A chat shop we visit (regularly) has a lot of interesting captions about Mumbai. When we explored for some offbeat options in Maharashtra, we decided to land in Pune and check a few places around as we felt Mumbai would be too crowded during season of holidays. Next option is Pune!
A friend who had done Mahabaleswar during Dusherra holidays raved about it's beauty and the scenic drive. She also spoke about zoom car option in Pune airport. These two choices encouraged us to explore places around Pune. Here are the details:
Day 1: Landing and Zooming to Diveagar
Took the 5:30am flight to Pune from Bangalore. While we were near conveyor belt gave a call to zoom car guys. The vehicle arrived in 10 minutes. We spent exactly 10 mins at Zoom car center and we were on our own!
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| Nature's painting- Diveagar beach |
Google offline maps works like a charm. We did a good 5 hours ride and reached our beautiful resort stay at "
Panthastha Prangan Resorts". Road to reach Diveagar is bad. Some patches are real bad. So keep a good 5 hours to reach the place. We took a break at quick bite and had a great view of Mulshi dam. Dam looks beautiful.
There is nothing much to do in en route. A quick stop at quick bite and enjoyed the Mulshi view. Our destination is splendid.
Diveagar is a true offbeat place. It's a small village with couple of temples and breathtaking beaches. These beaches are extremely clean and safe. What differentiates this beach is the reflection as there is a huge difference in water levels throughout the day.
We visited the beach and returned.
Lunch and dinner at Panthastha prangan. Great clean food.
Day 2: Sun kisses sand
Started with excellent breakfast at Panthastha Prangan.
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| Sun kisses sand |
Drove to vela beach. There was absolutely nobody. We didn't want to get into water in such a lonely place. Yet it's a stunning beach. We returned to Diveagar beach and played in water.
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| Absolute nobody beach - Velas beach |
Had lunch and again returned to beach watched the beautiful sunset returned to room. On our way back we tried amazing kulfi's at a nice place.
Day 3: Heading to hills
Played the beach played in water. Visited the beautiful old roop narayan swamy temple and Golden ganesh temple. Returned to room and checked out.
Panthastha Prangan is a great place to stay for the friendly staff, the concept of Eco friendly resort true to itself. There is hardly any plastic or wasting of light or water. Whoever has come up with the idea of the place... salute to you. There is passion noticeable in every design. We have to leave footwear outside dining area and rooms. There is a brass vessel given instead of buckets. The card is actually constructed(solid structure). Natural light and ventilation is well used. Noticed a huge rain water harvesting well structure too.
Checked out the beautiful Diveagar and headed to hills- Mahabaleswar. Roads again are average. Mobile signal is back.
We tried to check Raigad fort en route to Mahabaleswar. The rope car waiting time was 3.5 hours. This fort is best avoided during holiday season.
The route is extremely scenic, roads too get better once we are closer to Mahabaleswar base.
Checked in to our place of stay mulberry Inn. It's in Mahabaleswar Panchgani route.
Had snacks/dinner at Garden restaurant. They made amazing corn bajji and onion bajji. A bad pizza. Decent strawberry and cream.
Mahabaleswar is full of strawberries. It looks beautiful! Buy and eat strawberries whenever you find it. It's extremely tasty!
Day 4: Point to Point view points, Car wouldn't start!
All food joints open pretty late and service is slow. If your restaurant offers breakfast please take it!
We had amazing idli and Dosa at Food studio restaurant. Extremely slow service due to heavy crowd. This place is the best food(Veg) we had. On non crowded times their service is real fast.
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| Yummy strawberries sales near lake |
Boating at beautiful Venna lake. Boating get super crowded in the evening. Better to goto this place in the morning.
We headed to Kate's point after boating. There are multiple view points here. It gets real sunny by noon.
Kate's point has an interesting juice/shake center. The owner seem to be having photograph with every bollywood personality. He makes amazing juice/shake too. Must try at Kate's point.
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| Stunning view from Kate's point |
Mahabaleswar gets super crowded during weekends. Google maps gets confused as the traffic police keep changing one way direction. Some real bad/mad drivers switch to the other lane in a long line of waiting traffic. Please don't do that. It's a beautiful hill station, avoid bad driving.
We had a quick lunch at Lingmala restaurant/veg grill restaurant. Home style very quick service with limited options. Good place to eat.
