What we mean by quiet
Not empty, just uncrowded: every place here has a living town, a temple bell and a tea stall. What it lacks is the coach park.
Not second best: Bundi's murals and Dungarpur's mirrored rooms are as fine as anything in the big cities. Fewer people simply know about them.
- What qualifies
- Real history, real people, few coaches
- How many to add
- One or two per journey is plenty
- Getting there
- By road, with a private chauffeur
- Where you sleep
- Family-run palaces, havelis and camps
- Best season
- October to March
- Slower comfort: the hotels are often family homes rather than grand resorts. The welcome is warmer, the plumbing occasionally older.
- Our test: would we take our own cousins there for a weekend? Every place below passes.
- One rule: do not try to see them all. Choose the ones that match what you love, and give each a night.
Around Jaipur and the east
Abhaneri and Chand Baori
Why go: a stepwell of the 8th or 9th century falling about 30 metres through 13 storeys and some 3,500 steps, beside the carved Harshat Mata temple.
- How: on the drive between Jaipur and Agra, about 95 kilometres east of Jaipur.
- Allow: about ninety minutes, ideally in low morning or late afternoon light.
Samode
Why go: one of the most richly painted palaces in Rajasthan, in an Aravalli village about 40 kilometres north of Jaipur.
- Stay: Samode Palace, run by the family since 1987, or lunch on a day trip.
- Don't miss: the Durbar Hall and the Sheesh Mahal, and a walk through the village behind.
Sambhar Lake
Why go: India's largest inland salt lake, a Ramsar wetland since 1990, with flamingos in winter and working salt pans.
- When: November to March, with sunset over the flats.
- Allow: a long half day from Jaipur, about 70 to 80 kilometres away.
Bhangarh and Ajabgarh
Why go: a fortified town founded in 1573 by Raja Bhagwant Das of Amber and deserted by the late 18th century, with its bazaar, havelis and temples in ruins.
- The ghost stories: famous, and folklore. Come for the setting and the history.
- Nearby: the fort at Ajabgarh, built in the seventeenth century, above a quiet village.
Alwar
Why go: a princely capital founded in 1770, with its City Palace of 1793, the marble Moosi Maharani cenotaph and the ridge fort of Bala Quila.
- Pair with: Sariska's forest and the lake at Siliserh.
- Best for: travellers driving between Delhi and Jaipur who want to break the road.
Marwar and the edges of the Thar
Osian
Why go: a group of about 18 Hindu and Jain temples of the eighth to twelfth centuries, including the Mahavira temple of around 783 CE.
- How: about 69 kilometres north of Jodhpur, roughly ninety minutes by road.
- Add: the hilltop Sachiya Mata temple and sunset on the dunes, or a night in a desert camp.
Khimsar
Why go: a fort built in 1523 by Rao Karamsji, a son of Jodhpur's founder Rao Jodha, now a heritage hotel run with the family.
- Around it: a dune village nearby and blackbuck in the fields.
- Stay: Khimsar Fort, one or two nights.
Nagaur
- Why go: Ahhichatragarh, the fort of the hooded cobra, dating to the early twelfth century and restored by the Mehrangarh Museum Trust, which won a UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award in 2002.
- When: any cool month, or during the great cattle fair in the month of Magh, usually January or February.
Rohet
Why go: a lakeside fort held by the same family since 1622, a hotel since 1990, about 40 kilometres south of Jodhpur.
- Best for: Bishnoi villages and Marwari horse rides.
- Stay: Rohet Garh.
Tal Chhapar
Why go: a flat grassland of about seven square kilometres in Churu district with one of India's finest herds of blackbuck.
- When: September to February, when harriers, eagles and demoiselle cranes arrive.
- Base: Churu or Bikaner, and go at dawn.
Kishangarh
- Why go: the town of Bani Thani, the famous eighteenth-century portraits of the Kishangarh school, with Gundolav lake and the Phool Mahal.
- Today: also one of India's biggest marble markets, about 30 kilometres from Ajmer.
Deep in the desert
Khuri
Why go: lower, rolling dunes with far fewer camps than Sam, and a working desert village beside them.
- How: about 45 kilometres southwest of Jaisalmer, an hour's drive.
- Best for: calm sunsets and stars.
Kuldhara and Khaba
Why go: planned villages of Paliwal Brahmin farmers and traders, settled by the early thirteenth century and emptied during the nineteenth.
- The legend: an overnight exodus and a curse. The likelier history is failing wells, heavy taxes and perhaps earthquake damage.
- Khaba: the quieter of the two, with a ruined fort and its peacocks.
Desert National Park
Why go: 3,162 square kilometres of the Thar protecting the most important remaining population of the great Indian bustard.
