Trip to Karnala Fort Trek

Karnala Fort is situated inside Karnala Bird Sanctuary. Its proximity to Mumbai and its easy trek for beginners makes it an amazing place to go out with your loved ones and friends. I have been there and done the trek over 5 times now.

I and my friend started off our journey by booking an Ola Cab to Karnala Information center at around 7:45 am and reached the location in 15mins. It cost us ₹240 for the ride, there are Autos available from Panvel Railway stations that would cost around ₹100 per seat.

Upon reaching we got a ticket costing ₹60 for each adult and started our trail there are many monkeys and you can hear birds chirping sound at all times. After some minutes of walking, we reached the starting point for the trek. There's a restaurant run by Local village women where we had our breakfast: Vadapav & Chai which was amazing & much needed.

Karnala Fort seen from the starting point

There are two routes that wind through the forest and lead to the trail up the mountain. The main route is a well-defined trail and goes straight through the center of the forest. The alternate route is a crude track that encircles the sanctuary before rejoining the main trail. We went for the main route as it's safe.

The trek is easy pretty much all time you just have to walk and nothing really hard as such. We took breaks every 15mins to relax, have snacks and enjoy the view.

Hike Path

Once we got closer to the top, climbs got steeper but luckily all of them are assisted with stairs & iron railings.

Final Ascend

It took us around 1.5-2hours in total to hike to the endpoint. The views make the entire trip worth every penny.

View from the Top 1

View from the Top 2

After taking a bunch of pictures we started our descent and reached our starting point in an hour. Then we relaxed and had our delicious lunch (Veg Thali) in the same place as before.

There are many Autos available outside the sanctuary so we took it and came back to Panvel which cost ₹300.

Here are some tips that can make your trip better

• Start the Trek early (7-8 am)
• Carry 2 liters of water each