Since the onset of Senior college year, I have had different birthday experiences each year. Starting from my 18th being celebrated early morning on the Marine Lines, 20th being celebrated in Bangalore for our last College trip, 22nd being celebrated as a weekend city stroll of two of my favorite parts of the city, Bandra and Colaba regions- visited Sassoon Docks Art festival as well! Thus, this year as I was free of all responsibilities, I was looking for a trip outside the city, and that thought landed us with the decision of taking a trip up to Sula Vineyards, in the neighboring city of Nashik!
We had a splendid experience through the day, though the weather had its effect on all my friends, we survived it fine! Since the memory is fresh in mind, and in our opinion, we made a fine plan for the day, I thought why not share the plan with others. So, the following is how we planned our one day trip to the lands of Sula!
We had done a rough research from friends and internet before planning the trip for ourselves, the feedback we received from our friends was, going by road on a personal vehicle could be a pricey decision if you are on a budget, also the food is a little on the side of costly, but in terms of experiencing the tour and tasting session, the activity is accurately priced. Internet gave us a public transport route advice-
Either taking a local train for Kasara, boarding an auto for Nashik from Kasara station and another taxi or auto from Nashik station for Sula. (This is a good option when you are making an impromptu plan).
OR, booking an outstation train for Nashik and again taking up auto or taxi available at Nashik station. (Book the tickets a month ahead on IRCTC)
There are bus options too from Mumbai to Nashik, but we didn’t look much into it as that seemed more struggle than others.
Moving on we were boarding the Tapovan seater class train which was scheduled for 6.50 AM on the 16th of December from Thane station. The train arrived at 07-07.05 AM and with little to no sleep we reached Nashik at 10.15 AM and since we have heard a lot about Nashik Maharashtrian food, we ordered ourselves a plate of Misal pav and a plate of Vada Pav from the restaurant right across the station, we were kinda full from the breakfast we had bought from home, so it was just to get the taste of the food from the city locals, both being just okay!
The autos and taxi drivers around have strong pact amongst each other so bring your bargaining along. But to give you a basic idea, you will get an auto that sits up to 4 people at the price of Rs. 300-400 and taxis might sit about six people and charges may go up to Rs.500-600.
It takes you about 45 Mins to an hour to reach the Sula Vineyard, the property is on the outskirts of the city so part of your ride you will see the daily hustle of the citizens and the other half is of long stretches of land and far away view of mountains.
We reached Sula and freshened ourselves from the four hours of travel hustle and spent another hour clicking pictures at all the spots the property has spread out for its visitors. We booked our touring and tasting session for 2.45 PM slot and decided on getting done with our lunch in meantime, as almost all of us were hungry again.
The property in total has three restaurants within itself, one being Rasa- which serves Indian Cuisine, Little Italy serves all Italian plates both sitting right next to each other with pretty aesthetical decor surrounding the diners. The third is the Wine Bar that sits on top and which has the illustrious view of the whole property.
With wine in mind, we chose Little Italy for our lunch and what a divine lunch it was. We ordered ourself a Pale Di Potato for Starters, Pizza Napoli and Pasta Del Barone for main course and Sizzling Brownie for Dessert, The starter was different and decent- crispy potato chips were like onion rings served with mayonnaise, the main course was Dil Khush and we bloody ravished it clean, tempted enough to order round two of same, the high from the main course was though scaled down with the sizzling brownie, which though the menu described it as the walnut brownie what came on table was a cashew nut based brownie which was overall just okay in taste and texture.
We rushed over to our touring session after paying the bill. Without giving out too much for you, the session comprises of understanding different Wines in general, subsequent by the process they follow and a tour of the factory plants ending with the tasting session. The tour comprises of the factory plants and not the actual field. (just clearing for possible misunderstanding)
We got to taste six wines, starting with a sparkling wine followed by three white wines and two red wines. We swirl, smell and savored through it all, (maybe not the red ones)
Post the tasting session we headed over to the Wine Bar, relished the view with wine in our hands, soon an amateur band of college goers put down their instruments and set started a live music session. Danced through it, sang Happy Birthday to a stranger along with the crowd.
We had booked ourself an outstation ola cab a week earlier to return back to Mumbai, which in our opinion was a pricey but good decision nonetheless. We weren’t much sure about local transport, so a pre-decided vehicle seemed a wise choice to us. It costed us about Rs. 2200 (A friend recently also visited Sula, and says after a little walking and wandering around they were able to get hold of an auto to Nashik station.)
Post getting back from Sula, after seeing our social media updates, some also suggested us to have checked out the restaurants outside of Sula Vineyard lands, which are much vouched upon. The ride back home though cold and long was a great end for the trip and our Ola driver being pretty cooperating and resourceful helped us with our jitters.
In my opinion, four to five hours is a good enough time to explore all of Sula Vineyard and the nearby land.