Alibag is the unofficial seaside of Mumbai, a small town on the Konkan coast, a short ferry ride and a longer road trip from the city, where the Mumbaikars go to escape on weekends. The town is low-key, with a long, dark-sand beach, coconut groves and a few old colonial-era buildings, and the pace is slower than you would expect given the size of the city across the water. It feels more like a village that has been dressed up for visitors, and it keeps a few of its old habits.
The main sight is Kolaba Fort, which stands on a rock in the sea, a short way off the beach. At low tide, you can walk to it across the wet sand, through shallow water, and at high tide the fort is cut off. The fort was built in the seventeenth century, under the Maratha leader Shivaji, and later became the base of the admiral Kanhoji Angre, who commanded a powerful fleet and controlled the coast for decades. Inside the walls are a few temples, wells and a freshwater pond, and the view back toward the town is worth the walk.
The ride along the coast is easy, with flat roads, palm groves and small fishing villages, and a few interesting stops, including the old Portuguese fort at Revdanda and the beaches at Nagaon and Kihim. The roads are usually good, though traffic on weekends can be heavy, with cars, buses and motorbikes from Mumbai all heading in the same direction. The surface can be broken after the monsoon, and the heat in April and May is intense. The best months are from October to February, when the weather is dry and cool.
Alibag has about twenty thousand people, and fuel, food and supplies are plentiful. There are many seafood restaurants near the beach and in the town, serving fresh fish, prawns and crab, with rice and coconut curry, and a good many places to buy cold drinks and coconut water. If you arrive by ferry from Mumbai, the road to the town is short, and a ride south along the coast is the natural next step.