The living fort and its temples
Two short visits: plan the fort as two, not one long one.
- Morning visit
- Lanes, temples and the palace
- Late afternoon
- The edges, as the stone turns gold
- Midday
- Lunch and rest at your hotel
- Jain temples
- Seven, 12th to 16th centuries
- The cool morning: walk the lanes, see the temples at worship and climb the palace.
- Late afternoon: come back, not to the top but to its edges, to watch the stone turn gold.
- The middle of the day: tour groups crowd the lanes and the stone radiates heat, so it is for lunch and a rest at your hotel.
Walk into the fort as it wakes
When: about seven in the morning, climbing the ramp through the four gates.
Why: schoolchildren are coming down, the tea stalls are lighting their stoves and the lanes belong to residents.
- Chai in Dussehra Chowk: the main square, where you watch the town start its day.
- How: with one of our guides, whose families know the people on the hill.
- Remember: the fort is fragile, and we stay outside its walls for that reason, as our full guide explains.
See the Jain temples during worship
What: seven Jain temples, built between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries with merchant money, together in the southwest of the fort.
- The carving: every surface of yellow stone turned into dancers, flowers and musicians.
- When: in the morning, when priests bathe the images and light falls through the stone screens in long shafts.
- How: leave shoes and leather outside, cover shoulders and knees, and read our page on temple etiquette first.
Climb the royal palace for the view
What: the Raj Mahal, the old palace of the Maharawals, a group of linked palaces behind one tall facade, now the Fort Palace Museum.
- Inside: painted rooms and royal objects, worth an hour.
- The real reward: the rooftop, with the fort spread out below and the havelis, the lake and the desert beyond.
- When: mid-morning, after the temples.
Take tea on a family's roof at dusk
The finest view of Jaisalmer: with the right introduction, from a quiet roof on the fort's western edge as the sun drops over the desert.
- How: we arrange it with families we know and pay them properly.
- Why: one of the gentlest hours in Rajasthan, and it gives something back to the people who keep the fort alive.
Havelis, lakes and cenotaphs in the old town
All close: everything here lies within a few kilometres of the fort, and the havelis are a few minutes' walk from each other.
- Gadisar Lake
- Sunrise
- The havelis
- Early morning
- Amar Sagar, Lodurva
- A cool morning
- Bada Bagh
- An hour before sunset
- Vyas Chhatri
- The half hour after sunset
- Day one: Gadisar, the fort and the havelis in the morning.
- Day two: Amar Sagar and Lodurva, with Bada Bagh and Vyas Chhatri for the two sunsets.
- Afternoons free: for rest, which in the desert is not laziness but good sense.
Count the balconies at Patwon ki Haveli
What: begun in 1805 by the merchant Guman Chand Patwa, who built a house for each of his five sons, the grandest carved house in the city.
- When: early, before the lane fills.
- How: look up from outside for a while before you go into the museum rooms.
- For children: hunting for elephants and parrots in the carving.
Hear the minister's story at Salim Singh ki Haveli
What: the house of the prime minister Jaisalmer remembers as a tyrant, rising plain from the lane, then bursting into carved balconies at the top.
- Climb up: to the Moti Mahal, its top storey.
- The legends: of the man who wanted his house to rival the palace.
- Where: a short walk from the Patwa lane.
Spot the differences at Nathmal ki Haveli
What: built around 1885 for the minister Mohata Nathmal, guarded by two stone elephants.
- The story: two brothers are said to have carved it, one taking each half.
- The game: stand back and play spot-the-difference between the sides. Ten minutes, and our guests always remember it.
Row on Gadisar Lake at sunrise
Why: for centuries this rain-fed tank was the city's only water.
- The way in: through Tilon ki Pol, the courtesan's gate.
- How: sit on the ghats as the sky turns pink, then take a quiet rowing boat past the pavilions standing in the water.
- When: at sunrise the lake is still and almost empty. By mid-morning it is neither.
