Do you enjoy travelling? Yes? Well, then you must travel in the monsoons (or just after) because the rains make everything beautiful. It feels like India is born again, blooming, flourishing and glowing – well in a nature kind of way. You see her in the prime of youth, all decked up in myriad shades of green. Nature does put on a great show for you, and don’t you want a ring side seat?

Mumbai is challenging to live in. And monsoons usually mean flooded roads, more potholes than auto-rickshaws, autos/taxis refusing to ply and traffic jams that make you think the rest of the year is actually not that bad. The horns create a new soundtrack that refuses to let anyone function without getting into a filthy, unnatural rage. If you travel to work then monsoons are not the happiest of times. But, there is one way to enjoy the monsoons in Mumbai, and that is simply, to not be in Mumbai! I have my set of favourite drives from Mumbai which you can read here. But those need not be yours.

Zarahutke.in has put together this great infographic on weekend getaways near Mumbai… apart from being useful, I think it looks good too. (Love such clean designs) Drives from Mumbai have been divided according to kilometres and it also has the time that it’ll take to get there. So you can plan your getaway depending on how far you wish to meander down black tar roads with green threatening to take over the road.

The monsoons have pretty much come to an early demise here and it might be time to get out and milk the lovely shravanmaasi weather that Pu La Deshpande wrote about in this lovely poem. (The only piece of his that I know, and hence really like. I had it in school and have recited it in front of the class, despite my extreme Marathi phobia.)
श्रावण मासी हर्ष मानसी हिरवळ दाटे चोहिकडे,
क्षंणात येते सर सर शिरवे क्षंणात फिरुनि ऊन पडे.
(Not able to find a good source for the translation, so here is my explanation and not a word by word translation.
In the month of Shravan, there are green shoots everywhere and every moment the weather changes, it drizzles and then the next moment it is sunny again.
Those are my two favourite lines. You can read the entire piece here. )

Ah, enough of all of this… Get set and go on that drive! If you are headed out for the first time, then read my tips for having that awesome road trip in India.

55+ Weekend Getaways from Mumbai (Source: Zarahutke.in)