Two kingdoms and the hills between them
Most travellers race from Udaipur to Jodhpur in a single long day, glimpse Ranakpur at lunchtime and arrive exhausted. We break the crossing into three short drives, and you arrive in Marwar knowing exactly where you have come from.
A story of neighbours: Mewar and Marwar are the two great Rajput kingdoms of southern and western Rajasthan.
Mewar: Mewar was ruled by the Sisodias, first from Chittorgarh and then, after 1559, from Udaipur.
- Mewar
- Sisodias, Udaipur after 1559
- Marwar
- Rathores, Jodhpur from 1459
- Rana Kumbha
- Ruled 1433 to 1468
- Battle near Narlai
- 15 June 1680
- Godwar
- Settled with Jodhpur, 18th century
- Marwar: Marwar was ruled by the Rathores, who moved their capital from Mandore to the ridge of Jodhpur in 1459.
- The Aravallis between: the oldest mountains in India, worn down to forested ridges and granite domes. They were a border, a refuge and a road all at once.
- Rivals, allies and in-laws: the two houses were all three by turns.
- A murder at court: Rao Ranmal, a Rathore chief of Mandore, spent years at the Mewar court in the fifteenth century and was killed there in a palace intrigue, which soured relations for a generation.
- A fort to watch the frontier: Rana Kumbha of Mewar, who ruled from 1433 to 1468, built Kumbhalgarh on the highest ground he could find, partly to watch Marwar.
- Meera Bai: a few decades later the poet-saint, a Rathore princess from Merta, married into the Sisodia family and became the most loved devotional poet of both kingdoms.
- Godwar, the hinge: a strip of farmland and Jain merchant towns between hills and plain, argued over for centuries before it settled with Jodhpur in the eighteenth century.
- On the same side, once: on 15 June 1680, during Aurangzeb's long war against the Rajput states, a combined army of Rathores and Sisodias defeated a Mughal force near Narlai, where you sleep on the fifth night.
- Watch it change: with a night below the fort, a night in a Godwar village and time in both capitals, you see the land turn from green to gold out of the car window.
Day by day, from the lakes to the desert's edge
Treat the timings as a shape, not a timetable. Our planner adjusts them for the season, for temple hours that change on festival days and for how you like to travel. Our guide to road distances and drive times explains how we time each leg.
- Nights
- Seven, Udaipur to Jodhpur
- Pace
- Gentle, no drive longer than about 3 hours
- Best months
- October to March, July to September for Mewar
- Good for
- Second-timers, couples, architecture lovers
- Starts
- Udaipur airport (UDR)
- Ends
- Jodhpur airport (JDH)
Day 1: Udaipur, arriving by the water
Met at Dabok: your chauffeur meets you at Maharana Pratap Airport, about 22 kilometres east of the city. The drive in takes under an hour through low hills and marble yards.
A deliberately empty day: check in, eat a light lunch and sleep through the warm afternoon.
- An hour before sunset: a private boat on Lake Pichola, drifting past the bathing ghats and island palaces while the City Palace turns from cream to amber.
- Dinner: at your hotel, by the water, early.
- Why start here: Udaipur is the best place in Rajasthan to recover from a long flight, and we use it that way.
Day 2: Udaipur, the palace before the crowds
At opening: be at the City Palace with your guide and climb straight to the upper courtyards before the tour groups.
What to look for: the glass peacocks of the Mor Chowk and the garden courtyard of the Badi Mahal on top of its hill.
- Down through Badi Pol: to the Jagdish Temple, then through the lanes of silversmiths and painters to Gangaur Ghat.
- A painter's studio: after lunch and a rest, watch colours ground by hand and try a line yourself.
- Early evening: the folk dance in the courtyard of Bagore ki Haveli.
- Dinner: on a rooftop facing the lit palace, or by boat at Jag Mandir once the day visitors have gone.
