vinnyt77 My wife’s cousin just went to Bandhavgarh this week, and the experience (both the upmarket lodge and the safaris) looked near identical. All the animal sightings were the same (jackals, foxes, indian gaur, a variety of birds - owls and vultures to name a few, sambas, spotted dear, langurs, tigers… we saw barasinghas which he didn’t, and he got to see a leopard which we didn’t). The morning picnics they set up in the middle of jungle are also standard procedure - you hit the park at 5AM and at 8AM the driver comes prepped with an amazing breakfast picnic. Almost funny how the lodge experience was also exactly the same - constantly feed with delicious food and top notch produce, every night a fireplace to sit around with booze flowing, al fresco dining in beautiful spots, and all the perks of a 5 star hotel.
My two cents, find a property that has a bit of an x-factor (we had privacy given there were only 4 villas overlooking a beautiful swimmable river), make sure the lodge have knowledgeable well-spoken naturalists who will be your drivers on the safaris, and maybe compare the variety of eco systems you’ll get to drive through on the safaris , because if you don’t get a tiger sighting on a 6 hour/3 hour safari, the experience can be a tad bit disappointing - the deers and jackals get old fast. I went in with 0 expectations of tiger sightings and really enjoyed soaking in the the variety of settings and clean air.
Wife’s cousin stayed here in Bandhavgarh, looked immense: https://baghtola.com/