- Also: chinkara, desert foxes, winter raptors and plant fossils about 180 million years old.
- When: November to March, with a naturalist.
Barmer and Kiradu
Why go: the villages around Barmer are among India's great embroidery and appliqué centres, and Khatri families still print ajrakh here.
- Kiradu: about 35 kilometres from Barmer, ruined temples of the eleventh and twelfth centuries with superb carving.
- How: a long day from Jaisalmer or Jodhpur. There are no luxury hotels in Barmer.
The hills of Mewar and Godwar
Narlai
Why go: a temple village beneath a granite hill crowned by a white elephant, with more than twenty old carved temples.
- Stay: Rawla Narlai, a seventeenth-century hunting lodge, famous for dinners by a lamplit stepwell.
- Pair with: Ranakpur, Kumbhalgarh and the leopards of Jawai.
Deogarh
Why go: a seventeenth-century hill palace still run by its noble family, and the home of a distinguished school of miniature painting.
- Stay: Deogarh Mahal, two nights.
- Don't miss: the old metre-gauge train through the Aravallis.
Castle Bijaipur and Menal
Bijaipur: a sixteenth-century family-run castle about an hour from Chittorgarh, our favourite base in eastern Mewar.
- Menal: medieval Shiva temples beside a gorge and a waterfall that runs in the monsoon, on the road from Chittorgarh to Bundi.
- Read more: our Chittorgarh guide.
Kumbhalgarh after dark
- Not unknown, but rarely seen properly: most visitors come on a day trip and leave before the walls are lit.
- Stay the night: see the lit fort, then walk the wall at sunrise. Our Kumbhalgarh wall walk explains.
Vagad, the green south
- Region
- Vagad, southern Rajasthan
- Dungarpur from Udaipur
- About 110 km, two to two and a half hours
- Banswara from Udaipur
- About 160 km, three and a half to four hours
- Best months
- October to March; Banswara from August
Dungarpur
Why go: Juna Mahal, a seven-storey palace whose murals and glass inlay are among the best preserved in Rajasthan.
- The family: the Ahara Guhilots, the elder branch of the Mewar line.
- Stay: Udai Bilas Palace, on Gaib Sagar lake, still lived in by the former royal family.
Banswara
Why go: the city of a hundred islands, named for the islands of the Mahi river and the backwaters of the Mahi Bajaj Sagar dam.
- Also: the Tripura Sundari temple and the nearby Baneshwar fair.
- Best for: travellers who want the greenest corner of Rajasthan.
Hadoti, the river kingdoms
Bundi
Why go: the Chitrashala murals, among the finest palace paintings in Rajasthan, the hilltop Taragarh fort and more than fifty stepwells, led by Raniji ki Baori of 1699.
- How: about four hours from Jaipur.
- Stay: two nights in a heritage haveli under the palace walls.
Jhalawar and Gagron
Why go: Gagron, one of the six UNESCO Hill Forts of Rajasthan, set where the Ahu and Kali Sindh rivers meet.
- Jhalrapatan: a sun temple about a thousand years old, and the Chandrabhaga temples on the river nearby.
- Best for: history without crowds, and the monsoon, when the rivers swell.
Kota
- Why go: the Garh Palace and its museum of Kota school paintings, the Chambal river and its gorge, and the Kota Doria weavers of Kaithoon.
- When: any cool month, or for one of India's biggest Dussehra fairs.
Shekhawati's quieter towns
Nawalgarh
- Why go: two of the finest restored havelis in Shekhawati, the Dr Ramnath A Podar Haveli Museum and the Morarka Haveli Museum, and dozens of painted mansions.
- Founded: 1737, by Thakur Nawal Singh.
Fatehpur
- Why go: the oldest of the painted towns, founded by the Kaimkhani nawab Fateh Khan in the mid-fifteenth century, with the Haveli Nadine Le Prince restored by a French artist.
- How: an easy half day from Mandawa, twenty kilometres away.
Churu and Alsisar
- Churu: tall merchant havelis, a famine-relief reservoir of 1899 and dunes at the edge of town.
- Alsisar: a Shekhawat fort-palace in a farming village, restored as a hotel in 2006.
How to fit quiet places into a journey
Jaipur to Udaipur
Via Bundi: two nights of painted palaces and stepwells.
- Via Chittorgarh and Bijaipur: the great fort and a family castle.
- Read: our Jaipur to Udaipur by road note.
Udaipur to Jodhpur
- Via Kumbhalgarh, Ranakpur and Narlai: walls, marble and a stepwell dinner.
- Add Jawai: for leopards among the granite hills. See Jawai.
