Please advise what kind of tiger safaries I can find in north India, but not Kashimir area - somewhere safe.
How much it costs?

Thanks,
Gala

Ramthambhore in Rajasthan - see www.rajasthanwildlife.in

Central India and Indian Himalaya area is the best part for Tiger safaries. There are lot of beautiful parks as Kanha, bandhavgarh, Pench, Panna, Corbett, Rajaji, Dudhwa national park.
Mostly these parks provide you Jeep safaries with private driver and guide.
According my experiance these few parks are the most famous parks for wildlife lovers.
All they have many beautiful wildlife resorts to stay.
Wish you all the best.
Raju India.

The best safaris in North India could be arranged in the Corbett, Ranthambhore, Bandhavgarh.
In Corbett you have the added advantage of staying inside the park, which is in itself totally different from going into a park for safari & driving back into a lodge. But due to the density of vegetation, a tiger sighting is a matter of luck...but that holds good for all parks as well, including Ranthambhore.
I was in Ranthambhore a few days back & managed to see two predators going after a sambhar, who naturally took off in alarm...with it's bob tail high up in the air! We had picked up it's spoor on the game track of No. 4 Beat. It is a fallacy to say that they would always be found in a particular area for a male tiger may do as much as 15 miles a night hunting for food & during the mating season may absent himself from his turf for a long time. Generally they mark their territory.
The sightings have been good in Ranthambhore.
An exclusive jeep costs about Rs. 4000/-. Put a small price on his head & your naturalist will go an extra mile for you!!

You've already gotten some good responses on where to find a tiger safari. However, I wanted to add that I just got back from India and all the newspapers were filled with dire warnings that there are so few tigers left in India even in the tiger wildlife reserves. One reserve reported that they did a survey and found no female tigers. Which means no more tigers there.

So, not sure how likely it would be for you to see a tiger on a safari.

It's sad news...for the tigers and for the world.

Here's a link to our "tiger safari":

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35110964

Gala,

Can you keep us posted on your travel plans? Thanks.

I am scheduled for a tiger safari (2 days) in Ranthambhore for mid March 2009.
I registered on this site:
www.rajasthanwildlife.in
to book my tickets. It's been very frustrating. After more than 30 tries over a couple of weeks my payment (PayPal) finally went though for the first day. I've been trying ever since (again over 30 tries) and I cannot get the payment to go through for the second day.
In contrast, my payments for trains on Rail India site went through on first try. Am I missing something?

Paulchili, why don't you ask your hotel to make the reservations for you?

I did.
They want three times the price (for administrative costs, "waiting in line", etc). At this point I don't even mind the cost, as the whole thing is not that expensive, but they won't use my CC as a guarantee or payment(same CC that they are using as guarantee for the hotel reservation). They want me to send money which is a big hassle and an addition cost. Incidentally, another hotel had the same policy - I guess they don't want to be out of pocket for a cash purchase.
I just may have to do that in the end, but I am trying to find out what I might be doing wrong or looking for other alternatives.
I just don't understand why this web site does not work the way it should. Especially in India, where Microsoft and others outsource their IT business.

It probably doesn't work the way it should for the same reason that many things in India just don't work the way they should. They...just...don't

Craig,
I would accept this explanation a lot easier if I had the same/similar trouble getting my train tickets online.
That was easy as pie - just like booking a ticket here on AA.

Okay, Paulchili - with train tickets, supply = demand. With tiger safaris, supply is limited. Therefore certain "arrangements" have to be made to ensure all goes smoothly. Your hotel has experience in that but it comes at a cost which is passed on to you. I could be all wrong on this, but I don't think so.

Craig,
I don't think it has anything to do with supply & demand. There are plenty tickets available for the safari. It's a "glitch" in the software of the company that pocesses the CC payments. The system for India Rail works perfectly (like any other online shopping site). The one for Rajasthan Wildlife needs work - it keeps rejecting multiple CCs (including the one it once accepted). Reasons given are - "your daily CC limit is $ 100" (the tickets are nowhere near $ 100 anyway) and similar such nonsense.

pc - I would go with the sure thing - pay the extra cost, book through your hotel and forget about it. Life's too short...

Craig,
As I said before, it's not the extra cost, it's the hassle of wiring money, etc.
I will keep trying and monitor the numbers - when they get down to 20 or so I will give in and ask the hotel to do it. In the mean time I just might get lucky like I did once before.
Thanks for listening to my rant..

Halleluiah,
I feel like I won the Grand prize - my online purchase finally went through. Have no idea why this time and not the 30 times before, but I don't care - I have my tickets now!
Now all I need is tigers!

We spent three days at Ranthambore. Had amazing tiger sightings, including one that walked right next to our jeep!! Fantastic experience and the highlight of our trip to India. We had our tour company (castle and king) book the tickets for us in advance.

There are more tigers as pets in the USA than there are tiges in the wild in India. Sad - but true.

There are more hotel rooms in Florida than there are in India. Sad but true.