Highlights

• Jeep safaris(Half or full day)
• Elephant Safari
• Canoe Ride(Short or Long)
• Elephant Breeding Farm’s visit
• Jungle Walk/Trek (Half or Full day)
• Night stay in the Machan
• Bird Watching
• 20 000 Lakes
• Elephant Bathing

Cultural Activities:

• Tharu Village tour with Tharu museum visit
• Chitwan National Park Museum
• Tharu Stick Dance

Jeep safari:

To go by jeep in the jungle offers several advantages of its own. First, you are able to go deep inside the park which you cannot do by walk, canoe or elephant. To go deep allows you to witness many different types of vegetations (grassland, tropical forest and temperate forest), see jungle lakes, water streams. Jeep is a very safe way to go in the wild and even though a jeep is noisy, you cover such a long area during the ride that it gives you a great possibility, if luck is on your side, to see animals that usually live far from the border of the park (bears, leopards, tigers).
First we cross the Rapti river by canoe to reach the inside of the park and then we ride the open roofed jeep for 22 km (40km for full day) to reach Kasara which is the administrative headquarter of the park. At Kasara you visit a crocodile breeding farm that has been set to protect and increase the number of crocodiles at Chitwan. This is a great opportunity to see crocodiles from very close range.
After, we return again through the jungle by jeep to get a long return trip that will give you more chance to encounter wild animals.

Elephant Safari:

To ride an elephant inside the jungle of Chitwan is something totally unique and unforgettable. As you might know, there are two types of elephant, the african elephant and the asian elephant. African elephants are more massive and have larger ears than the asian ones, but african elephants are not domesticated whereas the asian elephants have been domesticated by humans long time ago. For this reason, it is unique to ride an elephant in our park, which is the second greatest park of Asia’s subcontinent. An elephant ride in the jungle is probably the best way to discover the wild because it is safe to be high while observing animals and also because elephants are vegetarians and therefore they don’t scare away deers, rhinoceros, crocodiles, tigers, bears and leopards.

Canoe Ride:

Canoeing is something special. The canoes we use are typical local canoes dug in one tree, while siting in one of them you are going to feel as being « indiana jones ».The particularity of this ride is that you are going along with the current of the river, the ride is very silent to give you maximum chance of seeing animals. This way is also very safe and the best way to witness crocodiles and exotic birds. The canoes are low on the river that gives the great impression to be very close to the animals. for sure you heart beat will accelerate when you will spot crocodiles few meters away from you basking in the sun on the river bank.

Elephant Breeding Farm’s visit:

This is a « once in a lifetime » experience when you can see these huge pachyderm from very close and see how they are being taken care of. Usually there are some baby elephants too. From the farm, we return to our hotel by jeep.

Jungle Walk/Trek:

We organize for you jungle walks where you will be guided by the experienced naturalists of our hotel. This activity requires some discipline on your part, to be as quiet as possible, wear dark green clothes and listen carefully to your guides advices and recommendations. This activity is probably the most thrilling of all and if you have the luck to encounter wild animals during this walk you will never forget it !!!
We can organize half or full day treks according to your wish.

Night stay in the Machan:

Another such type of activity is to camp in the community forest. The community forest is like a buffer zone touching the park itself, it is a forest full of jungle noises and lots of wild animals roam freely in it all the time. Accompanied by our guide, you will be spending the night in a tree house type Machan, taking with you a packed dinner from our hotel. To spend a night in the jungle forest surrounded by the wild is something that words cannot describe.

Bird Watching:

Chitwan National Park is a heaven for bird watchers and is renowned all over the world for the varieties of its bird species with more than 450 of them.

With our guides, we organize bird watching trips that can take place inside the park itself or along the river Rapti who is the boundary of the park and is consider outside of it. These walks can be organized on half or full day basis according to the time you have at your disposal.

20 000 Lakes:

Chitwan attracts so many bird watchers from all over the world that we organize also a specific visit to a local place called « 20 000 lakes ». As its name indicate, it is a beautiful forest with countless ponds, streams and small lakes, you will feel as in « the lord of the ring ». Countless birds can be observed there, crocodiles are also often spotted on the site and if you are lucky, you might see rhinos and deers too during this « off the track » trip. For this trip, you’ll ride our jeep for around 20 km and will return the same way after walking through the lakes guided by our naturalists.

Elephant Bathing:

As we mentioned it earlier, River View Jungle Camp’s unique location on the bank of the Rapti river allows you to see the bath of the elephants from our compound itself !. This is free of cost for our guests.

Nevertheless, if you want to participate in this activity by being on the elephant’s back and playing with them in the river, you can book your ticket through our hotel and enjoy a great moment in the water with these prehistorical animals.

Cultural Activities:

Tharu Village tour with Tharu museum visit:

The « Tharus » are one of the more than 40 ethnies that populate Nepal. They are located in the flat part of Nepal to the south (also called « Terai). They are the local tribe of Chitwan and were, not so long ago, the only residents of this area. Until 1959, Chitwan was like a big swamp full of wild animals and because of the tropical climate it was also infested with malaria. In 1959 a big program to dry out this area (to eradicate malaria too) was implemented and other ethnies came down from the hills to settle in Chitwan because its land became very fertile.

Because of this history, the Tharus are very specific people. They have their own way of living, building houses, their own dialect, special festivals, culture and traditions.

They have been living for decades together with all wild animals and are renowned for their fearless attitude toward dangerous animals. They are masters at handling long wooden sticks that is used by them in traditional cultural activities but mainly because wooden sticks have been their only weapon to defend themselves from jungle threats.

The guided visit of a Tharu village is the only way for you to go deep into understanding this tribes specificity and the true cultural value of Chitwan district.

Chitwan National Park Museum:

This museum is located very close from our hotel and if you have enough time and wish to visit it to see some historical facts about the park and its habitat, one of our guide will take you to visit this small but interesting local museum.

If you have booked any of our « package program », River View Jungle Camp will be happy to offer you this activity as a complimentary bonus free of charge.

Tharu Stick Dance:

In the evening, after a day packed with jungle activities, you can relax watching a cultural group of local Tharus performing their typical « stick dances ». As mentioned before, they are master at it and it is truly amazing to see their virtuosity at dancing with their sticks that move at high speed. The precision of the dance is just the proof that a Tharu is unbeatable with a stick and it is well known in our area that Tharu can successfully defend themselves in front of almost any animal with this « local weapon ».

Additional information:

Most of the activities we have detailed for you above are « half day activities » but, if you want to choose them « a la carte » and build your own specific program (see in « Reservation/Customize your package »), we can organize Jeep Safari, Canoe Ride, Jungle Treks and Bird Watching as « full day activities » specially for you.