Panchgani - The Quaint Hillstation

In the past few months we visited Panchgani more than a few times thanks to getting you all information about new hotels and resorts. We now have more than half a dozen bungalows and resorts registered with us and the links to their websites have been uploaded in puneritraveller.com - around pune travel guide.

To be honest we hadn't given Panchgani a lot of importance probably because of Mahabaleshwar and Tapola two of our favorite destinations. All this while when we had passed through panchgani the only place that we stopped was at mapros for the pizza and strawberry and cream. However our recent trips to Panchgani forced us to look at Panchgani in a different light.

Panchgani - a small town on the way to Mahabaleshwar with an unhurried relaxed charm adorning its strawberry farms, boarding schools and old British buildings is really an ideal destination to get away. Panchgani is one of the rare places that doesn't crowd anyone, yet engulf you in its own unhurried way and make you feel a part of the charm. A perfect place to be in for a romantic get away the place really has to be discovered on foot. Panchgani is set at the foot of five hills and is blessed with pleasant weather around the year. Stroll across the narrow walkways on a misty morning or while away at the bazaar - what ever that you want to do in a break free holiday!

Panchgani, notwithstanding the sedate laid back vibe that it emanates is a also a destination for the adventure sports enthusiast. Panchgani is a pseudo head quarter for the parasailing activities in Maharashtra and the activity is conducted through out the year but for the monsoons. There are many trekking routes also near Panchgani including couple of forts perfect for trekking

Its no surprise to find people like Aamir Khan buying bungalows here. Its definitely not that they didn't know about Mahabaleshwar; i think the charm that this place has is just ideal that one would look for in a getaway in a hill station.

Coming to the resorts for who we made websites, there are a few bungalows in panchgani and surroundings and also a few luxury resorts in panchgani The bungalows in panchgani like the Ridhi Bungalow and animish Bungalow are just ideal for families not to forget Wonder Woods one of the best resorts in panchgani and Sai Palace one of the most convenient amongst the panchgani hotels

Panchgani is a place that is definitely worth a visit and with the comfortable panchgani resorts and the panchgani hotels its easy to plan a trip to panchgani too!

Mulshi - An Hour from Pune

We have been visiting Mulshi ever since I had come to Pune about a decade back and relly not sure how many times I have vieited this place. Anyhow this time around I had a different purpose. As you might know we are adding resorts and hotels near pune to puneritraveller.com - around pune travel guide and in lieu with that we had visited a few mulshi Hotels and resorts in Mulshi

Mulshi has some real great resorts and we visited two of them - Lakeside verandah and Camp Temgarh you could visit their website to know more details. Lakeside verandah is an erstwhile palatial bungalow of Naik Nimbalkar by the lake and offer some very beautiful views from the bungalow. Camp Temgarh is off Mulshi towards the Temgarh dam and Lavasa and is an off beat holiday resort. You would have to experience the place to feel the beauty of this resort. The food is also terrific after all their main business is catering - the Delhi Kitchen.

Anyways for the benefit of people new to Pune beginning to explore Pune, Mulshi is one of the first places you need to start with. Just about 40 Kms away from Pune its actually difficult to believe that such a beautiful place exists so near a city. Especially after monsoons this place turns out in its whole glory. Misty hills the beautiful lake and everything looks like a fairytale book's illustration.

the route that you need to take to get to Mulshi is 

 Pune => Chandni Chowk == Take the Paud Road == Pirangut => Paud => Crompton Greaves Training Centre => Mulshi 

The website for the Mulshi hotels Mulshi resorts 

Lakeside verandah - http://www.lakesideverandah.com/

Camp Temgarh - http://www.camptemgarh.com/

Vasota - The Jungle Trek

Its been a while since i posted anything here. If you have followed puneritraveller.com our pune travel guide you would know that we have been busy getting our readers more details about hotels and resorts around pune. It has been a busy quarter with us traveling to Panchgani Mahabaleshwar and Tapola more than half a dozen times not to forget the konkan beaches. We had camped in Dapoli on the beautiful Karde beach one of the beautiful secluded beaches amongst the dapoli beaches. For our reader we got details about resorts in ganapatipule also.

Anyway this blog is not about the dapoli beach or ganpatipule so let me come back to to the topic that i want to write about in this blog. Vasota , a lesser known fort inside the Koyna wild life sanctuary. One of the most exciting treks that i have ever under taken may be because of the legends of the place that i had heard before. Most of the stories that i heard was ridiculously unbelievable including man eating tigers, leopards coming out of bushes and even a story of a eight feet tall naked man in the forest! I dismissed the stories as bogus but even the things that we dismiss creates a kind of excitement when we actually do the thing doesn't it? It happens to me anyway, I know that its not true but a strange kind of unexplained excitement which accepts the possibility of the stories being true..anyway

Vasota is Situated on the western edge of the Satara District, covered in dense forest all the way through the trek shows you some very beautiful views of of the shiv saagar lake. Surrounded by the river Koyna, Vasota is definitely a special destination for trekking in Pune. The only to reach the base of the fort is by a boat and make sure you carry everything necessary for the trip along with you as this place is completely cut off from civilization. Prior permissions for the trek needs to be taken from the forest authorities, normally you can get that done the same day as you plan your trek.

There are two forts, juna Vasota and navin Vasota. juna Vasota on top of babukada - the second tallest cliff in Maharashtra is not accesible. There are two entrances to the navin Vasota one of which is in a dilapidated state as of now and the fort can be entered through only the second entrance. On entering the fort there is a Hanuman temple which is devoid of a roof. From here the straight path leads to the remnants of the fort. The left path leads to the Kalkaiche Thane. On the way is the Mahadeo temple and ahead of it is Machi with spectacular views of the surrounding region. You can also see the Babukada reminiscent of Konkankad of Harishchandragad. The mountain ahead of Babukada is the old Vasota.

The river camp in Tapola - Koyna Agro Tourism helped us in organizing everything for us and i would like to thank them that here - I would also recommend the place if you plan to go for this trek they will arrange the required permissions and also arrange for packed lunch from Tapola. There are a few other Tapola hotels like hotel shivneri also that you can try for stay in Tapola