Ranthambore online booking--what gives?

Magee

I think this may have been covered before, but all the threads seem older, so...

My husband and I are travelling around India through Namaste India tours Dec. 2-16. They've told me that I have to book the safaris into Ranthambore Park for Dec. 11 & 12/09 myself, which I've been trying to do since early this year. Visiting http://www.rajasthanwildlife.com/Booking-page.htm (which then takes me to http://www.rajasthanwildlife.in/make...nyourtrip.jsp), a popup informed me that booking was not yet open, and to try again the end of September. It's now October and I still get that message.

Is this site dead? Is there somewhere else I should go to book online? Will this site eventually take bookings? Any clues would be helpful.

Magee

delhiwala

I read somewhere that the Contract with the website which was looking for Wildlife booking has Expired and the process for appointing a new contractor is on.

It was expected that bookings will start from 1st October, but it seems that the process is not over yet.

But manual bookings are on. So if you have booked any hotel, you may ask them to book a safari for you.

May keep checking the website for further updates...

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OceanTragic

I think you'll just have to be patient and wait until the site is available but in the meantime you could try emailing them and see what they say.

Has Namaste booked your hotel for you or are you doing it yourself? As Delhiwala said, if you book one yourself then you could get them to book your safaris for you, but bear in mind that it will be a fair bit dearer than if you can book direct. I'm not sure the hotel I stayed in (Raj Palace Resort) offered safari bookings but I'm sure they, like others, would do it for you if requested.

Just make sure you get bookings in a gypsy whether you do it yourself or not.

For info, I did a 10 day tour with Namaste, driven by Kamal in a Sumo, and had a great time.

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delhiwala

Yes ! do it in Gypsy only.

The bigger vehicle has a capacity of some 20 people and you may find the canter to be full of noisy people.

Magee

Thanks, Delhiwala and Oceantragic. I'll keep trying the site, but in the meantime I've emailed Namaste and asked them to send me contact info for the hotel they're booking for us so I can see if I can get them to book manually for me. Thanks for the tip on the gypsy rather than the canter! Don't need noisy crowds of passengers spoiling a once-in-a-lifetime experience! And glad to hear you were pleased with Namaste; we went with them after reading recommendations...either here or on TripAdvisor.

OceanTragic

I hope you'll be happy with Namaste; if you get Kamal say hi from me, he drove us from 28 March-7th April 2009. I would suggest that you note down exactly what day trips you want to do and when and tell your driver upfront. We never really mentioned to our driver that we wanted to visit Osian (=- whilst in Jodhpur - and kind of sprung it on him the night before. It seemed he wasn't too keen so we said not to worry/bother. We probably could have forced the issue but in the end we had a nice day seeing Mandore Gardens and other bits around Jodhpur that he'd not seen before.

If in any doubt about the hotel, just book your own and tell them. Sometimes it's the easiest way although to be honest, I didn't like just two of the hotels they picked for us. The final one, Ratan Vilas in Jodhpur was absolutely lovely.

I think the thing about the gypsy is that you get like minded people: people who think about the safari way in advance are perhaps more likely to care about seeing some animals and therefore keep quieter. But more than anything else a Canter is just too darn big and can't move as quickly as the gypsy. I reckon that I had one hour less safariing in the canter than in a gypsy - by the time it had picked everyone up and the drop off time too.

ribbony

I logged on to ask the same question about the site not giving us access to the bookings. I sent the park an email asking if we could book by email, but no reply.

Is there a 3rd party booking agent who can book the gypsy seats at a reasonable cost ?

I think the hotels, double the cost of the booking.

If the online thing does not work soon I guess we will have to go via the hotel as we only have one full day in Ranthambhore and do not want to miss out.





Failing that

goingback

After getting up in the early-ish hours! and not being able to book a safari, I telephoned and was told "try the website in a week or so m'am, it will be working". So we can only wait and see.

sprel

I e-mailed my hotel and they want 1200/person/trip if they arrange it.

Is that expensive or not? I have no idea..

OceanTragic

Yes it's a lot more. This year (but last season's prices) I paid Rs647 per person per safari. On top of that I had to pay our hotel Rs100 per safari (not person) to arrange for the gypsy to pick us up at our hotel, this added only Rs25 per person per safari for my group of 4.

So booking direct is a lot cheaper. But if you can't book direct I'd still say that Rs1200 is worth it for a safari. If there was no way to book direct I guess many of us would never know the actual price be happy with Rs1200.

You may be able to get a better deal if they book a whole day safari for you. For a single safari they're adding Rs500 (or so) and a whole day safari was Rs1293 last season, meaning possibly the hotel will add Rs500, making the cost of the whole day safari, which is actually two safaris plus a few hours in the park waiting, Rs1800, or Rs900 per actual safari. Obviously, the hotel may add Rs1000 or so, I've no idea.

If it was me I'd wait a bit. Obviously you're at the risk of not getting place on a gypsy but you can always proably get a place on a canter. It's not as good an experience, but it still is a great experience.

sprel

Thanks a lot for your answer! I will e-mail the hotel and ask for the price for full day safari.

I am a bit in a hurry because we will be in the park in the end of this month.. Also my boyfriend is a photographer and needs the best chance to get good photos...

OceanTragic

Then I hope you're staying at the Ranthambhore Bagh. If not it might be worth considering swapping, presuming that Aditya will be in residence. How I would have loved to see some more of his photos and talk with him about photographing the wildlife.

ribbony

I must say that I am suspicious of this delay in the availability of online bookings for the gypsy/canters. It must be a treat for the lodges as they will make a lot more from doing the bookings. One can't have the tourists bypassing the middleman.

We will wait a week but then have to book something as we head off trekking in Nepal and do not want to have to be looking for net access in the Mtns. After all, that is the whole idea of trekking, to get away from all that !

In ranthambhore we have booked at Raj Palace.

ribbony

I added another thread dedicated to those wanting to know when the site is up and running, subscribe to it so you will be informed when the booking site becomes functional.

OceanTragic

We loved the Raj Palace; I hope you do too. It's not exactly luxurious but the staff were very friendly and helpful. The pool was very welcoming after the hot safaris.