[ajay_satpute]

Prologue:
My mother and her sisters are members of a club run by local Marathi newspaper, called Madhurangan. So this diwali, all of them got a booklet containing discount coupons of various shops/malls/picnic destinations/etc... In this booklet, was a coupon for Prathamesh Farms, which we though to put to use on a weekend. Frankly, if we had not got this coupon, we would never come to know about this place.

Since we had two coupons and the condition was that there should be 1+4 persons with every coupon, we gathered few relatives and decided to visit the place on 9-Jan-2016.

Destination:
Prathamesh Farms
Address: Near Khed Shivapur,Salavade Gaon, Taluka: Bhor, District: Pune
Contact: 9325516060
Email: prathameshfarms.agrotourism@gmail.com
Website: http://www.prathameshfarm.com/

Rate card::
Adult: 800/- INR
Child (Below 13 years): 650/- INR

Due to the coupons we had, we got 20% off on the adult's ticket rate, which came out to be 640/- INR per adult.

Please note that this is these are the rates of the day package, 9 AM to 6 PM, which includes Breakfast, Lunch and Tea+Snakcs, all unlimited. The place also has very good bunglows and cottages for overnight stay. Please contact on the given number for further information.


Route:
Prathamesh Farms is only 25 KMs from Chandani Chowk on the NH-4 towards Satara. The place is immediately after the first toll booth at Khed Shivapur on the right hand side.

The moment you leave the toll booth, keep yourself in the right most lane. When you see Hotel Natraj on LHS, take the next median to take a U-turn just after Natraj. Immediately after you take the U-turn and again drive back towards Pune, the road that leads to Prathamesh Farms is on the LHS. You cannot miss the board directing you towards the destination.



Rides:
We needed two rides to accommodate 10 adults and 2 kids. One was going to be S-Cross, by default and the other was decided to be Nano AMT.




Roads and their conditions:
NH-4:
Nothing to write about this road. The road is great throughout, barring a few patches where some work is in progress.

From NH-4 to Prathamesh Farms:
The moment you take a left turn from NH-4 towards the destination, the world changes. It is about 5 KMs from this point on-wards and the road is arduous to say the least. Its a single narrow lane road with some tar still left on it for about 2 KMs and then a no-road for the remaining 3 KMs. You can only drive at 10-20 kmph speeds on this entire stretch. The last 3 Kms are full of dust and you fundamentally drive through crop fields, big farm lands full of Jawar, Bajra, and all sorts of vegetable crop fields. You get that real rural feel driving through these patches. The ride is very bouncy on this 5 kms patch, but if you have an S-Cross, well nothing is too bad.

The S-Cross was just gliding on these torturous patches, with very little jerks felt by the passengers inside. This again goes on to prove how well the ride quality of this beast is. The other set of people in the Nano, however, had a tough time negotiating these extremely rough patches. But, a supremely commendable job by the Nano AMT throughout. The Nano was able to pull itself through this stretch and we did not have a single gotcha moment.

[ajay_satpute]

At Prathamesh Farms:

We reached Prathamesh Farms in just 23 minutes from Chandani Chowk. In Circuit's way to say this would be "Shuru hone se pehle khatam" (It ended before even it began).

You are greeted by a big entrance gate, which is decorated to give you a agro feel.





The parking area can hold around 15 4-wheelers and sufficient number of two-wheelers.



After parking our cars, we went to the office which is on the left immediately after the entrance. We got breakfast coupons from the office and headed straight to the canteen, as we were starving.

The canteen is quite a big place and can easily hold upto 100 people at a given time. The breakfast included following items in unlimited quantity:
1) Pohe
2) Idli
3) Aloo Paratha
4) Sambar
5) Tea
6) Coffee

Overall, the breakfast was very good. All items were fresh and piping hot, just the way I like it. Tea was especially good.

After a heavy breakfast, we decided to roam around the farm. Just outside the cafeteria, was a suspension bridge, which is meant to cross over from cafeteria side to the lush green lawns. The lawns are really well made and well maintained. The lawns have ducks, egrets and other friendly birds roaming around freely. Kids just loved this part of the farm.



The entire lawn area has lots of animal statues which are life-size and quite well made. The eyes on these statues are very real and that adds to the life-like quotient.










Suspension bridge:



After enjoying the lawns to their hearts content, kids wanted to get into the play area. There is a big area of the farm dedicated to outdoor games, such as cricket, badminton, and more. There are lots of slides, swings and other items which will keep the kids occupied for a long time. Just behind this play area, is the river bed. That makes this play area even more soothing, even in harsh broad-day light. Right now, there is hardly any water in the river bed. I cannot imagine how beautiful this area would be just after the rains (Sept-Oct).




It was lunch-time after an hour and half long fantastic time around this play area. We entered the cafeteria with all the food items ready and neatly placed. The food menu was as follows:

* Paneer makhanwala
* Bhendi fry
* Potato Jira
* Chhole
* Daal Tadka
* Steamed rice
* Chapatis
* Puri
* Amrakhanda (Mango shrikhand)
* Gulab jamun
* Papad
* Pickels

Overall, I would rate the food quality at 8/10. Everyone really enjoyed the lunch. It is all self-service, so no comments on the service. We ordered one soft drink, which was 20 Rs above the MRP, which I thought was exorbitant.

After the lunch, we again walked over to the lawns and everyone started finding places to just lie down, sit down and rest. Kids wanted to be around the ducks and the pond.



Strawberry farm::
There is a significantly large strawberry farm area inside the this farm. You can buy fresh strawberry plucked from the in-house strawberry farm at a reasonable rate.

[ajay_satpute]

Post the lunch and the rest, kids wanted to take a dip in the swimming pool. The farm has a good sized swimming pool, which is also maintained well. They have a good quantity of swimming costumes for both gents and ladies on rent at 30/- INR per costume. The pool side has enough chairs for you to rest while people take a dip in the pool. The pool area also has two big self-sufficient changing rooms, for gents and ladies.





After the pool, it was time for rain dance. There is an outdoor rain dance area plus a semi-private covered rain dance area for ladies.

Post the rain dance activity, we all headed to the entertainment area. This area has two bamboo houses. One hosts activities like mehendi, tattoo and all. The other one houses a pool table, carom and fuss ball.

From here, we went to the general entertainment area, where they host a a program called 'Maharashtratachi Lokdhara' , which showcases various dance forms from various parts of the state of Maharashtra. Besides this show, there was also a magic show and puppet show for the kids.

They simultaneously serve the evening snacks and tea at this entertainment area.

Evening snacks were Vada paav, chips and tea.



Besides, there is a train ride and bullock cart ride for the kids. For some reason, the bullock ride was not functional.

Overall, a very good place to spend an entire day with family and friends and being just 25 kms from Pune, it is not that tiring to drive too.

Now some random pics to close the thread.

Thanks for reading through.























































Local village kids saying goodbye to us

[Eddy]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing.

[Aficionados]

I went to this place last weekend and I must say that I was impressed with this facility.
There's also few adventure rides now operational that include Rope Cycling, RopeWay, Flying Fox & Burma Bridge. The entertainment activities are now conducted in a closed recreational hall which can accommodate 200 people.
My family especially my daughter enjoyed the full day there
Definitely worth visiting! They charged 900/- per adult & 750/- per child.