Why it matters here
Water is scarce: Rajasthan is often said to hold about a tenth of India's land but only around one percent of its water. Rain comes in a few short weeks, if it comes at all.
The desert is fragile: dunes, grasslands and scrub recover slowly from vehicles, litter and building.
- Landscape
- Desert west of the Aravallis, dry hills and forests to the east
- Rain
- Mostly in a short monsoon, July to September
- Pressure
- Water, waste, wildlife habitat, old buildings
- Our page
- Travelling responsibly, our commitments
- Wildlife is squeezed: tigers, leopards, blackbuck and the great Indian bustard live in small, pressured patches of habitat.
- Heritage is ageing: forts, havelis and frescoes need care and money, and can be damaged by careless visitors.
- Communities are close: villages, herders and artisans live alongside the sights you visit, and tourism touches their lives directly.
- Our commitments: our page on travelling responsibly sets out what we promise on every journey. This guide adds what you can do too.
Water, the first rule of the desert
Short showers: in a desert hotel, a long bath can use water a village family would make last a day.
Reuse towels and linen: most good hotels will happily change them less often if you ask.
- Baori
- A stepwell reaching down to groundwater
- Tanka or kund
- A covered cistern that stores rainwater
- Johad
- A small earthen dam that holds monsoon runoff
- Nadi
- A village pond
- Pools and lawns: green lawns and big pools in the desert are a luxury with a cost. Enjoy them, and support hotels that recycle water and harvest rain.
- Learn the old systems: stepwells, tanks and cisterns show how people lived with little water for centuries. Our piece on the stepwells of Rajasthan explains them.
- Visit a stepwell: Chand Baori at Abhaneri and Raniji ki Baori in Bundi are the most spectacular. Our stepwells experience builds them into your route.
- Never waste drinking water: if you are offered water in a village, accept a little and finish it.
Stay where your money saves a building
Heritage hotels: when a family turns its fort or haveli into a hotel, the income pays for roofs, walls and paintings that would otherwise crumble.
Family-run homes: they keep more of what you spend in the town and employ local people. Our guide to heritage havelis explains how we choose them.
- Village forts: places such as Rohet Garh and Deogarh Mahal tie your stay to a whole village.
- Mix the grand and the small: we love the great palace hotels, and we pair them with smaller family homes on most journeys.
- Ask good questions: how a hotel heats water, treats waste and buys food tells you a great deal about its care for the place.
- Our guide: heritage hotels explained covers the different kinds of historic stays.
Looking after the monuments
Do not touch the paintings: the frescoes of Shekhawati and the murals of Bundi are fragile, and oils from fingers damage them. Our Shekhawati frescoes guide explains what to look for.
No climbing: stay off cenotaphs, memorials, carved railings and the instruments of the Jantar Mantar.
- Follow photography rules: flash damages old pigments, and some rooms do not allow cameras at all.
- Pay for tickets and guides: entry fees and licensed guides fund the upkeep of the sites.
- Leave nothing behind: no names on walls, no coins in old tanks, no litter on the ramparts.
- Support the trusts: museums such as Mehrangarh in Jodhpur are run by trusts that reinvest in conservation.
Wildlife without harm
No elephant rides: we take you up to Amber Fort by car or on foot, never on an elephant. Our ethical animal encounters page explains what we offer instead.
Safaris done well: in Ranthambore and Jawai, we use operators who keep their distance, do not bait animals and follow park rules.
- Elephant rides
- Never, anywhere
- Captive shows
- Never: no dancing bears, snake charmers or monkeys on leads
- Safaris
- Licensed operators, within park rules
- Sacred groves
- Orans, protected by village communities
- Quiet in the jungle: no shouting, no pointing phones at a tiger from a crowd of jeeps. One calm sighting beats five rushed ones.
- The Bishnois: their villages protect blackbuck and chinkara as fiercely as their own families. Visit with our Bishnoi villages experience.
