Matheran

Matheran was put on the map in 1850, when Hugh Malet, the collector of Thane district, climbed up from the plains and found a flat, forested summit at about 800 metres with cliffs falling away on every side. Bombay's families followed, building bungalows among the trees, and in 1907 Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy finished the narrow-gauge railway from Neral that still winds 21 km up the hill.

What made Matheran unusual, then and now, is what it lacks. No motor vehicles are allowed beyond the car park at Dasturi Naka, and the whole hill top is an eco-sensitive zone. You arrive on foot, on horseback, on the toy train or in a hand-pulled rickshaw, and the loudest sounds are birds, hooves and the occasional train whistle.

Matheran's character is in its paths. The laterite soil is a deep rust red, and the trails that link its thirty-odd viewpoints run through dense forest that stays cool even in April. Many of the bungalows are a century old or more, built by Parsi and other merchant families from Bombay; some are now small hotels, others still family retreats, with deep verandas and gardens gone slightly wild.

Food is simple and Maharashtrian — kanda bhaji, vada pav and misal at the small stalls by the market, thalis in the hotels — with chikki and fudge sold for visitors to carry home. Charlotte Lake, which supplies much of the hill's drinking water, has the old Pisarnath Mahadev temple on its bank. At Ganesh Chaturthi the market lanes fill with small processions — the closest the hill comes to noise.

The full toy-train ride from Neral takes over two hours, and weekend tickets go fast; the short shuttle between Aman Lodge and Matheran is the practical way in, and runs through the monsoon. Watch the sunset at Louisa Point or Porcupine Point, and the sunrise at Panorama Point — and walk to them, rather than renting a horse for every leg. Come midweek; on Sunday afternoons the market becomes a crush. Keep food out of sight: Matheran's monkeys know exactly what a plastic bag means. In the monsoon the cliffs disappear into cloud and the paths turn slick, which is either magic or misery depending on your shoes.

Matheran stays car-free because the people who live there have fought to keep it that way, so respect the rules at Dasturi Naka. If you ride, choose horses that look well fed and rested, and don't argue the handlers down to nothing. Don't swim or wash in Charlotte Lake — it is the hill's water supply. Carry your plastic back down; there is nowhere on the hill top to put it.

Matheran and Lonavala are neighbours across the same Sahyadri ridges, and each answers the other: one is quiet and car-free, the other is busy, monsoon-loud and full of caves and forts worth the climb.