There are lot of promotion for Lavasa specially in western India. So living in Mumbai and being short on weekend places to go, we decided to go to Lavasa for a weekend.
It took us good 4.5hours to reach. The road is generally god but for the last few kilometer(that stretch can take about 1hr).
The first impression is that it is already concrete jungle! The mountain has been taken over by housing! It is evident that some planning has gone into developing the place but that planning doesn’t certainly involve high standard of living amidst greens!
The hotels are very costly but of acceptable quality standard. The city center is pleasant with designer shops, a man made lake and a nice light show in the evening. There are plenty of pricey restaurants. The water sports and amazing global varieties of cycles(HD) were worth the try.
If you go to the highest viewing point( a nice treck for 1 hr), the view would take your breadth away. The surrounding mountain, the pure and clear lake and the morning haze was surreal.
The place is touted as retirement destination. This will come at a very high cost and not for the middle class.
What saddened us deeply was the rampant destruction of the plants- we saw it is blatantly being destroyed with fire which went on for hours.
Will I want to go there again? No, it deed not feel morally right to patronise to this ruthless commercial venture.