My Visit to Beautiful Mahabaleshwar Near Mumbai in India

India is having a large number of hill stations due to its geographical layout. I have been able to visit many of these hill stations during my long stay of around 50 years in India. There are many beautiful hill stations near Mumbai. Mahabaleshwar is one of such hill station that is having the beauty of its own and can easily be reached from Mumbai. Mumbai has a very large population and as the life of Mumbai is full of stresses and tensions, the people of Mumbai need some such hill station to get refreshed and recharged in a short period of time. Mahabaleshwar is one such place that is situated around 171 miles away from Mumbai. There are regular luxury coaches plying from Mumbai for Mahabaleshwar. Some of these coaches have sleeping facilities also inside the coaches. There are packages also available for the round trip to Mahabaleshwar for 2/3 days on all inclusive basis. A typical luxury package of 2 nights and 3 days can cost around Rs. 5000 ($125) per person in a 3 star luxury hotel. It is advisable to take up such package in case you do not want to stay for longer duration. The best time to visit this place is during winter or early summer. Try to avoid your visit during the rainy season due to very heavy rains here.

It takes around 6 hours by bus and an hour less if you drive by car or taxi. You have to travel on Mumbai-Goa highway via Mhad to reach Mahabaleshwar. The road is nice having 3 lanes but at times, it remains overcrowded with heavy traffic. Keep some margin in time while leaving for Mahabaleshwar. You can also reach Mahabaleshwar from Poona that is only 72 miles away. There are some good hotels like Anarkali, Dreamland, Bright Land Holiday Village, Mayfair, Giri Vihar, Surya Retreat, Valley View Resort, and Fountain. These hotels have tariffs in the range of Rs.1600 ($40) to Rs. 3600 ($90) per day for a luxury class double room. We had stayed at Hotel Mayfair. It is located in the middle of the town and is extremely convenient for visiting various sites seeing places. The charges for a deluxe double room during last winter were Rs. 2000 ($50) per day here at this hotel. The hotel also offers two half days sites seeing trips free of charge to all the hotel residents.

The food is no problem here and all the types of food items are available here. However, the specialty of Mahabaleshwar is its famous Gujarati/Marathi thali that serves around 48 varieties, all in unlimited quantity. There are 3 sweets and 3 farsans included in this thali. The continental types of food delicacies are also available here at the restaurants of luxurious hotels. The estimated expense for the food here can be around Rs. 300 ($7.50) per person per day. The alcoholic drinks are available at the bars. However, it would be economical and convenient to buy the full bottle from the liquor shop and drink lavishly in your hotel room. There are many sites seeing spots here to be visited. The first is Vena Lake. This lake is around one mile away from the town and offers excellent facility of self boating. The water is very deep and pure here. The view of the mountain range is also nice from the garden of this lake. The Lingmala Falls is the next spot that offers a nice free fall of water from the height of around 150 feet. There are around 12 other points like Savitri point, honeymoon point, monkey point, and echo point, to be visited all in the near vicinity of Mahabaleshwar. The best way to visit all these places is to walk up to these places leisurely enjoying the beauty of the surroundings. There are two forts of Raigadh and Pratapgadh that can be visited by hired car or taxi or bus. These forts are around 15 miles away from the town and are having very important history of Maratha rulers of Shivaji times. King Chhatrapati Shivaji met Muslim warrior Afzalkhan here at the fort of Pratapgadh and killed him with the tiger nails while embracing him. The forts are at some height and you need to climb around 300 stone steps to reach up to the top.

It would be appropriate if you stay here for around 3 days. This period will be sufficient for you to cover all the important places of this lovely hill station. There is a small market here, where you can shop around. The most famous item here is fruit jams, sherbet concentrates, strawberries, chikkis, and leather items. There are many factories manufacturing the fruit jams here and shopping directly from these factories can be very economical.

I would suggest you all my AC friends to plan the visit here at Mahabaleshwar during their next visit to India.