So early one Friday morning, a bunch of us bloggers + vloggers got on a bus to start the (approximately) 6 hour journey by road. We started on the Mumbai-Pune expressway & then got on the road to Panchgani-Mahabaleswar. The last set of ghats can be kind of brutal, but I’m a heavy sleeper & blissfully slept through it all (missing some amazing views in the process, unfortunately).

Where We Stayed | Saj on the Mountain

When we arrived at the resort, we were greeted with refreshing welcome drinks & then got to see our rooms. Saj on the Mountain has 78 rooms on the property, divided into three categories. We stayed in a cottage, which is the largest & most luxurious of the three. The room is really large, (one double bed & two single beds) it’s especially designed to comfortably accommodate a whole family. I remember being forced to stay in a separate room when travelling with my parents because hotel rooms usually only accomodate two, so I think family rooms are a really nice option. They also come with a private back garden, which is enclosed for privacy – my mom loved relaxing on the swing during our time there. I did make a video (which you can watch below), which also includes a bit of our journey, a room tour & some other highlights from the trip, doing my best to showcase over two days in less than two minutes.

The resort is on the side of a hill, with the reception being on a lower level & the rest of the rooms higher up. It also has two restaurants, a couple of different kids play areas, a game room, Vyom spa, a pool & more.

Plus, there’s so much of pretty landscaping & flowers, that is was fun to get mom to pose by these purple ones.

What We Ate | Dining at the Resort ️

All food served at Saj on the Mountain is vegetarian, & they have two restaurants & one bar / gastropub.
Fasal is where we enjoyed our first meal, this delicious thali with some chilled buttermilk.

And here are some of the evening snacks they arranged for us all in the outdoor area we started our treasure hunt & zorbing.

I don’t have photographs from Wilson’s Cafe, but I loved the ambience there. I didn’t really enjoy the pastas too much but breakfasts were superb!

Finally, there’s Darwin pub, where we had a little sundowner on our first night. The chefs at Saj customise the menu according to the season & since we were there in peak strawberry season, strawberries were incorporated in interesting ways, like these delicious strawberry cosmopolitans.

The staff at the resort are also happy to arrange open air snacks / dinner for groups & we even had this great open air dinner on our last night there, complete with a bonfire & a fantastic telescope through which we got to see close super close ups of the moon! 

What We Did | Activities

Most of our downtime was spent within the resort itself, there was so much to do that I could stay within the premises without being bored!

Along with the standard pool & play area mentioned above & a game room with table tennis & more there were even some great activities like zorbing (where you basically roll around in this giant plastic bubble). There were also multiple trained people around us while we tried our hands at it, to demonstrate & see that we were doing everything safely, which is much needed when trying any adventure sports!

Where We Went | Places to See ️

Mahabaleshwar is an established tourist destination & does have a set of places you can visit. We did visit a couple of very historic temples (which I’d only recommend if you’re religious or interested in history).

We also went to see Lodwick point – it did offer nice views but was crowded & slightly underwhelming. You can also walk to Wilson Point from there.

Finally we finished our tour with a visit to Panchgani market, which is always bustling & a great place to pick up local snacks, chocolate or shop for Mapro goodies – I’d highly recommend their syrups & I did enjoy their Mazaana brand of chocolates.

Strawberry Picking 

People flock to Hill Stations in India mainly for the increased foliage & cooler climes – but Mahabaleshwar also has another (famous!) specialty – strawberries. Indeed, it’s said that 85% of strawberries in India are produced there, & there’s a strawberry field / garden at every corner.

Needless to say, if you are you’re heading to Mahabaleshwar during strawberry season, this is one activity you shouldn’t miss – which is primarily why I classified this as a separate activity!

We went strawberry picking just after breakfast, the fields were actually within walking distance of the resort.

Spotting some pretty sunflowers before we got to the picking.

Mom showing me how it’s done. Aren’t those the juiciest, most luscious looking strawberries you’ve seen?

If you’re in a hurry you can just buy some from many vendors like this, who set up beside major roads.

I also put together another small video of our strawberry picking, & now Strawberry Fields Forever will play in my head… forever.

I really enjoyed my stay at Saj on the Mountain, I’d love to thanks the folks at Saj Resort & DeTales Communication for being really gracious hosts.

Saj on the Mountain is a very versatile space – great for couple, families, groups of friends etc. I think they have enough facilities to keep every kind of traveller comfortable & happy. It’s also a great place to have a party or even an intimate destination wedding!

