Tiger safari holidays: The Four Most Common Mistakes People Make
Published on: July 15, 2021 | Last Updated: May 18, 2025
Every year we receive numerous emails from clients who have already booked flights to India, their India wildlife lodge, and all the internal transfers, only to find out that there are no jeep safaris available at the India tiger reserve they are visiting, or they are not in the core zones they expecting the company to book for them. In desparation they reached out to us to see if we could get last minute availability of jeeps for them, or add them to one of our small group bookings. Due to the inflexible jeep booking system in India this is simply not possible, or would incurr huge additional costs. For India tiger safari holidays it is incredibly important to book with a trusted wildlife operator and to do this many months in advance of your departure.
The four most common mistakes people make when organising their India tiger safari are (1) Booking their jeep safaris too late (2) Travelling at the wrong time of year (3) Not spending enough time on safari (4) Not booking a real naturalist for their India wildlife holiday.
Don’t book tiger safari holidays last minute!
Every year we receive numerous emails from clients who have already booked flights and maybe part of an India wildlife holiday but did not prioritise booking the jeeps. They then realise when they try to book the game drives online that all of the main zones are sold out and they basically don’t have a viable option to enter the park. So, let’s be very clear on this, when your dream is to see tigers in the wild in India, the very first thing you should be doing – before you even look at flights or Indian wildlife lodges – is to ‘lock down’ your dates for the jeep safaris inside the park. It’s crazy to think that you can simply rock up at the tiger sanctuary, or send a few emails a couple of weeks before your arrival and organise a quality experience inside the India tiger reserve; that is never going to happen. In addition, you leave yourselves wide open to unscrupulous travel agents promising you the world and delivering next to nothing when you arrive.
Allan top tips
You should be planning your India tiger safari 9-12 months in advance and have an extended, wide-ranging dialogue with an expert company like Wildlife Trails before committing to an itinerary for your India wildlife tour. Such a company will also explain that some tiger reserves have core areas which are closed on certain days of the week but we can plan in such a way that those days are either ‘travel days’ from one tiger reserve to the next, or at tiger parks like Bandhavgarh and Tadoba where the tiger population is growing and expanding into the buffer areas we can instead book a buffer zone afternoon safari or night time drive where leopards are more likely to be seen.
Why some India tiger reserves disappoint the visitor.
Thsi is a common mistake by clients who have prepared rushed itineraries and have not received a good level of expert and honest advice when planning theith tiger safari holiday from regular visitors to the region.
There are so many different India tiger reserves with tourist facilties now, but not all of them are at the same level . One ‘tiger safari experience’ does not fit all and where sometimes a park delights a photographer with daily tiger encounters, the other clients are left ‘cold’ by the crowded experience and the lack of focus on other species, birds or the surrounding beautiful landscapes.
You should be speaking to a specialist tour operator who regularly visits the tiger reserves and who can give you the very latest reports on sightings, jeep booking schedule, best India wildlife lodges to stay in, and how long you should stay at each park. Here at Wildlife Trails it is very common for us to be asked to design a tiger safari holiday with two to three different locations; with at least one of the national parks visited not being dominated by the quest for the tiger. This delivers the best of both worlds because however much people might say they prefer the less crowded parks and a tiger sighting is really the icing on the cake, if they don’t see one after spending two seeks in severa India tiger reserves they are sure to be at least a little disappointed.
Allans top tips
So you so want to see tigers but for your India wildlife holiday you want a balance between the tiger safari element and allowing yourselves to get away from the crowds to see other beautiful wildlife and the real, less visited India – don’t worry, we have got you covered. So many of our clients feel this way about their India wildlife holiday and indeed it is a path that we follow ourselves as regular visitors to the country.
When you visit a less crowded, let’s say up and coming tiger reserve you will notice a few things about the daily game drives. There is less ‘rush, rush’ and tiger densities may be less and your naturalist guide will be content to show you the entire park and other resident wildlife which is maybe easier to spot. The second thing is that if you are lucky enough to see a wild Bengal tiger the sighting may be brief as they are not yet acustomed to the vehicles and therefore are more shy and timid when you apporach them. Having said that, there is something incredibly exciting and special about spending time in a national park that is newly opened to tourists. You feel like new explorers and it is a real privilage to share this beautiful wilderness with so few other vehicles.
Many travel companies fail to point out how beautiful rural India is for first time visitors, both its landscapes, but also the amazing local tribals who live there. An example of this is our Tiger and Leopard safari in Rajasthan which combines a Ranthambhore tiger safari with a Bera Leopard safari. The boulder strewn landscapes which the leopard calls home are stunning and the Rabari tribals who live here are amazing to observe as they move their large herds of goats through the stunning boulder strewn hills.
