Two kingdoms, a lake and a desert
There is no city in India that does romance so naturally as Udaipur. Boats drift past the ghats at dusk, the Lake Palace seems to float on the water, and the hills fold away into blue haze. Even our most restless friends stop checking their phones here.
Udaipur, built for water: Maharana Udai Singh II founded it in 1559 on the shore of Lake Pichola.
Four centuries of romance: his descendants dammed new lakes, raised island pavilions and kept adding to the palace on the ridge.
- Nights
- Nine: Udaipur 4, Narlai 1, Jodhpur 1, Jaisalmer 3
- Pace
- Four nights by the lake, then short hops west
- Best months
- October to March
- Good for
- Honeymooners and couples celebrating a milestone
- Starts
- Udaipur, by air
- Ends
- Jodhpur or Jaisalmer, by air
- Jaisalmer, its opposite and its match: Rawal Jaisal of the Bhati Rajputs began its fort in 1156 on a ridge of yellow sandstone in the Thar.
- Caravan wealth: for six centuries the town grew rich on caravans crossing the desert, and its merchants built havelis carved like lace.
- A living fort: families still live inside its walls, and it turns the colour of honey every afternoon. Beyond the town there is only sand, scrub and sky.
- The day between: the road climbs into the Aravalli valleys to the marble temple of Ranakpur and crosses the farming country of Godwar to the village of Narlai.
- Down to Marwar: it comes onto the plains at Jodhpur, where Rao Jodha began Mehrangarh in 1459.
- One memory per stop: a candlelit stepwell, a fort at dawn, a song by the fire.
- Not only honeymooners: it suits any couple celebrating an anniversary, a proposal or simply time together at last.
- Built for ease: few hotel changes, long free afternoons and an evening plan for every night.
- Other shapes: our wider guide to Rajasthan honeymoons, and Rajasthan for Two, our eight-night signature journey for couples.
The journey, day by day
- Dabok airport
- About 22 km east of Udaipur
- Udaipur to Ranakpur
- About two and a half hours
- Ranakpur to Narlai
- Less than an hour
- Narlai to Jodhpur
- About two and a half hours
- Jodhpur to Jaisalmer
- About 285 km, around five hours
Days 1-4: Udaipur and Lake Pichola
Arrive at Dabok: Maharana Pratap Airport is about 22 kilometres east of the city. Our team meets you and drives you to the lake.
By boat: if you are staying at the Lake Palace, the last part of the journey is on the hotel's own boat.
The first afternoon: do nothing at all.
- Sunset on Pichola: a private boat on Lake Pichola, timed so you are mid-lake as the sun drops behind the western hills and the City Palace turns amber.
- The City Palace at opening: enter the City Palace and climb to the upper courtyards before the groups, then walk down to the Jagdish Temple and Gangaur Ghat.
- Side by side: after a long lunch, a lesson with a miniature painter at the same small table, or a couples treatment at your hotel spa.
- Dinner on Jag Mandir: on the island palace where the Mughal prince Khurram is said to have sheltered in the 1620s, after the day visitors have gone. See Jag Mandir.
- A slow third day: the fountains of Saheliyon ki Bari in the morning, then rest.
- The Monsoon Palace: drive up to the Monsoon Palace an hour before sunset for the widest view of the lakes and the Aravallis.
- Eklingji and Nagda: on the fourth day, drive north at dawn to the temple of Eklingji and the Sas-Bahu temples, back before the heat.
- Ambrai Ghat: sunset as the palace lights come on one by one, then a rooftop dinner facing the lit City Palace.
- For a proposal or vow renewal: Udaipur is where we would do it, on a boat, a rooftop or a palace terrace. See proposal ideas in Udaipur and our vow renewal page.
Day 5: Ranakpur and a stepwell dinner at Narlai
Through the hills: leave after breakfast for Ranakpur, about two and a half hours.
The temple: the great Jain temple of Adinath, built in the fifteenth century under Rana Kumbha, stands by tradition on 1,444 marble pillars, no two alike.
