Why the desert throws a party in February
The founding: Rawal Jaisal of the Bhati Rajputs founded his fort on the three-peaked Trikuta hill in 1156.
Six centuries of caravans: the city lived off the trade in spices, silk, indigo and salt between Sindh, Persia and northern India.
The road closes: sea trade drained the routes in the nineteenth century, and Partition closed the road west in 1947. Jaisalmer became a remote border town.
- Nights
- Seven: Jodhpur, Manvar, Jaisalmer, Sam
- Pace
- Gentle approach, three festival days, rest at noon
- Best months
- The Magh full moon, usually February
- Good for
- Music lovers, photographers, festival lovers
- Starts
- Jodhpur
- Ends
- Sam, fly from Jaisalmer or Jodhpur
- The revival: the army built roads, Satyajit Ray filmed Sonar Kella in 1974, and travellers began to arrive.
- What the festival gathers: the things the Thar is proudest of, its music, camels, turbans and moustaches, into three days of competitions and performances.
- When: around the full moon of Magh, a winter month that usually falls in February, when days are warm and nights still cold.
- Who comes: performers and visitors from across Rajasthan and the world fill the town.
- The last evening: moves out to the dunes at Sam for music under a nearly full moon.
- A slow approach: we begin in Jodhpur, the great Rathore capital, with Mehrangarh at opening time.
- A night halfway: in the dunes at Manvar, so you arrive in Jaisalmer rested rather than worn out by five hours in a car.
- Three full days, then the sand: the festival from a quiet base outside town, and a finale in a camp on the dunes, where the festival itself ends.
- Background: our Jaisalmer guide and our page on the Desert Festival.
Day by day, from the blue city to the dunes
- Jodhpur to Manvar
- About 110 km, two hours
- Manvar to Jaisalmer
- About 175 km, three hours
- Suryagarh to town
- About 13 km out on the Sam road
- Jaisalmer to Jodhpur
- About five hours
- Jaisalmer to Bikaner
- Five to six hours
Day 1: Arrive in Jodhpur
Met at the airport: we drive you to your palace hotel to rest.
Brahmpuri on foot: in the late afternoon, walk up through the blue-washed lanes below the fort with a guide who grew up there.
- Lamps coming on: end at Toorji ka Jhalra, the restored stepwell, and the clock tower market.
- Taste it: a mirchi bada, the stuffed chilli fritter Jodhpur is proud of.
- Dinner: on your hotel terrace with the fort lit above you.
Day 2: Mehrangarh and the Rathore city
Mehrangarh at opening: reach Mehrangarh before the tour groups and walk its palaces from the Phool Mahal to the armoury with a private guide.
- From the ramparts: the blue city below, and the desert you are about to cross.
- Jaswant Thada: walk down to Jaswant Thada, the white marble memorial to Maharaja Jaswant Singh II.
- Afternoon: after lunch and a rest, the Umaid Bhawan Palace Museum, then an evening at leisure.
Day 3: Into the Thar, to Manvar
After a late breakfast: Manvar is about 110 kilometres, roughly two hours, along the Jaisalmer road.
The land changes: after about forty kilometres the ground softens and lifts, and you are suddenly among low dunes, khejri trees and village fields.
- Midday: lunch at camp, then rest in the shade of your tent through the warm hours.
- Four o'clock: walk or ride a camel slowly onto the dunes for sunset, when the sand moves from gold to copper to violet in twenty minutes.
- By the fire: dinner with folk musicians. Your first night in the desert, and for many guests the one they remember longest.
Day 4: Manvar to Jaisalmer, and the fort at golden hour
The drive: about 175 kilometres and three hours on, after breakfast.
- Midday: check in at your hotel outside town for lunch and a rest.
- Vyas Chhatri at four: the cluster of cenotaphs on the ridge north of the walls, where you watch the fort turn the colour of honey and light up bastion by bastion.
- If the festival opens that evening: we take you to the opening events instead.
Day 5: The fort at dawn, the festival by day
Into the fort as it wakes: walk up into Jaisalmer Fort through its four great gates to Dussehra Chowk.
The seven Jain temples: during morning worship, when the light comes through the stone lattices in shafts. Leave shoes and anything made of leather outside.
- The opening procession: from late morning, camels, musicians and dancers usually open the festival.
- Turban-tying: men race to wind several metres of cloth into a perfect safa.
- Moustaches and Mr Desert: the moustache contest, and the much-loved Mr Desert, judged on looks, dress and a good deal of charm.
- Shade and rest: we keep a shaded place for you, take you back for lunch and rest, and return for the evening programme of folk music and dance.
Day 6: Gadisar, the havelis and the camels
Gadisar at sunrise: a rowing boat and tea on the ghats of Gadisar Lake, the calmest hour you will find in festival week.
Patwon ki Haveli: Patwon ki Haveli, five houses built for five sons, before the crowds.
- Salim Singh ki Haveli: Salim Singh ki Haveli, the minister's house with its peacock brackets.
- Camel afternoon: camel races, decorated camels on parade and camel polo, with a commentator who enjoys himself enormously.
