I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.....: Staying at Bandhavgarh

There are 60 hotels in Bandhavgarh ranging from budget hotels to luxurious hotels. You can view Tripadvisor for more details of them. However I will go into details regarding my stay at Tree House Hideaway which is operated by Pugdundee Safaris.

Tree House Hideaway"(THH) is a wonderful place to spend a few days in wilderness. True to its name it has 5 tree houses,each placed on different trees from which they derive their names ( Banyan ,Mahua ,Tendu ,Peepal and Palash).

In a huge property of 25 acres these tree houses is an ultimate getaway from the hustle and bustle of city life. Each tree house has the comfort of a luxury hotel yet their NO TV policy gives you a chance to spend few quiet evenings with your near and dear ones. All tree houses have modern attached bathrooms with 24 hrs h/c water, living area, mini bar, split ACs with 100% power back up for summer and 2 room heaters for winter, mosquito netting, writing table and chair, and loungers in the balconies.

There is a common dining room available where you have to go and have your meals.There is no room service available here. This place is a 2 storeyed building which has a dining hall cum merchandise store and a bar cum library on the top. You can get hold of few good books on wildlife here.

Hospitality here is personal and the best i have witnessed. The manager Mr Ajit ensured that we spend each of the 3 days in absolute indulgence in terms of safaris,food and comfort. No matter what we demanded he would ensure that it was met with utmost urgency. In fact he ensured that he personally spend some quality during breakfast/lunch/dinner with us to ensure that we were enjoying our stay.Since it was our "Anniversary" trip so we were greeted to special breakfast and surprise cake after dinner on that day. It was such innumerable small gestures that made this trip memorable.

Coming back to the trip. Our package consisted of 3 trips to Tala and Magadhi(Zones in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve)and Chaubey-ji(Naturalist) ensured that he shared his 25 years of experience in Bandhavgarh with us in each of these trips. We were lucky to spot lots of animals,birds,orchids all thanks to Chaubey-ji and his assistants. If you are comfortable with Hindi then it would be highly advisable to take Chaubey-ji with you on these trips. There is one more naturalist in THH,Kshitij. Although he was not with us on our trips, he would ensure that he shares his experience with us everyday whenever we crossed each other. It was very generous of him to lend me his camera lens for 2 days to ensure that i get some good shots. It was such small gestures that made us belong to this place.

The food in THH is lip smacking to say the least. Their chef prepared some awsome cusines and never repeated any dish throughout our stay. It was like a Master Chef Kitchen menus everyday in an obscure jungle. If you are a foodie then you will enjoy it here. All other staffs were equally friendly and courteous and ensured that we were comfortable during our stay.

So i would highly recommend a holiday with Tree House Hideway if you are planning to visit Bandhavgarh. I know many people complain about lack of room service / lack of mobile service etc here, but if you want to enjoy nature then get out of your rooms and comfort zone and switch off your gadgets and feel it in the right spirit. Yes there are some wild animals in THH property but they rarely get in your way. You might get lucky to see some civet cat in your room if you keep food items in open but then again without these small exchange with the wild your trip would remain incomplete. This place is one of the Unique and Unusual hotel i have ever stayed. I plan to come back here again whenever i can and recommend all as well.

Other properties of Pugdundee Safaries that i visited

1) Kings Lodge: Bandhavgarh