Watch the sun set over Bada Bagh
What: on a ridge six kilometres north of town, the domed cenotaphs of the Bhati rulers stand in rows above an old dam and garden.
- When: an hour before sunset.
- How: walk the terraces with a guide who can read the memorial stones, and watch the sandstone turn from gold to rose.
- Our verdict: our favourite evening in Jaisalmer.
See the fort light up from Vyas Chhatri
Where: on the ridge just north of the walls, chhatris named after the sage Vyasa look straight across at the fort.
- When: it is busy at sunset, so we come for the half hour after.
- Why then: the crowds leave and the floodlights come on one by one along the bastions.
Spend a quiet morning at Amar Sagar and Lodurva
Amar Sagar: west of town, a royal tank with a small palace, steps and a finely carved Jain temple.
- Lodurva: further on, the Bhati capital before Jaisalmer, where a rebuilt Jain temple with a carved gateway stands among the ruins.
- Together: a calm, cool morning with very few other visitors.
Bazaars and the people who make things
How commission works: drivers, touts and even some guides earn a cut on what you spend in the shops they take you to, and prices rise to cover it.
- Main bazaar
- Manak Chowk, below the fort gate
- Best hour
- Early evening
- Buy
- Mirrorwork, appliqué, shawls, silver, stone
- Avoid
- Shops a driver or stranger insists on
- Our way: we pay our guides properly so they never need to, and take guests only to makers and shops we have known for years.
- The rule: if someone insists on showing you a special shop, say no.
Browse the bazaars below the fort gate
What: Manak Chowk and the lanes around it sell mirrorwork embroidery, appliqué bedspreads, woollen shawls, silver jewellery, leather and puppets.
- When: the early evening, when the light is soft and the shopkeepers relaxed.
- How to bargain: gently. Walk away with a smile if the price is wrong, and ignore anyone promising a factory price at a cousin's shop.
- Handwork or machine: our shopping guide explains how to tell.
Visit a stone carver's workshop
Who: the silawats, Jaisalmer's stone carvers, still working in yards on the edge of town.
- What they make: screens, panels and small pieces from the same yellow sandstone as the havelis.
- How: we arrange a visit where you watch them work and buy directly from the makers.
- Why: the best way to understand the havelis.
Meet the embroiderers of the desert villages
Where the work comes from: most of the finest textiles in Jaisalmer's shops are made in villages around it and around Barmer.
- Who makes it: women stitching mirrorwork, appliqué and fine embroidery in their homes.
- Our preference: to take you to meet them rather than to a showroom. Read our textile shopping page.
Eating in the desert
Eat a desert thali with ker sangri
The dish: ker sangri, dried desert berries and the beans of the khejri tree, cooked with chilli and spices into something tangy and nutty.
- On the plate: with bajre ki roti, flatbread of pearl millet, a fiery garlic chutney and kadhi.
- When: lunch is the right time for a thali, followed by a long rest.
Try the ghotua laddoo
What: Jaisalmer's own sweet, a soft ball of gram flour cooked in ghee and pounded by hand with cardamom and saffron.
- Where: Dhanraj Bhatia's sweet shop in the old town, run by the same family for generations, is the name every local gives.
- How: buy a small box and share it on your hotel terrace at tea time.
Dine on a rooftop facing the fort
When: book a table timed for the moment the fort's floodlights come on.
- Choose simply: the food matters less than the view, so pick somewhere simple and clean.
- In winter: eat early, before the evening chill. Our page on rooftop dining has more ideas.
Cook with a local family
What: a cooking session in a family kitchen in town.
- What you learn: ker sangri, kadhi and a proper millet roti, then you sit down to eat what you cooked.
- The feel: relaxed, warm and practical. Read about our cooking classes in a haveli.
Into the Thar
Several landscapes: close to town the desert is flat and stony, dotted with khejri trees and the low, thorny scrub camels love.
- Sam
- About 40 km west, the tallest dunes
- Khuri
- About an hour southwest, quieter
- Fossil park
- About 17 km on the Barmer road
- Bustard season
- November to March
- Camel walk
- Half an hour to an hour
- Further west: the sand gathers into dunes.