Day 3: Udaipur, the temples of the north and the Monsoon Palace
Nagda: after an early breakfast, the Sas-Bahu temples, carved in the tenth and eleventh centuries beside a small lake.
Eklingji: the walled temple at Kailashpuri of the god in whose name the Maharanas ruled.
- Nathdwara, if you like: about an hour north, we time a visit to the Shrinathji temple at Nathdwara for a darshan, one of the set moments when the shrine's doors open to worshippers.
- The painters' lane: walk the lane of pichwai painters afterwards.
- Late afternoon: after lunch and a long rest, walk the embankment at Fateh Sagar with the city's own families.
- The view of tomorrow: the Monsoon Palace about an hour before sunset, with the lakes, the City Palace and the folded Aravallis laid out below.
Day 4: over the hills to Kumbhalgarh
The drive: about 85 kilometres north, roughly two and a half hours through the hills, leaving mid-morning.
Lunch at a hill palace: RAAS Devigarh, an eighteenth-century hill palace at Delwara turned into a calm marble hotel.
- Or history: stop at Haldighati, where Maharana Pratap fought Akbar's army in June 1576.
- Afternoon: arrive below the fort by mid-afternoon and rest.
- At about four: drive up to the gate and climb through Ram Pol and Hanuman Pol to Badal Mahal, the palace of clouds at the summit, as the light softens. From the top terrace you look west over Marwar.
- After dark: the light and sound show, with our guide translating the story of Panna Dhai, then the fort lit against the dark hills.
- The hour most never see: most visitors have a long drive back to Udaipur by then.
Day 5: the wall at dawn, Ranakpur, then Narlai
Sunrise on the rampart: with a guide and a flask of chai. In winter the valleys often fill with mist, and the wall seems to float.
An hour's walk: a quiet stretch past bastions and ruined shrines. Our journal piece on the Kumbhalgarh wall walk describes our favourite sections.
- Down to Ranakpur: about an hour through the forest of the sanctuary to Ranakpur.
- Timed to opening: the great Jain temple keeps its mornings for worship and opens to other visitors later. We arrive as it opens and give it two unhurried hours with a guide.
- What to look for: the serpent canopy of the Parshvanath relief and domes carved like stone chandeliers, then the older Sun temple by the road.
- Into Godwar: after a late lunch, less than an hour to Narlai. Walk the village with a local guide past potters, temples and the granite hill with its white elephant.
- The stepwell dinner: weather and the hotel's calendar allowing, dinner at the bottom of an old stepwell lit by hundreds of oil lamps, with folk musicians on the landings. We book it with the room.
Day 6: Narlai at first light, then down into Marwar
The climb: more than seven hundred steps to the white elephant in the half-light before sunrise. From the top, Godwar opens out, with the Aravalli ridge behind and a blue haze towards Marwar ahead.
Or a gentler morning: ride out through the fields on one of the rawla's Marwari horses.
- The drive: about two and a half hours to Jodhpur. The fields thin, the soil turns sandy and the turbans change colour.
- Lunch at Rohet: Rohet Garh, a family fort by a lake in the village of Rohet, about forty minutes south of the city.
- Late afternoon: Jaswant Thada as the low sun lights its thin marble.
- Dusk: the clock tower and Sardar Market, with a hot mirchi bada in hand.
Day 7: Jodhpur, Mehrangarh and the blue lanes
At opening: climb to Mehrangarh through the seven gates, pausing at the handprints by Loha Pol, and give the palaces and galleries a full morning before the courtyards fill.
The rock park: walk down through the Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park, where native desert plants and birds are at their best early.
- Brahmpuri: after lunch and a rest, the bluest quarter, with a guide who grew up in its lanes.
- Last evening: a drive to the Bishnoi villages south of the city, where blackbuck graze near the houses, or sunset by Kaylana Lake with the city's families.
- Dinner: on the terrace at Umaid Bhawan, or under the floodlit walls of the fort.