Best time to see tigers in India: Timing really is everything!
Having been lucky enough to see wildlife tigers in every month of the year from October (when most tiger reserves re-open) until June; when the heat can be unbearable for some; we can find magic in all the different seasons, but it is 100% sure that many clients should not be travelling in April to June if they struggle with the heat. Believe us, if you don’t have an umbrella when visiting Tadoba in May, there are not many places to escape the heat; apart from in the hotel swimming pool.
We take our clients through the tiger safari experience month by month and match the timing of their India wildlife holiday with their target species and temperature preferences. For birders, it would be crazy to visit outside of the migratory season (late November to February) and for a full on tiger photographer, the summer heat is best for ‘sometimes’ continuous daily tiger action. Check out our month by month guide to the best time of year to see tigers in India.
If you do decide to travel to India during the monsoon season – maybe those are the only dates you can make, or you have another event planned which brings you here – you still have options available to you, as long as the operator explains the differences from park to park. As an example, Zone 1-5 in Ranthambhore are closed from July to September, but the drier, more accessible routes in zones 6-10 remain open for the entire season and yes, there are tigers in these areas and with patience and a bit of luck to can have a successful monsoon tiger safari holiday. Just don’t expect the number and quality of sightings you would have in the summer.
My India tiger safari: Is two days really enough?
Our whole philosophy on ethical longer stays at national parks when on your tiger safari in India was based on Allan Blanchard first visit to India, back in February 1997. He spent 3 months visiting many of the national parks and tiger sanctuaries and was amazed to come across ‘exhausted’ photographers and birders in the Indian wildlife lodges, who had visited 7 or 8 different sanctuaries in 2 weeks. 1 night here, 2 nights there, but never a ‘proper’ stay at the tiger reserves; to not only get a real feel for the diversity of wildlife and scenery; but to also recharge their own batteries, after often long and arduous road journeys. We adopted a simple rule of a minimum stay of 3 nights and 6 safaris for our bespoke India tiger holidays. In fact in practice, it is often more common for our clients to take 8 safaris over 4 days in each of the tiger parks.
The longer stay inside the tiger reserves works on so many levels and they are not all wildlife related. Travel in India can be tough and tiring and for some clients fatigue starts to affect their enjoyment of the tiger safari experience. So, just as an example, let’s say you fly into an airport in central India and then have a 4 hour bumpy road journey to reach the tiger reserve. There may not even be time for a rushed lunch before you are out on the afternoon game drive and so the enjoyment of that first safari is tempered by the fact you are tired and maybe a little hungry. If you then only have one full day of safaris the day after and then a very early morning road transfer on Day 3, the India wildlife experience becomes a bit of a blur and the enjoyment is diminished. This would not happen with a 3 or 4 night stay at the India wildlife lodge as you can afford to skip the first afternoon safari and relax by the pool after a beautiful lunch in the shade on an ancient Banyan tree.
Not all Indian wildlife guides are made equal: How to avoid disappointment.
Which type of wildlife guide or naturalist will accompany you for your tiger safaris varied tremendously from park to park, and whether your holiday company has the connections to provide you with a naturalist who will both listen and inform. A guide who only ‘chases’ tiger is a problem for you and the local wildlife as they will tend to rush through the park and not allow you to stop and enjoy the scenic beauty of the tiger reserve and it’s other residents
There are two approaches we take to what can often be the most important decision you make on an Indian wildlife holiday, the choice of your wildlife guide, or as we call them, our ‘generals in the field’. They absolutely have the ability to make or break your India wildlife holiday so this should be one of the first questions you ask your travel agent.
The first approach is to book our clients into Indian wildlife lodges which already have a high quality in house guiding qualification that ensures each and every naturalist who gets into your vehicle has the experience and knowledge to provide that interpretation and identification which will take your safari experience to another level. They will also tend to have a couple of naturalists who have deeper knowledge of Indian birds which will be reserved for keen birders in their own vehicles.
The second approach is to employ a top freelance wildlife guide from the very first day, and have them accompany our clients for the entire trip. Again, he or she will be chosen depending on the interests of our guests. The advantage of this approach is that it can create that unique and sometime long lasting relationship which happened when like minds meet, and the guide in a whole hearted way shares their knowledge and passion for the Indian Jungles with you.
If you don’t want to avoid these mistakes when planning your own India tiger safari, then Allan, Bee and the team at Wildlife Trails would welcome the opportunity to design a bespoke India wildlife holiday for you and your loved one. You can contact us here. We very much look forward to sharing our knowledge and love of India’s wildlife sanctuaries with you. that we have been visiting for nearly 30 years.