- To the southwest: the national park, a mix of grassland, rock and sand.
- Plan for the edges: at least one dawn and one dusk out here. The midday desert is harsh and flat, but the edges of the day are magical.
Walk onto the dunes at dawn
Where: the dunes at Sam, about forty kilometres west, the tallest and most visited in Rajasthan.
- Why dawn: at sunset they are crowded.
- How: walk fifteen minutes over the first ridge and the sand is yours, rippled by the night wind and printed with the tracks of beetles and foxes.
Choose the quieter dunes at Khuri
Where: about an hour southwest, past Kuldhara.
- Why: Khuri has lower, softer dunes and far fewer camps than Sam, with mud-walled houses and herders nearby.
- Who it suits: families, and anyone who wants a quieter evening on the sand.
Take a short, gentle camel walk
How long: half an hour to an hour onto the dunes is perfect.
- When: at sunrise or in the late afternoon.
- With care: we work only with owners we know, and check their animals are healthy, well fed and not overloaded.
- Read more: our guides to the camel safari and ethical animal encounters.
Look for the great Indian bustard
Where: the Desert National Park, southwest of the city, the last stronghold of one of the rarest birds in the world.
What else: a morning with an expert naturalist can bring chinkara gazelles, desert foxes and wintering birds of prey.
- When: between November and March.
- How it works: drive out before dawn, scan the grassland enclosures with binoculars and wait.
- Good days and quiet ones: some mornings several birds walk slowly through the grass. Others bring none, but sandgrouse, larks, eagles and a desert fox.
- The difference: a naturalist who knows the area.
Touch a forest turned to stone
Where: about seventeen kilometres out on the Barmer road, the Akal Wood Fossil Park.
- What: the stone trunks of trees that grew here some 180 million years ago, when this desert was forest.
- How long: a small site, and an hour is enough. It fits neatly on the way to the dunes or the national park.
Count the stars from a desert camp
Why: far from the town's lights, the winter sky over the Thar is extraordinary.
- How: we arrange evenings with a telescope and someone who knows the sky, at a camp or a quiet spot in the dunes.
- Read more: stargazing in the Thar, and our guide to luxury desert camps for where to sleep.
Music, festivals and the desert after dark
Early evenings: in winter the desert cools fast after sunset, so bring a warm layer and start dinner a little earlier than at home.
- Manganiyars
- Hereditary Muslim musicians of the Thar
- Instrument
- The kamaicha, a bowed lute of mango wood
- Kalbelia
- A whirling dance in black skirts
- Desert Festival
- Usually February
- Leave time: after dinner, for the stars.
- In the camps: music usually ends at a reasonable hour, and the best ones keep it acoustic.
Listen to Manganiyar musicians
Who: hereditary Muslim musicians of the Thar, whose families have sung for Rajput patrons for centuries.
The sound of Jaisalmer: the kamaicha, a bowed lute of mango wood, and the clattering khartal clappers.
- Where: we arrange evenings in a village courtyard or on a haveli roof, with musicians paid properly and directly. Read about the Manganiyar singers.
- Let them choose: devotional songs to Hindu gods and Sufi verses in one evening, love songs of the desert, and songs praising their patrons' ancestors.
- Watch the khartal player: he will usually be grinning by the end.
- Tip directly and generously: the old patronage that kept these families has weakened, and every evening of work matters.
Watch Kalbelia dancers
Who: the Kalbelia, a community of former snake charmers.
- The dance: whirling, in swirling black skirts, often performed at camps and hotels around Jaisalmer.
- Choose well: a performance that feels respectful rather than a show for a noisy crowd. Our journal piece on Kalbelia dance explains its roots.
Come for the Desert Festival
When: three days around the full moon of the Hindu month of Magh, usually in February.
- What: turban-tying and moustache contests, camel races, music and dance, and a finale on the dunes at Sam.
- Book early: rooms sell out. Read about the Desert Festival.
