Location: Matheran is a picturesque hill-station 80-km east of Mumbai. Hugh Pointz Mallet, the collector of Thane, discovered this hill station in May 1950. This hill station is a haven for visitors escaping Mumbai's humidity.

Route: After a two-hour's journey from Mumbai's "Victoria Terminus" on a fast train one arrives at Karjat. From Karjat one can catch a local train for a fifteen minutes of journey, back to Neral junction. From Neral to reach Matheran one can take a train and the time taken for this enacting and scenic uphill journey is nearly two-hours. Passengers are requested to book their entire heavy luggage in the brake van except for purse, walking sticks, tiffin boxes and umbrellas. The miniature train's first stop is after an hour's journey, at "Jummapatti" station. The miniature train does not have toilet facilities thus passengers who have had a fill of liquids before the journey look forward to this station for relief.

Twenty minutes later the train chugs into another station interestingly called the "Water Pipe" - it is called so because the pipes transmitting water between the mountains and plain crosses the line at this point. After this station comes the "Matheran".

Matheran is at an attitude of 2,500 feet. The sylvan green surroundings, the beckoning silence of the woods and the serene surroundings of this hill station are quite inviting (avoid visiting Matheran on weekends if your prefer peace and quiet). The silence of the woods is broken by the pranks of the mischievous monkey's who are found in abundance and they try to attract the attention of the visitor's for small tit-bits to fill their bellies, sometimes to the point of greediness.

A number of hotels dot the wooded slopes namely - the Regal hotel, Brightlands Resorts, Rugby Hotel and Lower down the mountains is Aman lodge, Gujrat Bhawan, the Tourist Towers, Alexander, Lords Central, The Royal and Bombay view, just to name a few.

For the adventures trekkers, the interesting places to visit are the romantic precipice called the "Byron Garbutt" point, "Panorama Point" (flowing the rail track), Louisa Point, "Chauk Point" and a walk around "Charlotte Lake" which lies just past the Silvan Hotel, on Acharya Atre Marg is worth while. There are plenty of restaurants and cafes dishing out varied and delicious fares for different palate taste on Mahatma Gandhi road. After a fill the adventurous can try a footpath southwards from One Tree Hill, where Shivaji's ladder descends into the plains. This path was discovered by Mallet but was known to the local people for centuries.