Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar and Pratapgarh Fort, a Weekend Holiday tour

Weekend trip from Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar and Pratapgarh Fort 
$$ This is the first trip of this new year 2018, organized by our Picnic group $$

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श्री गणेशाय नमः

Mahabaleshwar is one of the most popular tourist destinations & hill station in Satara District in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is a small town and a beautiful hill station located in the Sahyadri mountain range. As Mahabaleshwar is located at high altitude, the town has a cool climate and offers many pleasant walks. The best time to plan a travel and visit places in Mahabaleshwar is from October to June. 

There are many things to do in Mahabaleshwar:

• Boating – Visit the Venna Lake for a ride on a paddle or rowing boat. You may ride a boat on your own or, alternatively, you can hire one for driving your boat. (Note: The rates of boating may depend on these conditions).
• Horse Riding – At the Venna Lake, Horse riding options are available.
• Hill station points (Sunrise and Sunsets points) – You can visit hill station points to watch beautiful sunrises and glowing sunsets. Elephant's head point, Arthur seat point, Elphinstone point, Lodwick point, Wilson point, Triveni point nature trail near Mapro Garden etc.
• Strawberry farms on the way of Tapola road and many scenic views. (Land of strawberry)
• Trekking
• Waterfalls – Note: The best time to visit Lingamala waterfalls is after the monsoons or you can visit there from July to October when the waterfall is at its peak flow. But during the rainy season, it is not at all advisable to swim.
• Shopping in leisure time - you can roam about the bazaar for shopping.
• Resorts in Mahabaleshwar offers many amenities
• Tapola (27 Km from Mahabaleshwar ST stand) – Famous tourist attraction here is a huge Lake surrounded by beautiful valleys which is known as Tapola lake, Tapola River Camps and Resorts
• Temple - Mahabaleshwar temple is situated at Old Mahabaleshwar, Panchaganga Mandir
• Pratapgarh Fort - Fort is located abt 27Km from Poladpur and 23 Km from Mahabaleshwar.

At Pratapgadh Fort (Satara District)

Travelling to Mahabaleshwar How to reach Mahabaleshwar by train and road : 

About Road-trip/By Road Journey to Mahabaleshwar - Mahabaleshwar is located about 32 km from Wai, It is around 260 km from Mumbai, and the nearest city is Satara, around 47 km away. Frequent bus services are available (by MSRTC and Private tours and travels) from the Major cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Satara, Kolhapur, etc. to Mahabaleshwar. MSRTC BUS provides connectivity to several towns across Maharashtra. You can take a tourist bus or MSRTC bus from Mumbai (departs from Dadar, Sion and New Mumbai). Mahabaleshwar is well connected via road.

About Railroad journey to Mahabaleshwar – Nearest railroad is Satara-Pune. You can reach Satara by train from Mumbai. Mahabaleshwar is around 60 km from Satara, and it takes more than one hour to reach there by car or bus. Nearest major railway junctions include Pune, around 120Kms and Miraj. From there, one can easily take a taxi/cab, private buses or state buses from the station to Mahabaleshwar.

Note: Tourist visitors coming in their own vehicles may need to pay a toll at Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani, and a receipt is valid for 7 days from the date of entry. (Note: Please check and verify rate and information on the official site)

About my tour plan and experience of my trip to Mahabaleshwar and Pratapgarh Fort: 

It was an excellent tour organized by our Picnic Group also this is the first trip of our "Shree Sai Mauli" group in New Year, 2018. Every one of us fully enjoyed each and every moment of this trip, also our group leaders played an important role to make the trip memorable for all members of picnic group. 

Day 1: We packed our bags and headed for Mahabaleshwar. Our Journey began at night around 11 by 2x2 luxury bus from Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar via Mumbai-Pune-Satara Expressway. We had already booked a good resort located at Deoli on Mahabaleshwar - Tapola Road for accommodation, using online services. (The distance of the resort from Parel (Mumbai) is Approx 280 km via Mumbai-Sion-Panvel-Pune-Satara highway). It was an overnight by-road journey from Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar hence we made a halt for about 30 minutes at food restaurant on the highway and after taking a tea break, at around 3.30 am we proceeded towards the destination.

