Travel like a student: a brief sojourn to Matheran

By Trust Travel

For the time-poor individuals looking to get away from the mad rush of city-life, here’s a getaway where you should ditch the unnecessary and travel.like.a.student. This is an account of our recent expedition to Matheran, a hill station which is quite close to both Mumbai and Pune, and is inexpensive as well.

In true blue Bombay fashion I have been to all the getaways in and around the city with my family come every summer. Matheran was one of the many places on the list that we as a family of four along with the erstwhile “family friends” visited. A typical outing over the weekend meant hauling luggage in car, driving into the sunrise to reach a family resort and indulging yourself with the services offered by the same thus beguiling myself into thinking that I had finally escaped the mundane into the cradle of nature. It was only recently when I went again to Matheran after 7 long years and not with my family or my “family friends” that I realized how great a disservice I had done to the beautiful hill station with red sand and hauntingly beautiful walks.

So for all those time-poor individuals wanting to get away for a weekend from the mad, mad rush of Mumbai (or Pune for that matter since both are close by)- here is my advice: ditch the unnecessary & travel like a student. I say student, because yes I travelled while in my second year at a prestigious, well known B school in Mumbai – we wanted to have plain, good natured fun; revel in the greenery & peace that the hill station was known to offer minus the frills and fancies that resorts offered while taking you away from the actual beauty of the hill station and while making you believe that you got what you had come there for – peace and a glimpse of the mountain’s soul.

We started in the morning at around 5 am from Andheri where our hostels were located and we had to get to a point on the railway station map called Neral. Word of caution here: Neral is a town in the Raigad district of Maharashtra & comes on the Central Line. It is different from Nerul which is a part of New Bombay and comes on the harbor line. Upon reaching Neral, you have the option of taking the many Maruti Omni Vans lined up to cart tourists to Matheran as cars are not allowed beyond a point on the hill station or you can take the toy train which comes down every two hours. We opted for the 9:00 am train which would take us around 2 hours to reach Matheran.

Having reached the Matheran Railway station we wanted a place where we could keep our baggage and the options ranged from rooms to lodges to resorts of course! We finally zeroed in on a room with three double beds for the six of us where we could keep our bags and stay the night after we came back from surveying the hill station. Now a few quick facts about Matheran…

Source: travellersappetite