A royal train, and why we add days around it
What it cannot do is linger. That is why we never sell the train on its own. The train shows you Rajasthan's grand stage. The days after show you the countryside behind it.
Into service: the train entered service on 26 January 1982, a joint venture between the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation and Indian Railways.
Its saloons: named after the old princely states of Rajasthan, among them Alwar, Bikaner, Bundi, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Kishangarh, Kota and Udaipur, and decorated in the colours and motifs of each.
- First run
- 26 January 1982
- Run by
- RTDC with Indian Railways
- Saloons
- Named after princely states
- On board
- Dining cars, lounge bar, small spa
- Returned
- 2022, after the pandemic pause
- Dates and fares
- Set by the operator each season
- The pandemic pause: the train paused in those years and returned to service in 2022.
- What it does well: in one week it carries you through eight of the great places of Rajasthan and the Taj Mahal, without packing a single suitcase.
- Sleep in one kingdom: and wake up in another.
- The daily rhythm: each morning a coach takes you to the forts and palaces, and each evening you return to your cabin, a cold drink and the sound of the rails.
- Nothing else like it: for travellers who love trains, or who want the famous names in a single week.
- Fixed and shared: the programme is shared with fellow guests, so you see Udaipur, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur in a day each, at the hour the timetable chooses.
- Before you board: two quiet nights in Delhi, so you are rested when the first early start comes.
- After the train: the Godwar countryside the rails never reach, a seventeenth-century hunting lodge in Narlai and the granite hills of Jawai, where leopards sleep on the rocks above Rabari villages.
- One honest note: the operator sets the train's dates, fares, route and on-board programme each season, and they change from year to year. We confirm everything for your dates before you book.
- Planning for 2026 to 2027: ask us whether the train is running on your dates, because schedules are published by the operator and can shift.
Day by day, before, on and after the train
The train's own programme is set by its operator, and the order and timings below follow the loop as it has run in recent seasons. Your exact on-board days arrive with your booking, and we fit the private days around them.
- Nights
- Thirteen nights, fourteen days
- Pace
- A busy week on the train, slow days around it
- Best months
- October to March
- Train season
- Usually September to April
- Starts
- Delhi airport
- Ends
- Udaipur or Jodhpur airport
Days 1 and 2: Delhi, landing gently
Met inside arrivals: however late your flight lands, and driven to a calm hotel in New Delhi.
The first morning: for sleep, a swim and a walk among the fifteenth-century tombs of Lodhi Garden.
- In the last light: Humayun's Tomb, the garden tomb that taught the Taj Mahal its shape.
- Day two, if you have the energy: Old Delhi at six with a guide, walking and riding a cycle rickshaw through Chandni Chowk before the shutters lift.
- Or keep it soft: the train gives you early starts all week, and two nights of real rest change how much you enjoy it.
- More ideas: our Delhi guide.
Day 3: boarding the train in Delhi
A slow start: a late check-out and a quiet lunch, then your chauffeur takes you to the station with your luggage.
- Spare bags: cabins are compact, so we keep any larger bags you won't need and bring them to you at the end of the week.
- The welcome: guests are usually welcomed aboard in the evening with garlands and music.
- Departure: the train pulls out of Delhi towards Rajasthan after dark, and dinner is your first meal in the dining car.
Days 4 to 6: Jaipur, Ranthambore, Chittorgarh and Udaipur
Jaipur: the first morning on board, with Amber Fort on its ridge, the City Palace, Hawa Mahal and the bazaars of the walled city.
Sawai Madhopur: the station for Ranthambore, where a dawn safari into the tiger reserve is usually offered.
- Chittorgarh: in the afternoon, the old capital of Mewar, with its towers of victory and fame on a great plateau.
- Udaipur: the lake city of the Sisodias, with the City Palace above Lake Pichola and usually a boat on the water.
- The stop guests wish was longer: and that wish is exactly why we bring you back to this part of Rajasthan after the train.
Days 7 and 8: Jaisalmer and Jodhpur
Into the Thar overnight: you wake in Jaisalmer, the golden fort city of the Bhati Rajputs, where thousands of people still live inside the walls.
- What to expect: the fort, the carved merchant havelis and, in most seasons, an evening on the dunes outside town.
- Jodhpur: the next morning, with Mehrangarh rising straight from its cliff above the blue houses of the old city.
- A free hour: use it for the clock tower market and a hot mirchi bada, the stuffed chilli fritter of Marwar.
Days 9 and 10: Bharatpur, Agra and back to Delhi
Bharatpur: the train swings east, and the Keoladeo bird sanctuary is often on the morning programme.
- Back to Delhi: early the next morning, and the rails part of your journey ends.
- On the platform: we meet you with your stored luggage and take you straight to the airport for a short flight to Udaipur.
