A Family Wilderness Adventure in Kipling Country

12 days from £7,640 for 2024 per person

• Agra
• Bhopal
• Satpura Wildlife Reserve
• Pench Tiger Reserve
• Kanha National Park
• Delhi

This itinerary features in our Top 10 Family Holidays.

An ideal and exciting itinerary for families, covering three of India’s most renowned national parks: Satpura, Pench and Kanha. This holiday will introduce children to the wonderful and varied wildlife, flora, birdlife of Central India, as well as providing a fascinating insight into rural village life.

Satpura National Park is an extremely exciting wildlife destination. Considered to be one of the best parks for an overall wildlife experience, this is a great place to start the wildlife journey. Famous for its dramatic landscapes with deep ravines, meandering valleys, plunging waterfalls, verdant jungles and endless grass lands; it’s not surprising this park has one of the highest wildlife densities in India. The little boutique lodge of Reni Pani is a lovely spot and acts as the perfect base to explore. Animals are often drawn to the lodge by the nearby waterholes, so the chances of spotting something is always high! Jungle walks are possible, as well as night safaris, canoe rides and elephant safaris, allowing for wonderful and close-up wildlife encounters.

Next, you will travel through the Central Indian countryside, to the southern flank of Madhya Pradesh where you will reach Pench National Park, the heartland of tiger territory and the elusive sloth bear. Pench was in fact the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s celebrated children’s classic, 'The Jungle Book'. It is another cracking park, made famous by the BBC’s coverage of a tigress' trials and tribulations in 'Spy in the Den'. Stay at the tented Jamtara Wilderness Camp, the ideal place to surround yourself with the sounds of the jungle.

The final park you will visit is Kanha. Best known for the scenery, it represents nature at its finest, and is one of the most well-managed tiger parks in India. This is prime tiger land and the epitome of Kipling country, thick with tall sal jungles, rivers and large open grass meadows. Home to tiger, leopard, endemic sloth bear and the world’s most endangered deer ‘hardground barasingha’. Those who visit will most likely return having fallen in love with this stunning region.

This tour is purely a suggested itinerary: it can be booked as it is, or alternatively used as a starting point for creating your own ideal tailor-made holiday to see India's tigers and wildlife. If you'd like to see similar itineraries, take a look at our Family Holiday and Safari collections.

I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything.
Bill Bryson