WildlifeThemes:WildlifeNatureAdventurePhotography
Madhya Pradesh
Bandhavgarh
Tiger country beneath a 2,000-year-old fort in the Vindhyas
- Ideal stay
- 3 days
- Best time
- October to June; November to March for comfort
State · Central India
Madhya Pradesh
राज्यमध्य भारत
Tiger forests, Khajuraho carving and Narmada ghats at dusk
The place
Travelling in Madhya Pradesh
परिचय
The heart of India carries three World Heritage Sites, some of the country's best tiger reserves and the Narmada running west through basalt gorges. Khajuraho, Sanchi and Bhimbetka cover a thousand years of art, while Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Pench put you in a jeep at first light.
Madhya Pradesh is India's second largest state and its most reliable tiger country. Bandhavgarh has one of the highest densities of tigers anywhere, Kanha's sal forests and meadows inspired Kipling's jungle, Pench sits on the Seoni plateau, and Satpura allows walking safaris and canoe drifts that no other Indian park matches. The art is just as strong. Khajuraho's Chandela temples, built between about 950 and 1050 CE, still carry the sculptural energy of the Kandariya Mahadeva; Sanchi's Great Stupa was begun by Ashoka in the third century BCE and its gateways are the finest early Buddhist carving in India; and Bhimbetka's rock shelters hold paintings spanning tens of thousands of years. Gwalior Fort sits on a sandstone bluff Babur called the pearl among fortresses. Orchha's cenotaphs line the Betwa, and Mandu's Jahaz Mahal floats between two tanks. On the Narmada, Maheshwar keeps Ahilyabai Holkar's ghats and its handloom saris, and Ujjain's Mahakaleshwar hosts the pre-dawn Bhasma Aarti. Signature journeys link Bhopal, Sanchi, Khajuraho and Bandhavgarh.
What it is famous for
Madhya Pradesh, in three lists
पहचान
Famous for
On the table
- Poha with jalebi
- Bhutte ka kees
- Dal bafla
- Bhopali seekh kebab
- Sabudana khichdi
- Mawa bati
Through the year
- Khajuraho Dance Festival
- Simhastha Kumbh at Ujjain
- Mahashivratri
- Tansen Samaroh at Gwalior
- Lokrang
14 places we travel to
Places to visit in Madhya Pradesh
गंतव्य
Every Madhya Pradesh destination we plan journeys around, with the best months and the ideal stay for each.
Wildlife
CityThemes:CultureFoodHeritageFamily
Madhya Pradesh
Bhopal
City of lakes, begums, mosques and India's finest tribal museum
- Ideal stay
- 2 days
- Best time
- October to March
FortThemes:HeritageCultureFoodPhotography
Madhya Pradesh
Gwalior
A hill fort that has watched over the heartland for fourteen centuries
- Ideal stay
- 2 days
- Best time
- October to March; December for the Tansen Samaroh
RiverThemes:NatureHeritageFamilyPhotography
Madhya Pradesh
Jabalpur & Bhedaghat
Marble cliffs, a thundering Narmada and a hilltop ring of yoginis
- Ideal stay
- 2 days
- Best time
- October to March; Sharad Purnima for moonlight boating
WildlifeThemes:WildlifeNatureAdventurePhotography
Madhya Pradesh
Kanha
Sal forests, swaying meadows and the barasingha brought back from the brink
- Ideal stay
- 3 days
- Best time
- October to June; November to March for weather
TempleThemes:HeritageCulturePhotographySpiritual
Madhya Pradesh
Khajuraho
Chandela temples where stone breathes desire, devotion and daily life
- Ideal stay
- 2 days
- Best time
- October to March; February for the dance festival
RiverThemes:SpiritualCultureRomanceHeritage
Madhya Pradesh
Maheshwar
Ahilyabai's riverside capital of ghats, temples and handwoven sarees
- Ideal stay
- 2 days
- Best time
- October to March
HeritageThemes:HeritageRomancePhotographyNature
Madhya Pradesh
Mandu
A monsoon city of ship palaces and Rani Roopmati's pavilion
- Ideal stay
- 2 days
