Sariska Safari Lodge

Sariska is the reserve that lost every one of its tigers and then got them back: the lodge's own telling calls it the first reserve in the world to repopulate Royal Bengal Tigers by scientific translocation after local extinction. Sariska Safari Lodge sits 4 km from Gate No. 1 of that comeback story, at Amra ka Baas village near Thanaghazi in Rajasthan, with more than 881 sq km of protected reserve on its doorstep.

Sandstone cottages with the forest at the window

The lodge is built from locally quarried Aravalli sandstone and timber, its look borrowed from colonial-era hunting lodges. Cottages start at 450 sq ft with garden views and climb to a 750 sq ft Junior Suite with two ensuite washrooms for families. Top of the pile is the one-key Maharani Suite on the first floor, with its own living hall, study and a private terrace looking straight at Thanagazi Fort. Wi-Fi is deliberately limited in the rooms and kept to the common areas; the lodge would rather you listened to the forest.

The lodge says the entire property's infrastructure, those sandstone blocks and timber furnishings included, aims for a low carbon footprint.

Safaris, and what to do on Wednesdays

Safaris go out in open 4x4 gypsies seating up to six, or 20-seater canters, into zones that take in the 17th-century Kankwari Fort, where Aurangzeb imprisoned his brother Dara Shikoh; back at the lodge, senior resident trackers lead a walking eco-trail through indigenous flora and footprint identification. Note the rhythms: the core reserve closes every Wednesday and from July to September for the monsoon, and permits need booking well ahead. Closed days are no hardship here. Bhangarh's famously haunted ruins, Siliserh Lake, laid out in 1845 and spreading 10 sq km along the park border, and the Mauryan rock edicts at Viratnagar are all within excursion range, and the Bird Restaurant, sundowner high tea and the pool with its yoga lawn fill the hours in between. The lodge runs private air-conditioned transfers from Delhi, Jaipur and Alwar station, which makes this one of the easier proper wildlife lodges to reach from the capital.