Why this route works for families
The hardest thing is distance: Rajasthan is huge, and many itineraries ask families to spend whole days in a car. This one doesn't.
Short hops: Jaipur to Ranthambore is about three and a half hours.
Road and air to the lakes: between Ranthambore and Udaipur we use a drive back towards Jaipur and a one-hour flight, so no day on the road makes anyone miserable.
- Nights
- Nine: three each in Jaipur, Ranthambore, Udaipur
- Pace
- Relaxed, a rest every afternoon
- Best months
- October to March, season runs to June
- Good for
- Families with children from about six, grandparents
- Starts
- Jaipur
- Ends
- Udaipur
- Jaipur: the city of forts, puppets and craftsmen, built on a grid that is easy to explain.
- Ranthambore: a forest of tigers, crocodiles, sambar deer and ruined hunting towers below a thousand-year-old fort. A jeep at dawn is pure adventure.
- Udaipur: calmer, a ring of lakes in the hills, with boats, fountains and a palace that grows more extraordinary the higher you climb. By the water, everyone is ready to slow down.
- For grandparents: jeeps up to the forts and shaded seats at every sight.
- For parents: a lie-in now and then, a spa hour and dinners that are not all about chicken nuggets.
- For everyone: a long lunch, a swim and a rest in the middle of the day, because Rajasthan is best in its mornings and evenings.
- A little longer: our Family adventure in Rajasthan adds the desert and a camel camp.
- All the shapes: our page on family journeys, and multi-generation journeys for three generations.
The journey, day by day
- Delhi to Jaipur
- A little over four hours by fast train
- Jaipur airport
- About 13 km south of the city
- Jaipur to Ranthambore
- About three and a half hours
- Ranthambore to Udaipur
- Three and a half hours back to Jaipur, then an hour's flight
- Safari drives
- About three hours each
Days 1 to 3: Jaipur, forts, kites and puppets
Arrival: at Jaipur International Airport, about 13 kilometres south of the city, or by fast train from Delhi in a little over four hours. We meet you on the platform or in arrivals.
First afternoon: by the pool, while everyone adjusts to the time difference.
Amber at opening: up to Amber Fort by jeep, not by elephant. The children run ahead into the Sheesh Mahal, where thousands of tiny mirrors turn a single candle into a starry sky.
- Kite lesson: after lunch and a rest, a kite-maker teaches the family to fly a patang, a fighting kite, and to shout woh kata when you cut someone's string.
- Puppets: in the evening, a kathputli puppet show, the string-puppet theatre of Rajasthan, with sword-fighting kings and dancing horses.
- The old city: Hawa Mahal early, then the Jantar Mantar near midday, when children watch the giant sundial's shadow move across its scale.
- Bagru: after a rest, a printing family in Bagru, where everyone stamps a scarf or tote bag with carved wooden blocks.
- A mummy after dark: the Albert Hall Museum, lit up at night, holds an Egyptian mummy that never fails to impress.
- A loose third morning: the City Palace and its painted Peacock Gate, a cooking lesson with a family cook, or a long breakfast while the peacocks strut past.
Days 4 to 6: Ranthambore and the tigers
The drive: about three and a half hours south after breakfast, arriving at your lodge for lunch.
A private Gypsy: the open six-seat jeep we always book. With the vehicle to yourselves, the family sets its own pace and nobody minds if a small child needs to talk.
Four to six drives: over three nights, each about three hours, in the early morning and late afternoon.
- A naturalist good with young people: with bird lists, pugmark stories and binoculars for every child.
- Tigers and much more: some drives bring a tiger within minutes, others none, but there are mugger crocodiles by the lakes, sambar wading for water plants, langurs in the trees and kingfishers on every branch.
- The honest odds: most of our families see a tiger over a stay like this, though no honest person can promise it.
- Between drives: sleep, swim or visit Dastkar Ranthambore, a craft project that works with women in the villages around the park.
- The fort instead of a drive: climb to Ranthambore Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its Trinetra Ganesh temple, where families still post wedding invitations to the god. Children love hearing the priests read them out.
- Read before you go: Machli the tigress.
Day 7: from the forest to the lakes
A last early safari: the morning when more guests than you would think see their best tiger of the trip.
Road, then air: after a late breakfast, about three and a half hours back towards Jaipur, then the afternoon flight to Udaipur, about an hour.
- Arrival: met at Maharana Pratap Airport and at your lakeside hotel for an evening swim.
- For families who enjoy the road: drive south through the Hadoti country with lunch in Bundi and its painted palace, or a stop at the hill fort of Chittorgarh.
- A long day: so we suggest it only for older children, or with an extra night on the way.
Days 8 and 9: Udaipur, boats and palaces
City Palace at opening: the City Palace of Udaipur is the largest palace complex in Rajasthan. Children enjoy the climb from courtyard to courtyard, the glass mosaic peacocks of the Mor Chowk and the lake view from the top.
A private boat: on Lake Pichola in the late afternoon, stopping at Jag Mandir, where stone elephants guard the landing stage.
