Last Updated on October 27, 2026 by Roslin Dwivedi
I had never been to Nashik before. Visiting Sula Vineyard and Soma Vine Village gave our son a memorable short vacation and let us enjoy a lovely wine escape. In this blog, Trip to Nashik: Soma and Sula Vineyard From Mumbai,” you will discover how to plan a quick, easy trip to Nashik. You can take this trip on any long weekend or short holiday in any month.
I was concerned as the Ganesh Chaturthi holidays were approaching. My only concern was to make these 4 days special. We went to Singapore in February this year, and it was a very memorable vacation. This time, I wanted us to go somewhere closer to home.
How to reach Nashik
For our trip to Nashik, we rented a car. We rented a self-drive Suzuki Fronx from Revv Car Rentals, Mumbai. It cost us around 18000 rs. for 3 days for a base category model car. Before this, we rented a Thar from Zoomcar for an Alibaug trip from Mumbai.
You can also take the train and bus.
Car or Taxi: The drive from Mumbai to Nashik is approximately 150+ km via the Mumbai-Agra National Highway (NH 160 / NH 3), taking about 3 to 5 hours depending on traffic. Cabs generally cost from ₹2,450 to ₹4,500.
Bus: AC, Volvo, and sleeper buses run frequently from major boarding points in Mumbai (such as Dadar, Borivali, Thane, Kalyan, and CBD Belapur). Operators include MSRTC (Shivneri/Shivshahi), Neeta Tours and Travels (Cityflo), and FlixBus. Fares range from ₹350–₹850, and the journey takes about 4-6 hours.
Local Train + Shared Taxi (Budget Option): Users on Reddit note a cost-effective method is taking a local train from Dadar to Kasara (the end of the Central Line), then grabbing a shared taxi or MSRTC bus to Nashik from outside Kasara station.
By Train
Railway Station: Nashik Road Railway Station is the main station, located about 8 to 11 km from the city center.
Connectivity: It is well-connected to Mumbai, Kalyan, Pune, Nagpur, Bhopal, Delhi, Kolkata, and Hyderabad. Trains from Mumbai to Nashik Road take roughly 3 to 4 hours, with unreserved/general/sleeper fares starting as low as ₹90. Local auto-rickshaws and taxis are available outside the station to reach central Nashik (approx. ₹200).
By Air
Airport: The nearest airport is Ojhar Nashik International Airport (Ozar), located about 16 to 24 km from the city center. It has limited direct flights to cities such as Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Pune.
Alternative: Fly into Mumbai (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport) or Pune Airport, then take a cab, bus, or train to Nashik.
The drive from Mumbai to Nashik felt like driving into the clouds, with lots of rain. We visited Nashik during the monsoon. I suggest you take a light jacket during the Monsoon in Nashik. We definitely needed it on our first day there.
What To Expect on the Mumbai to Nashik Highway
Mumbai to Nashik road journey is pretty scenic. We hardly played songs and mostly enjoyed the shades of green the surrounding countryside takes on during Monsoon season. The mountains and fields were baby green, fluorescent green, and every shade of green in between. The roads looked cleaner with no dust flying around. Some bridges are built above the tree lines, bringing you closer to the clouds, and it feels like a dream, or even dangerous, that you would want to touch them, but of course you can’t stop your car in the middle of the road.
One more beautiful thing about this drive was the tunnels. We came across at least 3 tunnels. The last one toward Nashik was around 8 km long and felt never-ending. It reminded me of those movie scenes where actors keep falling for so long that they forget the fear of falling and start talking or just waiting for this thing to be over. A bit dramatic, right? But that’s true.
Where to stay in Nashik for Soma and Sula Vineyard tour
There are many resorts we saw on the way. Many looked new and updated for today’s generation. We stayed 1 night at Soma Vine Village and 2 nights at The Source at Sula. On those days, we also visited Sula’s other hotel, Beyond by Sula, which is also a good place to stay (more details ahead). But the road to Beyond by Sula is a bit tight and poorly built, so you may face some problems getting there.
How far in advance should one book accommodations at Sula or Soma, especially during peak seasons?
For peak season, I advise booking 1-2 months in advance; for usual weekends, booking in advance is fine. You can also check their websites to see if they are running discounts during your visit.
