Chateau Indage Vineyard

Place: Chateau Indage Vineyard
Route from Pune: Pune > Chakan > Rajgurunagar > Narayangaon > Chateau Indage
Distance from Pune: 85 kms (Approx).
Places to eat: Chateau Indage restaurant
Places to stay: Chateau Indage resort ( will be functional soon)

Best time to Visit: Anytime.
Experience: After a long search finally I found the contact number to book a tour to this vineyard. The winery was started by Mr. Shyamrao Chowgule in 1979 and has already established itself with exports to more than 65 countries.

The Vineyard is located on the Pune- Nashik belt, famous for the grape production. More than 25 varieties of grapes are grown here for wine production. The Chateau Indage restaurant provides excellent food and wine besides a wonderful ambience. A Resort and spa will soon open up for those who like to wine, dine and relax themselves in bath tubs filled with champagne.

Mr Ganesh from Chateau Indage took us around to show some interesting wine making procedures.

02132-245977 is the contact number for those who are interested in booking a vineyard tour.

Cheers.

Ganpatipule

Place: Ganpatipule
Route from Pune: Pune > Shirwal > Satara > Karad > Ratnagiri > Ganpatipule
Distance from Pune: 350 kms (Approx).
Places to eat: Hotel Durvankur, MTDC resort, Bhau joshi Khanawal
Places to stay: MTDC resort, Hotel Durvankur, local accomodation.

Best time to Visit: Anytime.

Experience: It was after a long time that we were going to get a break for five days. We decided to spend 3 days at Ganpatipule. We started from Pune at 9 pm and reached Ganpatipule at 6 am in the morning. MTDC beach resort is located just beside the beach with cottages and huts that offer a wonderful view of the sea.

MTDC resort

Ganpatipule is famous for the ganesh temple. One can also visit Ratnagiri city and Jaigad fort nearby. Sightseeing buses are available. The place doesnot offer variety of food but whatever is available tastes really good.

Ganpati Temple

The sea is said to be dangerous here so people are warned against going deep into the water. Clean beach, clear water and lot of coconut trees. Excellent place to relax and rejuvinate.
Another good place to visit at Ganpatipule is the Prachin Konkan. It is a replica of a traditional konkani village. With lot of interesting information on Konkani life, Trees , Wildlife, Forts etc.

Prachin Konkan

Purandar

Place: Purandar fort
Route from Pune: Pune > Katraj > Khed-shivapur > Kapurhol > Ketkavle > Purandar
Distance from Pune: 50 kms (Approx)
Places to eat: One Hotel on the Fort(not much variety available). Lot of hotels on the highway.
Places to stay: Nil.
Best time to Visit: Sept- Feb.

Experience: The plan was very unexpected. We started a little late and it took us more than three hours to reach the fort because of the traffic at Ketkavle and the road condition from the foothill which is terrible. Your vehicle will surely demand servicing after a visit to Purandar.

Though the fort has a significant place in history, it is not very famous among tourists. It is spread across a big area and takes a whole day to explore. It has a lot of shelters built for army personnel which stand deserted now. It must have been buzzing with activity in the past.

We spent some time chatting and eating at the only hotel on the fort. Bhakri-Pitla, Pohe and Tea is all that you can get besides packets of Parle-G. View is very nice from any part of the fort.

We started back without exploring the fort. I wanted some time in hand keeping in mind the high probability of my bike tyre getting punctured. We touched the highway safely and had a grand dinner at Hotel New Vilas near Khed-shivapur.