How to Reach Alibaug from Mumbai: Ferry, RoRo, Speedboat and Road

The short answer: if you’re travelling light, take a passenger ferry from the Gateway of India to Mandwa — it’s about an hour and costs a few hundred rupees. If you’re bringing a car, a dog, or your grandmother’s luggage, take the M2M Ro-Ro from Bhaucha Dhakka. If you’re driving, use the Atal Setu. And if it’s monsoon, the sea is mostly closed — drive.

That’s the whole guide in four sentences. What follows is everything the four sentences leave out.

We have watched guests arrive at our villas in Kihim and Awas for years now, by every route available, in every season. Some arrive relaxed, having read a book on the upper deck with the Mumbai skyline dissolving behind them. Others arrive at nine in the evening, having discovered Vadkhal Naka on a Friday. The difference is almost never luck. It’s the choice they made on Wednesday.

Here is how to make the right one.

This is the classic crossing, and for most of our guests it’s the right one.

Three operators — PNP, Maldar and Ajanta — run catamarans between the Gateway of India in Colaba and Mandwa Jetty, with departures spread roughly across the daylight hours. The crossing itself takes somewhere between 55 and 75 minutes, depending on the vessel and the sea.

What it costs: fares vary by operator and by deck. Expect somewhere in the region of ₹185 to ₹300 one way for most options, with air-conditioned cabins at the upper end and open lower decks at the cheaper end. Ajanta tends to be the budget choice; PNP and Maldar sit above it, with AC options.

Verify before you travel. Ferry fares and schedules change without much notice, and nobody publishes them reliably. Call the operator or check their booking site the week you travel. If you’re staying with us, our team will happily confirm the current timings for your dates — call us.

What’s usually included: most operators include a shuttle bus from Mandwa Jetty to Alibaug town in the ticket price. It takes 30–45 minutes. This is genuinely useful if you’re heading into town — but if you’re coming to us in Kihim or Awas, you’ll want a cab instead (more on that below).

The honest downsides:

• It doesn’t run in the monsoon. From roughly early June to late September, the passenger ferries stop. Every year. Plan around it.
• Weekend ferries fill up. Friday evening and Sunday afternoon crossings are the pinch points. Book ahead.
• Sunday evening is chaos. The 4–7 pm return window is the single most crowded slot in the week. Either leave early on Sunday, or — and we say this entirely in our own interest — stay Sunday night and drive back on Monday morning. It is a better weekend and a better journey.
• Parking near the Gateway is a problem. South Mumbai parking on a Saturday morning is its own small ordeal. Take a cab to the jetty.

Carry ID. Aadhaar, driving licence or passport. Security checks are standard now, and boarding typically closes 10–15 minutes before departure.

The Ro-Ro — a Roll-on/Roll-off vessel, sometimes called a RoPax — is a different animal entirely. It’s a large ship that carries passengers and their vehicles. Around 500 people and 150 cars, bikes and bicycles.

It departs from Bhaucha Dhakka (Ferry Wharf) in Mazgaon, not the Gateway. This trips people up constantly. If your cab driver heads for Colaba, you are going to the wrong ferry.

Why you’d choose it:

• You want your own car in Alibaug. This is the big one. Alibaug’s attractions — Kolaba Fort, Kankeshwar, Korlai, the beaches at Kashid — are spread across a wide area, and having your own vehicle transforms the trip. You drive on in Mumbai, you drive off in Mandwa.
• You’re bringing a pet. The M2M is the only ferry that carries animals. If you’re travelling with a dog, this is your route, full stop. (Do check with us first about which of our properties can host your pet — get in touch and we’ll tell you plainly.)
• You get seasick. It’s a much larger, much steadier vessel than the catamarans.
• It’s the year-round option. Unlike the passenger ferries, the M2M generally continues through the monsoon, pausing only for genuinely severe weather. If you want to see Alibaug in the rain — and you should, it’s the best-kept secret on this coast — this is usually how you get here.

What it costs: passenger fares run higher than the catamarans — expect roughly ₹400 and up — and vehicle charges are separate and additional. Check the current rates on the M2M booking site.

Book ahead. Vehicle slots on weekend sailings go early.

Private speedboat charters run from the Gateway of India to Mandwa and will get you across in roughly 20 to 30 minutes.

It is fast, it is genuinely thrilling on a calm morning, and it is expensive — you are chartering a boat, not buying a seat, so costs run into the thousands and upward depending on the operator and the size of the vessel.

