Tiger safaris
Majestic, elusive and rare, tigers are a magical sight, especially viewed in the wild. Send clients to northern India to see them in their natural habitat, where their safety is guaranteed in protected reserves.
Sitting in open-top four-wheel drives, qualified naturalists guide tourists through national parks, listening to the warning cries of other creatures and tracking the animals’ pawprints, all in an effort to ensure that around the next corner, or from the thickest tangle of undergrowth, a tiger will appear.
The Adventure Company offers an itinerary visiting three of northern India’s tiger sanctuaries, giving clients the best chance to maximise their sightings.
Ranthambore gives visitors the double whammy of wildlife and history, with game drives passing ruined forts and temples as they search for the big cats.
Bandhavgarh, the former hunting ground of kings, is a small park with the highest known density of tigers, so it has a good success rate for sightings.
Kanha is vast, and provided the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, so this is the place to spot your very own Shere Khan. There are 10 game drives included in this trip, so everyone will have a good chance of spotting a tiger or two.
The itinerary also takes in some Indian icons – Delhi for the Red Fort and Jama Masjid, and Agra for the Taj Mahal and the abandoned city of Fatehpur Sikri.
The Adventure Company’s 16-day Wildlife Safari itinerary costs £1,529 departing November 21 and includes flights, transport, hotel accommodation, all breakfasts, and some other meals. adventurecompany.co.uk, 0845 450 5316
Train trips
The Palace on Wheels is one of the most famous luxury trains in the world, and the first to be launched in India, back in 1982.
The Palace name wasn’t merely coined to give a deluxe feel to the trip; the coaches were the personal quarters of Indian princes. Each of the 14 carriages is named after one of the princely states of Rajasthan, and the furnishings reflect the differing styles.
The opulent appearance is backed up by first-class service – each carriage has its own personal attendant, or khidmatgar – on hand to help. Cabins are en suite, and there are two restaurants, a lounge, library and bar, all air-conditioned.
Visitors can really feel like the Maharajas and Maharanis of the past, sitting back among the mahogany and gold decor as the train whisks them through the state of Rajasthan, a vivid region packed with forts and temples.
Before boarding, guests can explore Delhi, and then it’s on to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. The city was painted pink to herald the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1876, and still glows apricot to this day. From bustling street markets to serene palaces, it’s strikingly beautiful.
Crossing the Thar desert by night, the train moves on to the desert city of Jaisalmer, and then visitors see the blue walls of Jodhpur, the historic town of Chittorgarh and the lake palace of Udaipur.
Stops at Sawai Madhopur and Bharatpur allow guests to take safaris in Ranthambore National Park to see tigers, and visit the bird sanctuary at Keoladeo in time for the dawn chorus.
There is a trip out to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and Fatehpur Sikri.
Sample product: Travel 2 offers an eight-day Palace on Wheels itinerary from £2,115 on departures between October and March 2010, excluding flights. travel2.com, 0800 022 4182
Mangrove swamps
As the Ganges passes through the final, slow, soporific stages of its journey to the sea, it passes through the Sunderbans. This forest is the largest mangrove ecosystem in the world, and the network of waterways, mudflats and small islands are home to the Royal Bengal Tiger, crocodiles, terrapins, turtles, rhinos, snakes and even Gangetic dolphins – and not many humans.
The best way to visit this little-known and fascinating area is on a cruise.
Tourists visit crocodile breeding projects, islands frequented by tigers, and tiny villages where the locals get by on a mixture of fishing, packing honey and working in rice paddies.
The worship of the goddess Bonbibi is prevalent here, by both Hindus and Muslims, and visitors can see a traditional drama performed.
It’s not all about mangrove swamps, though; some cruises head back up the Ganges towards Calcutta, passing temples along the way.
There are stops at Chandannagar, a former French colony; Mayapur, the spiritual capital for the Hare Krishna sect; and Murshidabad, one of the oldest cities in West Bengal. There, guests can tour the great mosque, a Mughal-style garden and the Palace of a Thousand Doors, before exploring Calcutta.
Sample product: Tropical Locations offers the 10-day Sunderbans and Heritage Cruise itinerary from £1,782 per person, including a driver, private guided sightseeing, meals and flights. tropical-locations.com, 0845 277 3344
Mountains and monasteries
In the very far northwest of India, squeezed in between Pakistan and China, sits the region of Ladakh.
Remote and sparsely populated, it’s often known as ‘Little Tibet’ due to the strong Tibetan Buddhist influence. The sparse deserts and high mountains are incredibly beautiful, but not for the faint-hearted – this is a trek for the physically as well as geographically adventurous.
Explore runs a comprehensive 15-day tour of the region, starting in Leh, a small, picturesque town that used to be a staging post on the Silk Road from China.
The trip visits numerous gompas, or Buddhist monasteries, which often perch high on the mountainside. Clients will see brightly coloured frescoes, 10-metre high golden Buddhas and statues of many-headed gods and demons.
Tourists lucky enough to visit during a festival can watch dances and sacred plays. Costumes are made of bright brocades and silks and fierce-faced masks obscure the monks’ faces.
Visitors trek through the Indus valley, white-water raft down rivers, and travel on bumpy roads over high mountain passes before making their way south to Dharamsala, a former British hill station and now the home of the Dalai Lama.
Then it’s off even further south, to a city of great importance to the Sikh religion, Amritsar. Shoes must be removed, feet washed and heads covered before entering the sacred Golden Temple, where pilgrims take it in turns to pass through the main shrine.
The region is dry, but at a high altitude, so that even during summer, nights can be cold. This trip goes far off the tourist track, so accommodation will sometimes be basic, though friendly.
Sample product: Explore offers a 16-day Little Tibet itinerary from £1,499 including flights, hotel and guesthouse accommodation and some meals, for departures from June to August 2010. explore.co.uk, 0844 499 0904
Holy waters
For Hindus, the Ganges is a sacred river, and is worshipped as a deity.
Bathing in the water is said to bestow blessings and cleanse sins, and cremating the dead by the banks of the Ganges or casting the ashes of the deceased on the waters leads to their salvation.
The city of Varanasi is the focus for many of these pilgrims, and is also considered holy by Buddhists.
Imaginative Traveller offers a five-day short break to Varanasi. It includes an early morning boat ride to see devotees at prayer along the ghats, from which pilgrims dip into the river and where bodies are cremated. There is a visit to Samath, where Buddha preached his first sermon, and time to explore the city’s bazaars.
For those who want to see more of the cities in the Ganges basin, TransIndus’s Ganga Yatra trip spends 10 days touring the area, stopping in Lucknow to see the site of the famous siege of 1857, Khajuraho, where the erotic carvings on the temples caused the Victorians who rediscovered them to get rather hot under the collar; and Orchha, Dolpur and Gwalior.
Sample product: Imaginative Traveller offers a five-day, land-only short break in Varanasi from £325 per person, including rail travel from Delhi. imaginative-traveller.com, 0845 077 8802
Sample product: TransIndus offers a 10-day Ganga Yatra itinerary from £2,498 per person including bed and breakfast, flights and transfers on departures in October and November. transindus.co.uk, 020 8566 3739
