90 minutes at Bannerghatta National Park

June 2017 brought along the pleasure of family time when my parents and sister visited us in Bengaluru. My sweet (pun intended) lil sister had just one simple demand - "I don't want to waste my holidays sitting at home". So I being the ideal (no pun intended) elder sister 😇 scoured all the Bengaluru tours and must-visit lists to find places we should visit. One constant entry on the lists happened to be Bannerghatta National Park which also happened to be just 25 km from my home (close by Bengaluru standards). There are a lot of good articles and posts about what to do at the park when you are spending an entire day but not enough has been written about what to do when you are short on time. So I am sharing my experience with you about how I spent just about 90 minutes at the national park and made the best of it.

This place, Bannerghatta National Park is a biological reserve, zoo, pet center, aquarium, safari park, butterfly park and snake house; all spread across a whopping 65,000 acres of land. I was impressed, so I added it to our list of places to visit. It is normally recommended to spend an entire day at this place but normal isn't really my thing 😉 So I set out for a half-day tour of the park with my family(father, mother, sister, husband, and toddler) on a Sunday afternoon (the keyword being SUNDAY). All my dear fellow bloggers mentioned that the place is crowded on Sundays so extra time should be spared but we actually spared just about 3-4 hours!! 

As I delve into more details of my fun visit, I will share some learnings that will help you in case you are visiting the park on a weekend, with senior citizens or with toddlers/ infants, in monsoon season, without personal conveyance and you are short on time.

1. Know before you visit - As I mentioned earlier that this park is spread across 65k acres and has various different attractions. It will help if you Google the pictures and details in advance and pick out the attractions you want to visit. For example, none of my family members were interested in the snake park or pet center. We chose to visit only the Safari, zoo and butterfly park if time permits.
2. Tickets to the Park - There are different ticket prices for different attractions. Once you have picked the ones you want to visit, you can purchase the tickets accordingly. Tickets can be purchased online in advance if you want to skip the queue. However, the queue moves fast so it isn't much of an issue if you want to purchase tickets on the spot. There are separate counters for AC Safari which makes it very convenient. It poured heavily when we visited and the safari was canceled. We met people who had bought the tickets online and were now trying to resell them to others waiting in the queue. There was no return/refund window in sight so the Safari tickets purchased in advance went to the dump.
3. Park timings - Park closes at 5 PM which means the entry to zoo closes at 5 PM. Last safari timing is 3 PM and we tried to catch the last Safari tour but we couldn't do it because of the downpour. Try to visit at a time when there are at least two Safari tours remaining for the day (at or before 1 PM) in case if you are interested in Safari. 
4. Carry your food - Not just baby food but food for all the family members. This is a huge park where you can spend an entire day but there are no good places to eat. Inside the zoo, snacks like samosa and Maggi are the only food items available. We carried our food with us heeding the advice of fellow bloggers and didn't regret that a bit.
5. Walking around the zoo - There is golf-carts kind of vehicles available to take you around the zoo. The tickets for those are available outside the zoo entrance. There is no clear indication of the ticket purchase area so you might need to look around a bit. In case if you have entered the zoo without tickets, the cart drivers aren't very friendly as they don't even bother to answer any queries. We had a hard time getting any help as we weren't aware of the carts and found out about them after we entered the zoo. These rides could be helpful if any members of your group are not comfortable with long walks. Otherwise, I would highly recommend walking around the zoo and just carrying a stroller or baby carrier with you if you are going with an infant/toddler.
6. Conveyance to the park and back - It is very difficult to find any taxis outside the park. There are no OLA or Uber services in the area. You need to change only 3 buses 😏 to reach Electronic City (which is where I live). The auto drivers take undue advantage of the lack of taxi services and charge tariffs twice the normal amount. It's best to go in your own vehicle or hire a car for the entire day.
7. In case of rainfall - 
1. Carry your umbrellas and raincoats if you are visiting in the rainy season. If there is a downpour, there is no shelter at the park. There is a small shed just outside the entrance which is sufficient for just 50 people. That is where my mom stood protecting my little boy while we got soaked in the rain outside. You are out of luck if you are inside the zoo when it starts raining. 
2. Also, the butterfly park and Safari were closed for the day as soon as it started raining and neither was reopened when it stopped raining. The zoo, however, was reopened when the downpour turned to a drizzle. We bought the zoo tickets and went to explore the zoo in the light drizzle. The animals didn't seem to care about the drizzle so we managed to see them all. Some of the paths, though, were muddy and slippery which could be tricky for senior citizens and little kids alike.

We spent a good one and a half hour at the zoo. It was completely worth it given the excitement of my little one. Due to the rainfall, I couldn't take any pictures that I can share with you. On our way back we bought some toys for the little one at the shops outside the zoo and completed our rainy National park adventure :)