In March 2016, I went on a trip to Jim Corbett with family. This is that story.
Jim Corbett was my first trip to North India! Up until 2016, I only vacationed towards the south – because I’m from the south, so I could always pair it up with a family function or meeting relatives etc. But it was high time we thought different, right?
By the way, I still haven’t visited East India! Hope I can plan a trip soon!
So let’s get right to the trip. What it cost me, how I got there (from Mumbai) and what I did.
Getting To Jim Corbett
We were 5 of us travelling from Mumbai. We took a train (Rajdhani) to Delhi and from Delhi took a private car (Innova) to Jim Corbett. We returned the same way.
The road trip from Delhi to Jim Corbett was about 7-8 hours while going because we lost our way in between. While returning it was one hour lesser.
The journey was convenient. We got met our driver at the train station and did a quick few hours tour of Delhi before starting our journey to Jim Corbett. Along the way, we also got to eat some awesome street food at local dhabas on the highway.
Where To Stay At Jim Corbett
We stayed at Sterling Resorts (Sterling Corbett) which is a pretty amazing property. We loved our time there! But it was quite far off from the main Safari entrances. We spent about 40 minutes to get to the safaris from the resort – but the views from the hotel were gorgeous!
If you don’t have any timeshare holiday rentals, I’d recommend something more central like Le Roi Corbett, Corbett Jungle Treasure, Jungle Leela or Safari Park Resort.
For something more
What To Do At Jim Corbett
Jim Corbett is essentially a wildlife sanctuary. So the best thing to do is go on safaris and hope that you spot a tiger!
We reached Delhi on the morning of 23rd March. We spent a few hours driving around Delhi and also visited the Qutub Minar (since it was my first ‘tourist’ visit to Delhi) and then proceeded towards Jim Corbett. We reached pretty late and so didn’t do much that day.
The following day was Holi! So everything was closed. We spent the morning at the resort and in the evening when Holi festivities had settled down, we went out. The resort overlooks a river. We just drove around a bit and found a road that led down towards the river. We spent a nice evening there, cooling our feet and taking a million pictures!
A little further from our hotel, we got to see some wild crocodiles by the river! Just keep driving by the river and you will get to see some stunning sceneries.
On 25th, we did our first safari in the afternoon. It was quite hot, but the forest is really beautiful, so we did enjoy it anyway. We saw many deers, peacocks, monkeys and many different birds that I can’t remember the names of! We waited by the waterhole for a Tiger to casually stroll by, but we were out of luck.
The next day, we did a morning safari (6 am I think!). No luck in sighting a tiger again, but we saw elephants! And we tracked a tigers paw print, but couldn’t find it. Also fed bread to some fishes 😀
The same day, we also did a night safari. But it wasn’t in one of the normal gates of the forest. This was just a by-lane / road running into a ‘forest type’ area. This was because our driver, for some reason, was quite scared of doing the night safari – so he kept trying to avoid it. I strongly recommend doing the safaris through a known guide – else like us, you might end up with a driver who kind of ruins the experience for you. Go through tour agencies like Mumbai Travellers or someone similar in your area who can then recommend a specific guide or set it up for you.
The night safari was very exciting despite our driver wanting to turn back at every point. We saw a ‘tail’ of what seemed like a big cat – perhaps a panther or a tiger. Who knows. And we also saw a family of elephants crossing the road just a little bit ahead of us. We didn’t see much else – because it was dark and well, you can’t see anything on the sides of the roads – unless something comes up on the road in front of your headlights. But the forest looks menacing and dangerous and that excited me! Oh! and we saw many deers again 😀
And that was it. Our little jungle vacation was over pretty quickly, but we loved every minute of it!
If you have more days to spend, you can also visit Nainital which is about a 2 hours drive from Jim Corbett.
Don’t forget to eat at local
Trip To Jim Corbett Cost
Here are some tentative costs. Depending on your budget, you can adjust it to suit your requirement.
Train Travel: 1200 to 3000
Hotel: 1000 to 5000
Safaris: 4000-4500 each safari
Food / Daily Misc: 500 to 1500 daily
Road Trip / Hired Vehicle for 4 days: 15000 to 18000
Overall, the forest is beautiful, we got to see a lot of animals and birds, and it was a quick long weekend getaway – so we didn’t need to take too many days off from work too. A great way to de-stress and get away from the office for a bit 🙂
For more long weekend trip ideas, check out this post. And awesome travel ideas for 2019 click here.
Anybody got the ‘criminal minds’ reference at the beginning? 😛
