Hi Guys. Hope you all are keeping well and doing good. Okay, so today I am going to share my experience of travel to Mahabaleshwar for 3 days. It was a fun travelling there and to have a get away of busy office schedule. Trust me, I was travelling for the first time after 2 years of COVID and so you can understand how desperate I would have been at that point in time. So, I stay in Mumbai and because I wanted to cut off travelling time, me and my husband decided to visit a near by place so that we can enjoy more on our destined location then to spend time in travelling. So, we decided to visit Mahabaleshwar. It is just 8 hours bus ride from Mumbai and you are going to cross amazing scenic views.
So as a first step, we booked AC bus tickets from Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar and it was just 700 RS INR per ticket price. You can choose your own destination to board the bus depending on where you are staying in Mumbai. There was an option to choose from Sleeping seats or Recliner seats. So, because it was our early morning boarding, we chose to have a sleeping tickets and trust me it was an amazing experience.
Now we took an early morning boarding to avoid Mumbai traffic during peak times so that we can at least cross Mumbai way earlier in order to reach destination at the expected times. So, we took the upper sleeping seats from which we can even enjoy a bit sleeping and relaxation and if we want we can even sit and enjoy outside the bus views as well. So we kept on enjoying sceneries and our bus kept on halting at different points where we had amazing food of all sort of cuisines.
So, we left from Mumbai at 7:00 AM and we reached Mahabaleshwar at 2 PM in the afternoon. And as soon as we started to reach nearby Mahabaleshwar, we started seeing amazing scenic beauties, strawberries and mulberries fields and their cultivation, Food Eateries with speciality of Mahabaleshwar etc. Okay, so regarding the staying part in Mahabaleshwar, we booked hotel tickets via online and we took the hotel in the local market itself so that it is easy for us to commute if we want to go anywhere. While we deboarded the bus, there were lots of tourism experts surrounded us and gave us the entire brochure of sightseeing options. So there were options for half day and full day sightseeing. I am attaching a photo below and you will be able to understand. But we first checked into Hotel as we were little tired.
Talking about Hotel, our hotel was nice and was very cosy with almost all the facilities like warm water to bathe with, television, almirahs, warm and cosy blankets and soft cushioned bed. Okay, so now this was our experience. But now let’s discuss below as to what are famous places that you would love to explore and even we explored as well
The best time to visit Mahabaleshwar so that you can get pleasant time is between Oct to Feb. During this time, the climate is pleasant and plus you will need some warm clothes to protect yourself
1)Mahabaleshwar Local Market: I would first of all suggest all of you to have a look around and roam around it’s local market. Local market is worth visiting. This time I found lot of shops to buy clothes and footwear and lot of local eateries as well. If I talk about food, there are lots of both pure vegetarian and non vegetarian hotels out there and you can choose out of them. As far as food is concerned inside the hotels, they were okay okay or you can say manageable. The taste is okay to consume but you cannot say as WOW. There are lots of snack corners around the market and I would say few of them are really well and they will soothe your taste glands. You can try Ginger Tea out there and trust me it is amazing and you can sip tea at any point in time
2)Strawberries and Mulberries: This is the most amazing part of Mahabaleshwar. Mahabaleshwar is famous for in house farming and cultivation of Strawberries and Mulberries. Their locals have their own big farms where they grow strawberries and hence both Strawberries and Mulberries are available on cheapest cost. Mahabaleshwar strawberries are available during the months of Oct-Nov and April-May. You will find people relishing Strawberries icecreams and shakes all over and believe me, the taste is awesome. When I left back for Mumbai, I also bought around 2 Kg’s of Starwberries from Mahabaleshwar.
3)Mapro Garden: Mapro Graden is a beautiful garden in Mahabaleshwar with a variety of plants and trees. It is a great place to relax and enjoy nature
4)Venna Lake: Venna Lake is the most popular tourist attraction in Mahabaleshwar. The lake is surrounded by lush green hills and has a picturesque setting. It is a must watch lake for boating as well. But please make sure to go in early morning to even see a beautiful sun rise or during sunset timings. It feels like heaven
5)Arthur’s Seat: Arthur’s seat is a popular view point in Mahabaleshwar that provides stunning views of the surrounding area. This is known as the “Queen of the Points” as this is situated on the highest point that you can imagine
6)Lingamala Falls: This is one of the majestic waterfalls. But please do remember that post monsoon this waterfall becomes mugh higher and fuller and yet more dangerous. But you can visit this waterfall for amazing and heavenly scenic beauty. You can only reach this waterfall while going through via middle of the forest
7)Elephant’s Head Point: As the name suggests, this point looks like or resembles elephant’s head. It is a cool and calm place with amazing views from the top.
8)Mini Kashmir: It is known as Tapola or Mini Kashmir with adoring Shivsagar Lake. We enjoyed a relaxing boat ride in the quiet waters of the lake. The flowers in the lake exactly resembles like Kashmir’s Dhal Lake.
9)Lodwick Point or Sydney Point: Earlier this point was known as Sydney Point and now it is recently renamed to Lodwick Point for hioring the first British officer who climbed this hill. It has a breathtaking view a d downside you can gaze on a beautiful valley which literally feels like heaven
10)Panchgani: Panchgani is a scenic hill station in Maharashtra which is close to Mahabaleshwar. This is also famously known for Strawberry farms. Krishna River flows by which adds additional charm to this place. This is the best place to visit for and trust me you will thank me later for visiting.
11)Bombay Point: This is known as sunset point because the days of the sun falls directly on old Bombay Road. I visited the same where you see the sun setting and then it slowly disappears in the valley and then post that, the sky starts changing colors. Believe me, this view is completely breathtaking
12)Wilson Point: This point is a perfect place to witness beautiful sun rise. To witness this, you need to wake up early and come here if you really want to see the sun rising. Unfortunately, I could not visit this place
13)Dhobi Waterfall: This is also one of the best waterfall that you can visit. It is surrounded by Granite rocks and greenery all around which gives you a plenty of peace
14)Tableland: Table Land in Mahabaleshwar is the second highest mountain plateau in Asia after the Tibetan plateau, and also one of the most popular tourist spot
So these are all the places that I visited while I travelled to Mahabaleshwar. We were very tired after visiting all these places but they were all worth visiting
One thing that I wanted to say is that do not hire any cab on your own because they will charge a lot at these tourist places. Few kilometres will also charge 500-600 INR. So it is always best to go and visit via booking a package from a local tourist guide’s office. You can let them know what all places you would love to visit and they will take you to those places
Hope my article was helpful and may you also visit Mahabaleshwar next time for relaxation