- Best time
- July to September for the monsoon; October to February for cool
TempleThemes:SpiritualNatureCultureOffbeat
Madhya Pradesh
Omkareshwar
An island shaped like Om, holding a Jyotirlinga in the Narmada
- Ideal stay
- 1 day
- Best time
- October to March; August to September for a full
HeritageThemes:HeritageSpiritualPhotographyRomance
Madhya Pradesh
Orchha
Bundela palaces, riverside cenotaphs and a god who reigns as king
- Ideal stay
- 2 days
- Best time
- October to March
Hill stationThemes:NatureAdventureFamilySpiritual
Madhya Pradesh
Pachmarhi
Satpura's only hill station: waterfalls, Pandava caves and Dhupgarh sunsets
- Ideal stay
- 3 days
- Best time
- October to March; April and May as a summer escape
WildlifeThemes:WildlifeNatureFamilyPhotography
Madhya Pradesh
Pench
The real Jungle Book forest along a lazy river
- Ideal stay
- 2 days
- Best time
- October to June; March to May for sightings
HeritageThemes:HeritageSpiritualCulturePhotography
Madhya Pradesh
Sanchi
Ashoka's Great Stupa and India's oldest surviving stone gateways
- Ideal stay
- 1 day
- Best time
- October to March; late November for the Chethiyagiri Vihara festival
TempleThemes:SpiritualCultureFoodHeritage
Madhya Pradesh
Ujjain
Mahakal's city where the day begins with ash and drums
- Ideal stay
- 2 days
- Best time
- October to March; avoid or embrace the Shravan crowds in July and August
Madhya Pradesh tour packages
Journeys through Madhya Pradesh
यात्राएँ
2 of our routes pass through Madhya Pradesh. Each one is a starting point — tell us your days and we reshape it.
8 days · 7 nightsThemes:WildlifeNatureHeritage
Easy · Best Nov–Apr
Central India Tiger Safari
Five dawns in Kanha and Bandhavgarh, then Khajuraho and Orchha to finish
Route: Kanha → Bandhavgarh → Khajuraho → Orchha
- Group
- 2–12 (private)
- From
- ₹98,000 pp
18 days · 17 nightsThemes:HeritageSpiritualCulture
Moderate · Best Oct–Nov
Kanyakumari to Kashmir: The Grand Trunk
Eighteen days up the spine of India, from the cape to the valley
Route: Kanyakumari → Madurai → Hampi → Hyderabad +6 more
- Group
- 2–8 (private)
- From
- ₹2,15,000 pp
Time it right
Madhya Pradesh festivals
त्योहार
JanJanuary to March, in the Magh season. The site rotates between Prayagraj, Haridwar, Nashik–Trimbakeshwar and Ujjain on a twelve-year astrological cycle, and dates are set by planetary positions rather than a fixed calendar.
Kumbh Mela
The largest human gathering on earth, held where rivers and astrology meet. Prayagraj, Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain take turns on a twelve-year cycle. After the 2025 Maha Kumbh on the Prayagraj sands, the Simhastha moves to Nashik in 2027 and Ujjain in 2028.
Uttar Pradesh · Uttarakhand · Maharashtra
Eat here
What to eat in Madhya Pradesh
खानपान
Street foodMadhya Pradesh
Poha Jalebi
Flattened rice steamed with turmeric, mustard and fennel, then heaped with sev, raw onion, pomegranate and a scatter of jeeravan masala, and eaten with a hot coil of jalebi on the same plate. Indore made it famous, but every Bhopal and Ujjain corner sells it from seven in the morning until the pans run dry.
From the journal
Reading for Madhya Pradesh
पत्रिका
· Guide · 6 min
Best Time to Visit India: A Month-by-Month Guide
India is not one climate but six, from a Himalayan cold desert at 3,500 metres to hills that take eleven metres of rain a year. Here is the whole calendar, month by month, with the regions, roads and parks that open and close with it.
1 more in Central India
Next door in Central India
पड़ोसी राज्य
StateCentral India
Chhattisgarh
Bastar's tribal heartland, sal forests and thundering monsoon falls
- Capital
- Raipur
- Destinations
- 2