What Sam actually is
Most of the Thar is not dunes at all. It is gravel, scrub, rocky plain and farmland. That is why Sam, where the sand finally rises into proper waves, draws so many people.
The road west: flat, stony country dotted with khejri trees and the odd herd of goats.
Then the sand: after about forty kilometres the ground softens and lifts into long crested ridges of fine golden sand, rippled by the wind like a sea that has stopped moving.
The name: the small village of Sam gives the dunes their name.
Facts to know
- Distance
- About 40 km west of Jaisalmer
- Drive
- About an hour
- Edge of
- The Desert National Park
- Local word
- Dhora, a sand dune
- Protected land beyond: the dunes lie on the edge of the Desert National Park.
- Moving dunes: the wind reshapes them every season.
- Aandhi: in the hot, windy months before the monsoon, these storms can move a crest by several steps in an afternoon and bury a track that was clear the week before.
- Winter stillness: the sand is cool underfoot by morning, and the ripples cast tiny shadows at sunrise.
- The night's traffic: beetle trails, gerbil footprints and the looping track of a fox.
- The last open desert you can easily reach: beyond Sam the land runs towards the border, much of it military or protected.
- Jaisalmer's great outing: that is both its glory and its trouble, so we plan a Sam visit with more care than almost anything else in the desert.
The crowd problem, told honestly
Drive out to Sam at five o'clock on a December evening and you will meet it: a car park of jeeps, a line of camels, loudspeakers from the camps and a hundred phones raised to the same sun.
The camp strip: over recent decades a long line of camps has grown up along the road. Some are very good. Many are not.
The bad ones: tents close together beside the road, generators all night, and a cultural programme blasted through speakers.
Sunset convergence: visitors from every camp head for the same few high dunes.
- On the ridge: jeeps race up and down for thrill rides, quad bikes buzz along the crest and camel owners compete for riders.
- Who enjoys it: it is cheerful in its way, and Indian families on holiday love it. It is not the desert most of our guests crossed the world to see.
- The damage: vehicles break up the thin crust of plants and fungi that holds a dune's edge together.
- Plastic: it blows into the scrub where the park's wildlife feeds.
- The bustard: nearby grasslands are among the last homes of the great Indian bustard, one of the rarest birds on earth.
- Don't skip Sam: just avoid being there at the same moment as everyone else. The next section shows how.
How we find you an empty dune
The secret is simple. The crowds come for one hour and stand on one ridge. Change either the hour or the ridge, and you have the desert to yourself.
Facts to know
- Quietest hour
- Sunrise
- Walk beyond
- About 15 minutes past the first ridge
- Busiest weeks
- Christmas, New Year, Diwali
- Calmer
- Weekdays in November, February, early March
Come at dawn
Few people see it: the camps are asleep, the jeeps parked and the sand holds the night's cold.
- How we do it: out in the dark with blankets and a flask of masala chai, then up a dune for the first light.
- What you get: glowing ripples, long shadows and only a lark for company. In winter it is the single best hour in the Thar.
Walk beyond the first ridge
The crowds cluster near the road: fifteen minutes on foot, or a slow camel walk, takes you out of sight of the car park.
- Silence returns fast: the noise drops away behind the sand within a few hundred metres.
- Local knowledge: our guides know where crests stay high and quiet, and choose by wind and season.
Go somewhere quieter for sunset
- Smaller dune fields: away from Sam, where you may share the evening with a shepherd and his goats.
- Khuri: to the south, Khuri is the best-known alternative. Compare them in Sam or Khuri.
Avoid the peak weeks, or embrace them
- Full camps: at Christmas and New Year, the Diwali holidays and long Indian weekends.
- The Desert Festival exception: its final evening on the dunes is a celebration, and being part of the crowd is the point. See the Desert Festival.
Riding a camel, kindly
The camel is Rajasthan's state animal, and in the Thar it has been family for centuries. A ride should be good for the camel and its owner as well as for you.