- Into the hills: your chauffeur drives you north, about two and a half hours, to Narlai.
- Arrive late afternoon: take a long bath and sleep in a room with thick walls and no timetable.
Day 11: Narlai and the temple at Ranakpur
Before sunrise: if you like a climb, more than seven hundred steps lead up the granite hill to the white elephant on its summit and a view over the whole of Godwar.
Ranakpur at opening: drive less than an hour to Ranakpur, arriving as the great Jain temple opens to visitors.
- Two unhurried hours: among its 1,444 carved marble pillars with a guide.
- The afternoon: rest at the rawla, then walk the village as the heat fades.
- The stepwell dinner: if the weather and the hotel's calendar allow, dinner is at the bottom of an old stepwell lit by hundreds of oil lamps, with folk musicians on the landings.
Days 12 and 13: Jawai, the leopard hills
About an hour away: Jawai's leopards live in caves among granite hills shared with villages and Rabari herders.
When to see them: often resting on the rocks at dawn and dusk.
- Four drives: two mornings and two evenings with the camp's naturalists.
- The hot middle of the day: by the pool or in the shade of your tent.
- Between drives: walk with a Rabari herder at the edge of the fields, and in winter watch the bar-headed geese and cranes on the reservoir.
- Dinner among the rocks: under more stars than you have seen all week.
- Visiting respectfully: our page on the Rabari herders of Jawai explains how.
Day 14: home, by way of Udaipur or Jodhpur
A last dawn drive: and breakfast.
- To the airport: about three hours to Udaipur or Jodhpur, for a domestic flight to Delhi or Mumbai and your connection home.
- Flying the next day: we suggest a final night by the lake in Udaipur.
Life on board the Palace on Wheels
Each saloon: carries the name of a former princely state and a small number of double cabins, with its own attendant, often called a khidmatgar, the old word for a personal retainer.
The cabins: comfortable but compact, with private bathrooms. You will spend little time in them except to sleep.
Social life: most of it happens in the dining cars and the lounge bar, where you meet fellow guests over Rajasthani, Indian and continental dishes.
- Attendant
- A khidmatgar for each saloon
- Cabins
- Compact doubles, private bathrooms
- Meals
- Rajasthani, Indian and continental
- Rhythm
- Travel by night, sightsee by day
- Dress
- Relaxed by day, smarter at dinner
- By night: the train travels and arrives at a new city by morning.
- By day: after breakfast, guests leave by coach with a guide, often with lunch at a palace hotel, and return to the train in the late afternoon.
- Who it suits: a full, sociable programme for travellers who enjoy company and like having everything arranged.
- Early, busy days: which is why the two rest nights in Delhi matter.
- Shared sightseeing: you see each place at the train's hour rather than your own.
- Light sleepers: trains move and sway, which some notice on the first night.
- Pack: a warm layer for desert mornings and air-conditioned coaches, and soft shoes you can slip off at temples.
- Skip one morning: say yes to the programme in the places you care about most. A slow breakfast on board in a quiet siding can be the loveliest hour of the trip.
- Keep a notebook by the window: the mustard fields, the camel carts at level crossings and the women in red odhnis walking to the well are half of what the train shows you.
- Read before you decide: our luxury trains guide compares the Palace on Wheels with the Maharajas' Express, and our journal piece weighing train against car looks honestly at each.
Where you'll stay before and after the train
Delhi: a refuge before boarding
The Imperial: on Janpath, from the 1930s when New Delhi was being built, and central for Old Delhi.
- The Oberoi, New Delhi: overlooks the green of the Delhi Golf Club, close to Humayun's Tomb and Lodhi Garden.
- The Leela Palace, New Delhi: the most palatial, in the calm of the diplomatic quarter.
- Boarding day: we ask for a late check-out so you can rest until the car comes.
Narlai: a hunting lodge in a village
Rawla Narlai: a seventeenth-century hunting lodge of the Jodhpur royal family, restored as a heritage hotel in 1996 by the family that also runs Ajit Bhawan in Jodhpur.
- The house: whitewashed courtyards, frescoed rooms in the old building, garden rooms and tents behind, Marwari horses and the granite hill rising behind the terrace.
- Who we send: guests who tell us they want to sleep in a village, not a city.
Jawai: a camp among the granite
SUJAN JAWAI: the best known luxury camp in Jawai, a cluster of tents among the granite.
- Why we choose it: an excellent team of naturalists, a strong commitment to the local community and a firm line on ethical safaris.
- The alternatives: our guide to luxury hotels in Jawai compares the smaller camps and lodges around the reservoir. Standards vary widely, and we book only places we know.
If you'd rather stay in a palace
- Udaipur slowly: swap the Narlai nights for two at a lake hotel such as The Oberoi Udaivilas, and see the city properly after your one day there on the train.
