We, a family of four members, visited Matheran first week of September,2024. We landed at Mumbai airport and took a cab straight towards Matheran. The trip cost around ₹3000. When we reached the foothills of Matheran, there were some local drivers who operate from the foothills to the top of the hill by their local cabs. They made it mandatory for outside hired cabs to drop their passengers there and travel by their own local cabs. We didn't agree, but had to pay ₹500 as the charges and we we went up to the car park, which is the last car to visit Matheran. There are three ways from Dasturi car park to travel to Matheran. Option 1:- You can walk to Matheran, which is about an hour's walking and the road is well paved. Since the road is uphill and paved with paver blocks, you won't be able to pull your luggage and have to hire porters to carry your luggage. In our case to porters carried our luggage till our hotel and charged ₹900 for four small trolley bags. Option 2:- From Dasturi car park you can walk about 500 m to reach Aman lodge railway station. The train from Aman Lodge leaves about one hour to reach Matheran taking about 20 minutes. Option 3:– There are electric auto rickshaws from Dasturi park each carrying three persons charging ₹35 per person to take you to Matheran railway station. The trick is they don't allow your luggage to be taken with you and you have to take help of the porters as I mentioned in option one. The best choice is option number two, though we could not avail the same as we were very tired after a long journey and didn't want to wait for the train leaving after one hour. Matheran We stayed at Horseland resort which is about 10 minutes uphill from the Matheran railway station. We booked the family room with four beds just in front of the pool. The hotel is average and we paid Rupees10,000 aporox per day for the room and three meals viz, breakfast lunch and dinner. We stayed in room number 102 which is fairly a big room, but the condition of the room needs significant improvement. We stayed for two nights and enjoyed the rainy season with clouds entering our room. We purchased raincoats locally, which are very cheap,disposable, and had a great scroll in Matheran. The place is serene with a beautiful landscape and is ideal for spending a lazy vacation. On the next day, we had a ride in the toy train from Matheran to Aman Lodge and back. The ticket rate for the toy train is ₹55 for the second class and ₹95 for the first class each way. The ride was breathtaking with the train going ***** the narrow tracks passing through lush green trees on both sides and valleys covered with clouds. We spent weekdays in Matheran to avoid weekend rush from people from Mumbai. My suggestions: preferable to avoid weekends in Matheran. cheaper travel option- use train to reach Neral from Dadar in Mumbai, which takes about one and half hours. Take shared cabs from Neral to Dasturi Park and they charge rupees 100 per pe
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