Booking a jeep for Ranthambore

Grace81

We are going to Ranthambore in less than a month and have heard that jeeps need to be booked early... what's the best way of booking a jeep.. via an agent...ringing up the Project office (if so what is the contact number etc)... something else??

Thanks in advance!!

Peter/Chris Witton

You can certainly try ringing the Project Tiger office. We wrote to them and never received a reply.

However, the hotel you are staying at will book the jeep/cantor for you. Each person is allocated a jeep or cantor by the Project Office and the hotel is advised. It is by a lottery system of sorts. So the earlier your hotel can put your name down the better chance you have of getting the type of transport you want and the time you want. The scheduled route is again by lottery on the day, though sometimes the guide will vary it a little if there is something interesting to be seen not too far off the scheduled route.

charu_nigam

Hi Grace81,

Ideally the jeeps should be booked two months in advance, as the number of jeeps in Ranthambore are limited. So, if you are interested for jeep, book the same immediately thru some local travel agent.

You can also book the same thru your hotel (if you have already booked your accommodation).

If you don't get the jeep, you can still enjoy the Game Drive on Canter, though you will have to share it with others as well.

__________________
What to pack while traveling

Peter/Chris Witton

Even a jeep may have to be shared depending on the demand the the number of people in your party. We stayed at the Ranthambore Regency hotel and highly recommend it. Ravinder Jain is the manager there and he and his staff are excellent. We stayed three days there and enjoyed our stay immensly.Some of the other hotels such as Pug Mark are out in the wilderness and unless you have the luxury of your own transport you will be limited to the confines of the hotel when you are not in the park.

Grace81

We haven't organised accommodation yet... do you guys have suggestions for a local tour operator we could book through??

Peter/Chris Witton

Local travel agent - also highly recommended :
Mr Anurag
Colleague Tours
18-A/10 Saurabh Compound, Jasoria Enclave
Fatehabad Road Agra 282001 India
Phone 0562 231362 2331363 Fax 0562 2230840
E-mail coleague@sancharnet.in

Ranthambore Regency address:
Ranthambore Road Sawaimadhopur 322011 (Rajasthan) India
Tel 91 7462 221176 Fax 91 7462 221672 22222299
Mobile 94140 45352

There are two e-mail addresses: ranthamboreregency@rediff.com and ranthambore@hotmail.com

Park Safari times:

Months Morning Afternoon
Oct - March 6.30 - 10.30 14.30 - 17.50
April - June 06.00 - 9.30 15.30 - 18.30 hours

The early morning trips are bitterly cold in winter and one needs warm clothing including hats and gloves. The hotel supplies each guest with a warm blanket to wrap around themselves.

Cost: Gypsy Jeep $50 per trip per family
Safari bus (cantor) $9 per trip per person

Some of the cantors are not built for foreigners and are very very cramped. There are some newer ones which are not bad. But what you get is the luck of the draw.

There are 13 ordinary Gypsy jeeps, 4 delux and 2 VIP
12 ordinary canters and 3 deluxe.


You will need to provide details of your passport numbers, date of birth and arrival times in Swai Madhopur to the person/hotel who is going your booking for the jeep. This is required by the Project Tiger Organisation.

Rates for hotel were $90 for 2 adults and $20 for a child All meals included. The hotel puts on food just about all day long including afternoontea on the lawns around a pristine (but cold) pool. Brunch is often served on the lawns as is lunch.

The hotel has 43 rooms - 21 cottages (where we stayed) and 22 Super delux rooms. Good laundry service. A small but pricey shop - bargain and you will get what you want. There is a local artists colony next door where they do some marvellous wild life pictures. Although Ravinder said they were overpriced, we did not see similar pictures in Jaipur. One of the shops across the road from the hotel has a good range of minature paintings on marble. A little pricey but again some of the work was better than we saw in Jaipur. My cousin's husband was the manager of the Trident Hotel in Jaipur and so we were taken to the warehouses in Jaipur where the hotel sources it's items for gifts etc. Although we bought a number of paintings there, I think that the work in the shop opposite the hotel was quite unique (local artist) and of high quality - love the jewellery paintings.

Access by train from New Delhi 8.00 a.m arriv 1.15 p.m. Leaves 1.10 p.m. arriv 5.50 p.m. leaves 5.00 p.m. arrives 10.10 p.m. leaves 9.30 p.m. arrives 5.15 p.m. The hotel will collect and drop you back to the station free of charge at any time as long as they know what time to expect you. Our train was late leaving Agra and we sent them an e-mail advising them of that. Then the train was 2.5 hours late but made up the time and we thought that there was no one to meet us at the Station. As we struggled over the overpass there was the member of staff to meet us!

By road from Bharatpur Swai Madhopur is is 6 hours

web site www.ranthambor.com

Ravinder's mobile phone is 0091 94144 16 100

If you want any other information contact us on thewittons@hotmail.com

crodge

Hi, I have just returned from two weeks in Ranthambore, i also suggest that you contact Ravindra if the Regency is in your budget, Ravindra is a nice guy, very friendly but also very overworked!!. If you were looking for somewhere cheaper you could try the Raj Palace. You would have no problem just turning up there and getting a very clean double room with cable TV and a shower for 600 Rs. They will definately have rooms if you dont arrive on a Saturday. Their phone number is 0091 7462 224793.

Just be careful when you arrive in Ranthambore as the park will be closed for the first two weeks of May for the yearly Census.

If you are interested you can view my Photographs from Ranthambore at my site:


Ranthambore Photographs

Best Regards

Chris