Nick is away for several weeks on a TDY (temporary duty assignment) in Abu Dhabi. In order to break up what would be a very long stretch of solo parenting, I decided that Nia and I would need to go on some sort of adventure as well. However, we had some constraints to consider when selecting the destination.
- No leaving the country or Nia would have to quarantine for 2 weeks before going back to school.
- No getting on a plane. Nia and PCR tests do not mix well.
- Destination must have a Marriott property so we can use up our many, many points accumulated during COVID hotel living in 2020.
That left me to focus on car trips within our home state of Maharashtra, which just so happens to be a very large, very diverse place. Here’s a map to put it in context. Maharashtra is highlighted in red. Mumbai is on the coast, about ¼ of the way down the Western border of Maharashtra.
The best option that met all these criteria was a Le Meridien property in Mahabaleshwar, the strawberry capital of India. Unfortunately it wasn’t strawberry time yet, but we were able to enjoy the other thing that the area is known for – the stunning Western Ghat mountain range. This mountain range is massive, stretching 1600 kilometers from just north of Mumbai all the way down to the southern point. Here’s a topographical map so you can see the breadth of this range. Our journey is represented by the blue line. It looks like a small distance but it took us 6 hours to get there! A fun fact about this mountain range is that it is older than its more famous neighbor to the North, the Himalayan mountain range.
Despite the fact that it’s still the tail end of rainy season and we had 4-5 hours of rain each day, we still managed to get out and enjoy the beauty of the area. Highs were in the glorious 70’s (versus our usual 90’s) and we made sure to breathe in lots of fresh mountain air during our 6 day stay. Here are a few of the highlights from our trip:
Our Room
We stayed in a lovely Le Meridien property in Mahabaleshwar. Our room had a magnificent view of the valley.
Despite frequent invitations to join me on the deck, Nia spent far more time relaxing here. :)
The Kid’s Club
The hotel also had a wonderful kids club with a variety of activities planned each day. Nia partook in many adventures, including cupcake decorating, a camp-out and horseback riding.
The Monkeys
Monkeys were EVERYWHERE. While a wee bit on the aggressive side, they provided a constant source of entertainment. The Mahabaleshwar monkeys proved to be particularly photogenic!
This post got longer than intended, so tomorrow I will share a bit more about the sights we saw while visiting Mahabaleshwar!
