Panchgani is one of those places, that I always wanted to visit. Even if it was just around 244km away from Mumbai, I never had a chance to visit the hill station. Since I was a kid, I was often told it was quite far and I needed proper 2/3 days time to explore the place.

Known for its scenic view and best strawberries I was always excited to visit Panchgani. So finally we decided to book a stay at Panchgani for a weekend. Since I mostly travel on a very tight budget I decided to challenge myself to spend maximum 3500 Rs, for my weekend gateway in Panchgani.

How to reach Panchgani (from Thane / Mumbai)?

We booked our overnight bus from Thane via Redbus app. It is one of the easiest and most convenient way to travel, even if you are solo or with bunch of people. It takes approximately around 5 hours 30 mins to reach Panchgani. Also it costed us around 650 INR per person for one way trip.

Where to Stay?

For the longest time, I wanted to stay at Zostel, Panchgani property. The idea of staying in container rooms was so fascinating, and exciting. As soon as we decided to visit Panchgani, I was pretty clear with where I wanted to stay. I had already browsed through the property on Zostel website and social media pages, and I couldn’t stop myself from being excited enough. Waking up close to the mountains even by not actually visiting Himachal is yet possible.
The people at Zostel are super cool and helpful, I had ball of a time there. After a day out of exploring the tiny hill station, when I came back to the property – good music was already there welcoming me. I grabbed a quick dinner, sat aside with my book enjoying the vibe and music.
This was that moment in my travel where I was in sync with myself. People where doing their thing, no judgements, no expectations or assumptions just do what you want to. Just be. This was the best time that I spent with myself.

How to travel ?

So you will come across bunch of public transport and taxis for your rescue once you reach the hill station. We had a friend staying there, so we rented out his bike and explored the place all on our own. See that’s the beauty of traveling right, no schedule, no answers, you are simply on the journey without knowing the destination.

We explored a temple nearby and started our trip from there. Later on followed by places like Sydney point, sunset point. I don’t even know the names as we were just going where the road took us. The only point I googled something on this journey was when I wanted to eat good food. There are immense options out for eateries in Panchgani. So it was important for me to chose one of the best restaurants out there.Also we had this ritual to eat breakfast at Lucky bakery every morning. It was the best best thing that I woke up to!

You can have your own share of experiences as you travel along, this was my short little journey – my first and most memorable trip to Panchgani.