Day trips from Jaisalmer
- Kuldhara
- About 18 km southwest
- Khaba
- A ruined fort beyond Kuldhara
- Barmer
- About 3 hours south
- Kiradu
- 11th and 12th century temples
Kuldhara and Khaba, the empty villages
What: about eighteen kilometres southwest of town, Kuldhara is the most visited of the abandoned Paliwal Brahmin villages, its roofless houses lined along straight streets.
Khaba: beyond it, a ruined fort looks over another deserted village.
- When: in the soft light of early morning or late afternoon, on the way to Khuri, with a guide who knows the real history.
- The legend: the villages are haunted, and the Paliwals left in one night to escape a cruel minister.
- The likely truth: slower and sadder, a mix of heavy taxes, drought and failing trade.
- What stays with you: the order of the place, the straight streets, the temple at the centre, the stone shelves in empty kitchens.
- The full story: our journal piece on the abandoned village of Kuldhara.
Barmer and the Kiradu temples
Where: about three hours south.
- Why: Barmer is famous for its embroidery, appliqué and folk music.
- Kiradu: nearby, ruined eleventh and twelfth century shrines with superb carving.
- How: a long day, or a fine way to break the journey between Jaisalmer and Jodhpur.
Choosing by the kind of trip you want
For couples
Choose: sunrise on Gadisar in a rowing boat, a private evening of Manganiyar music on a haveli roof, a night at The Serai or a quiet dune camp, and dinner under the stars.
- Skip: the busiest sunset points. Choose Bada Bagh or a dune at Khuri instead.
- Put together: our honeymoon in Udaipur and Jaisalmer journey.
For families
What children love: the fort's ramp and lanes, the camels, the boats on the lake, the fossil park and the stories of Kuldhara.
- The rhythm: mornings for sightseeing, afternoons for the pool.
- Practical: short camel rides and a camp with proper bathrooms. Our family journeys page has more ideas.
For photographers
The light: dawn at Gadisar and on the dunes, the fort's lanes in the first hour, Bada Bagh at sunset and the fort lit up at night from the northern ridge.
- Manners: ask before photographing people.
- Drones: ask us before bringing one, as rules are strict in the border districts.
For repeat visitors
- Deeper, not wider: a morning in the Desert National Park with a naturalist, the embroiderers' villages, or Barmer and Kiradu.
- A village day: spend it with a family in a desert village. Our rural homestays page explains how we arrange time with families.
What we leave off the list
Rooms inside the fort: the water used by hotels and guesthouses has seeped into the hill for decades and damaged its foundations and walls. We stay outside and visit every day.
Dune bashing: jeeps and quad bikes tear up the sand, scare the wildlife and destroy the silence everyone else came for.
- A proper jeep safari: a gentle jeep safari in the Thar on proper tracks is a different thing.
- Long camel treks for beginners: an hour on a camel is lovely. A whole day is hard on you and on the animal.
- The noisiest Sam camps: loudspeakers and buffets for hundreds. We choose small camps set back from the road.
- Sunset at Sam in peak season: hundreds of people stand on the same ridge. Go at dawn, or go to Khuri.
- Recommended shops: ones reached through a driver's or stranger's tip. Buy from makers or from shops we trust.
What we tell our own cousins
The edges of the day: sightsee from sunrise until about eleven, rest through the heat, and go out again for the last two hours of light.
Stay outside the fort: and visit it every day. The hill is fragile and cannot take more water, and you will sleep better in a quiet hotel anyway.
- Walk the old town: the lanes are too narrow for cars, and the best things are found on foot.
- Trusted bookings: camps, guides and musicians through people you trust. Cheap camel safaris offered in the street are often the worst experiences in the desert.
- Carry: a scarf, a hat and a refillable water bottle. The sun is strong even in January, and the wind lifts the sand.
- Plan the days: our Jaisalmer itinerary fits all of this into two, three or four days.
- Where to stay: our luxury hotels in Jaisalmer guide.
