How To Reach Mahabaleshwar

Mahabaleshwar is a small township and the largest hill station in the Sahyadri Mountains or the Western Ghats. The town is located in the Satara district of Maharashtra at an elevated plains, that are surrounded by beautiful lush valleys on all sides. Situated about 120 km to the southwest of Pune and about 280 km southeast of Mumbai and with easy access from all neighbouring cities, Mahabaleshwar offers a fascinating holiday trip.

The ideal way to reach Mahabaleshwar is to take a train to Pune and hit the road to Mahabaleshwar.

The nearest airport is at Pune about 130 km away. Pune airport has domestic flights to several cities like Kolkata, Chennai, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kochi and Goa. The airport also serves international flights to Sharjah, Dubai, Frankfurt and Abu Dhabi. From the airport you can board a bus or hire a cab to Mahabaleshwar.

The nearest railway station is the little station of Wathar, about 63 km away, where just about a handful of trains like Sahyadri, Koyna and Maharashtra Express halt.

There are trains from Bengaluru, Mysore, Trichy, Dharwar, Rajkot, Thirunelveli, Ahmedabad, Dhanbad, Ernakulam and Ajmer etc that halt at Satara Railway station that is about 60 km from Mahabaleshwar. Another option would be boarding a train to Pune that has a very good connectivity by rail to the rest of the country. You can hire a cab from the Pune railway station to Mahabaleshwar or board a bus. 

There are the usual private and state transport AC, sleeper and regular buses to Mahabaleshwar from Mumbai, Pune, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, Panchgani and Nashik etc. You could also drive to Mahabaleshwar or hire a cab from cities like Mumbai and Pune. This hill station is one of the most coveted getaway spots for Mumbaikars and Pune residents to escape the city heat during summer months. Hence the roads are pretty heavy with traffic through the city checkpoints during high season, but the rest of the highways are brilliant.

There are local taxis that can be booked for a sightseeing tour around the hill station or for drop off. There are also Mahabaleshwar darshan buses operated by the government that are economical and will take you around on an excursion through the sightseeing points. Otherwise, it is a relatively small town and can be explored on foot. In fact, most prefer to do just that.