Wildlife & Safari Tours

The heart of an Indian wildlife tour is the tiger, and the country's reserves are among the finest places on earth to look for one. Ranthambore in Rajasthan combines dry forest, lakes and a ruined hilltop fort where tigers are sometimes seen against ancient stonework, and it sits conveniently close to the Golden Triangle. Bandhavgarh in Madhya Pradesh has one of the highest tiger densities in India, while Jim Corbett — the country's oldest national park, in the Himalayan foothills — is a vast landscape of sal forest, grassland and river where tiger, elephant and a huge variety of birdlife share the terrain.

Beyond the big cats, India's parks reward anyone who loves birds and mammals. Keoladeo at Bharatpur is one of the world's great bird sanctuaries, a wetland that draws enormous numbers of resident and migratory birds, from painted storks to wintering cranes. Elsewhere you can look for the one-horned rhino in the north-east, sloth bear, leopard, deer and the antelope of the plains. A classic longer safari itinerary strings several reserves together — for example Ranthambore, Bharatpur and Bandhavgarh — combined with the cultural highlights of Jaipur and Agra, so a single trip holds both the Taj Mahal and the tiger.

Timing matters enormously for wildlife. The tiger reserves are generally open from around October to June and closed during the monsoon; the cooler months of November to February are pleasant and green, while the hotter pre-monsoon months of March to June, though demanding, often give the best sightings as animals gather at shrinking waterholes. Safaris run in shared time-slots at dawn and late afternoon, on jeeps or canters, and park permits are limited, so we book well ahead. We plan every wildlife journey as a private, chauffeur-driven trip between the parks, with well-placed jungle lodges and, where you wish, expert naturalists to raise your chances and deepen your understanding. Tell us which species matter most to you and how much time you have.