Veeru (Singh) is a top notch tour leader. He's all you could ask for really - exceptionally knowledgeable about wildlife, constantly looking out for you and advocating for your needs and wishes, a good conversationalist, kind, proactive, and has your back. He organised a lovely cake for my birthday, and kitted me with a fabulous pagari, which I've brought home with me. On the night train, he swapped beds, then eventually lost his swapped bed (and seat), all to accommodate the needs of our group. Then he still led the tour the next day on barely any sleep. An absolute trooper. The tour was great, the drives and wildlife portions particularly. Drives can be somewhat guide and driver dependent - if you have good guides then you will get amazing sightings, and it helps if they are photographers themselves. Vamul at Bandavgarh was brilliant, very knowledgeable, skilled at positioning and with good craic with other drivers and park employees; Ashu and Deo made a great team at Kanha getting us the highlight tiger photo of the trip; Raju and Sarita at Kanha worked together brilliantly to get us a glimpse of a leopard, very special even if too fleeting for a photo. Ninja at Sariska was very eloquent, his training as a naturalist meaning that he was able to talk at length about different species we saw, primarily birds. Salman at Panna was kind, and had a good photographic eye. It's worth going on optional extra night drives. We had a thrilling nightime encounter with a tiger in the buffer of Bandavgarh, a sighting of a jungle cat, and even without sightings the experience of driving through a moonlit forest is exciting and beautiful. I didn't enjoy the temple and city sightseeing as much as others, though my partner loved it, so in that sense the tour as a whole represented a good compromise in our interests. Food was generally a good standard, though I did find myself unreasonably excited at finding pasta in the buffet at Bandhav Vilas. I do like curry, and had some great biryanis too, but I found spiced food for every meal sat a bit heavy with me after a few days. It should be noted that there are parts of this trip that autistic/neurodivergent people may struggle with. Some temples can be very loud; some spaces, like train stations and markets, very chaotic and crowded; the night train was a bad experience for me. I don't say this to dissuade, but to flag that you may struggle, especially if you don't have coping strategies in place (ear protection, stims, comfort items, grounding items/techniques). I was fortunate that my fellow tourists were very kind and understanding, and did lots to accommodate me even without asking. All in all, I'd recommend this trip to wildlife enthusiasts, and I'd particularly recommend Veeru as a guide. To see my photos from this trip, you can search for user "sasquatchphotog" on Flickr and look in the "Travel - India 2025" album.
