Lovely place but with bad communication. Possible to visit in a day from Mumbai. I started by 3.30 am from Malad, Mumbai by local train (3.47am) to Dadar. From Dadar caught Central line, Karjat bound local train (5.02am) to Neral.From Neral toy train and 4 wheeler are available.
Tickets of toy train is only available by spot booking.Counter open just 40-45 mins before every scheduled timing. Tickets are generally available in morning time. Time table and rest of the things you can get from net. Better start your journey by toy train only to enjoy the loveliness of Matheran just after 3-4 Km from starting.It taken around 2 hours to get market area of Matheran.
4 wheeler are not allowed till this point.You have to leave the vehicle 5-6 Km back from market place. From Market, y ou have generally two option to explore the place - by horse or by your foot.Horse are expensive, totally depend upon the bargaining, but still it is out of your pocket.
There are 15-20 points to visit (get the map from site).better start from Madhavji point, Khandala point, Alexander point (from back side) - Lumley seat and through out boarder you can visit till Heart point. But you have to full of willingness to walk , walk and walk (min10Km).Horse wala charge for 5 points but there are more then 15 points.
Food, snacks water bottle all are available in market are only. There are some confusion at the time of walking as there are no proper road and marking. Local naughty boys made it more horrible in some places by giving wrong marking. Very very lovely, even you will not find any person to ask about road map. But it must see for the person who are rural, by birth and never seen any village.Free from noise, vehicle, mobile network - all rural things.
Couple can spend immense time anywhere they want - surrender by jungle everywhere around them.No body will disturb at any place.At last plan for return.Last toy train by 4.45pm. But return ticket are not easily available. Be ready for anxiety but you will find out a way to come back otherwise there are many cheap hotel to stay.