Wow! what an fantastic experience, just the right balance of safaris and leisure time. Our guide Vijay was excellent, nothing was too much trouble for him, he even managed to book an extra game drive for us.
We had such a good holiday, it was wonderful seeing tigers in their natural environment and visiting the Red Fort and the Taj Mahal at the end of the holidays was a special experience. There were only 6 of us in our group and our fellow travellers were lovely friendly people and we all got on well. Our trip started a day later than usual because of Diwali so we didn't get the chance to do an optional game drive (we'd have done a 16th drive just to maximise any tiger sightings) as Bandhavgarh park is closed on Wednesday afternoon so our 15th drive was on the Thursday morning before leaving for the train. And, again because of the day's delay, we went to the Taj at sunrise rather than at sunset and were treated to a beautiful blue sky and lovely light. We saw tigers on our very first game drive, a mother and her cubs were resting on rocks at a bit of a distance but easily spottable once we got our "eye" in. We saw a glimpse of a stripey back on drive 2 but then nothing tiger-wise until drive 8 when a magnificent male briefly stepped out in front of our jeep before melting back into the bush. We saw a leopard in the far distance on drive 14 and then on drive 15 at the very last minute we had a tiger dash past all the waiting jeeps into the bush. The other jeep with our fellow travellers had a wonderful tiger sighting in Bandhavgarh (the jeeps did different zones) and, I must admit, it's hard not to be envious when others have an experience that you don't. We were happy for them but.....
Loved this trip it will be hard to beat! This was a most fabulous trip - a fantastic mix of cycling and sampling local culture. We had a really good guide Shibu and his team. We loved Kerala and the mix of experiences on this trip. We liked the level which was leisurely /moderate - ideal in such a hot country we wish there were more trips available at this level. We loved the food and have had withdrawal cravings on return to the UK from such delicious fare! We had a great group of people on this tour they also helped to make it a brilliant experience.