The twin hill stations offer some breathtaking views of the Sahyadri mountains. They are also the land of strawberries, channa, chikki and fudge. Read along to know where to stay, what to shop and which places to visit during your weekend trip to Mahabaleshwar & Panchgani.
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🗓️ High Level Plan
A weekend trip from Mumbai/ Pune would be enough to explore these two hill-stations
Day 1: Mahabaleshwar sightseeing
Day 2: Mapro and Panchgani sightseeing
One could travel on bike/ car from Mumbai/ Pune. We took an overnight sleeper bus from Mumbai. Within Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani, we rented cabs to explore the viewpoints.
We would recommend one to visit in the winter season since the entire landscape turns lush green post monsoon rains. We however went in summer (May 2024) hoping to beat heat in the city!
🏠 Stay
In Mahabaleshwar, would recommend one to stay near the bus stop. Most of the good restaurants and shopping options are around the bus stop. There are quite a few resort options to pick. We stayed in Citrus Chambers – a heritage property established in 1828. It has the colonial British architecture with a massive play area (cricket, badminton, ATV rides, foosball, board games), an amazing restaurant (The Supper Hall) and a relaxing pool. It also a lush tree cover which makes it an ideal place to visit even during summers. Would highly recommend!
In Panchgani, the area around Table land would be ideal since that is the most happening part. However, we chose to stay in Zostel Plus Panchgani. The view from balcony is breathtaking and the entire property is very well designed & maintained. They have also made it sustainable and unique by using cargo containers as structures for rooms. The in-house restaurant Cafe Bombax serves amazing food. The overall architecture is just so good that we felt like we were living in a 5-star property. Again, strongly recommend!
🍜 Food and Shopping
Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani – We had most of our meals in the properties we stayed. Both Citrus Chambers and Zostel Plus have really good in-house restaurants – The Supper Hall and Cafe Bombax
What and where to shop:
- Shop fresh berries in the streets of Mahabaleshwar market – strawberries, mulberries, gooseberries, raspberries, jamun
- Channa – Dhananjay (has multiple outlets in Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani)
- Fudge – Wilson in Mahabaleshwar
- Chikki (esp. strawberry chikki) – Sai Chikki (has multiple outlets in Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani
- Mapro jams and candies – Either in Mapro garden (has lot more variety) or in Mapro outlets in Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani
📝Detailed Itinerary
Day 1: Mahabaleshwar sightseeing
We had left Mumbai around 11PM previous night in one of the private AC sleeper busses. Reached Mahabaleshwar at 6 AM in the morning. We dropped off our luggage at Citrus Chambers, freshened up and headed for breakfast.
We decided to cover few view points, strawberry garden and Venna lake in the first half – hired a cab for 3 hours for Rs. 750. We visited Kates point, Echo point and Needle hole/ Elephant head point. All these viewpoints are basically at the same location but different angles offer different views. We spent about 45 min soaking in the views and then stopped at a strawberry garden. It was a small garden – we walked in the garden, clicked photos and had the famous strawberry with cream! We then headed to Venna lake but we were not interested in boating – stopped for a few minutes just for the view. We came back to the resort around 11AM. Played cricket in the turf, had lunch and rested till 3PM since it was quite hot outside.
We then decided to visit a few temples in Old Mahabaleshwar and few other view points. We hired a cab again for 3 hours for Rs. 750. We first headed to Old Mahabaleshwar and visited Shiva temple and Panchganga temple. Then headed to Arthur Seat view point and a few other view points around this. There are around 5-6 points in a single area. It is a well constructed circular pathway with few steps to climb to go from one view point to another. Go around the loop in clockwise direction – you will see the viewpoints in this order Hunting, Echo, Malcom, Tigerspring and Arthur Seat. The best of all viewpoints is the Arthur Seat – the sheer vastness and the depth of the valley is visible here. You just can’t get enough of the landscape from here. We spent good 30 min just at this viewpoint absorbing the magnificent view. We skipped Savitri point and Castle rock point since they had a similar view. Made a quick stop at Marjori point to catch the sunset and headed back to the resort.
We ventured out to main market area to purchase some fresh berries, chikki and channa. This area is quite happening in the evening with lot of shopping options for snacks and winter wear. There are also quite a few vintage arcade game shops and bakeries that one could explore. We had dinner at MH12 – tawa pulav and masala pav was yummy.
Day 2: Panchgani sightseeing
Woke up early and headed to Wilson point for sunrise. Since it is a vast plateau both the sunrise and sunset are magical. If you are staying near the Mahabaleshwar market, it is an easy 20-30 min hike.
We checked out of our resort and headed to Panchgani. Hired a cab for Rs. 1300 which included Mapro garden, Parsi point, Table land and drop off at Zostel Plus Panchgani.
We reached Mapro garden in 30 min and spent some time walking around the well maintained garden. Had strawberry cream and strawberry ice cream. Purchased candies, jams and strawberry preserve from the massive Mapro outlet. Have heard that the food is great in the restaurant here. However, we decided to pass since we were not hungry.
Then headed to Parsi point – very accessible, one has to just climb down 5-10 steps from the main road but it offered an amazing view of the mountains and the river.
Headed to Tableland next – Asia’s 2nd largest mountain plateau. Right at the entrance, horse riders try to convince you that Tableland is massive and one cannot explore all the points by foot. Just ignore them and walk ahead. Just follow the marked path, in few minutes you will find the first cave entrance – you need to climb down few stairs to reach the cave. It is a simple cave with a narrow passage which stays super cold even during peak summer. You can spend some time and then take a straight shortcut route to Tiger cave. Tiger cave is more pretty and better managed. We clicked few pictures and had some snacks in one of the eateries and then climbed back up to the tableland area. Continued walking on the trail and spotted a beautiful pond which is also frequented by horses, and this scene makes for an amazing vie. If you walk for few more minutes, you will end up at a view point from where you get a picturesque view of surrounding mountains – very similar to Parsi viewpoint but from a different angle
Got dropped off at Zostel. We rested a bit and explored the property. Had dinner in their cafe Bombax which has an outdoor seating with a magnificent view of the valley. One could witness both the sunrise and sunset from here. In the night, we did stargazing from our balcony.
Day 3: Head back home – bus to Pune and flight to Bengaluru
Checked out and boarded bus to Pune – most of the private buses stop at Zostel since it is on the main road. Reached Pune in couple of hours – grabbed Misal Pav from Katakirr Misal and Bun Maska chai from Cafe Goodluck before heading to the airport to catch flight back to Bengaluru.
Roamantic Affair 