Day 8: a last morning and the flight home
If your flight allows: walk to Toorji ka Jhalra, the restored eighteenth-century stepwell, before the cafes around it open.
- A short drive: Jodhpur Airport is only a few kilometres from the centre.
- Going on west: this is where our Under the Thar Sky journey begins.
Reading the land from the car window
- Airport to Udaipur
- Under an hour
- Udaipur to Kumbhalgarh
- About 2.5 hours, 85 km
- Kumbhalgarh to Ranakpur
- About an hour
- Ranakpur to Narlai
- Under an hour
- Narlai to Jodhpur
- About 2.5 hours
Mewar: hill country
Green for months: around Udaipur the Aravallis stay green long after the monsoon, villages sit in valleys beside small reservoirs, and maize grows on terraced fields.
- Man-made lakes: all of the capital's lakes were dammed by Maharanas who knew how precious water was.
- Forest life: around Kumbhalgarh live leopards, sloth bears, wolves and the shy four-horned antelope.
- The first people: the Bhil communities of the hills have been there far longer than the forts.
Godwar: the hinge
Granite domes: the hills break into smooth domes rising straight out of the fields, the rock that gives Jawai its leopards and Narlai its elephant hill.
- Merchant temples: Jain families built richly here, which is why a small village can hold twenty carved temples.
- The Rabari: herders in white with red turbans move camels, sheep and goats between the stubble fields, and their women manage the herds in black wool skirts and heavy silver.
Marwar: where the sand starts
The name: from maru, the desert.
- What changes: khejri trees stand alone in the fields, houses turn from whitewash to red sandstone, and the safas, the long turbans, grow bigger and brighter.
- What you hear: Mewari and Marwari are related Rajasthani dialects. Our guides enjoy showing how khamma ghani sounds slightly different on each side of the hills.
Three kitchens in one journey
Mewar's villages: makki ki roti, maize bread, with ghee and jaggery in the cold months.
- Marwar: the bread turns to bajra, pearl millet, with a spoon of white butter.
- Desert ingredients: ker sangri, the dried berries and beans our grandmothers stored for lean months, and the Mathania chillies that colour laal maas.
- Near Ranakpur: meals follow the temple, vegetarian and often cooked without onion or garlic. Eat a little of everything.
Where you'll stay, night by night
These are the hotels we use most. We will suggest the right one for you after a conversation, because a honeymoon, a family and a returning traveller each need different things.
Udaipur: on the lake or beside it
For romance: the Taj Lake Palace on its island in Pichola, reached only by the hotel's boats. Built in the 1740s as a summer palace, a hotel since the 1960s, it seems to float from the shore.
For space and calm: The Oberoi Udaivilas on the western shore, with one of India's best spas and many rooms with semi-private pools along the water.
- Beside it: the Leela Palace Udaipur, with grand lake-view rooms.
- Inside the palace walls: Shiv Niwas Palace and Fateh Prakash Palace, where you walk the courtyards after the visitors have gone.
- Every room type compared: our guide to luxury hotels in Udaipur.
Kumbhalgarh: below the walls
No hotel inside the fort: and that is part of its charm. The best stays sit on the forested slopes a few minutes from the gate.
- The Aodhi: one of the longest-established, our usual choice. A quiet country lodge with rooms spread over the hillside, a pool and a spa.
- Why it works: the lit fort is ten minutes from your bed, and the wall at sunrise needs no early drive.
- Alternatives, honestly: our guide to luxury hotels near Kumbhalgarh.
Narlai: a hunting lodge in a village
Rawla Narlai: Rawla Narlai is a seventeenth-century hunting lodge of the Jodhpur royal family, opened as a heritage hotel in 1996 by the family that runs Ajit Bhawan in Jodhpur.
- The house: low, white and deeply shaded, with courtyards, frescoed rooms in the old building and garden rooms and tents behind.
- The hill: the granite rises right behind the terrace.