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| Shivsagar view point - Sunset is a treat to eyes |
After a short break at room we went to Tapola road. This place is amazing. It's turly offbeat with no crowd, no traffic. Most scenic drive to reach this place which is bout 25KM from Mahabaleswar. Winding roads so keep a good one hour to drive to this place. We reached Shivsagar point. Most stunning view of valley and water body. This place gives a real high to anyone and everyone. During peak season it's better to stay at Tapola than at Mahabaleshwar. They have the best to offer. After watching a stunning sunset, we wanted to return home, just that our zoom car wouldn't start.
A family who visited the place helped push start the car. We slowly without turning off returned to room without getting doomed. BIG thanks to whomever we met there! No mobile signal without anyone we would have been stuck without help! Thank you Sir and your family! We forgot to take your number!
Push start and try starting in second gear!
As per Zoom car policy, in location with alternate vehicle, they would replace your car otherwise they would tow away, if you can fix it get it fixed thru local mechanic and upload bill. We didn't know any of it.
We called up the call center through borrowed phone(BSNL,Vodaphone, Idea alone works). Zoom car right away put us on conference call with technician. They asked us to try a few things but none of it worked. Zoom car then committed to send technician next day morning at 8:30AM. Which is good for us. Next morning they called and confirmed technician would come only by 10AM. But yes someone indeed turned up with all jump start stuff. But none of it worked. Another push start to workshop. And the problem was a relay which was fixed in about 30minutes next day . Happy to have vehicle back and actually impressed by Zoom car service!
They also asked if they wanted us some kind of compensation. We are more happy to have vehicle back.
Day 5: Strawberries everywhere, Car is back, Table land, View points!
Zoom car's authorized garage is near Mapro garden(Near Indian oil petrol pump).
With impressive fixing of Zoom car we visited Mapro garden. The place has it's charm. Super crowded. Serves awesome pizza. Super fast service. Has a huge supermarket with free tasting of all chocolates. Has a very informative video in their auditorium about strawberries and chocolates. Do visit especially with kids.
We headed to table land after Mapro garden. This is place is a huge plateau on top of hill. We hired a horse cart to do a round here. Extremely scenic place with a cave(restaurant). Super crowded.
We visited Harrison folly this is much more scenic than table land.
Sydney point yet another beautiful place. We sat down watched stunning sunset. Sydney point is being developed now with a path to view point. This point has best view of all the panchgani/mahabaleswar hills.
We returned to Food studio and had super amazing sizzler. This place has too many options for food.
Day 6: Chilling at Arthur's seat!
Based on trip advisor we wanted to trek to Guregar natural reserve. We reached the place around 8AM but the gates were closed. This has amazing reviews but no one mentioned about the timing.
We headed to Arthur's seat and this worked out very well for us. This place is extremely beautiful. Lot of views and view points. Must visit especially before crowd kicks in and shops open. Feels like heaven.
We had masala maggi and bhel for breakfast. Both were super awesome!
Returned to room checked out and headed to Pune.
Spent a small amount of time at Velocity theme park. Go carting is expensive here(700rs for four rounds).
Bought amazing strawberries!
Had simple superb food at Kamat en route.
We had couple of hours to spend. Headed to famous Pune's Okayama friendship garden. Beautiful garden with stunning landscape. Do visit if you are around Pune.
Returned Zoom car near airport and returned airport and home with loads of great memories, experiences, tastes and fun!! Maharashtra rocks! The valley has amazing formations and beaches have a different feel!!
Points to remember:
- Airtel rarely works in any of the places we visited. Mahabaleswar is slightly better, Diveager zero signal. Overall mobile reach itself is very less in these places. Carry a BSNL sim.
- Days are warm even in the month of December.
- Sunscreen near beach
- Vegetarian food is available in plenty
- Avoid long weekends anywhere near Mahabaleswar, everything is 3x, traffic, waiting, cost of strawberry. Plan during February is the recommendation.
- In Mahabaleswar, Panchgani target every view point before 9AM(before shops open). It is magical around that time!
At this time due to forest fire Kudremukh trek is closed. Other Safari routes, Lakya dam, Ganapathi katte all are closed. Only trek to Kurinjal peak is available. This is 5KM one way trek. From Bagawathi nature camp it's 6-7KM one way. Carry water and some small snack. 
Google maps marking in Kalasa is incorrect for location of Soormanai falls, Ambha theertha. 
