Serrano Nature and Adventure Resort near Mulshi

Serrano the nature resort is near yet feels far away from the chaos of the city. It is a good place for a group to spend the day just relaxing or doing few adventure activities. We went early April (very much summer) and still we didn’t collapse during the day due to the heat. Serrano had enough shaded area with lot of trees that i even managed to dose off on a chair under the tree (waiting for the next activity). In the monsoon, this place would be even better. But continuous rains might hamper the adventure activities.

The main area had lot of trees, places to sit and relax, few swings. This was outside the reception and the play rooms. The play rooms had carrom, chess and foosball. Lot of places to walk around nearby. If you go up few stairs by the side of the reception you enter the open area where zrob balls and a table tennis setup was there. The trampoline was not operational when we went. This is the area that the rifle shooting and archery was done. Every corner had some cool “insta worthy” setup for those crazy abt selfies and photos 🙂

Route to Serrano Nature Resort (From Magarpatta): https://goo.gl/maps/vcBbhtast4m3Y6SG9

It is almost close to Mulshi dam. You have to take the Chandni Chowk – Tamhini route and just before the climb next to Mulshi dam, you take the road to the left and go inside for few kms.

They have two kinds of packages. The day trip one and the overnight one. The overnight one is around 2.5K pp for tents and around 3750 pp for a cottage (includes all adventure and food). I didn’t feel that an overnight stay is worth the price/type of stay. If you happen to be the person who likes to stay away from home doing nothing, then it is an option. We went for the day package which was around 1500 pp (+ taxes) and this was totally worth it. It includes breakfast, Lunch, evening snacks, adventure activities and a thrilling sunset jeep trip.

The food was good. We had senior citizens in our group and it was helpful that the eating place was close to the reception. They were also kind enough to give us (for no extra charge) a conference room with big sofas where the senior citizens spent most of the day resting. What i liked in the food was the variety. Such packages usually contain Poha and chai for breakfast. But we had 2 items, bread/butter/jam, fruits, tea/coffee and biscuits. Similarly, the count of items in the lunch was also good including the much-in-demand butter milk (due to summer). But there needs to be an improvement in the “choice” of the sabji. Generally sabjis which are universally popular are chosen. Here, it was a bit strange to find vegetables which many usually don’t take! Overall, the food was good, definitely much better than the typical resort food.

Adventure activities: Right after breakfast, we went for the adventure activities. Also, we were advised that crowd will start coming in as they had bookings. So, it was better to complete them to avoid waiting time. They don’t have a big place, but good enough for an hr of fun. They had multiple rope activities which were interesting. The climbing wall was fun – it wasn’t very easy, yet achievable, so gave a sense of satisfaction on completion.

The zipline was a short one and the people who had never done ziplining (and the kids) enjoyed it. Otherwise, nothing special. They had the rope cycling thing, but it was not functional then.

We also went for the paintball. This is not part of the package and costs around 500 pp for around 50 bullets. It was FUN. We split into teams, shot at each other without knowing where we were shooting, but it was fun. You need to take a small walk to the paintball area where they have kept various obstacles to create a virtual war zone between two teams. Would recommend it. Good fun.

The best was saved for the last. It was a thrilling open top jeep ride to the top of a nearby hill for sunset. In fact, it was a little bit too thrilling to be considered safe. I would highly recommend more safety protocols to be followed. They have 2 of those jeeps. So, if there is abig crowd, you will have a lot of waiting to do for your turn to be taken up and potentially miss the sunset by either going late or returning early. Not sure how they plan to handle big crowds when this is part of the default package.

The drivers drive at a very fast speed uphill on the broken road (not sure whether it is intentional to give the thrill). But standing at the back with just the railings to hold on and the crazy angles of ascent definitely was not safe. Also, they said that the max was 6 (which itself was cramped), but they were ready to take more (of course, people became impatient waiting for their turn). The ride is very bumpy (hence thrilling) on a very narrow road uphill. The driver (with his seat belt) would be the only one to survive in case the vehicle did a roll 🙂 But it was thrilling for the ones who managed not to get a bump on the jump. The top of the hill had a great view and we were there for the sunset. But the only thought all the while was the demi-dark ride downhill !!

Overall, was a very pleasant day even in the April summer. Serrano is a great option to spend a day with friends/family and the place has just enough things to keep you occupied for the day.