We went there in the peak of rainy season, so needless to say that it was raining a lot and we could hardly go out to check out the place. But still we had a nice time, it was quite nice to watch the rain siting on your cottage balcony. Moreover we were there during the weekdays, so the whole place was deserted, absolutely no crowd. And even there were only 2 couples staying at Regal during that time.
The service was ok and the thalis served by the hotel restaurant was great. We took a 2 nights and 3 days package and the all meals were included. Food served is strictly vegetarian. It is too tempting to have food siting in the balcony, but you need to watch for the monkeys. There are quite a lot of them.
We took a 2 night weekdays package and it costed us around 2700/- inclusive of all meals for 2 person. It was an AC cottage with a big bedroom with 2 queen size beds and a dressing area and bathroom/toilet. All cottages come with a small balcony facing the pool with siting arrangement. 2 such cottages are joined in one block. So this provides decent privacy. Though not sure how will this place be during peak season weekends.
There are occasional power cuts, but they have the backup generator. Hot water is supplied 24 hours a day.
The pool is decently large, not sure how well it is maintained as we couldn’t take a dip because of rains. Not sure if there are any other facilities in the hotel. The reception people are nice and so are the other staff.
Regarding Matheran, its small hill station very near to Mumbai. It might be a good option to take the toy train to climb-up and down. But this was closed during the monsoon, so we could not take that. If you are taking the road, you have to walk from the last parking point upto matheran. It is not easy if you have luggage, don’t try to take porter at the parking lot, as they charge higher, if you cross that you will find lot of villagers willing to carry your luggage at a much lesser rate. The easiest option is to take the rail track, else you can take the mud road also. If you are taking the railway track, you will get to see the valley view and it is quite nice.
Overall: Nice place for a 1-2 days get away.