Samode Safari Lodge

Best lodge when you embark on your tiger safari! What a special place tucked away in Bandhavgarh. Your host Priyam and the staff accommodate your every need. The homemade food is delicious! I loved their Masala Chai so much and asked how to make it and in 15 minutes time they prepared an entire set up and gave me a hands on demonstration and even sent me home with tea to recreate my lesson at home!||From the early morning snacks at the ready for your 5 am departure to the park, to the elegant tables set up for your lunch all of the food was healthy and delicious! Dinners were planned in a surprise setting each night and the food was incredible. You were able to sample several Indian delicacies, and they always had more on hand for seconds!||The last night they sat at a beautiful dinner venue to celebrate my daughter's birthday and they not only baked a gorgeous cake, they also prepared an absolutely delicious molten lava dessert. Swamideen served and executed the perfect meal.||The rooms are quite spacious with a large bathroom including inside and outside showers and tubs! Every detail was unique and the furnishings were elegantly appointed. We loved that the room gave you a great sense of the history and wildlife in the area. They really thought of every detail and even we had a yoga mat and weights in the room! And your laundry is washed each day and delivered.||This is definitely the lodge to book if you want a heartfelt, memorable warm welcome for your tiger safari.

A wonderful place - we stayed for 6 nights and loved it. Exactly the right balance between exemplary service whilst still being relaxed. Bungalows particularly the bathrooms are lovely. The food is amazing and there is so much to see on the game drives (not just the tigers). Staff could not be more helpful and a special shout out for Veer our guide very knowledgeable and good company.

This is a very special place with beautiful nature and wildlife. It is magical. It requires determination to get there - and the journey is worth it. We saw tigers on four out of five drives, and an amazing number of birds and other species. The camp is beautiful and dinner is a magical affair in a different surprise location each night. All the staff are gracious, genuine and kind. We are hugely grateful to Anshuman for his exceptional expertise. It is difficult to imagine a better, more passionate and committed naturalist. We would love to explore nature with him again. We feel lucky to have met him and the entire team. We sincerely hope to return.

This was such a fantastic experience it is hard to know where to start. The Lodge itself is absolutely beautiful; built only 15 years ago but in an old beamed style building that is gracious and filled with beautiful art and a great collection of photography books on India. The guest cabins are huge, beautifully furnished with wonderful outdoor and indoor showers and lovely murals. The food was the best we had in our whole India trip, which is an incredible statement since we ate well always. The chef here is amazing. All of the staff were so gracious and our naturalist, Bopanna, was absolutely wonderful. He was enthusiastic, super knowledgeable, and great company. We had a fabulous stay. The reserve is very beautiful; tigers are special, but there is so much more to see and the guides are delighted when guests are interested in the whole variety of flora and fauna present. Incredible birding...

We had the pleasure of staying here for 3 nights.I cannot say enough good things about it.The food was so delicious. The complimentary wine and beer was a real treat .The room was beautiful.But the best part was the people.They were so friendly yet very professional. They all did such a good job.And a special mention about Anshuman,the manager and our guide.He was the very best.|A very nice disposition and incredibly knowledgeable about the tigers and all the wildlife. Thank you.|We have traveled extensively all over the world and I have to say this was the very best place we have ever stayed.We were sorry to leave..

We loved this place, the lodge was a lovely spacious set of rooms and cool , the pool was perfect after a visit to the park , the food was delicious and everyone was very attentive. |Dinner was full of surprises with one night a BBQ on the terrace and another night was by the pool area dressed in candles.|Yash the naturalist worked very hard and we had some great spots of tigers and elephants along with all the other creatures in Bandhavgarh

Awesome all around. I have been on safari in many countries and will fondly remember this property. Stellar service, beautiful main lodge, gorgeous rooms, expertly prepared food, and great safari trips each day (we did not see a tiger there because of odd weather, but guests who were there before the bad weather did). I strongly recommend this place. My only sadness is that the safari schedule keeps you so busy that there is no much relaxation time to enjoy your cottage, the main lodge, and the pool.

Our stay at Samode Safari Lodge was part of a 19 day tour, and was definitely the highlight of the trip. A rather inauspicious entrance led us to a magnificent lodge within extensive grounds and 12 luxurious villas; the welcome we received was as if we were invited family friends rather than paying guests and this remained for the full three days. Manager, Anshuman and his wife Priyam, went out of their way to make sure we were comfortable and enjoying ourselves, the staff were friendly, happy, available when needed but out of the way when not, none of the constant "do you need anything?" we experienced elsewhere just many smiling faces! The chef produced the most delicious menus every night and gave us a cooking demonstration to share some of the tricks of his trade. We had three game drives, which was not enough, to explore the surrounding park with its' wonderful variety of wildlife. Tigers are elusive creatures and it was only at the end of the third drive that one was spotted, asleep and heavily camouflaged in the undergrowth. There was so much else to see and admire which, combined with Anshuman's sharing of his passion for and knowledge of the area, animals, birds and local conservation, made us feel privileged to be there. When we weren't out in the park, he also showed us some rare flying squirrels at sunset and took us on a tour of the local village which is supported by the lodge through employment and sponsoring of the school. In between times, the swimming pool was very welcome and pre-dinner cocktails around a fire are not to be missed.