Jamtara

Jamtara sits beside a secluded and rarely-visited part of Pench National Park, meaning you can avoid the crowds and the queues.

There are 10 luxury tents, overlooking the forest, including towering Arjuna trees, ancient banyan trees and trickling streams. They are light and airy, and come with large, comfortable beds, antique furnishings, floors of reclaimed wood and colourful artworks, with materials sourced from everywhere from old ships to embassies, giving the camp a rich, historic, colonial feel.

Sleep inside your tent, or outdoors on your veranda - mosquito nets keep the bugs away, and quilts and hot water bottles will warm you up on cold nights. You can also spend a night under the stars in a ‘machaan’, a four-poster ‘star bed’ set high on stilts above the ground, as sloth bears rustle beneath and owls hoot in the inky black sky above, which is not only a unique and memorable experience, but also supports local farmers. For generations, farmers on these lands have slept outside in their fields in a machaan in the middle of their farm, protecting their crops by shooing away wildlife. 

Wake-up tea, breakfast, lunch, snacks on game drives, evening tea and dinner will ensure you won’t go hungry or thirsty. Dine on flavoursome Indian specialities around a communal mango-wood table, and enjoy drinks around the campfire beneath a giant banyan tree. There are also cooking demonstrations so you can learn how to make local specialities yourself.

Cool off on your return from a day's adventures in the beautiful infinity pool.

Your stay includes guided park safaris in a 4x4 vehicle, and the services of expert resident naturalists. See tigers, leopards and their playful cubs roam in the undergrowth. Spot some of the area’s many types of birds on a guided birdwatching walk. 

There are also plenty of opportunities for exploring on foot, and discovering local village life. The village of Jamtara, and the other villages around it, are remote and rural, retaining a traditional feel, and villagers make their living through farming, including growing corn and sugar cane, which is chopped and cooked in giant pots to make jaggery, a form of concentrated sugar.