- Look for: the domes overhead, and the Parshvanath relief with its knot of serpent hoods.
- Dress: leave leather outside and cover shoulders and knees.
- Narlai: drive on less than an hour to Narlai, a village in Godwar beneath a granite hill crowned with a white elephant.
- A village walk: after a late lunch and a rest, with a local guide as the light softens.
- The stepwell dinner: a table at the bottom of an old village baori, a stepwell, lit by hundreds of oil lamps, with folk singers on the stone landings above. Most couples remember it longest.
Day 6: Jodhpur, the blue city
Sunrise on the granite hill: if you are up for it, climb before dawn and drink tea beside the white elephant as the light comes up over the fields.
To Jodhpur: after breakfast, about two and a half hours to Jodhpur, with lunch at the village fort of Rohet if you like.
- Mehrangarh in the late afternoon: walk up to Mehrangarh, the Rathore fortress on its sheer rock, and watch the old city below turn deep blue as the sun goes.
- Jaswant Thada: the white marble memorial of Jaswant Thada, built in 1899, in the last of the light.
- The night view: from a room at RAAS Jodhpur, the floodlit fort fills your window.
Days 7-9: Jaisalmer and the Thar
West across Marwar: leave Jodhpur mid-morning, about five hours through farming villages and the scrub country past Pokaran, arriving in the late afternoon as the fort turns gold.
Vyas Chhatri: watch the fort's lights come on in the half hour after sunset, when the crowds have left.
Gadisar at sunrise: a rowing boat on Gadisar Lake, when its pavilions are perfectly reflected and the ghats are empty.
- The fort as it wakes: walk up into Jaisalmer Fort, visit the Jain temples during morning worship and climb the Raj Mahal for the view across the roofs.
- The haveli lanes: in the late afternoon, to Patwon ki Haveli, begun in 1805 by Guman Chand Patwa for his five sons.
- Bada Bagh: end among the royal cenotaphs at Bada Bagh, for a sunset that is gold on gold.
- Into the desert: on the ninth day, stop at the abandoned village of Kuldhara and the Akal fossil park, and reach your camp in the late afternoon for a walk onto the dunes.
- By the fire: dinner with Manganiyar musicians, paid properly and directly, then an astronomer's telescope beside your tent.
- On a moonless winter night: the Milky Way runs from one horizon to the other.
- Home: drive back to Jodhpur for your flight, about five hours, or fly out of Jaisalmer if the seasonal winter flights are running. We confirm schedules when we plan, because they change from season to season.
Where you'll stay
- Taj Lake Palace
- Built 1743 to 1746
- Rawla Narlai
- 17th-century lodge, a hotel since 1996
- Umaid Bhawan
- Built 1929 to 1943
- Suryagarh
- About 13 km out on the Sam road
- The Serai
- About a hundred acres of private desert
Udaipur: the island, the shore or the palace
The island: the Taj Lake Palace was built between 1743 and 1746 as a summer palace and covers almost its whole island in Pichola.
Why it is so calm: only guests and diners may land.
- The most romantic morning in India: waking there with the shutters open and the lake completely still.
- The shore: The Oberoi Udaivilas spreads across gardens on the western shore, looking back at the City Palace. Many rooms have semi-private pools along the water, and its spa is one of the best in India.
- Next door: The Leela Palace Udaipur.
- Inside the palace: Fateh Prakash Palace puts you within the City Palace complex.
- Split it: many couples divide their four nights between the island and the shore.
Narlai: a hunting lodge in the village
Its history: Rawla Narlai was built in the seventeenth century as a hunting lodge for the Jodhpur royal family and opened as a heritage hotel in 1996.
- How it feels: low, white and deeply shaded, with courtyards, verandas and faded frescoes, and the granite hill rising right behind.
- Who runs it: the family who run Ajit Bhawan in Jodhpur.
Jodhpur: under the fort or in a palace
Our first choice for couples: RAAS Jodhpur, in the old city directly below Mehrangarh, with the floodlit fort above the pool at night.
