A first-time guide to the Terai

27.06.2024 - 08:29 / lonelyplanet.com

Jun 26, 2024 • 9 min read

Most visitors to Nepal are so preoccupied by its dramatic Himalayan skyline and spectacular temples that it’s all too easy to overlook the lowland gems of the Terai plains bordering India.

Venture down here, however, and you’ll discover a quite different Nepal; a land where the Buddha was born a pampered prince, where some of the world’s best tea grows on emerald hills, and where ancient Hindu myth becomes daily reality. The real pearls of the Terai are the national parks, wildlife reserves and wildlife corridors strung along the border like a chain of pearls, and the tigers, rhinos, elephants and leopards that stalk the pristine grasslands and subtropical forests here.

Once a malarial buffer zone that now holds the bulk of Nepal’s population and industry, and with a culture that has more in common with northern India than with Himalayan hill communities, the Terai is a great place to travel beyond Nepal’s tourism veneer. Beyond Chitwan National Park you won’t find much of the backpacker infrastructure that characterizes so much of Kathmandu and Pokhara. A grittier, more authentic and, most excitingly, a wilder Nepal awaits.

The most comfortable time to visit the Terai is during the relative cool of winter from November to February. The absolute best time for wildlife watching in Chitwan National Park is from late January to March, when the 8m-tall phanta (elephant grass) has been cut, making animals easier to spot.

Months to avoid are the searingly hot months of April and May, when temperatures hit 40°C (104°F), and the rainy monsoon season (June to mid-September), when flooded rivers and leeches make travel unpleasant.

In terms of festivals, Buddha Jayanti, which follow the lunar calendar but usually falls in April or May, sees crowds of Buddhist pilgrims celebrating the birth of the Buddha at his birthplace in Lumbini. In December tens of thousands of Hindu pilgrims from across the subcontinent travel to Janakpur to take part in a re-enactment of the marriage of Sita to Rama, as Rama’s image is carried to the temple by elephant. Rama’s birthday is celebrated here by large crowds of sadhus in March or April depending on the Hindu lunar calendar. 

If you just want to visit Chitwan National Park, give yourself two full days there to maximize your chance of spotting big-ticket megafauna. You’ll need to also figure in a day to get there from Kathmandu or Pokhara and a day to get back, though these days can usefully be combined with a dawn or dusk safari.

With a week up your sleeve you could add on a day in Lumbini, visiting the birthplace of the Buddha, and a quick wildlife safari at Bardia. 

If you are headed overland to India you can easily visit the tea plantations of Ilam en route