India's camel state: Rajasthan holds the great majority of the country's camels.
Old work: they ploughed fields, carried water, pulled carts and walked the caravan roads to Sindh.
Falling numbers: tractors and trucks took most of that work, and the state's camel population has fallen sharply.
Facts to know
- State animal
- Since 2014
- Protection law
- 2015
- Ride length
- Thirty to sixty minutes
- Best hours
- Sunrise or late afternoon
- The 2015 law: it banned slaughter and restricted moving camels out of the state. Many herders say it has made camels harder to sell, and numbers kept falling.
- Why rides matter: for many families near Jaisalmer, tourism is one of the few reasons left to keep a camel.
- Check the body: well covered, no hip bones standing out, a firm hump.
- Check the nose: where the wooden peg holds the rope, it should be clean, not torn or infected.
- Check the saddle: padded, with no raw patches beneath.
- Good owners: rest camels in shade with water through the heat, and never load two adults on one.
- What we don't book: galloping rides, multi-camel races or rides in the midday heat.
- Read more: a camel safari in the Thar, the camels of Rajasthan and ethical animal encounters.
Local tip
Walk alongside for a while and ask the handler the camel's name. Every camel has one, every owner loves to talk about them, and you should tip the handler directly.
The life hidden in the sand
Sit still on a dune at dawn for ten minutes and the empty desert fills up: a lark singing from a bush, a beetle crossing a ripple, a pair of sandgrouse flying low towards water.
Phog: the leafless, broom-like shrub on the slopes. Its roots hold the sand, and herders cut it for fodder and thatch.
Sewan: the grey-green clumps of the Thar's best grazing grass, and the cover the great Indian bustard depends on.
Aak: big leaves, purple-and-white flowers and milky sap. Goats wisely ignore it.
- Khejri: standing alone in the fields, it gives sangri beans, shade and firewood without ever being watered.
- Reading tracks: our guides tell a dung beetle's drag from a gerbil's hop, and a fox's neat line from a village dog's.
- Chinkara: the slender desert gazelle grazes the scrub at first light and vanishes when the jeeps arrive.
- Birds: the cream-coloured courser running over bare ground, several kinds of lark and, in winter, wheatears from Central Asia.
- The grasslands: bustards, eagles and falcons inside the park are a separate outing, on our Desert National Park page.
- Why we walk: a single morning of dune-bashing can crush plants that took years to anchor a slope, and once they go, the dune begins to wander.
Choosing a camp, or choosing not to
A good desert camp is about distance. Distance from the road, distance between tents, and distance from the next camp's loudspeakers.
A wide range: from a few dozen tents in a line to a handful of large suites spaced across the sand.
- We inspect each season: names and owners change, so we never trust a website photo.
- Our five checks: set back from the main road, a private bathroom with hot water in each tent, acoustic music that ends at a civilised hour, fresh food, and village staff paid fairly.
- Read more: luxury desert camps and a night in a desert camp.
Stay near Jaisalmer and come out for the evening
Suryagarh: on the Sam road, about thirteen kilometres from town.
- The Serai: SUJAN's camp in private desert off the Jodhpur road.
- How it works: calm, comfortable bases, with a drive to the dunes for dawn or evening and a quiet bed after.
Or sleep out in the sand
A trusted camp: one of the few we book at Sam or Khuri.
- A private dinner: on a dune well away from the camps, with a fire, a cook and a Manganiyar singer, the closest you can come to the old caravan nights.
- Before you choose: our luxury desert camp guide.
Sunsets, moonrises and the night sky
The light at Sam changes faster than anywhere else we know. In twenty minutes the sand moves from white to gold to copper to a cold violet, and then the stars arrive.
Face east for part of it: everyone watches the sun, but behind you the dunes turn rose and their shadows grow long and blue.
Photographers: come an hour early, find a crest with clean, untrodden sand in front, and stay put.
