An Offbeat Budget Trip To Mahabaleshwar And Tapola Lake — Treebo, JP Cottage — Different Side Of Mahabaleshwar




I recently went to Mahabaleshwar for some quite chill time. The initial plan was to go in the last week of January to enjoy some of the cold weather. However, when I compared the hotel prices with first week of February, there was a huge difference; we thus ended up postponing our trip by a week. Happy to inform that it was still cold. I generally do this, I always check prices for various dates, this way I get to pick the cheapest option available and I alter my plans accordingly.

Since we currently have the option of working from home, we decided to carry our laptops and work from there instead – our little workation. And since it was a workation, we could manage to travel on the weekday. The weather anyway used to get a little hot in the afternoon, so we anyway didn’t step out, so working from the hotel room with a nice view worked for us.

We categorically decided to avoid all the touristy things to avoid the crowd and visit places where we knew there won’t be many people. Understandably, we skipped all the popular points and Venna Lake as well as Mapro.

However, if you wish to visit the popular places, you should visit,

  •       Arthur’s seat point
  •       Venna lake for boating
  •       Mapro Gardens
  •       Lingamala Waterfall, if visiting around monsoon
  •       Pratapgardh Fort (around 20kms away from Mahabaleshwar)
  •       There are several other points that you could Google and visit

 Our day plan was something like this,

Day 1: We reached around 10 in the night
Day 2: Visited the local market and went out for dinner
Day 3: Sunset Point in the evening and dinner at drinks at Brightland Hotel
Day 4: Checkout and visit to Tapola

Day 1 – Travel and Check-in

Since this was a chill trip, we did not leave in a hurry. It was a Tuesday morning and we wrapped up work the day before leaving for Mahabaleshwar. We were out of Mumbai by 3.30pm. The drive was fairly nice, that’s also because we were familiar with the road till the outskirts of Pune. After which it is a fairly straight road, expect for a few turns.

I suggest use Google Maps, I would also suggest saving the offline maps. The place we were staying at didn’t have proper network and we did lose network a few times on the way also. Since we had offline maps, we were able to navigate easily even when there was absolutely no network.

Stay at Treebo, JP Cottage

We were staying at Treebo, JP Cottage. I have stayed at a few other Treebo hotels in Nashik and generally loved them there so I decided to try this one out as well. The review of the hotel will be up in the next blog post. Quickly if have to update you, it is a hit and a miss. We didn’t like the first room and shifted the next day and the other room was really nice. In our three days there, we noticed that it is quite a popular place and many rooms were occupied even during the weekday. They do have a small pool, but it was shut now due to Covid-19. The complimentary breakfast is basic – mostly Poha, Paratha, Batata Vada with Tea, Coffee and Toast – but you have the option of ordering other things at a price. The hotel is well located and most of the places are less than a 15 mins drive away.

We arrived around 10 and thus decided to just order in some Dal Khichadi and call it a day.

It is cool in the morning and gets a little warm in the afternoon but the nights are nice cold, around 12 – 14 degrees when we were there.

Day 1 – Local Market and Dinner

The next day, we woke up a little late and decided to catch up on some work. It was nice to sit in the balcony and work, overlooking lush greenery, hills and strawberry farm. In the evening, we decided to visit the local market, the main market is just one long lane with shops on either side. You get flavoured Channa and Peanuts there, there are several shoe shops as well as clothing stores. Since we weren’t really interested in shopping, we just decided to take a walk and got some black coffee in one of the cosy little cafes.

I loved the vibe of this café/grocery store. It is owned by a Parsi uncle and they generally place old
songs which completely changes the vibe of the place – I honestly felt like it was December and Christmas was around the corner. I generally like places which have the old world charm, so this recommendation is not really for all. There is a popular Elsie’s Bakery, right next to this café, which is also popular for its cakes.

We stopped by Little Italy for dinner, the only reason we picked this place was because it was on the way and we didn’t really want to go looking for new place in the night.

Day 2 – Swad Restaurant, Sunrise Point and Brightland Resort and Spa

The next morning again was a slow one. We woke up late and had breakfast in the hotel room, worked a little and then stepped out for lunch. Since we anyway had late breakfast, we were not very hungry around lunch time and thus decided to have something light. There was a local restaurant right opposite our hotel, we decided to go have Pithla Bhakri there. We also ordered a Chinese starter dish and some Sol Kadhi. The food was really yum and even though it was a local restaurant by the side of the road, the quality and hygiene was well maintained.