- What a rawla is: our short essay on what a rawla is explains how these noble country houses fitted into the old kingdoms.
Jodhpur: a palace, or the old city
Umaid Bhawan Palace: Umaid Bhawan Palace on Chittar Hill was finished in 1943 and is still part royal home, part hotel, with some of the finest Art Deco rooms in Asia.
- The room to ask for: one facing the gardens, with Mehrangarh on its ridge across the city.
- Into the lanes: RAAS Jodhpur puts red sandstone haveli buildings and a pool directly beneath the fort walls, with the floodlit fort in your window at night.
- The middle path: Ajit Bhawan, warm and family-run.
Swaps by style
A hill palace: spend your last Udaipur night at RAAS Devigarh and drive on to Kumbhalgarh from there.
- A family fort: swap one Jodhpur night for Rohet Garh, with its lake and Marwari horses.
- The dunes: or for Mihir Garh, Rohet's sister fort among the dunes, where the only plan is a sunset ride.
- Leopards: add two nights at SUJAN JAWAI, a luxury tented camp among the granite hills about an hour from Narlai.
When to go, and what each season gives you
October to March: warm, bright days, cool nights and Udaipur's lakes usually full after the rains.
Cold hill mornings: in December and January the Kumbhalgarh ramparts and Narlai hill are cold, so pack a warm layer and a shawl for the early boat.
- Season
- October to March
- Sweetest weeks
- February and early March
- Cold mornings
- December and January
- Hot
- April to June, near 40°C in Jodhpur
- Green Mewar
- Monsoon, July to September
- Our sweetest weeks: February and early March, with clear skies, mustard in the fields and comfortable afternoons in Jodhpur.
- April to June: hot, often near or above 40°C in Jodhpur. It works for lovers of quiet, with sights at dawn and dusk and long afternoons by the pool, but not for a first visit.
- Our secret season for Mewar: July to September. The hills turn a startling green, clouds drift through Badal Mahal and the Monsoon Palace finally makes sense.
- The monsoon's catch: rain can cancel a stepwell dinner, and Jodhpur is humid. Our Monsoon in Mewar journey is built for those months.
- The whole year: our guide to the best time to visit Rajasthan.
October: folk music at Mehrangarh
Folk festival: close to the October full moon, the Rajasthan International Folk Festival fills Mehrangarh with musicians, with Manganiyar singers at dawn on the ramparts.
- Marwar Festival: the Marwar Festival celebrates the folk heroes of Marwar over the same autumn full moon.
- Plan for it: end your journey in Jodhpur on those dates, and book early.
October or November: Diwali on the lakes
- Udaipur's ghats: lamps line them, the lake reflects every one, and fireworks burst over Pichola.
- In Godwar's Jain temples: Diwali is also remembered as the night of Mahavira's liberation.
December: the Kumbhalgarh Festival
- At the fort: Rajasthan Tourism holds a three-day Kumbhalgarh Festival, usually in early December, with classical and folk dance in the evenings.
- Check the dates: they are set each year, so ask us before you plan around them.
March or April: Gangaur and the Mewar Festival
- Udaipur: women carry images of the goddess Gauri to Gangaur Ghat in procession, and the Mewar Festival brings music and boats to Pichola at the same time.
- Jodhpur: the sixteen days of Gangaur end in Dhinga Gavar, a wild and very local night in the old lanes.
Make it yours: shorter, longer and different
Five nights, if time is short
The shape: two nights in Udaipur, one below Kumbhalgarh and two in Jodhpur, seeing Ranakpur on the way across.
- What you lose: the village night at Narlai and one slow Udaipur day.
- What you keep: the two best hours at Kumbhalgarh, the lit fort and the wall at dawn.
Nine or ten nights, the version we would choose
A second Narlai night: as we usually do when time allows, so you have the hill at both ends of a day and an afternoon with nothing in it.
