Accommodation Facilities

All accommodation options available at the park are located outside it's boundaries. The Rajasthan Tourism run Tiger Den is located right at the entrance of the park. This hotel is quite reasonable priced and provides clean air-conditioned and non-air conditioned rooms. The hotel provides room service but meals are available in the dining room as a buffet. 

Across the main highway from the entrance to the park is located the Sariska Palace. This elaborate, once upon a time hunting lodge built way back in 1902, has now been converted into a luxury hotel and is priced accordingly. Service and meals are excellent. There is a swimming pool available but it's usage is best left to individual discretion. 

It, and the surrounding buildings are in quite a sad shape of disarray. It has an interesting selection of books to read from and also an amazing collection of old photographs and painting adorning the walls. 

A new entrant to the accommodation scene around Sariska is a resort named Tiger Heaven. It is quite beautifully located among vast open fields, with the pretty backdrop of low hills beyond which lies the main park. This resort is located around 4km from the main entrance in the direction of the main Jaipur highway. 

At a distance of approximately 20 kilometers from Sariska, in the direction of Alwar, is another Rajasthan tourism hotel located atop a hill beside the lake Siliserh. This is also a small palace that has been converted into a hotel. 

The lake has a few of it's own resident crocodiles and even leopards, besides other animals, have been seeing drinking from it. It is advisable to be vary of the hotel's resident monkeys who are always on the look out for quick tasty steals from human visitors. This hotel is also similarly priced as Tiger Den. There are a few more small resorts that have come up close to the turn off to Siliserh.

The Kankwadi Fort

As with most areas in the state of Rajasthan, Sariska too is surrounded by numerous barren hills with forts located atop them. One of these majestic forts, called the Kankwadi Fort, is located within the park's boundaries. 

This fort was used by the famous Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb, to confine his brother, Dara Shikoh, whom he later had executed to gain control of Hindustan. A trip to this fort is a must at least once. 

The villages in the amazingly vast surrounding grasslands appear to be lost in the past eras. From the fort they look much like drawings from an Asterix comic book. 

The overall view from the fort is so vast that it would probably take ten frames with a wide-angle lens to cover it entirely. 

Although it is quite far from the core area of the park, it is possible to come across wildlife like Blue Bull and Sambar at the fort. The extremely lucky soul might even get to see a tiger. 

It is approximately a 2 hour drive from the gate if you go easy and enjoy the surroundings enroute. 

It is advisable not to try the trip unless you're in a 4 Wheel Drive, especially in the monsoon months, even though it can be done in an ordinary car. 

The route to the fort is to turn right at the checkpoint located inside the park. After a fifteen minutes drive, you will come to a hill road branching off to the right. 

This road leads straight to the fort. You'll know you've taken the correct route if you pass through a magnificent fort gate just some 500 yards from the main road.

Places to see

Kalighati: 

This is an area named after the neighbouring village. It is located a little beyond the checkpoint you will come across inside the park. This area is famous for the maximum tiger and panther sightings in the park. It is also one of the more picturesque areas. It is worth slowing down, or even stopping for a while, to enjoy the abundant wildlife in the area. The chances of sighting a tiger from the jungle track in this area are the best in the park. 

Pandupol: 

For the religious minded, a visit to this temple is a must. For those that are not so religious minded, it is still an area worth visiting at least once. The sight of the huge gaping orifice cut through an entire hillside by a waterfall is an awe-inspiring sight. It is worth climbing all those steps to the top of the waterfall. The stream running alongside the road for the last bit of the journey there is also very refreshing to the eyes and soothing to the mind. Surprisingly, not many animals are seen at this stream. The Langurs and macaques in the area seem to realize that the temple belongs to the monkey God, Hanuman, and behave like they rule the area. Many bird species can also be spotted here. 

Neelkanth Temples: 

These ancient ruins are located 32km from the main entrance. These archeological wonders date back to between the 6th and the 13th century. One of these ruins is still a functional temple devoted to the worship of the Lord Shiva. These ruins are a protected area and photography here is prohibited. Some of the trees surrounding these ruins are quite a spectacle worth noting in themselves. What remains of a couple of them are just the parasites that had lived on them, still maintaining the tree's original shape and structure. 

Hides for Wildlife Viewing:

A couple of excellent hides have been constructed in strategic places like over waterholes for wildlife viewing. One of them is at Kalighati and the other at Salopka. If patience and staying extremely quiet is one of your virtues, then spending a couple of hours at one of these hides is sometimes very rewarding. Try and be there as early or as late as possible at the time when the birds and animals are at their most active. 

Grassland Beyond Kalighati: 

While heading into the park, there is a grassland on the right a short drive past the concrete hide built by the roadside. This grassland is interspersed by many tree also and due to it's cool surroundings and abundant supply of grass, large herds of deer, wild boar and other animals can be seen grazing here. It is also an ideal spot to cool off a bit yourself if visiting the park in the summer months.