BHPian Wanderers recently shared this with other enthusiasts: Last week decided to go on an impromptu drive to Ranthambore. I am sure people are aware that DME has brought Ranthambore closure to Delhi and takes less time than Jim Corbett. Not only Ranthambore, there are many new offbeat locations which have now become happening destinations only because of DME (Alwar forts, Bundi, Palighat, Mandsaur, Rawatbhata in Chambal region, MP/Rajasthan Border, and many small places in Rajasthan) DME has also made the hotel prices all all-time high and unreasonably inflated as hoteliers look forward to high footfall. Sad for them, it’s not sustainable, and nowadays its better to wait till last week for a good deal of a hotel, when the reality kicks in and they reduce prices. Don’t book in advance unless it’s an extended weekend or holiday in the new mantra. Same thing with Safari. Started around 6:30 AM and Google mapped showed 4 hours, 15 minutes but we knew we would reach early. As usual, a great way to start a day by driving on lovely DME. The customary stop at McDonald’s (~75 km from Gurgaon) It just opened and was pretty empty, but gets crowded as the day goes by. We just picked coffee as it was too early and also we had decided to try local food for breakfast and lunch. Reached the hotel around 10:45 PM after Kachori breakfast at the famous Janta Jodhpur Sweet Home near the Railway Station, Sawai Madhopur. There is another shop with the same name which you would see on the way, we tried there as well, good, but we preferred the original. The next day we went again and carried their tasty Kachori for our friends and neighbors. Sorry, no photographs there. The famous Sri Trinetra Ganesha Temple is located in the Ranthambore fort. Here, Sri Ganesha is seen with his two wives, Riddi & Siddhi, and two sons- Subh & Labh View from the fort overlooking Zone 3 in Ranthambore national park. Ranthambore has a good number of safari tickets under current, premium, and tatkal so if you know when the booking starts for each category, you can target accordingly. Again, the holiday rush may be a different case. I checked a day before, and premium/tatkal tickets were available and the booking timing mentioned that current will open the next morning for the afternoon safari. We booked the safari on the way on the same day as I could see a day before that the current booking was available on the date of the safari so why pay for Tatkal. This was my third safari in Ranthambore, and still no luck with tigers. When people asked about the tiger, my wifey rightly said that yes tiger saw us and not vice versa. (“Tiger dikha?”…. “Dikha na, usne hume dekha”)The idea was to enjoy a good drive, food, and stay away from city life, and we successfully did. A must-mention about the weather. My wifey’s cough (allergic due to bad air) vanished as soon as we reached there, and fingers crossed, it did not recur on arrival next evening. This is a good destination and best enjoyed in a group of friends and family. The hotel stay options are very good, and it’s likely that you will eat dinner/lunch at the same hotel, so you may decide to take a package. There are only a couple of good standalone eateries- Fateh Caf and Ranthambore chowpati. You can try smaller joints; we tried one, but it was not great. We stayed at The Baag Anaanta Elite. From April this year, due to some unwanted incident, authorities have stopped allowing private non-locals to take their cars to Ranthambore fort, which is located inside the core areas of the National park. So you need to take a local car or van. Our Canter could not climb up and we had to get down in dense forest. Return drive was quick and took to Sport Plus for some time when I had Range Rover in the road company. Poor guy had to try hard to stay ahead, even though I did not give full attention. Overall, the car did extremely well and returned a FE of 10.9km/h overall. It had touched 13.9km/h while going in comfort mode. Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