- Leopards or a fort: add two nights at Jawai among the granite hills, or a night at Rohet Garh before Jodhpur.
- A tenth night: start at Chittorgarh, the old capital of Mewar, and follow the dynasty's own move from its first fort to its lake city.
For couples
The rooms: the Lake Palace or a pool room at Udaivilas, and a historic suite at Umaid Bhawan.
- The evenings: a private boat with dinner at Jag Mandir, and the stepwell dinner at Narlai for two.
- Proposals: our team quietly arranges them on boats and terraces. Our Rajasthan honeymoons page has more ideas.
For families
What children love: the gates and cannon of Kumbhalgarh, the climb at Narlai, the horses at the rawla and the armoury at Mehrangarh.
- What we change: short drives and a pool every afternoon.
- Ask early: for connecting rooms, which heritage buildings have few of. Our family journeys page explains how we pace days for different ages.
For repeat visitors
- Base yourself in the country: swap the city hotels for RAAS Devigarh, a night at Deogarh and its family-run hill palace, two nights at Narlai and a village fort near Jodhpur.
- Cities by the morning: come into each one only for single mornings.
Running it in reverse, or onwards
In reverse: the route works equally well from Jodhpur to Udaipur, ending by the lakes.
- West: from Jodhpur into the dunes.
- East: from Udaipur into the temples and forts of Mewar Lakes and Temples.
How we look after you on the road
We don't publish prices, because no two of these journeys cost the same. Tell us how you like to travel in one conversation, and we will send a full quote and a day-by-day plan.
Private throughout: one chauffeur stays with you from Udaipur to Jodhpur in a comfortable, air-conditioned car, so you can leave things in the boot and settle in.
- Hill-road drivers: ours know the narrow, twisting stretches near Kumbhalgarh. They slow down for anyone prone to motion sickness and pull over for the views that matter.
- A local guide in each place: someone who grew up there, not one guide who knows a little of everything.
- Who you meet: in Udaipur, someone who can explain the custodian kings of Eklingji. At Kumbhalgarh, Panna Dhai's story told on the spot. At Ranakpur, a guide who knows the carvings. In Jodhpur, someone from the blue lanes.
- No commission showrooms: our guides are paid to guide, not to sell.
- Met and seen off: inside the arrivals hall at Udaipur and at Jodhpur, with domestic flights booked at either end if you connect from Delhi or Mumbai.
- Your planner on WhatsApp: awake when you are, ready to move a dinner, change a room or find a doctor. Meet them on our planners and guides page.
- What changes the price: the season, the hotels and rooms you choose and the private experiences you add. Start on our plan my journey page.
Who will love this journey, and who should choose another
Beyond the Golden Triangle: you have seen it and want the Rajasthan that lies beyond.
Who it suits: couples who prefer small hotels and lakes to big cities, travellers moved by craft and sacred places, walkers, and photographers who like low light on stone.
- No long drives: a real week of India without a single one.
- Families: with children over about eight do very well on it.
- Not for a first and only trip: if you want the Taj Mahal, choose Golden Triangle and Udaipur.
- Not for high dunes: Jodhpur sits at the desert's edge, not in it.
- The full sweep of the state: with Jaipur, a tiger reserve and Jaisalmer's dunes, choose The Royal Rajputana.
- Tigers as much as palaces: read Palaces and Tigers.
Before you go
No leather at Ranakpur: leave it all in the car, including shoes, belts, wallets and watch straps.
Shoes with grip: Kumbhalgarh's ramps, Narlai's steps and Mehrangarh's paths are polished smooth by centuries of feet.
- A warm layer: between November and February, hill mornings are far colder than Udaipur's lakeside.
- Cover up: shoulders and knees for Eklingji, Ranakpur and the shrines inside Kumbhalgarh and Mehrangarh.
- No sweets or money for children: by the road. If you want to help, ask us about the village projects our guests support.
- Learn one greeting: khamma ghani. It works on both sides of the hills.
