After almost 9 months of exclusively eating home-cooked food and being practically cooped up in our homes thanks to the raging Covid-19 pandemic, we were starting to terribly miss the outdoors by December 2020. We had done pretty well so far - managing to effectively work-from-home, managing family, household chores, and also maintaining positivity and sanity, in general. But cracks were beginning to appear now - evenings had become more dreary, the drive to try new recipes had waned, and home-cooked food had lost flavor.
The trip to Kumbhalgarh and Udaipur was perfectly timed in this regard. We needed pampering, and our resort at Kumbhalgarh - Dera Kumbhalgarh - offered us exactly that.
But before we get to that, let's talk a bit about the property. Dera Kumbhalgarh is a resort located just 2-kms from the Kumbhalgarh Fort. Because of the proximity to the Fort, there is quite a bit if tourist activity in this area. However, owing to the fact that it is built on a cliff overlooking the forest-covered hills, with the River Banas flowing right next to it.
As you drive up to the entrance of the resort, you are greeted with the ceremonial beating of the huge Dhol, the traditional percussion instrument of Rajasthan. Your temperatures are checked and you are offered the welcome drink, post which you are escorted to the reception area to finish the formalities. And from here, you have the view of the well-manicured lawns and the paved paths and tents sitting on the hills. Reaching these tents and rooms requires walking up and down some inclines. Highighting this, because this may be a constraint for people travelling with elderly parents or grandparents.
Dera offers deluxe and super-deluxe rooms and tents that are equipped with hot and cold water supply, air-conditioners, televisions, and a safe. There were three families in our group and two of us had tents, while the third family had a room. The tents were nice with attached bathroom, but can get extremely cold on winter nights.
Yes, and that brings me to an important point about this resort and also about Kumbhalgarh as a place - it can get really, really, unpredictably cold at night during winter. Being near a bonfire helps a bit, but as soon as you move a couple of feet away from it, you start freezing. So when you are going there, make sure you are prepared with layers of clothes, woolen caps, ear muffs etc. To make yourself more comfortable in your rooms / tents, you can request the staff for additional razais, blankets and also room heaters. They are really helpful and you will find them committed to make you feel comfortable.
The resort has a dine-in restaurant that serves all the three meals. Meals here are an amazing experience not only because of the ambience of the restaurant, but also because of the courteous staff and the amazing food prepared by their amazing chef. The restaurant itself is well-lit with natural light throughout the day thanks to the large windows.
There is outdoor seating around Restaurant as well, but during the day, eating outside may attract langurs and in the evening, it is just too cold.
The food is superlative - we were served great meals. The dal was amazing always and the restaurant is partial toward paneer, so if you like it, you will love the various spins that the chef gives to paneer curries. And the dal-bati-choorma here was easily the best that I have ever had. It was crunchy on the outside and still soft and comfortable to eat. Kadi was the only dish that I did not truly enjoy, though other members of our group liked that too. the restaurant is vegetarian, but serves eggs. If you are in mood for non-vegetarian food, you can find several options close by.
Also, you can carry your booze to the resort, but in case you are in mood for something a little more fun, you can ask the restaurant manager Lalit if he can provide you some cocktails. He may be able to arrange some toddy in warm water and other interesting options. Some people in our group had toddy, and they found it quite comforting. Also, talking about Lalit, he made us feel very much at home, asking us about our choices about what we would like to have for each meal. Not sure if they would be able to do this for all the guests when the occupancy is high, but we were lucky. It may also have been because for two nights, it was just us staying in the resort. And we loved being pampered.
If you are interested in wildlife, you are at the right spot. The resort is right next to the Kumbhalgarh wildlife sanctuary and birds of all colors and sizes can be seen and heard around the resort. Red-vented bulbuls and common tailorbirds woke us up with their cheerful chirping, whereas the Rufus Treepie flitted from tree to tree. We also say the Grey Hornbills from a distance and heard the rhythmic call of a brown-headed barbet. Indian Magpie Robin was a common sight and we also spotted a brown bushchat right there in the resort.
There are also several easy-to-offend langurs around the resort. The pack had several baby langurs that would chirp like some very loud birds and scatter in alarm as soon as we stepped out of our tents. Their melodrama was probably the reason why we weren't really popular with the adult langurs. There was one, most likely the leader of the pack, who would sit on a tree-top right in the front of our tent and hiss at us if we dared to look at him.
If you spend a few moments chatting with the staff, they will gladly share their stories of chance encounters with the wildlife. Apparently leopards and bears are common in the area and have also been spotted several times around the resort. In fact, on Day 2 of our stay we heard a sharp shriek, which we thought was that of a bird. However, next day, the hotel staff informed us that it was probably an alarm call of a langur. It could have indicated the presence of a leopard nearby.
There are several tour operators outside the resort that offer a jungle safari on open jeeps. We did not go for it so can't really comment on the experience. However, some research shows that the forest is ruled by Leopards, who are the apex predators, and other carnivores such as the Indian Wolves and Striped Hyenas. You can also find jackals here. Also found here is the sloth bear, along with herbivores such as sambhar, chausingha, spotted deer, and nilgai.
Overall, our stay at Dera Kumbhalgarh was quite a pleasant experience. I give 5/5 to the resort for hospitality and service. 5/5 also for location and food. Overall, the resort was one of the biggest reason why we liked Kumbhalgarh so much. Do consider Dera if you are looking at staying at Kumbhalgarh for a few days. It will not disappoint you.
If you liked this post and found it helpful, I would request you to follow these things when traveling -
1. Manage your waste well and don’t litter Use dustbins.
2. Tell us if you went to a place and found it hard to locate a dustbin.
3. Avoid bottle waters in hills. Usually you get clean water in hills and water bottles create lot of mess in our ecosystem.
4. Say big no to plastic and avoid those unhealthy snacks packed in plastic bags. Rather buy fruits.
5. Don't play loud blaring music in forests of jungle camps. You are a guest in that ecosystem and disturbing the locals (humans and animals) is not polite.
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