- A royal palace: Umaid Bhawan Palace, built between 1929 and 1943 on its own hill, has some of the finest Art Deco rooms in Asia.
- Still a home: the family lives in one wing.
Jaisalmer: a stone fort and a desert camp
Suryagarh: Suryagarh is a modern fort built in the old Jaisalmer manner from the same yellow stone, with courtyards, a pool and a spa.
Why there: it gives you the space and calm the town itself lacks.
- The last night: The Serai, SUJAN's camp on private desert scrub, has large tented suites and dinners by firelight that feel like a private expedition.
- Dunes outside the tent: we arrange a night at Sam or the quieter Khuri.
- Choose carefully: camps there vary enormously, and our guide to luxury desert camps explains how we choose.
Moments we plan only for couples
Breakfast in bed at the Lake Palace: shutters open, the City Palace across the water and not a sound but the birds.
A private boat on Pichola: in the last hour of light, with a flask of chai or a bottle of something cold.
Dinner on Jag Mandir: candlelit, reached by boat after the day visitors have left the island.
- The stepwell at Narlai: dinner at the bottom, with oil lamps on every ledge and songs echoing off the stone.
- Sunrise from the granite hill: the white elephant beside you and the whole of Godwar below.
- The blue city from Mehrangarh: from the ramparts as the evening call to prayer rises from the lanes.
- Gadisar at dawn: a rowing boat, when the pavilions in the water are perfectly reflected.
- Supper at Bada Bagh: a private meal among the cenotaphs.
- Stars: a telescope under the desert sky, with an astronomer to point them out.
- All part of the plan: we arrange private dinners in palaces, boats on Pichola, stargazing and spa days.
- More ideas: our journal on honeymoon ideas for Rajasthan.
What you'll eat along the way
Udaipur and Mewar
Built around the hunt: ask for maas ke soole, smoked skewers now made with goat or chicken, and safed maas, mutton cooked in cream and ground nuts.
- A deep vegetarian tradition: shaped by Mewar's Jain merchants and the temple kitchens of Nathdwara.
- Gatte ki sabzi: gram-flour dumplings in a spiced yoghurt gravy.
- In winter: makki ki roti, flat maize bread eaten with ghee and jaggery.
Narlai and Jodhpur
The stepwell feast: thick bajra millet rotis with white butter, ker sangri made from dried desert berries and beans, and laal maas, mutton fiery with red Mathania chillies.
- Be brave once in Jodhpur: order a mirchi bada, a fat green chilli stuffed with spiced potato and fried in batter.
- With it: a glass of makhaniya lassi, rich with butter and saffron. Not before a long drive.
Jaisalmer
The local meal: the old merchant families were largely Jain and vegetarian, so the vegetarian thali is the one to order.
- Panchkuta: five dried desert ingredients cooked together.
- In winter: raabdi, a warming drink of millet and buttermilk.
- Every dish explained: our Rajasthani food guide, plus the food of Udaipur and food of Jaisalmer guides for the places we love.
When to go
October and November: warm and green after the rains, Udaipur's lakes usually full, and Diwali filling the ghats with lamps.
December and January: the coolest months, with crisp, clear days and cold nights.
- October and November
- Green, lakes full, Diwali
- December and January
- Coolest, busiest, cold desert nights
- February and March
- Gentlest balance, Holi, Gangaur
- May and June
- Jaisalmer passes 45°C
- July to September
- Udaipur alone, green and full
- Desert nights: they can drop close to freezing, so the tents have heaters and the camp lights a fire.
- Book early: these are the busiest weeks, and Christmas and New Year need booking months ahead.
- February and March: the gentlest balance of warm days and mild nights, with Holi in the lanes and Gangaur on Udaipur's ghats.
- Not in summer: from April the desert heats up fast, and in May and June Jaisalmer regularly passes 45°C, so we don't send honeymooners there.