- Brass pots: the folk dance show at Bagore ki Haveli, where women dance with towers of pots on their heads.
- Fountains and cars: Saheliyon ki Bari in the morning, then the late Maharanas' vintage and classic cars, which surprise even children who claim not to care.
- Sunset views: the ropeway up to the Karni Mata temple, or the Monsoon Palace.
- Home: fly the next day via Delhi or Mumbai.
A safari day, hour by hour
The alarm goes before dawn: which sounds worse than it is. Hot chocolate and biscuits wait at the lodge, and the Gypsy pulls up with blankets folded on the seats.
At the gate: still half dark and cold, and children are wide awake with excitement by the time permits are checked.
Listening: for three hours your naturalist listens for the alarm call of a sambar or the bark of a spotted deer, and the children quickly learn to listen too.
- Before dawn
- Hot chocolate, biscuits, blankets in the Gypsy
- Morning drive
- About three hours
- Mid-morning
- A big breakfast at the lodge
- Midday
- Sleep, swim, read
- Late afternoon
- A second drive, often a different zone
- Evening
- Dinner by the fire
- Give each child a job: one keeps the bird list, one holds the binoculars, one watches for pugmarks in the dust.
- The middle of the day: a big breakfast by mid-morning, then sleeping, swimming, reading or a gentle visit to the Dastkar craft shop. Lunch is long.
- The evening drive: often in a different zone, back as the light fades, dusty and happy, for dinner by the fire and stories of which tiger was seen where.
- With younger children: we sometimes skip an afternoon drive for a walk through a farming village on the forest edge with someone from the village, or the climb to Ranthambore Fort.
- Why: three hours in a jeep twice a day is a lot for anyone, and a tired child sees nothing.
- More detail: our Ranthambore itinerary and the journal piece on the best time for tigers.
Where you'll stay
Jaipur: gardens and room to run
The Oberoi Rajvilas: 32 acres outside the city, like a private village, with pools, fountains and a restored eighteenth-century Shiva temple.
- Rambagh Palace: the former home of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II and Maharani Gayatri Devi, with wide lawns, peacocks and a polo ground next door.
- Jai Mahal Palace: formal Mughal gardens for children to explore.
- Connecting rooms: we ask each hotel for them where they have them.
Ranthambore: tents, gardens and naturalists
The Oberoi Vanyavilas: luxury tents in walled gardens and orchards around a central haveli, with peacocks on the lawns and the most comfortable rooms in the park. Ideal for families.
- SUJAN Sher Bagh: a tented camp in the spirit of an old hunting camp, with some of the best naturalists in Ranthambore. Perfect for wildlife-mad older children.
- Aman-i-Khas: small and serene.
- Seasons: the tented camps keep a shorter season, closing through the hottest and wettest months.
Udaipur: lakeside space or a palace with a pool
The Oberoi Udaivilas: gardens and old royal hunting grounds on the shore of Pichola, with space to roam between outings.
- The Leela Palace Udaipur: beside it on the lake.
- Shiv Niwas Palace: inside the City Palace complex, curving around a courtyard pool with views of the lake.
- Compare them: our guides to wildlife lodges and palace hotels.
What we plan especially for children
For practical advice on food, health and naps, read our guide to travelling with children and our journal piece on Rajasthan with children.
No elephant rides or animal shows: our page on ethical animal encounters explains why, and lists better ways to meet animals in Rajasthan.
Kite flying: a lesson on a Jaipur rooftop with a kite-maker who shows how the paper and bamboo go together. On 14 January the whole city joins in.
- Block printing: their own scarf or bag, with hand-carved wooden blocks at a family workshop in Bagru.
- Puppets: a string-puppet show, and the chance to meet the puppeteers and work a puppet themselves.
- The sundial: watching the Jantar Mantar tell the time, and working it out before the guide does.
- A private safari jeep: with a naturalist who gives each child a bird list, binoculars and the job of listening for alarm calls.
- Ranthambore Fort: its langurs, gates and wedding invitations to Ganesh.
- On the lake: a boat on Pichola and the stone elephants on Jag Mandir.
- Brass pots: women dancing with towers of them on their heads at Bagore ki Haveli.
- Cooking: a lesson where everyone rolls their own chapati and eats it hot off the griddle.
Feeding a family in Rajasthan
Mild on request: every hotel on this journey will cook it, and our chefs are used to children who want plain rice, dal, scrambled eggs or toast.
Start gently: buttery dal, soft chapatis straight off the griddle, rice, paneer, potato curries and the sweet crumbled churma that follows dal baati.
For older children: Jaipur's morning kachori and a clay cup of lassi are good adventures, as long as a guide chooses the stall.
- Udaipur thalis: vegetarian thalis of small bowls with bread and rice let children taste a little of many things and leave what they don't like.
- Jeep picnics: in Ranthambore, picnic breakfasts are part of the fun. Lodges pack parathas, boiled eggs, fruit and a flask of tea or hot chocolate.
- Water: bottled or filtered only, including for brushing teeth.
