We stayed at Treehouse Hideaway (Bandhavgarh National Park) for two nights in April 2018 and absolutely loved it! Treehouse Hideaway has only five treehouses amongst 21 acres, so it definitely has the intimate, rustic feel that we look for in safari accommodation. It is located very close to the Tala gate so entry to Bandhavgarh National park is very quick (if you are heading to Tala zone). We left wishing we could stay for at least another week! Don’t forget to contact us if you are looking for the perfect tiger safari itinerary π
Treehouse Hideaway accommodation
All five treehouses at Treehouse Hideaway are legitimate treehouses, all named after the beautiful huge trees they are perched in. We stayed in Banyan and found it to be awesome with excellent privacy – although all treehouses are virtually the same and all are relatively private so you can’t go too wrong! The treehouses are very impressive – they really give a very earthy/wilderness feeling while still being extremely comfortable.
All treehouses have ensuite bathrooms with a shower, flushable toilets and hot water. On top of that there are king beds, lovely balconies, luggage area, couch and desk area. Plus they have air conditioning, which was necessary in April although the four poster beds with mosquito nets impede the efficiency of the air coniditoining a little bit! The treehouses also have fridges with a small selection of drinks, however don’t expect these fridges to keep your drinks really cold – the coke wasn’t cold enough for me to drink π
The shower was fine but water pressure wasn’t quite good enough for me to wash my (very thick) hair. But you can’t expect too much when you are living in a tree house!! Here’s a quick video to give you a better idea of the treehouse:
Outside the treehouses themselves, there is a lovely unassuming main area where some meals are taken as well as an upstairs treehouse bar/lounge area. The lodge also has a waterhole, however it was not in use when we visited (so perhaps check on this if it is something you are set on enjoying).
Treehouse Hideaway food
Possibly our favourite food of our entire trip to India! Once again we opted for the local Indian cuisine but they do offer continental options as well. We had some really delicious dishes, and as with sister property Kings Lodge, you are most definitely never left hungry! Lunch and dinner are 3-4 courses with dinner typically including starters, soup, main course and dessert plus some bread as a side dish. The food was never very spicy. Another nice touch at Treehouse was the private dinners we enjoyed both nights – each night we had a private outside bush dinner set up just for us with lovely fairy lights. It was really special!
Treehouse Hideaway game viewing
We had come across from Kings Lodge where (due to an unseasonable storm the night we arrived) we had not had very much tiger luck after our first three drives. This left Karan, our naturalist, with quite a bit of pressure to deliver some amazing photographic opportunities in our remaining four drives! Our first afternoon drive with Karan we once again missed tiger, but it didn’t matter because Van employed his expert spotting skills and found us a sloth bear at the very start of our drive! This was high on our list as well, so we were not left disappointed by the drive, although the pressure to get a tiger photo remainedβ¦ it’s hard to sell tiger safaris if you have no imagery to sell the experience!
This was well taken care of in our next drive though, where Karan managed to get us a national geographic-worthy sighting. We had already had an amazing sighting of Spotty cross the road and then one of her sub-adult cubs walk down the road for a whileβ¦ but Karan suggested we wait a few minutes at a waterhole and sure enough Spotty’s cub came back from a swim. This was what we were waiting for! A few thousand photos later and we were ecstatic – we barely had even dreamt of such an amazing tiger sighting! Check out the YouTube video in our article on Bandhavgarh National Park if you want to see some of the amazing footage Van captured. Alternatively, here’s one of my prize pics π
That drive was always going to be hard to beat, but our next drive (that afternoon) almost got there, when we managed to find Spotty and all of her three sub-adult cubs in separate sightings. The first of which was one of the cubs lying in a waterhole before launching herself towards some oblivious spotted deer who had come to drink. She missed, but it was exciting to witness. On our last drive we also found one tigress walking down a road – it was only a few minutes before she disappeared, but still a quality sighting. That put us at tiger sightings in 3/4 drives and in the one we missed we got sloth bear! Plus of course many other awesome wildlife sightings like spotted deer, guar, peacocks, raptors, monkeys and sambal deer.
If you do visit Treehouse definitely request Karan or Ashish – both are awesome naturalists. Karan was ours and he was our favourite naturalist for our whole trip, also because he’s a photographer so fully understands photographic opportunities. Ashish is also very well respected as an excellent naturalist by other naturalists! Either way you cannot go wrong with either. Their friendliness and awesome service made us enjoy our stay even more.
What we love about Treehouse Hideaway
- Excellent quality and quantity of food (you will put on weight!)
- Super cool treehouse accommodation strikes a great balance between luxury and rustic
- Private vehicles for safaris (if you book private safaris)
- Excellent naturalists who speak English extremely well
- Very attentive customer service – you will never have an empty water glass!
- Free wifi available via dongle you can carry around with you
- Only five treehouses mean even when full, it is still an intimate setting
- No hanging around before safari waiting for the forest guide (like you have to do with some lodges)
- Very close to Tala (zone 1) gate, making it a quick trip for this zone
Considerations (things some people may not like):
- There’s no pool or spa on site, however you can visit their sister property to get a massage
- Shower pressure is not amazing (but still more than adequate for a normal shower, just not great to wash out shampoo if you have unreasonably thick hair like me)
- They don’t tend to actively take drink orders at meal times, so you have to ask for a drink if you want something other than water
- The accommodation is a bit more rustic and you have to climb stairs to get to the treehouses, making it less suitable for those who want ultimate luxury and/or have mobility issues
Should you stay at Treehouse Hideaway?
If we return to Bandhavgarh Treehouse Hideaway would be our first pick for accommodation. The service, food, game viewing and accommodation were all excellent and it was probably our favourite place that we stayed in our two-week tiger safari adventure. Get in touch with us if you are planning your own tiger safari so we can tailor an itinerary according to your budget, priorities and style!
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