The Konkan Coast is the narrow strip of land between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea that runs through Karnataka and into Goa and Maharashtra. In Karnataka it encompasses a series of port towns, fishing villages, backwater estuaries, and temple towns backed by the steep forested wall of the Ghats.
The main city is Mangalore (officially Mangaluru), a busy port at the mouth of the Netravati and Gurpur rivers. Mangalore has been a trading hub since Arab merchants came for pepper in the medieval period, and it retains a cosmopolitan character — the architecture mixes terracotta-roofed Tulu-style houses, whitewashed Portuguese-influenced churches, mosques, and temples. The local cuisine is among the most distinctive in India: Mangalorean fish curry, neer dosa, and kori rotti are regional specialties hard to find elsewhere.
South of Mangalore, Ullal is a fishing town with long beaches and a proud local memory of Abbakka Rani, the 16th-century Jain queen who repulsed Portuguese forces multiple times from this stretch of coast. The Ghats are close enough that the hill stations of Coorg (Kodagu) and Chikmagalur are a comfortable day trip inland from almost anywhere on this coast.