- Fruit and snacks: peel fruit or choose it cooked, and carry snacks on every drive.
- Allergies and diets: tell us when you book and we pass them to every hotel and guide in writing.
- The dishes explained: our Rajasthani food guide.
When to go, and fitting it around school holidays
October and November: fresh after the rains, Ranthambore green and the light soft.
Half-term and Diwali: lovely times to travel, with lamps on every ghat in Udaipur and Jaipur's bazaars lit end to end.
- Season
- October to June
- Best tiger months
- February and March
- Coldest drives
- December and January
- Easter
- Often above 35°C
- Core zones shut
- About July to September
- Busiest
- Christmas and New Year
- December and January: cool and clear, wonderful for sightseeing, but dawn drives in an open jeep are very cold. We add blankets and hot water bottles, and you pack warm jackets, hats and gloves.
- Christmas and New Year: the busiest weeks of the year, so book permits and rooms many months ahead.
- February and March: many people's favourite months, with warm days, cool mornings, good tiger sightings, Holi in the lanes and spring half-terms to match.
- Easter: hotter, but the forest is drying out and animals gather at the lakes, which makes sightings easier. We plan very early drives and long afternoons in the pool.
- From May: the heat is serious.
- More detail: our guide to the best time to visit Ranthambore.
Makar Sankranti, 14 January
- Kite day: every roof in the walled city fills with families, and by afternoon the sky over Hawa Mahal is crowded with paper.
- For children: the best day of the year to be in India.
Ganesh Chaturthi, August or September
- Pilgrim crowds: huge numbers walk up to the Ganesh temple at Ranthambore Fort for the temple fair.
- Rarely a problem: it falls in the monsoon closure, but is worth knowing for an early autumn visit.
Make it yours
Shorter: seven nights
The shape: two nights in Jaipur, three in Ranthambore and two in Udaipur.
- The trade: you lose some slow afternoons but keep the safaris, the heart of the trip.
- With very young children: we would rather shorten the cities than the forest.
Longer: twelve nights
Start in Delhi: a night in Delhi to recover from the flight.
- More Mewar: a fourth night in Udaipur, or two at Kumbhalgarh, where older children can walk part of the great wall along the ridge.
- Leopards: add Jawai among granite hills, which turns this into our signature Palaces and Tigers.
With the Taj Mahal
Delhi and Agra first: two nights in Agra for the Taj at sunrise.
- On to Jaipur: by way of the Abhaneri stepwell, where children can count the steps, then Ranthambore.
- That version: our Golden Triangle with Ranthambore.
With the desert
Teenagers love the Thar: after Udaipur, continue to Jodhpur for Mehrangarh, then a desert camp near Jaisalmer.
- On the dunes: gentle camel walks and a sky full of stars.
- Ten nights: our Family adventure in Rajasthan includes it.
With grandparents
Easy on the legs: short walking, and jeeps up to Amber and Ranthambore forts.
- Rooms: ground floor where possible.
- Fly, don't drive: between Ranthambore and Udaipur.
- More advice: our guide to accessible travel.
What we tell our own family before a trip like this
Pack layers: safari mornings in winter are near freezing, and by noon everyone is in T-shirts.
Binoculars for each child: and a simple bird book. A list ticked off in pencil keeps young eyes busy for hours.
- Dress for temples: shoulders and knees covered, and shoes you can slip off easily.
- Sun every day: sunscreen, hats and water bottles, even in winter. The Rajasthan sun is stronger than it feels.
- One greeting: teach the children khamma ghani. Shopkeepers and boatmen love hearing it from a small voice.
How we look after your family
Our guide to health and safety in Rajasthan covers food, water and the sun. When you are ready, plan your journey with one of our planners.
Met inside: the arrivals hall or on the station platform, with help for every bag at every hotel.
- A private chauffeur: throughout, in a spacious car with child seats on request, cold water and room for everyone's bags.
- Guides good with children: they lead every visit and keep tours short, lively and full of stories.
- Safaris: a private Gypsy for every drive, a naturalist suited to young people, and the forest department's rules on children's ages checked when we book.
- Trains and flights: where they save hours, such as the flight from Jaipur to Udaipur.
- Your planner on WhatsApp: for a feverish child, a change of plan, a doctor or a pharmacy, at any hour.
- No published prices: every family travels differently. After one conversation we send a quote and a day-by-day plan you can change as often as you like.
Who will love this journey, and who should choose another
Children about six or older: curious about animals and happy with an early start in exchange for an adventure.
Grandparents too: the drives are short and there are only three hotels.
- A real India: for parents who want their children to see craftsmen, temples and village life, not just pools and buffets.
- Not ideal with babies or toddlers: three-hour safaris feel long and dawn starts are hard.
- For little ones instead: Jaipur and Udaipur on their own, with a short visit to Keoladeo at Bharatpur, where a rickshaw ride among the birds is easy for small children.
- Deserts over forests: choose Under the Thar Sky.
- Adventure every day for teenagers: the Family adventure journey adds camels, dunes and climbing forts.