It makes sense in exactly two situations: you’re a group splitting the cost and you value the time, or it’s an occasion. For a birthday arrival or an anniversary, it’s a rather good opening scene. For a routine weekend, take the ferry and read a book.

For a long time, driving to Alibaug meant the Sion–Panvel Highway, then Karnala, then the long crawl to Vadkhal Naka, a junction that has ruined more Friday evenings than we can count. That route still exists. It still takes three to four hours on a bad day.

Then, in January 2024, the Atal Setu opened — the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, a 21.8 km sea bridge running from Sewri to Chirle. It changed the arithmetic of this drive completely.

The fast route (use this one)

Sewri → Atal Setu → Chirle → NH-66 → Pen → Alibaug Roughly 2 to 2.5 hours, traffic depending. The bridge itself takes about twenty minutes to cross.

What you need to know before you drive it

• Toll: approximately ₹250 one way, ₹375 return for cars. Buy the return pass — it saves you money over two singles.
• FASTag is mandatory. There are no cash lanes. Check your balance before you leave; discovering an empty FASTag at the toll plaza is a bad start to a holiday.
• No two-wheelers. Motorcycles and scooters are not permitted on the Atal Setu. Bikers must use the old road route, or put the bike on the M2M Ro-Ro.
• EVs currently travel toll-free.
• Open 24 hours, fully lit, and perfectly safe at night.
• No fuel on the bridge. Fill up at Sewri or Chirle.

The old route

Sion–Panvel → Kalamboli → Karnala → Vadkhal Naka → Alibaug. Roughly 3–4 hours. Still the sensible choice if you’re starting from Thane, Navi Mumbai or the central suburbs, where getting to Sewri would cost you the time the bridge saves.

If you must use it on a weekend, cross Vadkhal before 9 am or after 8 pm. We are not being dramatic.

From Pune

Pune–Mumbai Expressway → exit at Khopoli → Pali or Pen → Alibaug. Around 3–3.5 hours, and a genuinely pleasant drive.

MSRTC runs regular services from Mumbai Central, Dadar and elsewhere to Alibaug. Around 3 to 4 hours, and typically ₹200–₹350. It runs through the monsoon.

It is the cheapest way to get here and there is no shame in it. It’s simply slow, and if you’re coming for two nights, the time matters more than the money.

Here is where most guides stop, and where most guests get stuck.

Mandwa Jetty is not Alibaug. The town is about 18–20 km away. And our properties are not in Alibaug town either — they are in the villages of Kihim and Awas, which is precisely the point of them.

Your options from the jetty:

• Auto-rickshaws and shared tum-tums — plentiful, cheap, fine for two people with light bags.
• A private cab — the sensible choice for a family, a group, or anyone with real luggage. Book it before you sail; do not negotiate at the jetty with four tired children.
• Your own car, if you came on the Ro-Ro. Simplest of all.

If you’re staying with us, tell us your ferry and we’ll make sure you’re not standing on a pier at dusk wondering what happens next. Call us on +91 98200 08899 — this is the sort of thing we’re good at.

Between June and September, the Arabian Sea stops being a shortcut.

• Passenger ferries (PNP, Maldar, Ajanta): suspended. Assume they are not running.
• M2M Ro-Ro: usually operating, pausing only for severe weather warnings.
• Road: your reliable option. Drive carefully — the roads are slick, and visibility around Karnala can drop sharply.
• Water sports: closed. All of them. Don’t plan a trip around them.

None of this is a reason to stay away. Alibaug in the rain is extraordinary — the plantations turn a green that doesn’t exist in the dry months, the birds come back, and the whole coast empties out. It is our favourite time of year here, and almost nobody knows it.

After watching several thousand arrivals, here is our honest advice:

Coming for two nights, travelling light, two adults? Ferry from the Gateway on Friday morning. Pre-book a cab from Mandwa. Arrive by lunch, and you get an extra half-day you’d otherwise have spent on the highway.

Family of five or six, with luggage, kids and a car seat? Drive via the Atal Setu. The car is worth more to you here than the hour you’d save at sea.

Bringing the dog? M2M Ro-Ro. It’s the only way. Talk to us first about which property suits.

Big group, all coming from different parts of the city? Split it. Some drive, some ferry. Meet at the villa. It’s simpler than coordinating fourteen people through one jetty.

Coming in July? Drive. And bring a book — you’ll have the veranda to yourself.