- A private hour of music: away from the stage, on a haveli roof with Manganiyar musicians, paid properly and directly, over a desert supper of ker sangri and bajra roti.
Day 7: Bada Bagh, Kuldhara and the finale at Sam
Bada Bagh early: Bada Bagh, the hillside of royal cenotaphs north of town.
Towards the dunes: after breakfast, by way of Kuldhara, the most visited of the abandoned Paliwal villages, and the ruined fort of Khaba.
- Camp: near Sam, for a late lunch and a rest.
- The finale: crowded and loud, with music, dance and a rising moon on the Sam dunes. Embrace it: being part of the crowd is the point.
- Back to quiet: dinner by the fire at your camp. Near the full moon you won't see the Milky Way, but the moonlit dunes are their own reward.
Day 8: Dawn on the dunes, then home
First light: walk beyond the main ridge, when the wind has smoothed the sand overnight and the only tracks are a beetle's.
- Flying home: from Jaisalmer airport if winter flights are running that season, or back to Jodhpur, about five hours.
- Schedules change each year: we confirm them when we plan your trip.
Where you'll stay, and the alternatives
Jodhpur: Umaid Bhawan Palace or RAAS
Umaid Bhawan Palace: the former royal family still lives alongside a Taj hotel, with space, gardens and a palace on a hill.
- Under the fort: RAAS Jodhpur is the old-city alternative we suggest.
- Gentler heritage: Ajit Bhawan and Bal Samand Lake Palace.
Manvar Desert Camp
Halfway in the dunes: camps and a resort built by a local family between Jodhpur and Jaisalmer.
- The feeling: the classic desert camp, sociable, simple and full of music by the fire.
- Why it's here: it turns a long transfer into two shorter, gentler drives, with an evening on the sand in between.
Jaisalmer: Suryagarh
Where: about thirteen kilometres out on the Sam road.
- What it is: a modern fort in the old Jaisalmer manner, in the same yellow stone, around courtyards and a pool.
- Why in festival week: close enough for dawn at Gadisar and for the dunes at the finale, and its calm is worth a great deal.
- Not inside the fort: we don't book rooms there, because the hill cannot take more water.
Sam: a small, well-run camp
Chosen each season: we pick the finale camp fresh every year.
- Our rules: set back from the main road and the loudest neighbours, private bathrooms with hot water, music that ends at a civilised hour, fresh food, and healthy, well-treated camels.
- What we look for: our guide to desert camps explains.
Other styles
For romance: The Serai, SUJAN's tented camp on about a hundred acres of private desert, about forty minutes from town, is our first choice.
- For history: Mandir Palace, where members of the royal family still live, has heritage rooms below the fort.
- A quieter finale: Khuri is calmer than Sam.
- All compared: in luxury hotels in Jaisalmer.
When to go, and what the season brings
It follows the moon: about three days ending on the full moon of Magh, which usually falls in February and in some years in the last days of January.
We hold rooms at once: as soon as the dates are announced, because Jaisalmer's best rooms are few and the festival fills them.
- Festival length
- About three days to the Magh full moon
- Usual month
- February, sometimes late January
- Days
- Mid to high twenties, sunny
- Nights
- Close to freezing in the dunes early on
- Dates
- We confirm them each year
- Weather: sunny days in the mid to high twenties and cold nights.
- Pack: a proper jacket for the camp, a scarf for the sun and the wind-blown sand, and layers you can shed by eleven.
- Month by month: our best time to visit Jaisalmer guide, and Rajasthan in February for the rest of the state.
Other festivals that may fall nearby
In some years the dates line up: with other winter gatherings.
Bikaner Camel Festival: held in January.
- Nagaur cattle fair: also in the winter months.
- Shekhawati Festival: in February or March.
- Combining two: each follows its own calendar, so we check every year.
If you would rather avoid the crowds
- Come after: in late February or early March, when the weather is still kind and the town is calm again.
- The same desert without the festival: our seven-night Under the Thar Sky.
What happens at the festival
A guide to the spirit: the programme changes a little each year and is announced only a few weeks ahead, so treat this as a guide rather than a timetable.
Most years bring: an opening procession, contests in turban-tying, moustaches and the title of Mr Desert, camel races, decorated camels and camel polo, tug of war, and evening stages of folk music and dance.
The finale: moves to the dunes at Sam.
- Opening
- Procession of camels, musicians and dancers
- Contests
- Turban-tying, moustaches, Mr Desert
- Camels
- Races, parades and camel polo
- Evenings
- Folk music and dance on stage
- Finale
- The dunes at Sam
- Announced
- Only a few weeks ahead
- The music is the heart: the Manganiyars are hereditary Muslim musicians of the Thar, who for centuries sang at the births, weddings and deaths of their Rajput patron families.
- The kamaicha: their own instrument, the kamaicha, is a bowed lute with a round belly of mango wood and sympathetic strings that hum beneath the tune.
- The khartal: wooden clappers, the khartal, played at astonishing speed.
- The morchang: a jaw harp, the morchang, that twangs like a desert insect.
