10 trips to book if you want to spot some of the world’s rarest big cats

Whether you’re in search of pumas in Patagonia or snow leopards in India, here are 10 of the best trips to book now if you want to spot some of the world’s rarest big cats.

As with many of the cats featured here, the Iberian lynx recently faced extinction. At their lowest ebb, just 20 years ago, there were barely 100 left in the wild, having been devastated by habitat destruction and the loss of their main food source (rabbits) to disease. Thanks to a long-running conservation programme, these felines are bouncing back and were recently reclassified from ‘endangered’ to ‘vulnerable’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

They are, however, still very hard to see, which makes Naturetrek’s Realm of the Iberian Lynx guided tour of two of their last refuges in Andalucia a rare opportunity for a unique wildlife encounter. The operator claims 80% of tours have yielded sightings in Doñana National Park and Sierra Moreno. The latter’s Mediterranean forest is home to 70% of the lynx’s population here, while the national park lets you broaden your quest with birding at one of Europe’s most important wetlands.

More information: Naturetrek (naturetrek.co.uk). 27 Oct, 17 Nov & 1 Dec 2025; 13 & 18 Jan, 8 & 22 Feb 2026; six days from £1,595pp, including international flights.

Read next: Andalucía by rail: Discovering the jewels of Islamic-era Spain by high-speed train

The Asiatic lion once roamed from the Middle East to India. But by the turn of the 20th century, barely 20 remained in existence, having been hunted to near-extinction. Their unlikely saviour was the nawab of Junagadh, who, in 1911, after finding just a dozen left to shoot, made Gir a protected reserve for lions in southern Gujarat. His successor, a noted animal lover, later banned shooting in the region. By the time Gir became a national park in 1965, it had around 160 lions. Today, it is the last refuge of these incredible cats and one of five parks visited on Distant Journeys’ Indian Wildlife Adventure. It’s a great chance to see not just the tigers and leopards of Pench and Kanha on a guided small group tour, but to learn about a big cat with a remarkable story.

More information: Distant Journeys (distantjourneys.co.uk). Selected dates from Jan–May & Oct–Nov 2026; 17 days from £3,795pp, including international flights.

Read next: Wildlife in Rajasthan: In search of tigers, chinkara and Indian wolves

Last year, the first-ever census of snow leopards in India counted 718 of these threatened cats – as much as 15% of the world’s population – in the trans-Himalayan region. The majority are found in Ladakh, where Exodus Adventure Travels’ Search for Snow Leopards with Valerie Parkinson guided tour sets off in search of sightings in the deep winter months, when these cats descend to altitudes of just a few thousand metres to hunt blue sheep.

Led by a former winner of the ‘Best Tour Leader’ category at the Wanderlust World Guide Awards, you’ll be in good hands as you juggle homestays, visits to monasteries and time spent lying in wait with a long-lens camera. Plus, these mountains aren’t just home to leopards: lynx, wolves, Himalayan griffon vultures and golden eagles can all be spotted from the slopes. February departures also coincide with the Matho Nagrang Festival, when masked dancers take centre stage. And yet, we’d trade it all for just one glimpse of silvery fur.

More information: Exodus Adventure Travels (exodus.co.uk). 28 Feb 2026; 13 & 27 Feb 2027; 14 days from £3,399pp, excluding international flights.

Read next: 7 things you probably didn’t know about snow leopards

The pumas of Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia are utterly isolated. Surrounded by fjords, ice fields and ranches that were historically hostile to these big cats, they have long existed as an island, backdropped by some of the most incredible mountain scenery in the world.

Wildlife Worldwide’s Puma-Tracking in Southern Chile guided small group tour takes all this in as you set off through the park in the company of trackers and a local naturalist to see these big cats on their own terms. Along the way, you’ll look out for ñandus (rhea), Andean condors and huemul deer (the most endangered hoofed animal in South America), as well as visit a 200m-long cave, glaciers, waterfalls, lakes and the famous Los Cuernos (the Horns). But there’s no doubting who the star of the show is.

More information: Wildlife Worldwide (wildlifeworldwide.com). 8 Oct, 8 Nov & 1 Dec 2025; 18 Jan, 1 Feb & 2 Mar 2026; 10 days from £6,275pp, including international flights.

Read next: 6 top places to visit in Southern Patagonia

Sri Lanka is home to one of the few island leopard populations in the world, with some 800 of these big cats found across its forests. Bamboo Travel’s Birds & Wildlife of Sri Lanka tailor-made tour offers the potential to see one up close on early morning game drives of Wilpattu and Yala national parks. The latter boasts one of the highest densities on the planet, with some areas home to one leopard per square kilometre. The trip doesn’t limit itself to big cats, though, and the chance to spy whales off the coast of Mirissa, go birding among the highlands of Horton Plains or see greater flamingos in Bundala National Park is just as enticing.

