Waste of money,energy & holiday = Ranthambore Park. Review on Ranthambore National Park, Sawai Madhopur

First of all if you also fantasize about the national park to be a place like Masai Mara, Serengeti or any of the parks you must have seen in Discovery / Animal planet then Ranthambore is not even a fraction of those. It is just like moving in an open gypsy in a deserted park in your backyard. In brief my visit was a total disappointment after a long journey from Delhi to a deserted town like Sawai Madhopur. Only relief came in the form of the Ranthambore Fort that we visited next day.

Do’s: To reach directly to Ranthambore National Park book your tickets for Sawai Madhopur Station and not the Junction. It is hardly one KM from here to reach by road to the Tourist Centre from where you can easily book Gypsy or Canter.  Take good cash with you. I could only find one ATM that too at the Sawai Madhopur Junction on the way return. The connectivity with Train and Bus is very limited. For budget tourist like me please plan at least one and a half month ahead to get the reserved seats and to avoid last minute hustle. Only one train reaches here by morning 5:30 AM and departs for Delhi by 12:45 PM which is suitable for a working person to avoid taking a full day leave.

There are good number of cheap hotels where one can find good accommodation to spend night halt if plan to reach by mid night in place named Bazaria. I stayed at Hotel Asha in Bazaria (09414553272/ 07462-220537) that is in front of Sawai Madhopur Junction at a distance of hardly 200 mts. This would be the most convenient option in case if you can arrive late in the night and stay at the hotel here. Take a nap and plan your journey ahead for the day. If you stay in the hotel get refresh and pick a shared jeep from the Sawai Madhopur Junction. It will drop you to the Tourist Centre and takes a nominal charges of Rs 15. For those who can reach directly board down at the Sawai Madhopur Station and not the junction. Try to reach earliest by 6:30 AM and hire an open top gypsy or Canter. We went for a Gypsy that charged us Rs 500/seat. One has to fill a form and prove his/her identity. Carry any of the identity proof. It takes almost 2hours to take a complete go and return journey from the park. On the way return if possible then I would recommend you all to visit Ranthambore Fort. It is just at the entrance to the park and on return you can easily find a jeep to reach there. The only place which I enjoyed going to was this Fort which is very old and at the top of the fort there is a Ganesha temple. Here one can easily feed Lemurs. If possible take bananas along with you for them. They are very friendly and sit along with you to eat.  Don’ts-Never believe on the guide provided. They all try to fool you. Actually Ranthambore has may be one or two tigers left and spoting a tiger is rare in case if you plan a visit to get a glimpse of the king here. Feet marks is the only thing that can be created by hand to console tourist coming there .One can easily find all animals in a zoo may be in Jaipur which is a good place to visit with places like Hawa Mahal, Albert Hall, Amer Fort. Only animal which we could spot were Lemurs, Hyenas, Deer.

That’s it nothing else. And same is the experience told to me by my friends also. Guides try to save the image and in doing the repair job make fool of the tourist with their own stories of sightings. Guides make a fool of tourist whenever they cross each other by hoax sightings of tigers at gate no.1/2/3/4. Even at a point in the park from where they return one of the guide posted there shows a photograph of the tiger to all visitors to prove that Tigers exist there but actual fact is that they are extinct due to the bureaucratic style of working and maintenance by govt. employees. Mementos outside the park are very costly since these shops get good number of foreigners to cheat. Just before Tourist Centre there is a dhaba where one can find breakfast and lunch. If possible carry snacks or some eatables because this city is very sober and one can’t find any open shop before 8AM and after 8PM.

Overall in crisp avoid going there because park maintenance is very poor and it appeared as is I was in the outer part of the city with dry ponds, marshy place, shrubs dried trees. It is a waste of energy, money and holiday.