- The great Indian bustard: one of the world's rarest birds survives in the Thar. Read about the great Indian bustard, and keep to tracks in its habitat.
- Orans: sacred groves around village shrines, where cutting trees is forbidden by custom. They are some of the last refuges of native desert plants.
- Do not feed monkeys: langurs and macaques at temples become dependent and aggressive when fed by visitors.
Treading lightly in the Thar
Avoid dune bashing: fast jeep rides over the dunes are fun for a few minutes and damage the sand and its plants for years. We prefer a quiet walk or a short camel ride at sunset.
Choose the right camp: we favour desert camps that manage water, waste and noise carefully.
- Keep the night dark: loud music and bright lights at camps spoil the stars and disturb wildlife. Our stargazing evenings show what a dark sky gives you.
- Camels, kindly: we work with handlers who keep their camels healthy, rested and lightly loaded, and we keep rides short.
- Take your litter back: plastic on a dune stays for decades. Carry a small bag for wrappers.
- Respect the herders: the camels, goats and sheep you see belong to families like the Rabaris. Ask before photographing them. See our Rabari herders page.
Buy from the people who make it
No commission shopping: we take no commission and neither do our guides. Commission shops inflate prices and leave the maker with little.
Buy at the workshop: a visit to a craft family, paid properly, lets you buy directly. See block printing in Bagru and blue pottery.
- Look for real handwork: hand block prints show slight variations, and handwoven Kota Doria has its own fine check. Several Rajasthani crafts carry official geographical indication tags.
- Pay fairly: bargain gently in the bazaar, but do not squeeze an artisan's price at the workshop.
- Buy less, buy better: one fine piece made by a named family lasts longer and means more than a bag of souvenirs.
- Our crafts guide: crafts of Rajasthan introduces the traditions and where to see them.
Less plastic, less waste
Refill, do not rebuy: most good hotels offer filtered water in glass bottles. Fill your own bottle before you set out.
On the road: we can carry large refill containers in the car for long drives.
- Bring
- A refillable bottle and a cloth bag
- Ask for
- Filtered water at your hotel
- Refuse
- Straws and single-use cutlery
- In the car
- We carry refills on long drives
- Cloth bags: carry one for shopping. Many shops still hand out thin plastic bags.
- Say no to straws: ask for your lassi or juice without one.
- Clay cups: in many towns, chai is still served in kulhads, small unglazed clay cups that return to the earth.
- Your health first: always drink treated or bottled water if filtered water is not available. Our health and safety guide has the general advice.
Getting around with a lighter footprint
Fewer places, longer stays: two or three nights in each place cuts the driving and lets you see more of each town.
Avoid backtracking: a route that flows, such as Jaipur to Jodhpur to Jaisalmer, uses far less road than zigzagging.
- Take the train: on some routes a train is as quick as the car and far gentler. Our trains guide explains the best ones.
- Walk and cycle: old cities are best on foot, and a cycling tour at dawn is the loveliest way to see the countryside.
- Fly less: a domestic flight can save a very long drive, but within Rajasthan the car or train is often better.
- Our advice: getting around Rajasthan compares the options honestly.
Travel slowly, and outside the crowds
The shoulder months: October and March are lovely and quieter than midwinter.
The monsoon: July to September turns the Aravallis green and fills the lakes of Udaipur. Our monsoon in Mewar journey is built for it.
- Avoid the peak weeks: Christmas, New Year and big festivals bring crowds. If you can, travel either side.
- Spread your money: smaller towns such as Bundi welcome visitors who come beyond the famous circuit.
- Our month guides: the best time to visit explains each season.
Sun, energy and a changing desert
Solar power: Rajasthan has become one of India's leading states for solar energy, with some of the largest solar parks in the world in the desert near Jodhpur.
A mixed blessing: solar parks and power lines also take over grassland and threaten birds such as the great Indian bustard. Conservationists and courts have pushed for lines to be buried or marked in key habitat.