Best time to visit Sula Vineyard or Soma Vineyard Nashik
January to March is the grape season and harvesting time. Plan your trip during these months if you want to watch the winemaking process and join annual grape-stomping activities. SulaFest (the annual gourmet music and wine festival) typically takes place then.
For more outdoor activities, vineyard walks, cool, misty mornings, and comfortable afternoon tastings, visit between October and February, when the weather is a bit chilly and pleasant.
June to September is the monsoon season. We visited in September. The landscape is lush green, and Gangapur Lake is full. But grape harvesting does not happen during this time.
Stay At Soma Vine Village, Nashik
We left on Sunday and stayed one night at Soma Village Hotel. This gave us a chance to see both the vineyards in Nashik. Soma Village Hotel was nice, but somewhere along the way they stopped caring about their public areas. The rooms are nice and beautifully placed around the swimming pool, garden, and a restaurant overlooking the vineyard, with a #Soma sign in the middle of the field that lit up as night fell. You can also see a bit of a lake from your room.
The view from your balcony is beautiful and feels very peaceful. Our room was conveniently located in front of the kids’ swimming pool, which was a relief because we didn’t want to go in the pool while it was raining and the water was cold. But our son couldn’t wait for the sun to shine, so he wanted to enjoy the pool, and we could keep an eye on him while sipping coffee from our balcony.
One more thing: when we arrived at Soma Village Hotel, it was lunchtime, and we loved sitting in their restaurant’s outdoor dining area. Their food was nice and a bit spicy for my taste, but my husband enjoyed it. My son loved their fish fry and naan. With our delicious lunch, we enjoyed Soma Vine Village’s Chenin Blanc Gold.
I must say the Chenin Blanc was nice, fruity, sweet, and delightful for the weather. The Soma Vine Village hotel has 2 restaurants: one on the lobby level, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and another called Little Italy Ristorante, which serves Italian food and is open only for dinner. You also get a beautiful vineyard view from this restaurant. Soma Vine Village also offers free wine tours and tastings for in-house guests.
Wine Tasting and Tour at Soma Vine Village
Because we stayed only one night, we went for the wine tasting and tour the next day. The tour guide was very knowledgeable.
The wines chosen for the tasting were interesting and left a memorable taste in our palates. To name a few, there was Rosé, Zinfandel, Chenin Blanc (Kashmir Honey), Viognier Reserve, and Rista (Alphonso mango) wine.
Each wine had a distinct taste. Of course, they are smart about how they present them so you buy the best ones. I liked all the wines except the Zinfandel because of its strong tannins and dryness. But I loved the Rista Alphonso Mango wine the most.
They also showed us their production facility and explained everything about the process of making different wines.
After our tour, we packed up, played in their game room for a bit, and left to check in to The Source by Sula hotel.
Stay at The Source at Sula Vineyard, Nashik
Day One in The Source At Sula.
It’s the second day in Nashik, a Monday, a public holiday for Ganesh Chaturthi, and the weather has changed a lot. Yesterday it was raining, so we wore our jackets because it was colder. The air was a bit chilly, but today it was hot and humid as the sun rose higher.
The Source by Sula has a nice parking area. They also offer pick-up by the hotel’s beautiful, aesthetic yellow buggy for guests. If the staff were kind enough, they also asked some day-tripping guests if they wanted them to drop them off somewhere on the hotel premises. That’s a kind gesture.
We entered their grand, lively, people-filled lobby. They handed us Tropical Rose wine glasses as a welcome drink. Our son poured himself juice from a pitcher on one side of the lobby for guests. We cheered and tasted the wine. It was something to remember. In that heat, surrounded by a beautiful, decorative, lively lobby, the wine felt so right. And of course, a bit pampered. The lobby manager said, “Be prepared to drink wine day and night here” and laughed with us.
While we waited for our room to be ready, we took a short walk around the property and had coffee at the in-house restaurant, La Bodega. We also went cycling and came back to check into our room.
One-day trip to Sula Vineyards
While cycling, we found out another section of Greenfield is open to visitors. You can visit Sula Vineyards for a one-day trip. For day trippers from Mumbai, Nashik is a 3-to-4-hour drive, and from Pune, it’s a 4-to-5-hour drive.
