Jungle Safari

Chitwan or Bardia?

Nepal has two safari parks worth the journey, and they suit different travellers.

Chitwan is four to five hours from Kathmandu or Pokhara, easy to add to any itinerary, and the best place in Asia to see greater one-horned rhino. It is also the busier of the two, with a developed tourist strip at Sauraha.

Bardia is in the far west, a long drive or a short flight, and has perhaps a tenth of the visitors. It is the better park for tiger — lower density of people, higher chance of a sighting — and feels genuinely wild. If you have the days and the tiger is the point, go to Bardia.

The three ways to go in

On foot. With two licensed naturalists, unarmed, which concentrates the mind. This is the best way to experience the park — you hear it, you read tracks, and an encounter with a rhino at fifty metres on foot is not something you forget. It carries real risk and a full briefing is not a formality.

By jeep. Covers far more ground and reaches the grassland interior where rhino and deer concentrate. The most productive option for sheer numbers of animals seen.

By canoe. A dugout on the Rapti at first light, drifting silently past gharial and mugger crocodile with the best birding of the trip happening over your head.

Why we do not offer elephant rides

Riding elephants was the signature Chitwan activity for thirty years and it is still widely sold. We stopped offering it and we will not arrange it.

The reason is the training. An elephant is made rideable through a breaking process carried out when it is young, and no amount of good treatment afterwards undoes it. The industry is moving away from this and Nepal is moving with it, slowly.

You can still see elephants. The breeding centre near Sauraha is visitable and the animals there are not ridden. Wild elephants are occasionally encountered in the park itself, which is a far better sighting anyway.

When to come

February to April is the best window and it is not close. The tall elephant grass — which reaches four metres and hides everything — is cut and burned by local communities early in the year. Visibility transforms, and animals gather at shrinking water sources.

October to January is comfortable and good for birds, but the grass is still high. Monsoon is poor: parts of the park close, rivers are dangerous and leeches are everywhere.

Managing expectations

Rhino on a two-night stay: likely. Tiger: unlikely at Chitwan, possible at Bardia, never guaranteed anywhere. Sloth bear, wild elephant and gaur: occasional. Birds: consistently excellent, and the thing most people are surprised by.