- Hotels and the sun: some camps and hotels heat water with the sun or run partly on solar power. Ask, and support the ones that do.
- The canal: the Indira Gandhi Canal, begun in the late 1950s, brought Himalayan water deep into the Thar and turned parts of the north-west into farmland, with great gains and real costs to the desert.
- Heat and change: summers are hard here, and getting harder. Travelling in the cooler months is kinder to you and to the people who look after you.
Eat local and seasonal
Desert ingredients: ker sangri, made with the dried berries and beans of desert plants, is the classic. Read ker sangri explained.
Millet: bajra, a hardy grain that needs little water, makes the rotis of the desert villages in winter.
- Mostly vegetarian: much of Rajasthan eats vegetarian food, which is lighter on the land.
- Seasonal sweets: eat ghevar in the Teej season and the sweets of each festival when they are made fresh.
- Cook with a family: a haveli cooking class shows you how little is wasted in a Rajasthani kitchen.
- Our food guide: Rajasthani food covers the dishes and where to eat them.
Respect for people and their places
Ask before photographing: our guides help you ask gracefully. Many people say yes, some say no, and both answers are respected.
No sweets or money for children: handing them out encourages begging and pulls children from school. We can suggest local projects that welcome support.
- Visit villages as guests: in small groups, with a guide the community knows, and by arrangement with the families.
- Dress with care: covered shoulders and knees in temples and villages.
- Temples are living places: shoes off where asked, no photographs of deities without permission. Our temple etiquette guide has the detail.
A lighter week in Rajasthan
Days one to three: Jaipur
- Stay: a restored haveli in or near the walled city.
- Do: a dawn walk of the old city, a block-printing visit in Bagru and an evening at the City Palace.
Day four: by train to Jodhpur
- Why the train: a calm day across the countryside instead of a long drive.
Days five and six: a village fort
- Stay: a family-run fort near Jodhpur, with Bishnoi villages and Marwari horses close by.
- Do: a village walk with the family, a morning ride and a night under the stars.
Day seven: Udaipur
- Why end here: the lakes are the best place to see what water means to a Rajasthani city.
- Plan more: our village Rajasthan journey builds this idea into a longer route.
What most visitors miss
The cisterns under the courtyards: in many old havelis and forts, a covered tank still stores rainwater beneath your feet. Ask to see it.
- The water pots on the road: clay pots by shop doors and at village crossroads, filled for anyone who is thirsty.
- The village pond: a nadi or johad outside many villages is the community's reservoir, cleaned and repaired together.
- The sacred grove: a stand of trees around a village shrine, where no branch is cut. It is one of the oldest forms of nature protection in Rajasthan.
Before you go
Pack light: fewer bags make trains and small heritage homes far easier.
Bring a bottle and a bag: the two simplest ways to cut plastic.
- Pack
- Refillable bottle, cloth bag, small litter bag
- Clothes
- Light cotton, covering shoulders and knees
- Gifts
- Small, from home, for host families
- Tell us
- Your interests, so we match you with the right hosts
- Ask about your hotels: we can tell you how each one handles water, energy and waste.
- Budget for tips and fees: fair tips for guides, drivers and hotel staff, and entry fees at monuments, are part of supporting the places you visit. Our money and tipping guide explains the customs.
- Offset if you wish: long-haul flights are the largest part of most travellers' footprint. Some guests choose to offset them, and many choose to stay longer instead.
Who this way of travelling suits
Slow travellers: fewer places and longer stays mean more time, more conversation and less time in the car.
- Families: children love village forts, horses, stepwells and wildlife, and learn a great deal about water and care.
- Repeat visitors: if you have seen the big sights, a lighter route opens up the villages and smaller towns.
- Who might find it hard: if you want to see ten cities in ten days, this is not that trip. We will tell you honestly what is realistic.