Jungle Retreat Resort

One of our friends had their school class reunion at this place a few years back, and they liked it. When they suggested this place we agreed. Jungle Retreat Resort is a place back of beyond, near a village called Thana. Though called "Jungle Retreat Resort" there are no jungle safaris nor any Jungle around. There is no jungle. If you need a place to simply chill out, it MAY be a place for you. We had reached much before the check-in time. It was nice of Management to offer us one room to all of us to relax till the check-in time. The property is nicely landscaped. A fibreglass/cement rocky tunnel has been constructed where the rocks look quite real!  An idol of Lord Ganesha has been installed on this rocky structure. Looks nice & beautiful. Plenty of trees flanking the pathways of the property. Fair-sized pond with a swinging bridge and with circular firm platform in the middle of the swinging bridge. Quite a few goldfish in the pond are seen only when near you and near the surface as the water in the pond is quite dirty. There is a centrally located circular gazebo near the pond. Nice place to sit around. There are swimming pools, one shallow for the kids and the other with 5 Feet of depth all around. Changing and shower rooms for gents and ladies are again modelled to look like a rocky hill and caves. It was either drizzling or threatening to rain so we did not go for a swim, but the pool water did not look too clean.  Twin-sharing cottages looked ok. Each of them has been named. Our cottage was called Bahubali. There is a verandah which can be used as a sit-out. The room is quite spacious, with a small attached place with sofa sets where people can sit around. The bathroom was OK. Some thing new. There was an "Open Air Bathroom". We stayed only for one night, and did not try out this novelty. Normally the hotels which charge similar tariffs, provide an electric kettle and complimentary tea, coffee, milk powder and sugar sachets, Miniature bottles of Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and moisturiser. Also disposable shaving kit and toothbrush & toothpaste. Such hotels in breakfast offer seasonal fruits, hot milk with choices for porridge and other items like juices, egg preparations, veg items etc. In Jungle Retreat, they provided a Toothbrush and paste, Shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, all in dispensers. In dispensers, one has no idea of the origin or the quality of the contents. There was no moisturiser at all. In Jungle Retreat, the breakfast next morning was a total fiasco. More about it later. A typical local cuisine vegetarian lunch and non-vegetarian dinner was served. Service and food was satisfactory.  After dinner, despite our reluctance,  the staff insisted on serving us extra plates of rasgullas. On our continued refusal, they owned up they wanted "tips" hence the offer for extra sweet. While at dinner we were also asked whether we wanted an omelette & bread or an Indian dish like uppma/ poha etc. We told them we want

The food was not at all good. Few things seemed stale. The swimming pool was also not maintained. Rest the room was good. But looking at other things, the price they ask for is not worth it. Not planning to rebook this place for sure.