How to plan

Kanha national park is counted among most ideal safari destinations of India which sould must be covered during safari tours. Large number of tourists knows this fact thus visits this national park on daily basis. It includes domestic tourists as well as inbound tourists. Here main activity for tourists is jungle safari. Just like any other tiger reserves of India, Kanha tiger reserve is also divided in core - buffer forests and both categories of forests are accessible to tourists in the form of core zones and buffer safari zones. Kanha national park have 3 main entry gates. All of them, are approx. 50 kms far away from each other. Safari rules are also such that from certain entry gate, certain safari zones are not accessible thus while planning for tour, we have to keep in mind the resort and booked safari zone combination should be of such that while staying at particular resort, we will be able to do jungle safari in our desired safari zone. Many new visitors, who are over-confident or doing tour through OTA's, face the problem of wrong combination of resort and safari zones which is came into knowledge when you reach Kanha national park. It was that time when you can't even do cancellation due to close date thus have to bear loss of experience and inconvenience. In such situation, such OTA's withdraw their helping hand. Thus we have to do our planning properly by reconfirming all these factors.

While planning for Kanha national park tour, we should choose an ideal combination of visitors. Major part of safari tours cost goes on jungle safari drives. In each safari vehicle, maximum 06 tourists are allowed but when they are photographers, 04 per vehicle is ideal combination. Thus we should choose our group size according to seating capacity to make best use of safari vehicles and reduce the per person cost. If you are solo or 2-3 visitors, and budget is low then you have option to opt sharing safari mode or use canter safari. So decide your group size carefully.

Once group size is decided, then go for finalizing your tour duration. Tour duration depends upon many factors like budget, time in hand and tour objectives etc. If your budget is good then you can freely decide your tour duration as per your travel objective. For photographers, 4-6 jungle safari drives are recommended thus 3 to 4 night stay is recommended. Even if you are on family holidays, or with friends, in order to feel the jungle stay, stay minimum 02 nights.

At Kanha national park, you will have variety of choice in terms of accommodation selection. You need to understand your expectations like how hotel should be located, how far from entry gate, surrounding atmosphere, activities offered at resort, resort ambience with wilderness or boutique styled, river facing or jungle facing, resort with inhouse naturalist or spa facility etc. These preferences should be known in advance so that accordingly find the resort options and book your safari permits. If your are going back to back safaris then these preferences are of no use as you will not get time to enjoy the stay. If you are visiting for relaxation or family holiday, spend some free time in resort to enjoy its facilities.

While preparing for Kanha tour, we have to decide our mode of transport for reaching Kanha national park resort and route plan for returning back. Here majority of arrivals are from Nagpur airport, Raipur airport, Jabalpur airport. Train passengers use Gondia station, Jabalpur station,Raipur station, Nagpur station options. As per budget and connectivity, we can decide our mode of journey.

Kanha national park is a vast forest area with many core zones and buffer zones. Thus here we should try to do more jungle safari to explore varying forest areas of different safari zones. Forest is very scenic and remain green in all season thus photographers will find good scope for nature photography & wildlife safari experience.

If you have planned all above things, then you need to decide your targetted safari zones. Success of jungle safaris will depend upon the fact that how much time you have spend in your desired safari zone. As per your sighting or photography preference, check for suitable safari zones and get your safari permits booked accordingly. It is not necessary that tiger sighting or photography is the only motive of tourists, behind doing jungle safaris. Many tourists do safari with intention for bird watching, some tourists would like to track sloth bear, some tourists are interested in flying squirrel or Indian giant squirrel etc. Thus due to variation in interest or photography subjects, decide your safari zones and book permits accordingly.

Answer to this question depends upon many factors like holidays, objective behind travel, budget, permits availability status etc. Some months are good for those who are interested in tiger sighting & photography. Every Wednesday, Kanha national park core zones are closed for afternoon safari and weekend safari cost is higher than week days thus decide your dates accordingly. In order to ensure permit availability, try to plan 3-4 months in advance and do your permits booked in advance. If intereseted in birding or nature photography then choose your travel months accordingly.

For a first time visitor, it is not easy to arrange all these information to do proper planning. This kind of information and caring can't be expected from any Online Travel Portal thus here we can play important role for you. Being local from Madhya Pradesh and living close to Kanha national park, we have long experience of working in Kanha national park. We have the confidence to craft an excellent tour plan for our guests.