Jodhpur to Jaisalmer
- Via Osian or Khimsar: temples, dunes and a country fort.
- Via Manvar: a desert camp off the highway.
Delhi to Jaipur
- Via Alwar and Bhangarh: a princely capital and an abandoned town.
- Or Shekhawati first: two nights in the painted towns before Jaipur.
A whole journey of quiet places
- Our Offbeat Rajasthan: links Chittorgarh, Bundi, Dungarpur and more. See Offbeat Rajasthan.
- Village Rajasthan: country forts and family homes. See Village Rajasthan.
Small detours worth an hour
In and around the big cities
Panna Meena ka Kund, Amer: a stepped tank below Amber Fort with criss-cross steps. At dawn you can often have it to yourself. See Panna Meena ka Kund.
- Galtaji, Jaipur: temples and sacred tanks in a ravine east of the city, best in the late afternoon. See Galtaji.
- Toorji ka Jhalra, Jodhpur: a restored eighteenth-century stepwell in rose-red sandstone, with cafes around its rim.
- Bada Bagh, Jaisalmer: the royal cenotaphs on a ridge outside town, golden at sunset. See Bada Bagh.
On the Mewar roads
Eklingji and the Sas-Bahu temples: on the road north from Udaipur towards Kumbhalgarh, an old royal shrine and a pair of carved temples.
- Menar's bird lakes: on the road from Udaipur to Chittorgarh, a short winter stop with binoculars.
- Muchhal Mahavir at Ghanerao: a Jain temple near Kumbhalgarh, a good half hour on the way down the hills.
- Haldighati: the battlefield of 1576, where Maharana Pratap fought Akbar's army. Our piece on Maharana Pratap and Haldighati tells the story.
In the hills and the south
Achalgarh, Mount Abu: a fort first raised by the Paramaras and rebuilt by Rana Kumbha, with the shrine of Achaleshwar Mahadev at its foot. See Mount Abu.
- Jhalrapatan at dusk: the old sun temple lit by evening lamps, fifteen minutes from Jhalawar.
- Gaib Sagar at sunrise: the lake below Dungarpur's palaces, with birds and morning bathers.
Travelling well in small places
Dress a little more modestly: small towns are more conservative than cities. Covered shoulders and knees are always welcome.
Ask before photographing people: especially women and anyone at prayer. Most say yes, and the asking matters.
- No sweets or pens for children: it teaches begging. Ask us about the local schools our guests support instead.
- Buy from makers: in craft villages we take you to working families, not to middlemen or commission shops.
- Expect simpler food: home-cooked thalis, seasonal vegetables and fresh rotis. Often the best meals of the journey.
- Be patient with hours: a caretaker may be at lunch, a temple may close for a ritual. Slow down and it becomes part of the day.
- Our wider approach: our page on travelling responsibly sets out how we work with communities.
When to go
October to March: the main season everywhere, with warm days and cool nights.
The monsoon: July to September transforms Bundi, Jhalawar, Banswara and the Mewar hills. Roads are slower but the land is green and the rivers full.
- Best overall
- October to March
- Greenest
- Hadoti and Vagad in the monsoon
- Birds and blackbuck
- Tal Chhapar, September to February
- Desert
- November to February
- Avoid
- April to June, except at dawn
- The desert in winter: November to February for the Thar, when nights are cold and days are clear.
- Fairs: Nagaur's cattle fair in Magh, the Baneshwar fair near Banswara and Bundi Utsav in Kartik. Our festivals calendar has the months.
- The month by month view: our guide to the best time to visit Rajasthan.
What we leave out, and why
Ghost tours after dark: Bhangarh and Kuldhara are best in daylight, for their history and setting. We do not sell night-time thrills.
Places with nowhere good to sleep: if the only bed is a poor one, we visit as a day out from a better base instead.
- Villages turned into shows: we avoid staged visits where families perform for coaches. We go where we know people.
- Too many stops in one day: three quiet places in a single day becomes another rush. One, done well, is better.
- Places that need luck we cannot promise: we never sell the great Indian bustard or a Jawai leopard as certain. We tell you the honest odds.
Who will love quiet Rajasthan
Repeat visitors: if you have seen the big five, this is your second Rajasthan.
Art lovers: Bundi, Dungarpur, Deogarh, Kishangarh and Shekhawati hold some of India's finest wall and miniature painting.
- Walkers and photographers: empty lanes, early light and people who are happy to stop and talk.
- Families: children often love the stepwells, forts and village life more than the grand palaces.
- Less suited to: travellers who want polished resorts, spas and shopping every night. Mix one or two quiet places with the big cities instead.
- Start planning: tell us what you love and we will choose two. Our page on offbeat forts is a good next read.