Waterfalls near Murudeshwar

The two are not alternatives so much as different days. Apsarakonda is modest water in a landscaped park, and the reason to go is everything within one short walk of it: a path up the hillock to a viewpoint over the Arabian Sea, a quiet beach below, the Pandava caves and small shrines to Maha Ganapati and Ugra Narasimha. It fits into a morning together with other stops near Honnavar.

Jog Falls is the opposite: one enormous sight at the edge of the Western Ghats plateau and a long drive there and back. Choose it when the river is full; in the dry months the trip rarely repays the hours on the road.

The name translates roughly as pool of the apsaras (celestial dancers in Hindu myth). The water drops into a rock pool inside a park; it runs properly during and just after the monsoon, June to October, and thins to a trickle by spring. For the beach and the sea view the comfortable window is October to February, so October is the month when both work.

Getting there: a bus up the coast road to Apsarakonda Cross, then an auto-rickshaw. The park lies north of Murudeshwar towards Honnavar, roughly 16–20 km by road.

The Sharavathi reaches the edge of a plateau and falls about 250 metres in four separate streams. Whether that reads as a wall of water or four thin ribbons depends on releases from the Linganamakki dam upstream, so July to October is when it runs at full strength; Karnataka Tourism names September to November as the best time to go.

The site has reopened with a new viewing tower, gate and parking. Entry is approximately ₹20 for Indian visitors; for foreign nationals: approximately ₹100. A camera costs about ₹100 more and a drone about ₹500. Bring cash, and ask at the gate whether the evening laser show is running.

Karnataka Tourism puts it about 120 km from Murudeshwar, a long drive up into the ghats, so give it the whole day. More on the Jog Falls page.

The falls and the comfortable weather do not overlap for long. Murudeshwar gets about 1,056 mm of rain in June and 1,248 mm in July, with rain on 28 days out of 31; by January to March it is close to zero. Water is highest in July and August, but those are also the months when the sea is closed and the coast road is at its wettest.

The practical compromise is the end of the monsoon. September brings about 425 mm and October about 219 mm, the rivers are still full, and you are not spending the day in a downpour. From December onward both falls lose most of their water.