help for aussie in india first time

can someone tell me how matheran will be in mid april...temperature and crowd wise? any suggestion for a good place (air cond) to stay...with a bit of atmosphere. Is there another hill station (not too far from mumbai) to stay for 3 nights that would be more interesting than matheran...
Thanks heaps

The hill-station of Mahabaleshwar is located 300 kms. south of Mumbai and is approachable via the historical city of Pune. Near Mahabaleshwar is another hill-station, Panchgani.

Besides offering long walks, boat rides and pony rides, Mahabaleshwar is famous for its chikki, jam and jujubes !

Avoid weekends at either place !!

close to mumbai there is another place called loonavala, by car its approx 90 mins ,on the Mumbai/pune highway. A nice quite place to hang out for 3 days. Thou not much to do there.

hey there i set of for the first time from australia a few months ago and stoped in matheran and it was amazing, i think it is a good start to get you out of mumbai i did a horse rideing trip just befor sun set and it is totaly amazing veiws and attmosphere good to take photo's too, even if you can't ride a horse like me they just trott along at your pace and the last point is worth the bumpy ride trust me. just don't get to friendly with the monkeys the cheacky buggars stole my water bottle or ripped it from my hands i should say!!

thanks all for your help
i think we'll saty two nights in matheran and stay at either byke hotel or the regal?

Any feedback on either of those??