MP Wildlife with Khajuraho Heritage

This 6-night route is for travellers who want both — the thousand-year-old erotic sculptures of Khajuraho and the raw, untamed jungles of Central India's finest tiger country. You start at UNESCO's Western Group of Temples, where 10th-century Chandela artisans carved sandstone into scenes so vivid they still stop you mid-stride. The Light & Sound Show at sunset puts the history into context without a textbook in sight.

From Khajuraho, your private Innova heads south through rural Bundelkhand towards Bandhavgarh, India's most tiger-dense national park. Two full days of morning and afternoon safaris across Tala, Magdhi, and Khitauli zones give you four chances at the big sighting. Then the road winds deeper into the sal forests to Kanha — the landscape Kipling immortalised, where the hard-ground Barasingha was brought back from the brink and tigers patrol meadows straight out of a wildlife documentary.

The circuit closes at Jabalpur with a boat ride through the ethereal Marble Rocks gorge of Bhedaghat, where white-and-grey marble cliffs tower 30 metres above the Narmada. It's a strangely beautiful full stop to a week that moves from sculpted stone to living jungle. Pack a zoom lens and an open mind — this one covers ground.