.  This place is serene beauty with crystal clear water and amazing view. Due to rocks, waves are also moderate and soothing. Whole island can be covered in 2-3 hours, You have to keep track of boat schedule as there might be less boats in noon timing. The boats are running only if there are enough people for going to island. We came back at around 1PM, had a bath and had lunch in Sea Shells restaurant inside the resort.

At. Mary's Island

all my favourites in one frame

Now in am in the frame. :)

At. Mary's Island

I was exhausted by then and slept immediately after lunch. I rested in the resort while my son and husband covered each and every activity available in Malpe beach in the evening - Beach cricket, Kid's Bungee jump, Camel Ride, VR games, quad biking,

Beach cricket

 

 

Day-3 -  In the morning we decided to go to Delta beach. It is also known as Kodi Bengre Beach, is located in a small village of Kodi Bengre. The beach is located at an estuary where the Swarna River meets the Arabian Sea. It was beautiful road for driving, with one side lagoon and other side Sea. Its long drive(around 5 -7 km), beach side was so beautiful and clean with beige colour sand and clear water. You can drive upto delta point, park your car. In my opinion whatever you put on map, does not matter, the road the location is just to beautiful to describe, you can stop when ever you find the spot, where you cant resist and ready to hit the sea. 

Delta beach

Delta beach

Delta beach

We were the only people in the beach for almost an hour, few people came but they just clicked some pics and disappeared (or I stopped tracking. 😉 ). But we were only people who were enjoying Sea or were inside the sea water. Overall it was jolly drive and must visit place, even if you don't go in the water.  We were in the sea till around noon. It was hot day... very hot day. We had lunch at Canara restaurant just near the beach, it view and food were really good. On the way back, we headed to Kemmanu Hanging Bridge, it has very beautiful view of the river and lagoon and offer boat ride there. We got a flat tyre there and spent an hour fixing it. We came back to our cottage at around 3:30 and took a nap.

Canara Restaurant, Delta Beach

Hanging Bridge

Kayaking at hanging bridge

Evening plan was to cover the Sea walk which was suppose to be in very close Malpe beach. We started around 5 PM, i wanted sunset pics at sea walk. but it was a long walk, almost 2 km one way. The sun set even before we could reach.  but we enjoyed the Sea walk. We had some Ice Gola on the way back. We had dinner at Thimmappa - a nice place for seafood.

Day-4 - The morning spent at Malpe beach, we just could not have enough of sea, I was OK with tanning as I wanted to get into the sea. Tatva and I went to parasailing again. 

Can you spot a dolphin in blue/green dress? ;)

In the evening we headed towards Kaup beach while covering Mattu beach as well which was on the way. Again the it's a narrow road with lagoon on one side and beautiful Arabian sea on other. Since I did not want to miss the sunset again we directly reached to Kaup beach(Also called as Kapu Beach). There is ample amount of parking and eating joints. There is light house on Kaup beach, but due to Corona virus, the light house was closed. but the view from beach was also beautiful. Sand was very smooth and silky at this beach. light house and rock formation making this beach different from other beaches. 

Mattu beach road, Lagoon of left, Sea on right

Mattu beach road

Sunset, beach and lighthouse @ Kaup Beach

Kaup beach

Day-5 - The day started with photo-shoot. When we were planning, I was not aware that we were going to such a beautiful place. So I thought we can do some time-pass activity like Saaari photoshoot on beach to spare the time. But I was so mesmerised with the beauty, beaches and water that we did not have any spare time. But since I already had Saari, my husband said we should do the photoshoot. We decided that we can leave our son sleeping and go for photoshoot early morning. I can only say that IT WAS SUPER FUN. 

Fun Photoshoot in White Saree @ Malpe beach

Beach Photography in Saree

Beach photography @ Malpe beach

We started back to Bangalore, with a heavy heart, at around 12:30. On the way we visited Surathkal Beach and had stopover for lunch at Machali restaurant.

Surathkal Beach(person in the pic is very happy to be here)

At the end I was very happy that we cancelled the plan of Goa and planned Udupi. Infact I have decided that we should cover all the unknown / not so famous places in India. India is so beautiful and vast. One can not cover whole India in it's life and I don't see any reason to be sad about foreign vacation restriction

On the way back, near Uppinagady

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