The Kali River is Karwar's defining geographical feature — the town sits at its mouth, and the river's journey from the Western Ghats through dense forest gives Karwar its dual identity as both a coastal and a forest destination. The lower stretches of the river near town are wide, calm, and easily explored by boat: boatmen at the main ghat offer trips that pass through mangroves, by fishing villages, and occasionally alongside the naval base perimeter.
Further upstream, at Dandeli and in the Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve, the Kali becomes a white-water rafting river — one of the better rafting destinations in South India — but near Karwar the mood is gentler. An evening boat trip on the lower river, watching the sun drop behind the Sahyadri hills, is one of the more understated pleasures of a stay in town.