Entry is ticketed. Tickets are around ₹600 per person on weekdays and ₹1,000 per person on weekends and festivals (most of which is redeemable via coupons for food or wine). Enjoy a lovely wine tour and tasting, plus access to the wine and gift shops. Many photo frames and props are available for Instagram photos. You can relax and dine at on-site restaurants like Rasa or The Tasting Room.
Our Room at the Source at Sula
We checked into a Vintage Grande room, which felt like a suite. It had a lovely living room and a bedroom with a king-size bed and an extra bed for our son. The tea-and-coffee setup sat on the TV deck in the bedroom; a short corridor led to cupboards at the end, a full-length mirror, and then the bathroom.
The bathroom had all my heart. Even though there was no bathtub, this bathroom was huge, with a clean basin on a thin marble top, an open shower on the other side, British-era wooden windows (closed), and tiles. The tiles were really, really beautiful. I think one day, when I build my house, I will use tiles like these for my bathroom floor.
The room also had a balcony overlooking the vineyard and the hotel’s front road. We could hear people passing by and see the cycle stand, with people deciding which bike to take.
After soaking in the room’s beauty, we freshened up and headed to the swimming pool.
Jacuzzi, Spa, Game room and Swimming Pool At the Source at Sula
The hotel’s swimming pool is big enough for people to swim together. Surrounded by plants and trees, the pool feels tucked in the middle of the jungle. You can see a few rooms’ balconies from here, but it still feels secluded, since we were the only ones there. The pool and not many people were around. The loungers were placed neatly without towels. I took the opportunity to call a staff member folding towels far in the service hut and asked them to bring us a few towels.
A jacuzzi is also cleverly placed in the back, behind thick bushes near the swimming pool, so anyone using it feels comfortable and private.
The jacuzzi wasn’t working, and no staff were around to help. Though the website claimed they have a temperature-controlled swimming pool, the water was cold, as I mentioned above; it was still Monsoon and a bit cloudy. But anyway, we were prepared for the swimming pool, so we couldn’t leave without using it.
Wine Tour and Tasting at Sula Vineyard
The wine tour we got was very interesting. The staff met us in the wine shop building and sat us down in a room with a projector and benches to watch a movie about Sula Vineyard’s beginnings, how CEO Rajeev Samant started it, and how he grew the business into what we see today.
After the movie, the staff took us to the facility where they process the grapes, then to the cellar where they store the wines. He shared many interesting facts about the process, from harvesting the grapes to bottling the wine.
Later, we went to a lovely room with a long table set with a few wines and a platter of cheese and chocolates.
We tasted Sula Tropical Rosé Wine, Sula Dindori Chardonnay, Grenache Rosé, Rasa Syrah, Rasa Cabernet Sauvignon, and The Source Moscato.
I definitely loved the Tropical Rosé, Chardonnay, and Moscato, which is my all-time favorite. Also, I loved the chocolates and cheese selection on the platter. So much that I bought them later when I came back to Mumbai.
After our tour, we bought a box of assorted wines at a full rack price. Check out the image for the wines we bought.
Dinner at Sula Vineyard
On our first day at Sula Vineyards, we ate at Rasa, which serves Italian and Indian cuisine. We ordered a non-vegetarian platter and naan, and later mango cheesecake and Tiramisu. Both the desserts were delicious, but the platter was average. But Rasa offers a unique dining setup. It’s more like village dining, with a rope-woven bed (khatiya) on one side of the table and 2 chairs on the other. It looks very aesthetic, but it wasn’t for me. I’d rather sleep on it. We walked along the calm, quiet road from the restaurant to our room. In the morning, this same path was full of day visitors and tourists. At night, it felt very quiet and pleasant.
Day Two at The Source by Sula Vineyard
If you like a quiet morning, waking up late the next day and enjoying a slow morning on your balcony could be one of the resort’s most calming experiences. Anywhere we go, I like to wake up early, enjoy my morning coffee, and read. They are my morning boosters.
Every room at The Source by Sula features an elegant European-style wrought-iron balcony with wooden-framed French doors and a table and chair for two. The quiet morning air brings birds chirping and distant whispers of people talking. You won’t hear car horns or any noise in the room or on the balcony. Thick trees and well-planned horticulture inside the hotel premises make you feel surrounded by nature.
La Bodega Restaurant at The Source at Sula
Later, we headed to La Bodega for the complimentary breakfast. The buffet offers South Indian dishes like idli, dosa, sambar, and chutney, along with Marathi delicacies like misal pav, live egg preparations made to order, and bread, baked potatoes, sautéed mushrooms, and veggies.
