Have you heard of this pollution-free hill station in the state of Maharashtra? Situated close to Mumbai, this plateau is home to dense forests, waterfalls, and the lovely Ulhas River, a visit to Matheran is a must on any traveler's list, for it offers one a peaceful, quiet and laidback holiday. A special feature of Matheran is that no motor vehicles are allowed there, not even cycles, making it not only pollution-free but also a noise-free hill station. Literally meaning ‘forest on the head’, Matheran refers to the thick woods at the top of the hill. Matheran retains the vintage charm of hill stations developed by the British. Here you can experience Parsi lifestyle and enjoy staying in British cottages. As a matter of fact, Matheran is known to be the smallest hill station in India with an area of just 10 sqkm.
Just like any other hill station, Matheran too has numerous viewpoints and 38 of them have been officially marked. Panorama point gives us a 360° view of the entire region. Apart from being the main source of water for the people of Matheran, Charlotte lake is set amidst the densely forested area, sprawls out with a dam at one end and the Pisarnath temple at the other. Also, from the lake, one can see get to see the view of the famous vantage point of Matheran - Echo Point and Louisa Point. If you’re visiting Matheran in the monsoon, there are chances that you’ll get to see a reverse waterfall which is one of its kind. If time permits you can tick off various other viewpoints too.
Best time to visit:
Matheran can be visited at any time of the year, including monsoon. Temperature varies from 15 C to 30 C depending on the climate. In monsoon, the entire place is the midst of a foggy climate which makes the scenery even more spectacular, and you’re sure to enjoy walking down the foggy roads not knowing what scenery is going to be unraveled, making the suspense even better.
We will be boarding a train from Hyderabad to Lonavala. Following are the boarding points:
08:40 PM: Nampally (Hyd Deccan) | 08:50 PM: Begumpet | 9:10 PM: Lingampally
We will have to freshen up in the train itself and complete our breakfast too. After reaching Lonavala station our trek leader will get the tickets and we will be boarding a local train to Neral railway station. It is a 1.5 hour journey. Once we reach Neral station we will have local vehicles(cabs) to the base point of Matheran which is called Dasturi.
Matheran is the only no pollution place in India. Vehicles are not allowed into Matheran and one has to walk their way up or take the toy train or ride a mule. We will be walking along the toy train track route to reach Matheran from Dasturi. The route is very scenic and there are no steep ascends at all, so anyone can walk along easily. Once we reach Matheran we will drop our luggage in our booked stay and go sightseeing to different viewpoints.
There a innumerous points to visit in Matheran, we will visit the most famous and worth visiting sights as per our time feasibility. The walking trails to the viewpoints are a different experience too since there won't be much sunlight and it is as though you're walking in a deep forest. We will be visiting Panorama point from which you have a 360 degrees view of the nearby ranges from Matheran. Next we'll be going to the echo point, as the name suggests if you shout here the valley will echo back.
Charlotte lake is our next stop. This lake is a feast to the eyes located amidst lush green forest. Very close to the Charlotte lake we have a reverse waterfall. The simple logic behind a reverse waterfall is the strong winds that blow the water upwards. We will walk back to our booked stay, have dinner and retire for the day. If the whole group is interested and are ready, then our trek leader will take you guys to a night forest walk and trust us, it's bound to be a crazy experience.
Early morning wakeup call and freshen up. We will have proper washrooms since it is a room stay and not camping.
We will head to cover the rest of the viewpoints such as Monkey point, Honeymoon point, Alexander point, and incase if we miss any places on the previous day, we will cover them this morning. We will have breakfast and get back to our stay, packup and checkout.
We will be descending along the rail track route the same way like the ascend. Once we reach Dasturi, we will take a local vehicle and go to Neral railway station and board a local train to Lonavala station to catch our train back to Hyderabad.
We will be reaching Hyderabad by morning 6.
Clothing & Footwear
Food & Beverage
Miscellaneous:
You can choose to reach Matheran through various modes as