Luxury Hotels - Luxury Indian versus Sri Lankan Safari Experience

We are in planning stages for a combined Safari/Maldives trip next May/June. From my research, India and Sri Lanka have the best Safari options in Asia. India is pretty straight forward as Taj/Andbeyond camps are always fantastic. However, it will be quite hot in India and cultural excursions may not be as easy due to distances. On the other hand Sri Lanka's national parks such as Yala sound great (highest leopard concentration but no tigers) and weather should be more ideal. The only major issue with Sri Lanka would be Camp/resort quality that offers safaris. Of course, Amanwella seems too far from Yala (around 2 hours away). One of the ones that I've found would be Chayaa. Can anyone comment on quality of Safari experiences in two countries mentioned as well as possible luxury accomodation options in each?

I'm interested in the response to this as well. Based on my research of Sri Lanka (not been yet), my gut tells me it is not a safari destination. Yala strikes me as more of a one day diversion and not the multi day safari experience you would get from parts of India.

Have you ever seen tigers? I encourage people to see them now before they are gone. :( There are many luxury safari options in India.

How funny; was just coming here to ask about Amanwella and Amangalla, and see if anyone has any updates/thoughts about them.

We are in planning stages for a combined Safari/Maldives trip next May/June. From my research, India and Sri Lanka have the best Safari options in Asia. India is pretty straight forward as Taj/Andbeyond camps are always fantastic. However, it will be quite hot in India and cultural excursions may not be as easy due to distances. On the other hand Sri Lanka's national parks such as Yala sound great (highest leopard concentration but no tigers) and weather should be more ideal. The only major issue with Sri Lanka would be Camp/resort quality that offers safaris. Of course, Amanwella seems too far from Yala (around 2 hours away). One of the ones that I've found would be Chayaa. Can anyone comment on quality of Safari experiences in two countries mentioned as well as possible luxury accomodation options in each?

Depends where in India. Ranthambore is closed starting June 1st, and can be brutally hot in May. We considered ourselves lucky that it was low 40s during the day--last year it was apparently day time highs of 48. I have to say that I think even at Aman i Khas that would be debilitating. It is simply too hot to do anything between 10 am and 5 pm. I really do think May is too hot unless you are native. I dont think the north east would be much better; temperatures may be a couple degrees lower but humidity would be much higher. We will definitely go to India again, but it will just as definitely be Feb/March time. Also, and others may disagree with me, but if you are used to high end Africa safaris, India isnt that. I suspect that Sri Lanka is really really not that. Even Aman, Oberoi, etc are not quite up to high end South Africa, Tanzania, Botswanna standards.

Also, and others may disagree with me, but if you are used to high end Africa safaris, India isnt that. I suspect that Sri Lanka is really really not that. Even Aman, Oberoi, etc are not quite up to high end South Africa, Tanzania, Botswanna standards.

Sure, I'll disagree with you. :) We were delighted with our Aman-i-Khas safari experience after having been to Singita and some of the best that Botswana has to offer. It's different than Africa, but that doesn't necessarily mean worse.

As for weather.....can you move the trip up a bit?

Sure, I'll disagree with you. :) We were delighted with our Aman-i-Khas safari experience after having been to Singita and some of the best that Botswana has to offer. It's different than Africa, but that doesn't necessarily mean worse.

As for weather.....can you move the trip up a bit?

Unfortunately, we can not move the trip date as it depends on school holiday.

We have done a number of safari trips in Africa, and one in India. We love Africa for this and I can say there are many suggestions of great places to go in your timeframe in both southern Africa and east Africa. India was a one off three day experience at Aman which we loved, but it was not in the same league as Africa IMHO. We were fortunate to see a tiger on Christmas Day no less, but one does not see the extensive game you see in some African lodges. If you were going to India to see other things it is definately a great add-on but weather would be miserable that time of year, and it sounds like it could be closed.

We are going to Sri Lanka in early January next year and I looked into the safari aspect and decided against it for several reasons: seemingly poor accomodations, crowded, not much chance to see much interesting game. Now I have not actually been and if we're to hear otherwise from a reliable source would reconsider! This is from talking to a former business colleague who lives there part of the year, and talking to friends who have been in the past. Amanwella is only a couple of hours away so it might be worth taking to them and asking. We will be staying there at the end of our trip so I thought depending on their feedback we might try to go to Yala for a day trip. Let me know what you find out!
Also would appreciate any additional comments people have on amangalla and amanwella - eg which rooms to request, etc. our expectations from previous comments are already not as high as other Amans, but we want to spend time in Sri Lanka and after cultural triangle and tea trails believe we will enjoy these two properties at the end!

Please share what you discover and decide! Thanks much.

Thanks for all the replies. It makes alot more sense to stick with India. Tigers are actually alot more common to see in hot summer months as they come by water more often. For those with Aman i kas experience, from what I gather, it does not offer as good of safari quality as some of the andbeyond/taj properties such as Banjaar Tola. This may be due to lower numbers of animals in that particular national park? I think we'll deal with the heat and do India at Banjaar Tola. We have done Botswana and East Africa with Andbeyond the past two summers and have been very impressed so far.

