Did a trip to Tapola the mini Kashmir of Maharashtra

Having visited Mahabaleshwar multiple times on bikes as well as by car, Tapola along with agro tourism experience was on my mind since long.

BHPian Draunzer21 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

When we hear about Kashmir what comes to my mind is beautiful nature, snow and foggy winters. I have never been to Kashmir but I had heard a lot about a place which is called mini Kashmir of Maharashtra - Tapola.

Having visited Mahabaleshwar multiple times on bikes as well as by car, Tapola along with agro tourism experience was on my mind since long and I had watched several YouTube videos just to be sure that the place and the stay is superb.

After booking and cancelling twice in last 2 years because of some or the other reason, we finally made a plan, executed that and visited this beautiful place.

Earlier the plan was to go on a weekend but because of some unavoidable reasons, we went on Sunday and check out was on Monday.

One day stay is more than enough for a trip to Tapola. We were 4 adults and 2 kids and we had decided to start on Sunday morning at 7 AM but as we had a 2 year old, we ended up starting at 8.30 AM from Baner, Pune and reached our first stop Banana Leaf, Surur at around 10.30 am.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/PM1Zbne93iXepeWm8

The road was pretty good and we spent a good 1.5 hours and had an okay breakfast. I did not like the Dosa I had ordered but Idli Wada was nice. The washrooms are clean and it is one of the best stops for people who are going towards Mahabaleshwar. Food is just okay according to me.

After our breakfast, we started towards Tapola via Mahabaleshwar and there was lot of oncoming traffic as it was Sunday. Mapro Garden was packed and we did not stop there as it was not on the plan while going.

The last few kms to our lakeside hotel were filled with uneven roads and potholes but somehow we made it. We were aware that there would be no network as we reach near to our stay and we had downloaded offline maps which helped us to reach our stay by around 2 pm.

The Agro Tourism stay had lunch, tea, kayaking + boating, barbecue, dinner and next day's breakfast included. It was on per-person basis and the rooms were really large. We cannot expect 3 star or above service here but the rooms were clean and had AC as well as spacious washrooms.

As all the tourists had departed on Sunday morning, the whole resort was empty and our family was the only family there.

We also booked a boat ride which costed us 3000 rupees for entire family and they took us to nearby Shiv mandir, Datta Mandir and Ganpati Mandir and also showed us Eknath Shinde's (ex-Maharashtra CM) bungalow from outside at his village. The boat ride was good.

We did Kayaking and boating which was complementary, in the evening and it was also a good experience. We visited strawberry farm as well which was followed by a trek to our resort while coming back but the owner of the farm was mostly focused towards selling strawberries instead of answering questions/ clearing doubts we had about the farm.

We started back from Tapola at around 2.30 PM IST and while coming back, we stopped at Mapro Garden for enjoying some thick shakes and sandwiches and came back to Pune by 7 pm on Monday evening.

Overall it was a good experience but the food was very average. The agro tourism stay we had was this.

The views of Koyna river while going to Tapola were mind blowing even in the afternoon and I thought that was one reason people called it mini Kashmir. The valley view from the resort was also beautiful and morning was foggy and chill. It is a one time visit place just to experience Tapola according to me.

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