Visiting Lonavala and Kandala in summer

My previous visit to Lonavala was in 2010 June. During Nano superdrive we’d stopped here for sometime. Since then was eager to explore it more. Things materialized only recently. Thanks to the balloon ride that didn’t take off, I ended up making a trip to Lonavala in wrong time of the year

Lonavala is not a great place to be in summer. It is supposed to be a mini hill station, but didn’t have any signs of it w.r.t weather when we visited in peak summer. This post shares basic details and photos of few places around Lonavala that we visited. (We spent just one night)

Shooting point in Lonavala

Shooting point in Lonavala is a large open area with a big valley in backdrop. It was pretty dry in May, but post rain expect this place to be much more livelier. 
A falls- almost dry

 Another view from a point enroute to sunset point

Sunset point

Another crowded place on the highway. Below is the sunset view. We could see both state highway and Mumbai Pune expressway from this point. 

Mumbai Pune Expressway & state highway-Expressway has more lanes, more traffic and costs more money in toll, while state highway costs less, but has less lanes. Only disadvantage of taking state highway is that you might get stuck behind two slow moving trucks running in parallel and overtaking them would take lots of time. While on expressway, it is much easier to zip ahead.

Another popular thing not to miss in Pune/Lonavala is the chikki-ground nut-jaggery mixed quick bite.

Lonavala Lake

Was completely dry! Some images for your reference.

But the Kandala lake had some water, though nothing inspiring. It doesn't seem to be well maintained.

Wax Museum was another attraction- we couldn't be around during its opening hours and hence had to skip it. [Similar- Wax Museum in Kodaikanal]

There are a few falls around Lonavala which are dried up in summer and some more view points- may be we'll check them next time.

We stayed at Girivihar hotel. [Read review] and will probably visit Lonavala one more time.