- Meet the performers: our pages on the Manganiyar singers and Kalbelia dance.
- A word on the animals: camels at the festival are dressed, raced and sometimes made to dance to the drums.
- Where we draw the line: we take you to the events we are comfortable with and quietly steer you away from any where animals look stressed.
- Our rules and their story: our ethical animal encounters page, and our journal piece on the camels of Rajasthan.
What you'll eat in the desert
Ker sangri, the dish to try: ker sangri. Ker is a small, sharp berry from a leafless desert shrub, and sangri are the long beans of the khejri tree, the tree the Thar depends on.
How it's made: both are dried in summer and cooked with oil, red chilli and spices into something tangy and nutty.
Panchkuta: its richer cousin, panchkuta, is five dried desert ingredients cooked together.
- Bajre ki roti: bajre ki roti, pearl-millet flatbread smeared with ghee and eaten with a fiery garlic chutney.
- Kadhi: a bowl of kadhi, yoghurt simmered with gram flour.
- Raabdi on a cold morning: raabdi, a warming drink of millet and buttermilk that farming families have lived on for centuries.
- Why the beans became a delicacy: our ker sangri explainer.
- Jodhpur breakfasts: mirchi bada and pyaaz kachori from the bazaar, and a glass of sweet makhaniya lassi.
- For meat eaters: laal maas in both cities, cooked slowly with Mathania chillies.
- Jaisalmer's vegetarian table: its old merchant families were largely Jain and vegetarian, and its vegetarian thalis are the more local meal.
- At the camps: dinner is usually cooked over a fire, and we ask the cooks for village dishes rather than a buffet.
- What to order: our food of Jaisalmer guide and food of Jodhpur guide.
- One special evening: a rooftop table facing the fort, timed for the moment its floodlights come on, or a private dinner among the cenotaphs at Bada Bagh.
- Dietary needs: tell us in advance, and the kitchens will cook for you.
Make it yours
Shorter, in four nights
Fly to Jaisalmer: if winter flights are running.
- The shape: three nights at Suryagarh for the festival and one at Sam for the finale.
- The trade: you lose Jodhpur and the gentle approach, but keep every festival day.
Longer, with Bikaner or the bustards
Bustards: a day in the Desert National Park for the great Indian bustard, with a naturalist.
- Embroidery: a day south among the embroidery villages of Barmer.
- Bikaner: five to six hours north-east to Bikaner for Junagarh Fort and a palace hotel, completing our desert triangle.
For couples
Swap the hotel: Suryagarh for The Serai.
- A dune of your own: a private dinner with a fire and a singer, set well away from the camp strip.
- Desert and lakes: our honeymoon in Udaipur and Jaisalmer.
For families
What children love: the camels, the turbans and the races. But festival crowds are tiring.
- Pace it: afternoons at Suryagarh's pool, and one evening event rather than all three.
- The highlight: make it the camp night. Our family journeys explain how we pace the days.
For repeat visitors and photographers
Quiet mornings: Lodurva and its Jain temple, Amar Sagar, the Akal fossil park and the old town before breakfast.
- Busy afternoons: shoot the competitions then.
- Plan the light: our photography journey and photography tips.
How we look after you
Private car throughout: from Jodhpur airport, with a chauffeur who knows the desert roads. He waits below the fort gates and at the festival grounds.
Local guides: private guides in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, and one who stays with you at the festival events and the finale.
- Rooms held early: rooms and camp tents as soon as the dates are announced, and we visit the camps ourselves before booking them.
- Music and stars: the Manganiyar evening with musicians we know, paid properly and directly, and a telescope at camp on nights the moon allows.
- Flights where they save time: such as Jaisalmer in season, with an airport meeting at every end.
- Your planner on WhatsApp: throughout, to move a lunch, change an evening or find out what the next event really is.
- No published prices: festival dates and your choice of rooms change everything, so we quote after one conversation about how you like to travel.
Who will love it, and who should choose another journey
You'll love it if: you enjoy music, colour and crowds in good humour, like to photograph people, and smile at the idea of a moustache competition.
A quiet first meeting: the approach through Jodhpur and Manvar means you meet the desert quietly, so the festival feels like a celebration rather than an assault.
- Harder if: you dislike crowds, loudspeakers or dust, or want the desert at its most silent.
- Festival week truths: Jaisalmer is full, the main dunes at Sam are busy and the bright moon hides the stars.
- For silence and stars: choose Under the Thar Sky on a moonless week, or read about stargazing in the Thar.
What we tell our cousins before the festival
Carry a large scarf: the sun is fierce even in February, and when the wind lifts the sand it is the first thing you will reach for.
Warm layers: for the evenings and the camp. Desert nights are colder than most visitors expect.
- Ask before photographing: anyone up close, especially women, and offer to show the picture.
- In the Jain temples: leave leather outside, dress modestly and keep your voice low.
- Decline politely: when a stranger offers a cheap camel ride or a factory price at a cousin's shop. Ask us instead.
- Learn khamma ghani: khamma ghani is the Rajasthani greeting. In the fort lanes it will get you invited in for tea.
