Mahabaleshwar in rains!! ...

Mahabaleshwar is a beautiful hill station in western Maharashtra about 120Kms from Pune. It can be visited almost round the year as it is popular in summers because of it's cool weather and popular in winters because of strawberries which grow in abundance in the nearby areas.

We visited Mahabaleshwar in July 2012 and although it was raining, the place did not disappoint us. Soon as you enter panchgani, you are almost travelling through clouds. And they remain all the time in Mahabaleshwar. The Pasarani ghats which end in panchgani when you are travelling from Pune are amazingly beautiful and more so in the rains with seasonal waterfalls around.


We started from Pune after a nice breakfast on a Sunday morning. Although the city and plains were dry, it started raining soon as we entered the hilly ghat area around. The road from Pune was really in a mint good condition which was a pleasant surprise given the usual state of roads here.

Panchgani is like a twin hill station which is on the way from Pune to Mahabaleshwar and just about 20kms prior to Mahabaleshwar. It is famous for the Table Land and for many great  residential schools. On the way from Panchgani to Mahabaleshwar is the famous Mapro Garden known for all things strawberry. We were planing to stay in Mahabaleshwar at the MTDC resort hence headed straight for this. It is at the far end of the small town but at an extremely beautiful location.

The MTDC resort has standard rooms as well as cottages which come at a charge of INR 800 - standard room and INR 1200 - cottage (as of July 2012) which is almost like giving it for free. I totally loved my stay there and would only point at the cleanliness (but you really cant expect much in 800).

We had a nice lunch at the MTDC restaurant and headed for some sight seeing. The most amazing points in Mahabaleshwar are the Elephant head and Kate point. Most points are spots on the mountains from where you can see the vast green valley. Elephant head is special because from there you can see the mountain in-front of you formed as the head of an elephant. Kate point is really nothing different but just that with the greenery and mist around, it creates a very romantic environment ... ;)

A hot steaming coffee at the MTDC restaurant in misty night is what a rainy season vacation is made of. Really made my trip. Next day we checked out and headed straight to Mapro Garden for breakfast. Before that we stopped by at the Venna lake which looked amazingly beautiful and serene in the early morning. Mapro Garden is famous for their milkshakes and icecreams but the season was not too favorable for icecream so we had to do with a sandwich instead. Did loads of shopping for crushes and jams and jelly chews.






Our last stop was at Table Land in Panchgani. A natural wonder, such a large piece of land as flat as table right on top of mountains is really worth visiting. Mahabaleshwar in rains was definitely a memorable trip but I surely plan to visit it again in the strawberry season ... :)