(For another Rajasthan holiday idea, see our Highlights of Rajasthan sample itinerary.)Ĭentral Madhya Pradesh, as India’s second largest state, features the country’s highest concentration of tiger reserves, with no fewer than six vying for your attention. Let bar-car indulgences and gilded private cabins link Rajasthan’s highlights with Ranthambore’s tigers. You can also experience the park’s delights as part of a luxury rail journey.

Camping in the Lake District this is not, with gourmet dining and spa treatments dispensed in the 20 acres of manicured gardens. Ranking among India’s finest hotels, its 25 luxuriously appointed tents feature four-poster beds, claw-footed bathtubs and marble bathrooms. And, across the park, your safaris will see you stumble across regal pavilions, ancient temples and chhatri burial tombs given over to tangled vines.Īs the country’s favourite tiger-spotting destination, Ranthambore swaps the ramshackle hides of its reserve cousins for a collection of luxury lodges. Like its Rajasthani siblings, its stern battlements hide a once-lavish palace interior that rises above the treeline. You’ll also be treated to an intriguing human history, with the park centred around a thousand-year-old fort. There are also plenty of reptiles featured, including marsh crocodiles, desert monitor lizards and tortoises. There are healthy populations of everything from hyenas and bats to jungle cats and leopards. Their brashness has been rewarded with an ever-growing number of young which, when combined with Ranthambore’s relatively small size, ranks the reserve among India’s finest for tiger sightings.Īnd, the jungle’s greenery is dotted with much more than that famous orange and black, though bengal tigers in particular are certainly in abundance. And the tigers seem comfortable there, hunting in broad daylight unperturbed by humans. Once the royal hunting grounds of the Jaipur maharajas, today Ranthambore National Park has opened its 1,300 square kilometres of ridge-dotted scrub to all.

How not to lose your marbles jpr