Mom & I just spent most of our downtime sleeping, the wonderful air & cool climate just makes you want to wind down & relax. We did have trouble getting cell phone reception & got almost no mobile internet, also the resort doesn’t have wifi. It’s a great place to shut off from the outside world, but if those are necessities, this might not be the place for you.

You can find out more about Saj Resort Mahabaleshwar (Saj on the Mountain) & book on their website, they also have a second property, Saj on the Lake at Malshej Ghat, near Pune.

Mahabaleshwar is a fairly convenient weekend getaway option from Mumbai, you can drive or even take a bus from Mumbai (& it’s even closer to visit if you’re in Pune!) If you’re planning a trip to Mahabaleshwar anytime soon, I hope this post gave you some ideas! Fell free to share your own experience or tips in the comments below. x

The post Weekend Trip to Mahabaleshwar 🍓 appeared first on Magali Vaz | Fashion, Lifestyle & Travel Blog.

It hasn’t been all awful, however. I just happen to have the bad habit of focussing entirely on negative things sometimes. So instead of writing this post right away, I waited till we were well into April. And I found that all the positive things in April made me forget the misfortunes of March entirely. And in the process, I learnt something new about myself too! That I tend to focus too much of negative feelings when things aren’t going my way, but give it a few weeks & I only tend to remember the fun, the good, the truly memorable. And the shitty stuff doesn’t hurt as much!

Weekend Travels

Like I mentioned above, March was in between major travel for me – still missing Feb’s trip to Bangkok while looking forward to the next one in early April. That didn’t stop me from getting a couple of weekend trips in!

In early March, mom & I had the chance to visit Mahabaleshwar for the first time. It’s a hill station in Maharashtra that’s most well known for strawberries. The trip was courtesy of Saj Resorts & we stayed in Saj on the Mountain, a beautiful property with little row houses. We tried our hand at some adventure sports, visited all the touristy sports, shopped at Mapro, huddled by a bonfire on one crazy cold evening & of course picked and ate lots of strawberries! I’m usually always on blogger mode even while travelling but I took that weekend as an opportunity to just kick it. The purer air & cool climate just enhanced our experience & I’ll be sharing a post about our trip really soon!

Later in March I also had the opportunity to make a quick trip to Delhi / NCR for the TATA Tigor Car launch. Going to an automobile launch is always fun (even though I’m no authority on the subject).

I stayed at the Andaz by Hyatt Hotel at Aerocity & I really liked the aesthetics of the place. It had a very strong design focus, definitely one of my better stays at Aerocity (still didn’t top Pullman though).

Our itinerary included waking up before 5 AM on a Sunday (!!!!) but we got to drive through Gurgaon & visit the Heritage Transport Museum at Taoru.

The museum is so beautiful with a large & wonderful collection of vintage modes of transport from the early 20th century onwards. It’s mostly cars, but there were even horse carriages & one pure wood train coach used by royalty.

I was really drawn to all of the vintage muscle cars (some as big as mini buses) but the tiny red Reliant Robin, a three wheeled British car from the 70s ended up being my favorite vehicle there.

I also vlogged that entire weekend, so you can watch it here (there’s a fair amount of giggling involved).

There’s More…

Watching… I ran out of shows to stream, so I began watching NCIS. There’s a lot I dislike about the show, it’s factually inaccurate more often than not & most of the characters are so annoying, but I hate-watched three seasons, hehe.

Listening To… More of Sergio Mendes from last month & some Chillhop music too! Chillhop is like an interesting genre, it’s hip hop beats you can relax & chill out too. I frequently use chillhop music in my videos & I’ve found that I really like turning it on in the background while I work.

Buying… I hadn’t planned on any big purchases in March, but my beloved iPhone 6 Plus showed signs of giving up on me, so I caved & bought an iPhone 7. After hours of excruciating debate on color, I settled on the silver version & I absolutely love it. I’m enjoying the improved camera quality, & all the Delhi photos above were taken on my phone. Not bad eh?

March 2017 Favorites

As with every month, I have a March Favorites video up as well, discussing some of my summer makeup must haves & my newest obsession. I filmed this on the first of April but took some time off for my vacation, that’s why it’s only just gone up. More details, as always are on the video page.

That’s all for March. Hope you guys have a good summer & manage to beat this heat somehow. Many more travel, beauty & food posts are coming up soon! x

The post Looking Back | March 2017 appeared first on Magali Vaz | Fashion, Lifestyle & Travel Blog.