Lovely room ÿ and it's got a great safari park attached

A wildlife park is meant to be rough and rugged; going to one is a bit like becoming a wild animal oneself. Probably the best way to experience such a place is to climb a tree with a pair of binoculars and stay there for several days. But Ranthambore, in the south-east of the Indian state of Rajasthan, is an exception. For a start, it is very easy to get to by Indian standards: just climb aboard an air-conditioned railway coach at New Delhi station at 7.55am, and by lunchtime you've arrived. Nor does it entail a major detour for travellers doing the great north Indian favourites, the cities of Agra and Jaipur. It is between the two.

As a result, the park is becoming one of Delhi's favourite retreats for a long weekend. So while the park itself provides enough raw material – tigers, peacocks, crocodiles, etc – to keep the fanatics quiet, for the dilettantes it is a delightful resort in its own right. The twitchers can get out of bed in the middle of the night and suffer for their art. But if you are not quite that passionate about the subject, the hotels and camps on the park's fringe have plenty of other charming ways to pass the time.

When I visited the park with our seven-year-old, we decided to find what else Ranthambore had to offer besides wilderness. We tried two of the newer places to open their doors to guests: a "jungle camp" called Vanyavilas, run by the Oberoi group, and a tented camp on the edge of the park known as Sher Bagh.

They call it a "jungle camp". But anyone who comes to Vanyavilas expecting camping is in for a shock. Accommodation is in tents – but these are not tents such as one has seen before. Vanyavilas is 790sq ft of unabashed luxury. The freestanding bath has gilded claws for feet, and stands on a tiger-pattern rug. The floors are of polished teak. There is a large double bed. There is a well-stocked fridge, satellite TV and 80 tons of air-conditioning.

When you finally summon the willpower to go outside, there is a swimming pool, two real Thai masseuses, and some of the best Italian food east of Suez. There is also a video room where the camp's resident expert, a celebrated former chief conservationist at the park called Fateh Singh, points out where the makers of documentaries about Ranthambore cut corners.

Sher Bagh, by contrast, has less to offer sleeping partners: here the tents are tents, though with full headroom; they have en-suite bathrooms with pedestal loos and nice basins and electric lights, but coming from the conspicuous luxury of Vanyavilas, as we did, they appear simple, frugal, tent-like. Instead of 80 tons of air-conditioning there are electric fans and hot-water bottles.

Sher Bagh is also, however, less than one-third the price. And if the park is what you've come for, Sher Bagh is about as close to it as you can get. Beyond the hammocks slung between trees at the camp's fringe there is a mile or two of scrub, then the great brown cliffs that embower the park rise up. If you tire of bumping through the park in a car, there is nothing to stop you going on long healthy walks around here. Though take advice before setting out: the only animals in evidence when I went for a tramp were cows being grazed by the local farmers, but the people in charge of Sher Bagh may know different.

Ranthambore is a gem of a park. Hundreds of miles from the great parks in the heart of India, its continuing success is something of a miracle. It has had its ups and downs: in one of the downs some years back, poachers reduced the park's tigers to single figures. That might have been the end. Remarkably, with excellent stewardship, it recovered. There are still only about 30 tigers here, but they appear to be far more numerous, for a reason that is also peculiar to Ranthambore: they are not in the least bit furtive or shy. They are, on the contrary, as bold as brass.

Most people seem to see tigers at Ranthambore. I have been out in the park on four separate occasions, and saw tigers every time. In March 2000, Bill and Chelsea Clinton saw two, a male and a female, during a three-hour trek.

Seeing a tiger in the wild is such a rare experience that until it actually happens one can be beset by tension. Nothing else matters. It becomes a mark of heavenly favour, a sign of virtue or distinction, or at the very last proof of luck.

Then suddenly this huge striped beast is padding silently alongside the car, paying it and us no attention at all, crossing the track in front of our wheels, sprawling in the ferns on the far side as if it were alone in the universe.

Getting there

Return flights to Delhi via Frankfurt cost from £372.30 with Lufthansa in September (www.opodo.co.uk). Trains depart daily from New Delhi to Sawai Madhopur (from where it is just a couple of miles to the park). The journey time is five hours and the fare about £38 return. Contact SD Enterprises (020-8903 3411).

Being there

Vanyavila costs $495 (£330) per tent per night. Alternatively a package with Pettitts India (01892 515966; www.pettitts.co.uk) costs £2,100, including return flights to Delhi, return air transfers to Jaipur, return private car transfers to the park, two nights' b&b at the Oberoi New Delhi and four nights' full board at Vanyavila. Sher Bagh charges $165 (£110) per tent per night full board. Contact Forest Friendly Camps (00 91 11 374 3194; www.sherbagh.com)

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Information

From the Foreign Office: There remains a risk of conflict between India and Pakistan, and the situation could deteriorate at short notice. In that event, there could be difficulty in travelling to safety. Were a conflict to start, our capacity to evacuate British nationals would be limited.