Activity
Rhino, deer, crocodile and — if the day is with you — a tiger, in the grasslands and sal forest of the Terai.
Two hundred metres above sea level, subtropical, and about as far from a trekking day as Nepal gets. Chitwan and Bardia protect some of the best remaining habitat on the subcontinent, and one-horned rhino are common enough that most visitors see them.
Jeep drives at first light, guided walks with an armed park ranger, a dugout canoe down the Rapti at dawn for gharial and kingfishers, and evenings in a Tharu village. Chitwan is four or five hours from Kathmandu or Pokhara by road; Bardia is much further west, much quieter, and the better bet for tiger.
Elephant-back safaris are no longer offered. Jeep and foot are how the parks are seen now, and it is the better experience as well as the defensible one.
October to March is ideal — comfortable temperatures and the grass cut low enough to see through, which matters more than anything else. April and May are hot but excellent for sightings at waterholes.
