The hotels in usual destinations — hill stations like Matheran and Mahabaleshwar and beaches like Ganpatipule, Harihareshwar, Tarkarli etc — are already over booked.
It’s that time of the year when one-half of the city’s population — the half that does not care for the pollution, the noise and the hustle-bustle of relatives that the festival brings — heads out of the city.
This year with Diwali coming over a weekend, several families — even the ones who are not on their annual Diwali vacation destination — are packing up to leave for weekend destinations.
The hotels in usual destinations — hill stations like Matheran and Mahabaleshwar and beaches like Ganpatipule, Harihareshwar, Tarkarli etc — are already over booked. In fact, every resort belonging to the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) in the state is fully booked.
“We have 100% bookings for every day of the week at every single resort,” said Vijay Chauhan, chairman, MTDC. Bookings for the Diwali weekend started as long ago as June-July, he added.
“If you didn’t have the foresight to book hotel rooms in advance, don’t bother to plan anything now,” warned Shirish Rege, marketing executive, who planned to take his family to Matheran. “I called atleast seven hotels before finally managing to find accommodation. This was a week ago,” said Rege.
Matheran is heavily crowded every weekend, and this particular weekend being Diwali, it is but natural that a lot of people will come to the vehicle-free hill station, reasoned Pradip Kakde, manager, Tiger Hill resort, Matheran.
“Goa is another hot destination this year — all the buses to Goa are booked,” said Shailesh Shetty, manager, Star Travels, Dadar. While many cite health reasons and a rise in respiratory problems due to the pollution-laden Diwali air, others simply want to make the best of the weekend. “There is also a huge rise in people going to other cities such as Nashik, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Pune etc,” added Shetty
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