- Footprints: the enemy of a good dune photograph, and by sunset most near dunes are trampled. See our photography tips.
- Winter nights: the desert gets cold quickly after dark.
- Moonless nights: far from the camps, the Milky Way rises over the dunes, with satellites and shooting stars.
- A telescope: we bring one, with an astronomer, for guests who want to understand the sky.
- Full moon: the dunes glow silver and it is bright enough to walk without a torch.
- Choose your dates: by which you prefer. See stargazing in the Thar and the best sunsets in Rajasthan.
The people who live by the dunes
Behind the camps, Sam is still a desert village of herders and farmers. Most visitors never see it, and it is worth seeing gently.
Farming the short rains: pearl millet and beans, with goats, sheep, cows and camels.
Water: drawn carefully, always.
- Camp work: many young men are cooks, drivers, camel handlers or musicians, and many evening singers and dancers come from nearby villages.
- Houses: stone and mud, the walls kept smooth and cool with fresh plaster of mud and dung, with round thatched storerooms.
- Visiting a family: we arrange it through people we know, at a time that suits them, and bring something useful rather than sweets.
- No handouts on the dunes: pens, sweets or money teach children to leave school for the car park.
- Photographs: ask first, especially of women, and accept a no gracefully. See rural homestays.
Sam through the year
The same dunes feel like a different country from month to month. Choose your season by what you want from them.
Facts to know
- Season
- October to March
- Coldest
- December and January
- Desert Festival
- February
- Camps closed
- Mostly April to September
- Summer heat
- Above 45°C
October and November
- The season opens: warm days, pleasant nights, and sand often rippled clean by late-summer winds.
- Quiet weeks: camps reopen, and the weeks before Diwali are among the calmest of the year.
December and January
Coldest, clearest, busiest: mornings near freezing, so you'll want a fire, a hot-water bottle and a down jacket.
- The reward: crisp air and the sharpest night skies.
- Avoid: the week between Christmas and New Year, unless you love a party.
February and March
- Our favourite time: warmer days, softer nights, and the Desert Festival's music on the dunes in February.
- Late March: the midday sun is fierce, so dawn and dusk matter even more.
April to September
The hot months: dust storms roll in before the monsoon, and most camps close.
- Monsoon: a few brief showers turn the scrub green for a while.
- Our advice: only for determined photographers and researchers.
Getting to Sam and what to combine it with
Sam lies at the end of a good road, about an hour from Jaisalmer. The journey out is full of things worth stopping for.
The drive: about an hour on a paved road west. We leave after lunch for an evening visit, or around five in the morning in winter for sunrise.
On the way: the abandoned Paliwal village of Kuldhara and the ruined fort at Khaba.
- A separate morning: the Akal Wood Fossil Park, south of Jaisalmer on the Barmer road, pairs well with the Desert National Park.
- The wider desert: a jeep safari in the Thar, with experienced drivers who stay on existing tracks.
- Carry ID: roads further west lead towards the border, and checkpoints sometimes ask to see it.
- Our journeys: Under the Thar Sky and the desert triangle of Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Bikaner.
- Everything else: our Jaisalmer guide.
Twenty-four hours at Sam, the way we'd do it
This is the rhythm we use with our own guests. It avoids every crowd and keeps the best light for you.
Afternoon, the slow drive west
- After lunch: leave Jaisalmer, stopping at Kuldhara.
- Around four: arrive at camp, have tea and rest in the tent's shade while the heat eases.
Evening, on a dune of your own
- Over the ridge: walk or ride away from the main dunes, and watch sunset with only your guide and the camel handler.
- By the fire: Manganiyar songs and a supper of ker sangri, kadhi and millet rotis hot from the coals.
Night, the sky
- Away from the lights: take a blanket a little way from camp and lie back on the sand. On a clear winter night it is the brightest sky of your journey.