More information: Bamboo Travel (bambootravel.co.uk). Flexible dates; 17 days from £5,850pp, including international flights.

Read next: Sri Lanka trip planner: 6 incredible and in-depth routes

In the late 2000s, civil war raged across Chad. As troops were redeployed, Janjaweed militia flooded across the border with Sudan, ravaging one of Central Africa’s greatest wildlife sites, Zakouma National Park. Some 90% of the 22,000 elephants that roamed here in the 1970s were lost. The park’s revival over the past decade has been little short of miraculous, and it is now the closest ‘Big Five’ wildlife destination to Europe. Yet, it still sees a fraction of the visitors that head to Southern Africa’s major parks.

The park’s 1,500 Kordofan giraffes and huge herds of elephants take the headlines, but as Native Eye Travel’s Zakouma Adventure small group guided tour proves, its lions, cheetahs and elusive leopards are no less compelling. From a base at Tinga Lodge, game drives into the park reveal one of Africa’s most compelling wildlife comeback stories.

More information: Native Eye Travel (nativeeyetravel.com). 1 Feb 2026 & 30 Jan 2027; 8 days from £3,849pp, excluding international flights.

Read next: Is Zakouma National Park in Chad one of Africa’s best?

In 2011, the Onçafari conservation project – run at Caiman eco-lodge – began pioneering a revolutionary approach to help preserve the jaguar population of Brazil’s southern Pantanal. This area is home to vast farmlands, which meant that many of these big cats were killed to protect livestock. So the project began turning cattle ranchers from poachers into gamekeepers and set about employing people from the local community in its tourism and habituation programmes. As a result, the jaguar population has risen by 100 in just a decade (2013–2023).

Sunvil’s Viewing Jaguars in the Pantanal tailor-made tour lets you see the good work being done to protect these cats on Caiman’s 53,000-hectare property. Stays also include day and evening safaris, nature walks and canoeing trips, letting you glimpse these creatures in the wild before exploring the wildernesses around Brasília, the ancient plateau of Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park and the colonial-era buildings of Salvador.

More information: Sunvil (sunvil.co.uk). 14 May 2026, though dates can be flexible; 10 nights from £6,792pp, including international flights.

Read next: Queen of the Pantanal: On the trail of jaguars in Brazil

KE Adventure’s Trans-Kalahari Camping Safari small group tour ticks off plenty of Botswana’s wonders, from spotting meerkats amid the world’s largest salt pans to wild camping in the Okavango Delta, where safari walks take you deep into a land of crotchety hippos and incredible birdlife. But the highlight for any cat lover is the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Here, amid the planet’s second-largest wildlife reserve (52,800 sq km), guests spend four days exploring the wilderness of Leopard Pan and Deception Valley – one of the best cheetah-viewing locations in Africa. This is also one of the few places on Earth you can see Kalahari black-maned lions in the wild.

More information: KE Adventure (keadventure.com). Selected dates from Mar–Sep & Nov; 16 days from £2,850pp, including international flights.

Read next: Botswana on a budget – exploring Chobe, Makgadikgadi and the Okavango Delta

Although the author Rudyard Kipling spent little time in what is now Madhya Pradesh, its wilderness proved the inspiration for one of his greatest story collections: The Jungle Book. From his then-home in Vermont, USA, he was said to have been inspired by reports of a young boy who emerged alone from the forests near Seoni. As such, the regional national parks of Pench, Bandhavgarh and, in particular, Kanha (a former hunting ground for British officers) will forever be tied to his tales – although the villain of the book is actually the star here.

Cox and Kings’ The Jungle Book: Wildlife of India tailor-made tour plunges you deep into these parks, where nights in lodges and camps prepare you for days spent in search of Bengal tigers in the sal forests.

More information: Cox & Kings (coxandkings.co.uk). Flexible dates; 10 nights from £4,295pp, including international flights.

The bushveld of South Africa’s Sabi Sands Game Reserve is home to one of the most studied and protected leopard populations in all of Africa, making it a hotspot for sightings – particularly during the dry season (May–Oct). Audley Travel’s Cape Town, Kruger & Victoria Falls tailor-made tour spends time in Sabi Sands, tracking lions, cheetahs and wild dogs on morning and evening game drives. But the star of the trip is the elusive leopard, whose nocturnal habits and solitary nature are legendary. Patience is the key, as you squeeze in sightings between time spent in Cape Town and rafting the Zambezi.

More information: Audley Travel (audleytravel.com). Flexible dates; 13 days from £10,500pp, including international flights.

Read next: Discovering the wildlife, historic battlefields and conservation efforts of South Africa’s most underrated province