Search for resorts in Ramnagar and you get a hundred of them, each "in Corbett", each with a pool in the photograph. What you are choosing is simpler than the list makes it look: a place to sleep near the gate your safari will use, that suits the people you are bringing, with enough in the day for the hours the park does not take. Here is how to choose, honestly, from a farm that is on the list itself.
Where are the resorts in Corbett, exactly?
"Corbett" is a tiger reserve, and nobody stays inside it except at the forest rest houses. The resorts are around it, in four or five distinct places, and the place matters more than the name.
Ramnagar town is the railhead and the market, the last town before the park, with the station the overnight trains from Delhi arrive at. Practical, and the furthest in spirit from a forest.
The Kosi river road, north of Ramnagar, is the strip most people picture: resort after resort along the river, with the Bijrani and Garjiya gates near by. Closest to the classic first safari, busiest on weekends, and the river is lovely in the evening.
The southern side, towards Dhela and Jhirna, is quieter and further from town, and the two zones there stay open all year, which makes it the only choice in the monsoon.
The hill road north, along the Ramganga towards Marchula and the Durgadevi zone, is the most remote: a hill drive, fewer places, and the river and the birds.
The farmland around Ramnagar, which is where The Homestead is, at Sakhanpur, fifteen minutes beyond the town and six kilometres from the park. Not on the river strip, not in the town: a farm, with the forest for a neighbour.
Which gate will your safari use?
Choose the stay for the safari, not the other way round. The gates are spread around the reserve, so a resort "in Corbett" can be forty minutes from the gate you are booked into, and the morning jeep leaves before first light. Ask any resort two things: which zones it can book for your date, and whether it charges what the permit, jeep and guide cost or adds to them. How the safari is booked explains the zones and the permits. The Homestead books the zones around Ramnagar, Bijrani, Jhirna, Dhela, Garjiya, Durgadevi and Sitabani among them, at cost, and the jeep collects you at the farm.
If you want Dhikala, it is a different plan: a day trip by the forest department's canter from Ramnagar, or a night inside the park at the forest rest houses, which are booked through the forest department with every guest's ID and are the scarcest beds in Corbett.
Who is coming?
Two of you. You want quiet, a table of your own at dinner, and a reason to stay out of the car. On the farm that is a candlelight dinner, the telescopes after dark and the orchard walk before anyone else is up.
Children. You want space to run, a pool, and a day that does not depend on a tiger. A play area with swings and a tree house, mini golf, the ATV track, the pool and the animals do that on the farm, and the rooms say who sleeps where.
Three generations. Rooms close enough together to share a day, the suites and the cottages between them, and one long table so the day ends together.
A dog. Most "pet-friendly" resorts mean the lawn. Ask whether the dog sleeps in the room and whether the garden is fenced. The two cottages at The Homestead take dogs, each with its own fenced garden.
A company, or a wedding. Ask whether the place can be taken whole. The farm takes one company or one family at a time: thirteen rooms, one table, the Baradari for the evening.
What does the rate include?
The number on the booking site is rarely the number you pay, and the gap is in three places.
Meals. Some rates are room only, some come with breakfast, some with half board or all meals, and the same resort will have all four. Ask which plan you are looking at. At The Homestead the booking engine shows what each plan includes, and the two packages include every meal.
The safari. Some resorts fold a safari into the rate and some add a margin to the permit. Ask for the permit, the jeep and the guide as three lines, which is how The Homestead quotes them, at cost.
Taxes and children. GST sits on top of most rates, and children are priced differently everywhere, so ask by age.
What happens after the safari?
This is where resorts differ most and the photographs say least. A safari is three hours in the park; a two-night stay is forty-eight hours, and most of them are spent where you sleep. Ask what there is to do between lunch and dinner, and whether it costs extra.
On the farm the afternoon has the pool, a nine-hole mini golf course, a pickleball court, the ATV track and high tea under the jamun tree, a jacuzzi, a massage room and, in peak winter, a hammam. The morning has the orchard, the river and the runway, and the night has TARA, the observatory, and the bonfire. Things to do in Jim Corbett besides the safari walks through a day of it.
When are you coming?
The season decides half the choice. From mid-October to mid-June most zones are open and the sky is clear; December and January are cold in an open jeep and the best months for the stars. Late May and June are hot, and the farm has the mango and lychee harvest and the pool. In the monsoon most of the park is closed, but Jhirna, Dhela and Sitabani stay open, and the resorts on the southern side and the farms are the ones with something to do. Diwali, Christmas, New Year and the long weekends go first, on festive terms, so book those early. The year on the farm has the seasons in one table.
A short checklist to send any resort
- Which safari zones can you book for my dates, and at what cost, with the permit, jeep and guide as separate lines?
- How far is the gate I will use, and what time does the jeep leave?
- Which meals does this rate include?
- Who sleeps in which room, and what do children cost?
- Does the dog sleep in the room, and is the garden fenced?
- What is there to do between lunch and dinner?
Where The Homestead fits
Plainly: it is not a resort. It is a farm of 170 acres that the Puri family has farmed since 1952, six kilometres from the park, with thirteen rooms for guests in the Hideaway Rooms, two cottages and two suites. It has what a resort near Jim Corbett would have, a pool, a jacuzzi, a hammam, mini golf, pickleball and an observatory, and what one would not: an orchard, a runway, a river and the family in the main house. The safari is booked at cost. The dog stays in the cottage. The rooms and cottages are on the official booking site, and the two packages put three days together.