Early Morning view of Mahabaleshwar

Day 2: Next day in the morning at around 6.30, we reached the resort that we had booked ( Puja Farm House on Mahabaleshwar - Tapola Road, a good farm-house for enjoying fun activities and events, food and overnight stay) in Mahabaleshwar; It was abt 12 Km away from Mahabaleshwar ST bus stand (on Tapola road). The resort was located in a prime location having one side surrounded by Small Mountain and beautiful valley with view of sunset point, Strawberry and Vegetable farms, and a small view of the river at opposite side. It was so refreshing to see so much greenery around. There is MSRTC bus stop near the main gate of the resort, so if anyone wants to go there by bus, you can take a state bus from ST stand. We spent some time in the garden and surrounding areas and took some beautiful photographs there. Then we moved to our rooms which were clean and spacious. After taking a bath we had a quick breakfast at Resort, boarded the bus at 11.30 am and proceeded to Venna Lake. Resort to Venna Lake approximate distance is 14 Km. Reaching the Venna lake and other tourist points is little tedious due to traffic and narrow road. It took one hour to cover the by-road distance to Venna Lake from our resort. Venna Lake is just 2 km from Mahabaleshwar market and 3 km from ST bus stand. We spent almost an hours at the Venna lake in enjoying the rowing boat ride and other activities. Apart from boating we also enjoyed horse riding along the waterfront ring route (100Rs per person for a ride), had food like corn, strawberry and ice-cream.

Venna Lake

The Venna Lake is the major tourist attractions and the most popular among the other tourist places in Mahabaleshwar. It is a famous tourist spot for photography, especially for families and honeymoon couples. Tourists can also enjoy on the rowing and peddle boats at this tourist point.

Boat ride in Venna Lake

Rate of boating in Venna Lake - The rowing boat costs around Rs.250-300 for half an hour and Rs. 500 for 1 hour. At the most, seven people can have a ride together on a single row boat. For peddle boats, Cost is around Rs. 440 for 1 hour. (Note: Please check the updated rate of boating through the official sites). The boating club is open only until sunset. Apart from boating, you can also enjoy horse riding and Fun fair games, etc.

Venna Lake, Mahabaleshwar

Food stalls and restaurants near Venna Lake offers you with some eateries that promote the local farm products of Mahabaleshwar like Corn or Bhutta, Strawberry and Carrots.

Venna Lake chowpati food stall - Corn, Strawberry, Mulberries, Carrots are popular with tourists.

We quickly finished our lunch at 2:30 pm and headed to the Mapro Garden which is approximate 14 Km from Venna lake. We arrived at the place by 3 in the afternoon. Mapro Garden is very much popular tourist attraction nestled in the beautiful hill station of Panchgani and is close to Mahabaleshwar. There we tried some wonderful juice-shakes, Chocolates, ice-cream prepared from fresh strawberries. The Mapro garden is actually the production place for the famous Mapro products like crushes, Jams, Chocolates and many more things are available there at very reasonable rates. 

Mapro Garden

We spent good 2 hours in shopping at Mapro Garden.  Due to time frame, we were not able to cover all hill station points. After spending a few hours in shopping and visiting other nearby places like strawberry farm, we headed back to the resort to capture the view of the sunset from the resort and to enjoy many surprise fun activities and events arranged by our picnic group.

There are many fun events and activities arranged at night by our picnic group like Musical chairs, DJ dance party, and cake cutting celebration, indoor and outdoor games etc. We all enjoyed a lot together there all these surprise events and games at the resort until late at night after dinner. At Resort, I fully enjoyed the natural surroundings much better than the sightseeing spots visited earlier in the day at Mahabaleshwar. (Overnight stay in the same Resort)

Day 3: On the third day of the tour, I woke up early to explore the awesome property and serene nature of Mahabaleshwar. In the early morning, took a small walk around the farm house to feel the fresh air and enjoy surrounding area.  We were all excited to be going to visit Pratapgad Fort (located at around 21 kms from Mahabaleshwar in Satara region of Maharashtra). We all boarded the bus and started around 8:45 AM and from the way through main Mahabaleshwar markets, we proceeded towards Pratapgarh Fort. We all sang the song and played Antakshari on the bus. This was just warm up and real fun was still to come. We had a quick breakfast along the way and continued the journey to Pratapgarh. At around 10.15 am, We reached Pratapgarh fort. After getting out of the bus, we separated into groups to visit different places and capture views of the Fort as per individual plan to cover key areas of the Fort in a predefined time frame. Note: One can drive right up to the base of the fort if you plan to visit in the morning as limited car parking is available at the base. After reaching there, We took our bags and started walking towards the fort from base parking area.

