Hotel Tiger Den, Sariska

Tiger Den Sariska is a Rajashtan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC) hotel at Sariska, Rajasthan. Chhavi and I stayed there on our trip to Sariska Tiger Reserve. It is a budget hotel. The non AC room cost us 1700 Indian rupees per night. It is reasonably clean. The staff was entirely helpful throughout our stay.

The hotel is right next door to the ticket window of the Sariska Tiger Reserve. From the backyard of the hotel, there is a shortcut to the ticket window, which the hotel staff will gladly show to you. So, location wise this is one of the best places to stay.

The Room: My room was not fancy at all. It had an old TV (Reliance cable connection) with a barely functional remote. But Chhavi and I have no complains as she could watch her cartoons and I could watch some old Hindi movie songs when she would fall asleep. The room and the linen were clean, so was the bathroom. They only gave a small soap but I had anticipated it. The towel in the bathroom was clean too. It was just quite basic. If you expect anything fancy in your room, you would be disappointed. If you are looking for a clean and a basic hotel, this is the place for you.

Open Spaces: The hotel has plenty of open spaces. It is ideal for kids to run around. It has a few swings as well, though they are rickety and old. I spotted many birds within the hotel compound,  peacocks roam around as well. It worked for Chhavi and I as she could run around unhampered.

As Chhavi managed to color a white towel during our trip to Pushkar, so I was extra careful this time. One of the instructions to her was no food on the bed! She started eating her chips on the windowsill! On the last day I took her colors to the bathroom when I went to take a bath. I didn’t want the bed sheet to become multicolored this time!

The Food: The food was according to a set menu. Most of the times I did not know what would I get for my meal. But they served it in generous portions, a variety of vegetables, daal and both roti and rice. Breakfast one day was puri bhaaji and the other day paratha on demand. However, I wish the dining room covers were cleaner. They were full of stains and are in a need of wash seriously. Other than the hotel, there is only that small canteen where you can get things to eat. There is nothing around for miles otherwise. The canteen stores all the usual junk, from chips to Maggi and everything in-between. As the hotel is almost in the middle of the jungle, there are a lot of monkeys around. So the hotel will not serve any food in the lawn. It makes sense, otherwise the monkeys could become a complete nuisance. or the other way round, we could be a complete nuisance for the monkeys.

Overall, I will stay with them again for their location and safe feeling I had with them. After all it was only Chhavi and I who were staying with them and it is not so common in India. The entire staff never showed any undue curiosity and when we were walking off they told us, “do come again ma’am and stay with us.”

I was happy Chhavi didn’t color any linen or bed sheets this time! When I would ask her not to do something in the park the staff would always side with her. They would tell me to relax and let her run free. The hotel has the highest occupancy rate on Saturday and by Monday there were only three other people than us! I didn’t get the Sunday Shatabdi tickets, so I had to stay till Monday. With Hindsight it was good, I could happily stay one more day at Sariska!