Khandala is a small hill station perched on the edge of the Western Ghats escarpment, just where the road and rail line from Mumbai climb up onto the Deccan plateau. It sits barely 5 km from Lonavala, and in practice the two towns blur into a single weekend destination, but Khandala holds the more dramatic position — strung along the lip of the Sahyadri cliffs, it catches the cool sea breeze rolling in off the Arabian Sea and looks straight down into the deep green ravines of the ghats. At around 625 metres it stays noticeably cooler than the coast below, which is exactly why the British developed it in the 19th century as a hot-weather retreat from Bombay.
The town itself is little more than a cluster of bungalows, sweet shops, and viewpoints, and the appeal is the landscape rather than anything you go inside to see. The classic outings are short and scenic: the Duke's Nose (Nagphani), a blunt cliff promontory named for its resemblance to a profile, gives a fine half-day walk and rewards you with a long drop to the valley floor; Tiger's Leap offers a similar plunging viewpoint; and during the south-west monsoon (June to September) the so-called "reversing waterfall," where wind blows the cascade back up the cliff, draws crowds. The hills around are dotted with Maratha-era forts and the rock-cut Buddhist caves at Karla and Bhaja are an easy drive away.
Khandala is at its best in the monsoon and the weeks just after, when the cliffs run with water and the whole escarpment turns luminous; in the dry months before summer it is browner and quieter. Come on a weekday if you can — on weekends it fills with day-trippers from both Mumbai and Pune.
The town is on the Central Railway line and the Mumbai–Pune Expressway, about 2 hours and 80 km from Mumbai, making it one of the easiest hill escapes from the city. Most visitors combine it with neighbouring Lonavala.