The first thing you notice in Matheran is not the view. It is the silence where the traffic should be. Private motor vehicles are not allowed inside the town, and after a morning of the Eastern Express Highway the absence of horns feels almost medical. You hear hooves, the hum of the odd e-rickshaw, monkeys arguing on a tin roof, and your own breathing on the uphill bits.
Matheran sits on a forested plateau in the Sahyadris, roughly 800 metres up, a little under 100 km from central Mumbai. It is small enough to walk end to end in a day and old enough, as a British-era retreat, to have the lodges, bungalows and slightly faded railings to prove it. It is also an eco-sensitive zone, which is part of why it still feels like this.
Getting there
There are two ways up, and both begin at Neral, a station on the Central line towards Karjat.
By train to Neral. Karjat-bound locals from CSMT, Dadar and Thane stop at Neral, and some long-distance trains do too. Allow roughly two hours from the island city by local. From Neral you have a choice.
The toy train. The Neral–Matheran narrow-gauge railway has been running since the early 1900s and is the reason many people go at all. It climbs slowly through hairpin curves and forest, and the ride takes a couple of hours. It is charming and not remotely efficient, which is the point. Seats are limited and weekends fill up, so book ahead on the railway's official channels, and check the current timetable before you plan around it, because services are altered or suspended from time to time, especially in the monsoon.
Taxi to Dasturi. Shared and private taxis wait outside Neral station and drive up the ghat road to Dasturi Naka, the car park where all vehicles stop. The drive is about twenty minutes. If you are driving yourself from Mumbai, this is also where you leave the car. At Dasturi you pay a small entry charge to the municipal council and continue on foot, on horseback, or by rickshaw. The Supreme Court has ordered the old hand-pulled rickshaws phased out in favour of a limited fleet of e-rickshaws, so what is on offer depends on how far that transition has gone when you visit. The walk into the main market area takes forty minutes or so, mostly on a gentle gradient, and there is also a short shuttle train from Aman Lodge, just above Dasturi, into town when it is running.
A word on the horses and rickshaws: agree the price before you set off, and do not let anyone rush you. If you have luggage, a porter is often simpler than a horse.
The points
Matheran's lookouts are called points, and there are dozens of them, strung around the edge of the plateau like beads on a necklace. You will not see them all, and you should not try. A few worth the walk:
- Panorama Point, at the northern tip, is the one to get up early for. On a clear morning you see the plains fall away towards Neral and, on very good days, a long way beyond.
- Louisa Point faces the old forts of Prabal and Vishalgad across the valley and is dramatic in the late afternoon.
- Charlotte Lake is the town's water supply, so no swimming, but the walk around it and the shaded paths towards Echo Point make for a pleasant, level couple of hours.
- Echo Point does exactly what it says. Children love it. Adults pretend not to and then shout anyway.
Others, such as One Tree Hill, Porcupine Point (often called Sunset Point) and Alexander Point, are all reachable on foot. Carry water, and a rough map from your hotel is more reliable than your phone signal, which can be patchy under the canopy.
Red earth and slow walking
The paths are the real attraction. Matheran's laterite soil is a deep rust red, and the tracks between points run under old trees that keep the town noticeably cooler than the plains. It is the rare hill station where the walking between viewpoints is as good as the viewpoints themselves.
A practical note: the red dust gets into everything. Wear shoes you do not love, and leave the white trainers at home. The market sells leather chappals and chikki, and a surprising number of people go home with both.
When to go, and what the monsoon closes
October to February is the easiest time: clear air, cool evenings, good visibility from the points. March to May is warm but still more comfortable than Mumbai, and weekends in the summer holidays get very crowded.
The monsoon, roughly June to September, is when Matheran is at its most beautiful and least convenient. The forest turns an almost unreasonable green and the clouds come right up the valleys, which also means that many points show you nothing but white. The toy train between Neral and Matheran has typically been suspended through the heavy-rain months because of landslide risk, with only the short Aman Lodge shuttle running, and the paths get slippery and muddy. Check the current status with Central Railway before you go, and be ready for some hotels to close or run reduced service.
Weekends in any season are busier than weekdays. If you can take a Friday or a Monday, do.
Two unhurried days
Day one. Take an early local to Neral and either the toy train up or a taxi to Dasturi and the walk in. Check in, eat lunch, and nap if you are that sort of person. In the late afternoon walk to Louisa Point, then continue around to Porcupine Point for sunset. Dinner in the market area, early night. There is not much nightlife, and that is also the point.
Day two. Get up before dawn and walk to Panorama Point for sunrise; take a torch. Come back for breakfast, then spend the late morning on the gentler loop past Charlotte Lake and Echo Point. After lunch, pack, walk or ride back to Dasturi, and take a taxi down to Neral in time for a train that avoids the evening rush into the city.
If you have a third day, do nothing with it. Sit on a verandah and read. Matheran rewards idleness better than itineraries.
Why it stays with you
Most of Mumbai's weekend escapes are defined by the drive: how long it took, where the traffic was, whether the new road helped. Matheran is defined by its refusal to let the drive in. You arrive on foot or at the pace of a hundred-year-old train, and for a day or two you live at walking speed. It is not the most dramatic landscape in the Sahyadris, nor the most comfortable resort. But it is the only place this close to the city where you can forget, completely and within an hour, what a car sounds like, and it is worth the effort for that alone.
