Pleasant stay at cool Saputara. Review on Saputara

I just returned yesterday (11-Oct-09) after a very pleasant weekend at Saputara. Happy to say that the place was not crowded (we were dreading that since this was weekend before Diwali it would be very crowded).

We travelled by our own vehicle from Mumbai (left at 5:30 pm on Friday and were in Saputara at 1 pm for lunch). We stopped at Igatpuri for breakfast and went via Nasik. The Nasik - Saputara road is very well-maintained and we had a very pleasant ride.

The weather was very pleasant (in Oct) compared to Mumbai - it was cool in the shade even at 1 pm afternoon. Our main aim was to just relax for 2 days (we did not want to do much sight-seeing, just a walk or two) and Saputara is ideal for this. Cool weather - a small lake, a few small hills to climb - a very nice hotel - all in all we had a very relaxed time at Saputara.

We stayed at Shilpi hill resort (you can check out their website for details) and it is a very well maintained clean hotel (in the upper price range). The food was also good (although only vegetarian). For non-veg you need to drive down to Anando's sip-n-dine which is a 10 min drive away back to Maharashtra :) We could not find many non-veg restaurants in Saputara. If you enjoy your drink, carry your own drinks since the resort does not serve any but the waiters provide all the accompaniments (soda, ice etc.).

There is Chitrakoot hotel also which has a very nice lake view and a nice garden around it. However have not seen Chitrakoot's rooms so cannot comment on that. Shilpi does not have a lake view.

Go for an early morning hike to sunset point (I think there is also a sunrise point but we lazy people did not want to get up early for sunrise) - it is a nice hike which challenges your calf muscles. All in all, do not expect much to see / discover. This is just a good place to relax with friends and cool weather.

There are camel/horse rides/ scooter rides for children. There is also boating and a cable car ride but we did not want to risk the same (since we were not very sure how good the maintenance of the same was). Do go to Saputara for a short relaxing stay!!