Your India tiger safari: The Four Most Common Mistakes people make
Published on: July 15, 2021
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 safaris it is incredibly important to book with a trusted wildlife operator and to do this many months in advance of your departure.
Trying to book tiger safaris last minute doesn’t work
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 may disappoint you with poor planning.
Thsi is a common mistake by clients who have prepared rushed itineraries and have not received a good level of expert and honest advice 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 ‘park 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 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 2 or 3 park itinerary, with at least one of the national parks visited not being dominated by the quest for the tiger.
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 🙂
Many travel companies fail to point out how beautiful rural India is for first time visitors, both its landscapes, but also the amazing local people 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
Don’t travel at the wrong time of year
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 in India 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.
Why two days is definitely not enough time for your India tiger safari
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.
If you don’t want to avoid these mistakes when planning your own tiger safari in India, then Allan, Kirsty 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.