We initially decided to spend some time exploring but it was rather hot in the afternoon so we returned to the room. We stepped out again in the evening to visit the Sunrise Point – I know! It is sunrise so why we were going there at sunset, but, Google said that you can see sunset also from there.

Here I would like to highlight the importance of saving offline maps on your phone. This played a crucial role on Day 3 as well. Because, while on our way to the Sunrise Point, we missed a turn and then when we tried following the rerouted road, we got lost. We asked a few locals and they guided us from a route that was not on Google Maps, but the maps caught on after a bit and guided us to the place.

The sunset point is not actually a point from where you can see the valley, it is more of a hilltop from where you get a good sunset/sunrise view. Most of the other points in Mahabaleshwar take you right to the edge of the cliff and you have a good view of the valley – this one is not like that. We reached the place 30 seconds before the sunset. The first impression of the place wasn’t that great, because there were a few people there taking sunset pictures, and my first instinct was to leave. But, after the sunset, almost immediately, everyone left and we had the entire place to ourselves. The after light post sunset ensured that we got nice pictures, we also managed to get some silhouette shots. It also started getting cold soon after and before I know it, I was shivering.

Our luck was that we got the entire place to ourselves, while it is at times risky to be at secluded unknown places, this one seemed safe to us at the time. We left just before it could get pitch dark.

For dinner we went to Olive Garden at Brightland Resort and Spa, instead of sitting in the restaurant, we asked if we could sit by the pool and they happily agreed. We had a Pizza and Kebabs with a few drinks. Since it was a quiet place with good view, we ended up spending hours there. It got very cold by the time we left, although I was shivering, I was not complaining.



Day 3 – Strawberry and Cream, Tapola, Secluded Spots at Tapola

We checked-out at around 11 am and sat in the cafeteria to finish work before leaving. We left from Mahabaleshwar around 2 pm and went to Tapola, which is around 25 kms away. Before leaving, we had some Strawberry and Cream at Bagicha, this is one of the specialities of the place and we had to try it. The drive to Tapola was rather pleasant, the roads are narrow but well maintained, there wasn’t much traffic also. We stopped at a little tea stall on the way and the view was mesmerising. The drive to Tapola is scenic, and we stopped several times on the way to take pictures of the valley. We reached Tapola Lake, but honestly it was a little disappointing. But this could also be because the place looked very commercial to us. They have boating and water sporting options there and there were several shops and boats lined up take you boating. We generally prefer visiting place where there aren’t many people, so this place was not to our liking.








The Adventure Begins

We decided to leave from there soon. On our way back, we came across a small restaurant right on the edge of the cliff, it had a good vantage point so we decided to pick that as our pit stop. We had some tea and Misal Pav  and started chatting up the owner. Since the restaurant was at a good vantage point, we could spot secluded areas from atop. We asked the owner if there was a way to reach those spots and he helped us with a rough idea of how to go there. Now, the entire trip from Mahabaleshwar to Tapola as well as at Tapola Lake, there was barely any network. The offline Google maps helped us tons to go about the place. Now that we were at the restaurant, there still wasn’t any network and still we were able to pinpoint to the place we saw from the restaurant. If we had not had offline maps, navigating to new places and making impromptu plans would have been very difficult – honestly, I don’t think we would have taken the chance also.



We followed the path, and even Google maps didn’t show way ahead after a point. The locals again came to our rescue and we parked the car and walked for a bit through the wilderness. We had to cross one patch which had waist high grass and honestly I was scared to do that. The view however at the end of it was beautiful. Clean water, less frequented places, pristine view, it was just nice.

We spent some time there and started to walk back to the car as the sun was setting and we didn’t want to be out of the car after dark.




You can watch the video on my YouTube channel to see how beautiful the place was.

We left from Tapola just after sunset and reached Mumbai at around 1 am.

What we learnt: It could get a little hectic for some people to be on the road for an entire day, so if you are staying at Mahabaleshwar for a few days, you could visit on those days so you have place to crash for the night and don’t have to do a long travel at the end of the day.  

 

 



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Comments

  1. I remember and cherish fresh cream and strawberries the most from my Mahabaleshwar trip. I guess it's a great 'workation' and there's no need for tourist sights/attractions, as long as you have a nice place to stay with a nice view + good WiFi. :)

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