Just when I was ready to book our trip, someone pointed this out to me. India's supreme court ban on tiger safaris within national park. I personally think this was a great move to protect remaining tigers. So I guess we'll wait for their final permanent decision. Maybe it'll help out with over visited parks:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/25/world/asia/india-tiger-tourism/index.html

It seems that permanent changes expected at indian safari parks will effect Aman i Khas as well as Taj/Andbeyond camps:

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/07/26/how-the-tourism-ban-affects-india%e2%80%99s-tiger-parks/

I'm all for protecting the tigers, and perhaps a place like Ranthambhore allows too many tourists in. But this whole thing is crazy. Everyone knows the real threat to tigers is 1) poachers and 2) the occasional villager who gets mad if a tiger is preying on his livestock.

Keeping tourists out only allows more of 1 and 2 to go on. Hopefully, they'll just reduce the numbers allowed in.

Totally agree with Ericka!

Keep us posted. As I wrote in another thread, we are also planning to visit India next near. We have been to Rathambore before (but did not see tigers), and would be happy to go to India also if there would be no tiger safari this time, I would of course like it more if we would be able to go there.

Although for us it seems quite a nuisance, this move by Indian Government seems plausible. Tigers numbers in India have gone down from 100,000 to less than 2000 in around a 100 years. So isolating these animals and only having certain routes open to visit the parks makes lots of sense as it would be easier to watch out for poachers.

Meanwhile, any other recommendations for luxury wildlife safari/observation tours in Asia that can be combined with Maldives would be highly appreciated.

I think that Kanha is still OK as it is a huge reserve & Banjaar Tola is sited well outside of the reserve.

http://www.eturbonews.com/30903/india-extends-tiger-tourism-ban-till-september-27

now we wait until sep 27

I have been keeping track of this situation. At this time, I would say it may be safer to go with Sri Lanka for near future. We've been researching Yala NP quite a bit and it sounds amazing. Chaaya Wild resort in particular stands out for luxury and total experience. India safari may have to wait but glad government is caring so much for Tigers.

i have no idea what its about (politics?)
but its not about ending tourism (would be done) and its not about tigers (privatization)
and even if it was, supreme court will get new appointments in next 1-2 yrs

besides india looks like nepal and bangladesh have tigers

New judicial appointments won't make a difference in this regard, regardless of elections in that time frame.

Nepal and Bangladesh have some tiger populations -- the latter with more unique tigers in some ways -- but I would generally prefer Nepal to Bangladesh for off the beaten track tourism.

unless there is a minimum duration for all supreme court rulings, how is it that new judges cannot reverse?

That's the wrong question if trying to understand the basis of what I stated earlier.

I am not about to explain all the actual machinations that go on with becoming a judge of the Supreme Court of India and how benches for hearings are reached, but any reasonably informed person intimately familiar with how things in this regard actually work (or not) would not jump to a conclusion that new appointments to that court in the next 1-2 years will make any difference with regard to environmental activism of this sort from the Supreme Court.

Yala sound great (highest leopard concentration but no tigers) and weather should be more ideal. The only major issue with Sri Lanka would be Camp/resort quality that offers safaris. Of course, Amanwella seems too far from Yala (around 2 hours away). One of the ones that I've found would be Chayaa. Can anyone comment on quality of Safari experiences in two countries mentioned as well as possible luxury accomodation options in each?

Yala is a nice diversion from beach and temples, but if you have been to africa, set your expectations very very low. Your best option for seeing leopards is staying within the park, there are two operators of private "luxury" camps. We tried both, they have the luxury price, but definitely not the luxury accommodations/service - fly tent, clean, edible food, but poorly managed. That was ok, I'm more interested in the wildlife - but the guiding was also not on par with the cost. We did see leopards, only during sunrise and dusk, so I doubt you would have much luck driving in from amanwella or even chayya. The track system is not very developed, so except early and late, any interesting sighting will quickly be crowded with vehicles. The park is divided up into several blocks, only a small section is open to the public, I would guess that a majority of the wildlife has learned which blocks to avoid - as most of the wildlife we did see was very skittish. The other parks in Sri Lanka make an interesting drive through if your in the area, but should not be considered a destination unless your an avid birder. We really enjoyed Sri Lanka, but Yala was disappointing.

[QUOTE=aesla11;18992517]Yala sound great (highest leopard concentration but no tigers) and weather should be more ideal. The only major issue with Sri Lanka would be Camp/resort quality that offers safaris. Of course, Amanwella seems too far from Yala (around 2 hours away). One of the ones that I've found would be Chayaa. Can anyone comment on quality of Safari experiences in two countries mentioned as well as possible luxury accomodation options in each?

Yala is a nice diversion from beach and temples, but if you have been to africa, set your expectations very very low. Your best option for seeing leopards is staying within the park, there are two operators of private "luxury" camps. We tried both, they have the luxury price, but definitely not the luxury accommodations/service - fly tent, clean, edible food, but poorly managed. That was ok, I'm more interested in the wildlife - but the guiding was also not on par with the cost. We did see leopards, only during sunrise and dusk, so I doubt you would have much luck driving in from amanwella or even chayya. The track system is not very developed, so except early and late, any interesting sighting will quickly be crowded with vehicles. The park is divided up into several blocks, only a small section is open to the public, I would guess that a majority of the wildlife has learned which blocks to avoid - as most of the wildlife we did see was very skittish. The other parks in Sri Lanka make an interesting drive through if your in the area, but should not be considered a destination unless your an avid birder. We really enjoyed Sri Lanka, but Yala was disappointing.[/QUOTE
Thank you.