They also serve fresh juices, Masala tea, cold coffee on order, and some bakery products. The restaurant’s decor and ceilings are lovely. We always preferred the open space at the back, with birds and squirrels playing around us on the patio.
After breakfast, we took a bike and went around the vineyard. The cycling area isn’t very large, but the path is old, and it still gives you a good cardio workout to ride all the way to the garden and back. It’s a great area for a quick workout after your meal, but you cannot cycle after dinner as it’s not allowed after dark. You can relax or go swimming in the afternoon. There are some activities also around the hotel, like Gangapur Dam & Backwater, Someshwar Waterfall, Pandav Leni, and MTDC Boat Club Nashik.
We also spent a lot of time sitting and reading outdoors on their open patio, with a cute Swiss-style fountain in the middle, and after lunch, we wanted to check out the property.
We walked toward the lobby, then all the way to the La Bodega restaurants. The property has rooms in the main building and treehouses. The entire property has lovely, gorgeous pathways lined with thick plantation on the sides, and everything is well maintained.
Our Visit to Beyond by Sula
For evening coffee, we went to Beyond by Sula. From their rooftop restaurant, the sunset was stunning, and the lake view was mind-blowing. Mostly nature all around. You can see this lake. The current view is beautiful. See as far as you can: the boat moving on the lake, the surrounding water, and the Nashik lake views beyond. During sunset, we felt very peaceful. Beyond By Sula has 2- and 3-bedroom villas. They aren’t attached to the main property, but they are within walking distance and easy to reach.
This property has a few double-bed rooms lined up on one side, bathed in sunlight, with no closed corridors. The lawns are very well maintained, and I feel this place would be a great backdrop for an engagement or marriage ceremony, or a wedding shoot. The property looks pretty, with flowers all around.
Back at The Source at Sula, we mostly had dinner, followed by a Tropical Rose wine on the balcony from the box of wine bottles we bought.
Day 3
On our third day, we said farewell to the hotel. Our son was upset that this relaxing holiday was so short. We spent a peaceful morning on the balcony, reading and sipping coffee. After breakfast, we packed our luggage and took one last cycle ride through the vineyards. A yellow buggy picked us up and dropped us off at the car park.
Final thoughts about our trip to Nashik, Soma Village and Sula Vineyards
For us, it was worth going to Nashik, Sula Vineyards, and Soma Vine Village, with Sula being the better choice.
The journey to Nashik in September was pleasant and felt like the ideal time to visit Nashik. There was light rain. During our 3 days in Nashik, it rained only one day; the rest were hot and humid.
Another amazing part of traveling in September was driving among the clouds on the hills and high-altitude roads. The longest tunnel on the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway, just before the Igatpuri tunnel, was also a highlight.
Spotting some unexpected waterfalls was really exciting, especially for our son. These days, it’s getting difficult to keep kids entertained all the time. Surprises on the road, like unexpected waterfalls, clouds in the sky, and mountains covered in new, green plants, make the journey pretty engaging for kids. He stayed glued to the window, watching the cars, people, land, and the highway.
This short, multi-day vacation became one of his favorite holidays. On our typical holidays, we usually walk and explore a lot. This time, it was a balanced, relaxed, and fun trip. We weren’t rushing from one attraction to the next. His parents were completely at ease, and so was he. He absolutely loved his pool time, got a little bit of screen time, and enjoyed cycling through the vineyard.
Both the vineyards and the wine-and-factory tour were a brand-new experience for him. Even though wine tours aren’t typically part of his everyday life, he loved the easy-going agenda. Plus, he got to spend a lot of time with his father, who is usually very busy on workdays.
highly recommend this trip
I also highly recommend this trip for couples. It is the perfect getaway to forget your problems, have a drink, and enjoy time with your partner. This trip is not as expensive as traveling abroad or visiting tourist destinations in India. You may end up spending around 30k–40k INR for a weekend, or less if you stay in just one hotel. Also, if you don’t rent a car, you will spend less. We probably spent this much because we are a family of 3. Solo or couple travelers can cut a few corners here and there. The Source at Sula Vineyard and Soma Vine Village are both great wine-scaped destinations you can reach from Mumbai.