- Marrying in summer or the monsoon? Choose Udaipur on its own. Its lakes fill and its hills turn green from July to September, and our Udaipur romance journey is built for it.
The Desert Festival, in February
When: three days around the full moon of the Hindu month of Magh.
- What happens: camel races, turban-tying and moustache contests, folk musicians and a finale on the dunes at Sam.
- The catch: it is joyful, but the town is crowded and the best rooms sell out early. Couples who want quiet should choose other dates.
Gangaur in Udaipur, March or April
The goddess: Gangaur honours Gauri, the model of a devoted marriage. Women across Rajasthan pray to her for a good husband or a long married life.
- In Udaipur: women carry her images in procession to Gangaur Ghat in their finest clothes.
- For newly-weds: there is no more fitting festival to see.
Make it yours
Shorter: six nights
- The shape: three nights in Udaipur, one in Jodhpur via Ranakpur, and two around Jaisalmer, one of them in the desert.
- What you lose: Narlai and some of Udaipur's slow afternoons, but you keep the lake and the dunes.
Longer: twelve nights or more
Leopards: add two nights at Jawai, about an hour from Narlai, among granite hills at SUJAN JAWAI.
- Horses: a night at Rohet Garh, the family fort where Bruce Chatwin worked on The Songlines, for a morning ride on Marwari horses.
- The open Thar: a day in the Desert National Park.
- The longer version: our Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer journey.
With Jaipur
- Bazaars and a pink city at dusk: begin with three nights in Jaipur and fly to Udaipur in about an hour.
- A piece for the occasion: Jaipur is the best place in India to have jewellery made, and we introduce couples to family jewellers we have known for decades.
With more desert
Manvar: replace Jodhpur with a night at Manvar on the road west.
- Or deeper: add a second camp night in the Thar.
- The desert version: our seven-night Under the Thar Sky journey.
What we tell couples before they travel
One warm layer each: even in October. Boats at dawn, desert nights and fort ramparts are colder than you expect.
A scarf or light shawl: for temples, where shoulders and knees should be covered and, in Jain temples, leather left outside.
- Khamma ghani: learn the Rajasthani greeting. Boatmen, villagers and hotel staff will smile and often reply in kind.
- One empty afternoon: leave at least one in each place. The best memories of a honeymoon are rarely on the schedule.
- Ask before photographing: especially women in villages, and keep your camera down on the bathing ghats at dawn.
- Say no politely: to any stranger who offers a cheap camel ride or a cousin's shop. Our guides take you only where we trust.
How we look after you
Met everywhere: at Udaipur airport and at every hotel door, with every bag and check-in handled so you never stand at a counter.
A private chauffeur: the whole way in a comfortable car, with water, music you choose and stops whenever you want them.
- Local guides: for the palace, fort and temple visits, who step back when you would rather be alone.
- The right room: we tell every hotel you are on your honeymoon, and ask for the room we have chosen, not just the category.
- Your planner on WhatsApp: throughout, for a changed dinner, a surprise, a doctor or a different afternoon.
- Flights where they help: where a flight saves a long day we book it, and we time every drive so you arrive for the evening light.
- No published prices: every honeymoon is different. After one conversation, we send a quote and a day-by-day plan you can change until it is perfect.
- Start here: plan your journey with one of our planners, and read our guide to getting around Rajasthan.
Who will love this honeymoon, and who won't
Real places: you will love it if you want palaces to walk through, temples where people still pray, a village where children ask your names and a desert where the only sound is the wind.
A mix of stays: grand hotels and small family houses.
- Love it
- Romance with real places behind it
- Hotels
- Grand palaces and small family houses
- Think twice
- If you want no driving at all
- Avoid
- May and June
- A little road: a few hours of it, broken by the best stops in western Rajasthan.
- One hotel, one pool? Then choose four or five nights in Udaipur alone, or Udaipur romance in four nights.
- Travelling in May or June: the desert is too hot to enjoy.
- Wildlife lovers: our Palaces and Tigers journey gives you tigers and leopards with palace nights between them.
