Mahabaleshwar Experience: Mahabaleshwar was listed as the last destination of our entire maharashtra tour starting from Mumbai-Nasik-traimbakeshwar-shirdi-pune. we chose to go there at last as we wanted to cool our heels from the heat of other places & i must say the place did not disappoint us. We went through the pune route & had to pass through panchgani, the moment we reached panchgani we could feel the cool breeze blowing on our faces & we all completely forgot our tired bodies, i must say both panchgani & mahabaleshwar are very clean hill stations & when you reach these places you need to pay a nominal fare as polloution tax. We reached mahabaleshwar at 2.00 pm & quickly grabbed a bite at MTDC's restaurant where we also had our rooms booked which i must say was not at all eatable. After lunch we immediately headed towards Aurther seat point which is supposed to be the highest point in mahabaleshwar from where you can see the entire hill range & not to miss the beautiful sunset. Mahabaleshwar is very famous for its strawberries & mulberries & you will find lots of street vendors selling these at 10/ per bowl, very fresh & verry very yummyyyy, our next vist was to the market road & as the name specifies the entire road on both the sides is occupied with number of small shops who sell anything & everything from chats, fruits, local made chocolates, very cheap & good jute bags & extremely cheap & good shoes & slippers. We spent the entire evening shopping at Market road after which we headed back to MTDC. Next day we went to old M'shwar to vist panchganaga temple which is the birth place of five rivers of M'shwar after which we headed towards pratapagdh which is 25 kms from M'shwar. Good place for history buffs, its a fort built by Shivaji Maharaj on the top of the hill at an altitude of 3700ft above sea level. We came back to M'shwar after a good luch prepared by a resident at the fort & went for a round of go-karting & for boating at venna like around sunset time & finally bought some groundnut chikkies & strawberries & mulberries for people back home. It was a very good & memorable trip.
Food, sight-seeing and shopping: In M'shwar restaurants are not very good, the food is mediocre in taste but very expensive, Market road is a good place where you can find good restaurants,stick to north indian menu. M'shwar has lots to offer, good view points, lakes, water falls, temples, forts & there is a new botanical garden called sherbagh which is a must visit place for all nature lovers. Do try the starwberry milkshakes, jelly, jam & ice-creams in Market road or various shops around M'shwar.
Activities & things to do: There is horse riding, go-karting, boating & you can also trek & definitely shopping in market road. Would also like to warn you about various agents who would try & lure you about hotel bookings, kindly have prior bookings or else do it on your own, and please bargain as much as you can in Market road.
Travel tips, How to reach, travel warnings etc: Mahabaleshwar can be reached by bus from pune, the distance would be around 180kms
