Chitwan National Park Tour – 4 Days

• Three Full Activity Blocks: Two mornings and two afternoons inside the park, enough to work the grasslands properly.

• One-Horned Rhinoceros: Chitwan's population of around 700 makes a sighting close to certain over this many drives.

• Bis Hazari Tal Wetland: Take the long jeep route to the Ramsar-listed lake system on the park's northern edge.

• Elephant Breeding Centre: Visit the government centre at Khorsor, where the park's working elephants are raised.

• Tharu Culture and Cuisine: An evening in the village with the stick dance, and Tharu dishes at the lodge.

October to March is the prime window. The air is dry and clear, the grass has not yet grown tall, and animals concentrate around the rivers and oxbow lakes where they are far easier to see. Mornings are cold enough for a fleece on the jeep and the afternoons are pleasant.

February and March are the best of it: the park burns and cuts the elephant grass in those months, and with the cover down sightings of rhino, sloth bear and deer rise sharply. April and May are hot but productive around water. The monsoon from June to September brings heavy rain, high rivers and closed trails, and much of the park is difficult to work.

Activities run in two blocks, early morning and late afternoon, because that is when the animals move. A jeep safari covers ground and reaches the grasslands and river crossings; a guided jungle walk puts you on foot with two naturalists, which is quieter, more intense and where the smaller things — birds, tracks, sloth bear diggings — actually get noticed.

Time on the river matters as much. A canoe trip down the current drifts past gharial and marsh mugger crocodiles basking on the banks and is the best birding of the trip. Between blocks the middle of the day is deliberately empty: it is hot, the animals are lying up, and the lodge veranda is the right place to be.

Chitwan holds around 700 greater one-horned rhinoceros, and seeing one is close to routine — most visitors meet several. Also common: spotted deer, sambar, wild boar, langur and rhesus macaque, and gharial and mugger crocodiles on the river. Sloth bear and leopard are present and seen occasionally.

Bengal tiger live here in good numbers but are seldom seen in Chitwan's thick cover; treat a sighting as a gift rather than an expectation. Birdlife is exceptional with more than 500 species recorded, including the giant hornbill, paradise flycatcher and, in winter, large numbers of migratory waterfowl.

Wear neutral colours — greens, browns and greys. Bright clothing and white are visible a long way off in the grass, and the naturalists will ask you to change. Add long sleeves and trousers for the walks, closed shoes, a sun hat and a fleece for the cold morning jeep runs between November and February.

Binoculars are the single most useful thing you can pack, and one pair between two is not enough. Also bring insect repellent, high-factor sunscreen, a refillable bottle, a camera with as much reach as you own, and a torch for the lodge paths after dark. Leave drones at home; they are prohibited in every national park in Nepal.

• Illness After a Nepal Trek: Symptoms You Should Not Ignore — Most post-trek tiredness is just tiredness.

• Vaccinations for Trekking in Nepal: What to Get and When — Nepal has no compulsory vaccines for most travellers, but several are strongly recommended — and rabies deserves more thought than trekkers give it.

• Chitwan National Park Guide: Rhino, Tiger, and the Terai — Nepal's first national park and a UNESCO site, with the world's second-largest population of greater one-horned rhino, Bengal tigers, gharial crocodiles and over 500 bird species.