Matheran

Matheran is the closest hill station to Bombay in the Sahyadri hill range in Raigad district of Maharashtra State.

Understand

Matheran is situated at a height of 803 m above sea level. Since 1907, a small gauge railway line connects Matheran to Neral in the plains. Motor vehicles are completely banned in Matheran, making it quite peaceful despite the thousands of visitors that come here, mostly from Bombay. There are a number of lookout points that provide spectacular views of the surrounding hills and valleys. Matheran is a plateau with a resonably dense forest cover. Being a hill station it is pleasant almost throughout the year. In winter, the nights can get a bit chilly though. The best time to go to Matheran is post-monsoon. It is truly spectacular at this time of the year with lush greenery, waterfalls and the lake full with water.

Get in

By train

You can catch a Karjat bound local train from CST on the Central Railway to Neral Station. From Neral Station , there is a toy train which runs to Matheran about 4 times in a day. Alternately, there are many share-a-cabs which take you to matheran.

By car

Cars are not allowed within Matheran. However you can drive up and park your car at Dasturi Point. From here it is a 30 min walk to Matheran along a mud track.

Get around

As motor vehicles are banned, there are two ways of getting around in Matheran.

• By walk -All the trails have signboards marking the way and the locals are quite helpful.
• On horseback

See

Some of the popular points include

• Luisa Point
• Echo Point
• Panorama Point
• One tree Hill

Do

Due to the prohibition of cars, Matheran is a relatively peaceful place. So walking is an activity that will be richly rewarding. There are numerous points all over Matheran, some of which provide some fantastic views of the valley below.

Eat

There are all kinds of restaurants in Matheran serving various cuisines.

Other

There is a entry fee of Rs 25 for visitors entering Matheran. The proceeds from this is used for the upkeep of the place considering its fragile ecosystem.

This text of this article is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0. It has been slightly modified to fit the general design of this website. The authors of this document are Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel, Vinayak and the following WikiTravel users: Ilkirk, Ravikiran_r. The original version of this article can be seen at http://wikitravel.org/en/Matheran.