Pratapgad Fort

Approximate distance of Pratapgad from Mahabaleshwar is 21 Km. Many Signboards are there, which guides and directs travellers  to Pratapgad, Mahabaleshwar and other tourist points. There are two routes to reach the Pratapgad Fort. One is via Mahad-Poladpur and another one is via Wai-Mahabaleshwar. The fort has great historic importance and it is an ideal place for travellers who would like to explore more than just Mahabaleshwar. This fort is a popular tourist destination and one of the best Forts to visit during Winter Season. There are steps to reach to the top of the Fort. One can see magnificent views of the surrounding mountain range from the top of the Fort. On our list of the best places to be visited in our tour to Mahabaleshwar, Pratapgad Fort was on number four. It took us almost two hours to see the key areas on the fort this is how we spent few hours on Pratapgad. 2-3 hours are sufficient to see the entire Fort properly as per tour guide. Some top tourist attractions of Pratapgad includes Entrance, Bastions on the Fort, a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, beautiful view of Sahyadri Mountains, Lake, Bhawani Mata temple, etc. There is a watchtower just beside i.e. turn right to the right after crossing the main entrance and then go straight from there for visiting Watchtower. It is the famous and the main attraction on the Fort which is always shown in pictures of The Pratapgad Fort. Standing on the tower, you get a beautiful view of the surrounding area of the Fort. There are several restaurants in and around the fort.

Pratapgad Fort

After spending almost two hours on Pratapgad, we came back to the base of the fort, had our lunch, butter milk and famous Zunka Bhakri in one of the restaurants near base of the fort and started return journey to Mumbai. It was around 4 pm and we took a small break for food and refreshment and after that continued the journey to home. (Note: You can try to visit Mahd and Pali Ganpati temple on the way to Mumbai via Mahabaleshwar-Poladpur-Mangaon-Khalapur road.) Overall it was a great experience. Some tourist places, those we could not cover in this tour due to lack of time, we will definitely cover all these places in our next tour to Mahabaleshwar. We fully enjoyed this memorable trip of Mahabaleshwar and Pratapgad Fort organized by our “Shree Sai Mauli” aropg picnic group. By 10 pm, we returned home safely in our bus, thinking of the fun we had in Mahabaleshwar.

Details of Expenses during my tour to Mahabaleshwar:
Tour cost: Rs 1800 per person. (Included travelling by bus, food and accommodation)

Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar and pratapgad fort and return by Luxury bus.

Resort (accommodation)

Breakfast, tea, lunch, dinner.

Boating at Venna Lake: Rs 300/- for half an hour ; max 7 ppl.

Horse ride: Rs 100/-

Food and refreshment during the journey: 
Mineral Water: Rs 20 per bottle × 6 Nos.
Zunka bhakri 1 plate: Rs 50/- pp
Butter milk: Rs 20/- pp
Strawberry Ice-cream: Rs 20/- pp
Tea and Coffee at highway food restaurants: Rs 25/-
One Mapro grilled sandwich: Rs 144/-
Shopping at Mapro garden: (individual)

Other expenses

If anyone interested to join our picnic group and wish to enjoy our upcoming Trips, you can directly contact Me, Rahul or Akash on contact numbers provided below or put your comment/ query in comment box. Let's enjoy together....Happy Travelling 😃

$$$   Photographs   $$$

Pratapgad Fort - photoclicks 

Pratapgad Fort

Picture of Pratapgad fort: Photo was taken from Bus

Pratapgad Fort

Pratapgad Fort

View from top of the Pratapgad Fort Watch-tower

Pratapgad Fort, Watch-tower on the Fort offers you a beautiful view of valley.

Pratapgad Fort

Pratapgad Fort

Back side View of Pratapgad Fort

Venna Lake photoclicks

Welcome to Venna Lake pic

At Venna Lake

Capture of the beautiful view of Venna Lake

View of the Venna Lake

Venna Lake Boat Ride

Buttermilk served on Pratapgad

Photoclicks at the Resort in Mahabaleshwar

View of strawberry farm from Resort

View from Resort in Mahabaleshwar

Mapro Garden

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