Dawn, the best hour of all
- Before sunrise: climb the nearest high dune with chai and watch the desert turn gold.
- Tracks: read the night's animal stories with your guide, then breakfast and drive back before the heat.
What most visitors to Sam miss
Most people come for one sunset and leave. The country around the dunes holds a conservation story, a war memorial and some very old stone.
A park the size of a small country: the Desert National Park covers more than 3,000 square kilometres of dune, gravel plain and grassland.
The last bustards: recent counts put the wild great Indian bustard at only about 130, most of them in this part of the Thar.
Facts to know
- Desert National Park
- Declared 1980
- Bustards left
- Around 150 in the wild
- Fossil wood
- About 180 million years old
- Longewala battle
- December 1971
- Breeding to save them: a conservation breeding centre for the bustard has been set up near Sam, run by the state forest department with the Wildlife Institute of India.
- Jaisalmeri camels: the local breed is lean and fast, prized for riding, while Bikaner's camels are heavier draught animals.
- Science in the desert: the national research centre on camels at Bikaner studies their milk, breeding and health.
- Stone forest: the Akal fossils are tree trunks some 180 million years old, from a time when this desert was forest.
- The border war: at Longewala, north-west of Jaisalmer, a small Indian post held off a Pakistani armoured attack in December 1971. The memorial makes a long day trip with the Tanot temple.
- The law in full: the 2015 act covers both slaughter and the temporary migration or export of camels out of Rajasthan.
Before you go to Sam
A little planning turns Sam from a crowded hour into the best night of your desert journey.
Decide camp or hotel: a trusted camp for the night sky, or Suryagarh or The Serai and a drive out.
Facts to know
- Allow
- An evening and a dawn
- Bring
- Warm layers, scarf, torch
- Dress code
- Modest in the village
- Good for
- Families, couples, photographers
- Check the moon: a new moon for stars, a full moon for silver dunes.
- Tell us your mobility: so we choose a gentle slope or arrange a camel cart.
- Ask about the festival: if your dates are near February, the Desert Festival changes everything about the dunes.
Who will love Sam, and who may not
We would rather you skipped Sam than came at the wrong hour and went home disappointed. Here is our honest sorting.
Families: children love it almost without exception. A high, soft dune to run down is the best playground in India.
Photographers: at dawn and in the hour before sunset, if they walk far enough for untouched sand.
Facts to know
- Love it
- Families, first-timers, honeymooners
- Photographers
- Dawn and the hour before sunset
- Think twice
- Silence seekers, serious birders
- Avoid
- May and June
- Our compromise
- Dawn at Sam, evening elsewhere
- Honeymooners: a private dinner on a dune with a fire and a singer, well away from the camp strip.
- First-timers: on a short trip, the sunset bustle often feels fun rather than tiring.
- Solitude and wildlife seekers: happier elsewhere, or at Sam only at dawn.
- Quieter options: Khuri, evenings at The Serai, or a night at Manvar on the drive from Jodhpur.
- Limited mobility: climbing a dune is hard work, but we can arrange a camel cart or a gentler slope. Tell us how you like to travel.
What we tell friends before Sam
These small things decide whether Sam is a scrum or a memory.
Dawn at least once: if you only see Sam at sunset, you've seen its busiest hour.
Warm layers: December and January nights in the dunes can be close to freezing.
Shoes: closed shoes or bare feet. Sandals fill with sand, and the sand can be very hot by late morning even in March.
- Protect your camera: carry a plastic bag and change lenses in the car.
- Say no to dune-bashing: it damages the dunes and frightens wildlife.
- Take your rubbish back: the wind carries plastic into the national park.
- Sun on the sand: even in winter, light reflected off pale sand burns quickly, so bring sunscreen, a hat and good sunglasses.
- A refillable bottle: good camps will fill it with filtered water, which keeps plastic off the dunes.
- Learn one word: dhora, Rajasthani for a sand dune. Our guides will smile when you use it.
