KAAV Safari Lodge

Kaav means the sacred grove, and the lodge sits in the quiet of Nagarhole National Park, bordering the forest rather than looking at it from a distance. There are ten rooms in total, which is the whole point: privacy, and a place that behaves like an extension of the woodland around it.

The stay splits across signature rooms, tents and a private pool villa, so the same lodge covers several ways of sleeping in the same forest.

Kabini is the reason to come. Nagarhole is among the best places in India to see a Bengal tiger in the wild, and as a major hub of conservation the forest holds what the lodge describes as the largest herd of Asiatic elephants in the world, along with a long list of other predators and species.