SARANDA SAFARI RESORT

Beautiful resort beside the Karo River and under the Saranda Forest. Great for 2 night trip. Great for short bike ride. Little Unmaintained and uncleaned due to the low amount of visitors. Offbeat place. Not many visitors come here.

Good location, amazing side views , 4 side view offering

Very beautiful surroundings. But, rooms and property not maintained. Dirty Rooms and Furniture. Even dirtier bathroom. Glass windows are broken in the room which makes rooms colder than usual and difficult to sleep. Food quality very avg. Service quality is poor. Package of 5k per head is too costly in terms of property quality. We stayed for 2 nights..there are two other families who left after one night because they couldn't take it..Think again before visiting !

Nice scenic beauty around, not commercialized at all, nature-lovers would enjoy the chirping birds and the sound of Karo river in quiet. This is the only resort in this area. Good hospitality, especially from the manager Mr Zahid Iqbal, who was prompt in solving all our problems which were possible by him. The resort is somewhat old and cleaning is needed; they said they are renovating it now. Few unforeseen problems may come up due to that, like we were without electricity for continuous 30 hours. Our mobile was about to be switched off and we decided to curtail our 3 nights trip to 2 nights and booked another ticket (Since this resort is about 3 km away from any public places, the thought of having no mobile connectivity did put us in some panic and a weird 'imprisoned feeling' - hindsight, we may see it from whatever romantic angles we want). Although got a cold response from the owner for this electricity issue (like "your choice if you want to leave...but, only after paying in full"), Mr Iqbal did his best to shift us in another room with electricity. Iqbal was also very courteous and requested us multiple times to stay back. Next morning, while we were sitting in the bright sunlight in the resort lawn amidst the trees, we decided to stay back for the pre-scheduled 3rd night, cancelling the intermediate ticket. Although, we lost some 500 for nothing, it proved to be worth. There was a 1km Jungle trekking accompanied by young boy Sahrukh and the ever-responsible dog "Oscar" - who never left us alone even for a moment in 2 hours trek. The time we spent near Karo river was truly ecstatic . Other in-package sight-seeing(15k for 2 persons), Kiriburu sunset point and Jhinkra Waterfall were also nice. We misinterpreted the trip based on the name "safari resort". Actually, there was no safari included in the package (they clearly told it even before booking) - one can go for night-safari at extra cost as was offered to us, but we did not opt for that. For last twenty years or so, iron-mining activities increased in this area and most animals have fled. We also inquired about Kiriburu day safari from the local taxi drivers but they were reluctant as they'd need to deposit their IDs. In short, if you want a safari, you have to arrange for it with all the paperwork. Activities in the resort were quite good. It has Cradles, Badminton court (with lights) plus few more as told by management like table tennis and billiards - having the same in a jungle resort is far above expectation. We played Badminton in the court on the third day evening and enjoyed. Food was quite tasteful. I am an 'eggetarian' and they prepared special items for me. Adventure - if trekking through jungle was virtual adventure, catching the return-train on check-out day was a real one ( which was part of the package). Since this place is far from the locality, we could not arrange any alternative even after knowing that we were getting late. We reached 6 min before scheduled departure, ran with luggage to cover 7 non-ac coaches before reaching the entry of the first AC coach through which one can walk inside the train. Overall a good experience!

No doubt the place is full of Natural Beauty. BUT, regarding this resort I must say that Saranda Safari Resort is ideal for the "Travellers" not for the "Tourists". Traveller adjusts but Tourist expects. Very big and beautiful campus. Lined cottages with Cricket ground, badminton court etc. They are well equipped but unwilling to serve. For a small example, they will serve you food but not the drinking water. No one will attend you while having the food. For the simple salad or salt you have to go to the kitchen room which is again 20 meters away from your dining hall. In December January the night becomes tremendous cold. Now if you expect that they will provide you extra blanket then you are wrong. Yes, they will provide, they will never say you "No" but they need 3/4 reminders in regular interval. Even it will be better if you go directly to their store room and have one for you. SO, if you can adjust with this "unprofessionalism", If you have no objection in self-service then this place will give you adequate resources to enjoy. Red soil mine area, inside the green jungle with different coloured flowers, beside a clean and blue river. The morning stars with sounds of birds and river. Now what else a nature lover can expect?

A resort amidst the Saranda Forest - that's the single key point of staying here. The rooms and washrooms were clean however the property is not that well maintained (if that matters to you). Though the air and weather out there plays a very big role due to the Iron Ore Mines. Though you as a tourist won't notice the difference in 2 or 3 days, but the pollution do affect the lives of people and various other things gradually. Though at a first glance one would not notice the issues, however you can point out the issues as you start spending time there. The food is definitely not finger licking, however it's good enough to eat and survive. The locals serves the guests there, so do not expect 5* service.

Renovation urgently needed.Nice open place near Jungle.But facilities are not tourist friendly. Restaurant service good, food quality good. Little boy Shahrukh and Cook Sankar is very co-operative but the resort need to be more tourist friendly and equiped with necessary minimum requirements. There is no place like this to get close to nature.

We went with family and friends to this place on Sunday, 27th March 2021. Took 3 days packages of Rs@5500/-per head for 11 persons. This is the worst resort I have ever come accross. Totally mismanaged, illiterate staffs (actually they anyways have very few staffs, neither we could see any security guard in the entire premises. The food quality is pathetic. The restrooms are stinking badly. All the untensils are dirty & broken partly .The approach to the hotel is messed up. Overall it was a terrible experince and now on we will be careful of chosing any resort for a break.