- Or end in Marwar: at Rohet Garh, a family fort by a lake south of Jodhpur known for its Marwari horses.
When to go
The train's season: it usually runs from about September to April and rests through the summer heat and the monsoon, when Rajasthan is too hot for days of sightseeing.
October to March: the heart of the season for the whole journey, with warm, bright days and cool nights.
- Train runs
- Usually September to April
- Heart of season
- October to March
- Coldest
- December and January
- Delhi
- Smog in November and December
- Jawai birds
- November to February
- Pack a jacket: in December and January, desert mornings in Jaisalmer and dawn drives in Jawai are cold.
- Delhi's air: heavy smog can come in November and December and morning fog in December and January, so we keep the Delhi days flexible.
- Jawai: at its best from October to March, with birds crowding the reservoir from November to February.
- The edges of the season: September and April departures are warmer and quieter, for travellers who will trade heat for fewer people.
- Month by month: our guide to the best time to visit Rajasthan.
October and November
After the rains: clear skies and green fields.
- Diwali: the lake cities glitter with lamps.
- The camel fair: the Pushkar Camel Fair falls in the month of Kartik, usually in this window, and makes a fine add-on on the way south.
December and January
- The coolest weeks: crisp mornings, the best light for photographs and the busiest hotels.
- Kites: Jaipur flies them on Makar Sankranti, on 14 January, though the train may not be in the city that day.
February and March
The sweetest months for us: warm afternoons and mustard in the fields.
- Desert festival: the Jaisalmer Desert Festival in February.
- Holi: in February or March, and we can arrange a private celebration at Narlai.
Make it yours
Shorter: the train and three nights
- The shape: one night in Delhi before boarding, the seven nights on board, and two nights at Narlai or Jawai afterwards.
- What you keep: the contrast between the grand cities and the quiet hills, in ten nights.
Longer: the cities the train only glimpses
- Udaipur properly: add two nights at a lake hotel after Jawai, which is about three hours away, for the City Palace at opening time and Pichola from a private boat at sunset.
- Kumbhalgarh at dawn: or add a night below Kumbhalgarh for its great wall, as in our Mewar and Marwar journey.
For couples
On board: choose the best cabin category available on your dates.
- Afterwards: the most private rooms we can find, a heritage room at Narlai, the stepwell dinner for two and a tent at Jawai with nothing outside but rock and sky.
- More: our Rajasthan honeymoons page.
For train lovers
- Another luxury train: compare the Maharajas' Express and beyond, which runs several different routes.
- Ordinary fast trains: our page on trains in Rajasthan explains how we use them on private journeys too.
For families
Older children: often love the train, the attendants and the sense of adventure.
- Younger ones: may find the long coach days hard.
- Ask us first: we will tell you honestly whether the train or a private journey suits your family better. Our family journeys page explains the alternatives.
How we look after you
The train booking: we handle it with you, check the departure dates and cabin categories for your season, and fit the private days around them.
Delhi: we meet you inside the arrivals hall and drive you to and from the station.
Your bags: we keep any luggage you don't need on board until the train returns. When it does, we are on the platform.
- Udaipur to Narlai
- About 2.5 hours
- Narlai to Ranakpur
- Under an hour
- Narlai to Jawai
- About an hour
- Jawai to Udaipur
- About 3 hours
- Jawai to Jodhpur
- About 3 hours
- After the train: a private chauffeur, the domestic flight to Udaipur booked and timed, and local guides at Ranakpur and in the Godwar villages who grew up there.
- Guides who don't sell: ours are paid to guide, and we never take you to commission showrooms.
- At Jawai: naturalists who follow strict rules about distance and noise around the leopards.
- Your planner on WhatsApp: throughout, including on the train, ready to rebook a flight, change a dinner or solve a problem. Meet the team on our planners and guides page.
- No published prices: the train's fares are set by its operator each season, and your hotels and experiences change the rest.
- One full quote: after one conversation, with the train confirmed for your dates. Start on our plan my journey page.
Who will love this journey, and who should choose another
You've dreamed of the train for years: you will love it.
Good company at dinner: if you enjoy a shared table, it suits couples, friends travelling together and solo travellers alike.
The famous cities in one week: without packing and unpacking.
- Then the opposite: the private days give you silence, space and a Rajasthan of villages and wildlife that the train cannot show you.
- Less right if: you dislike fixed programmes, early starts or group sightseeing, want each palace at its quiet hour, or are a light sleeper.
- The private alternative: a journey with a chauffeur gives you the same cities at your own pace. Our Royal Rajputana covers similar ground over fifteen unhurried nights.
- The detail: our journal review of the Palace on Wheels.
- Pack light for the train: cabins are compact, and we keep your larger bags until you return.
- Tips: carry small notes for tips at sights and for the crew at the end of the week, following the operator's guidance.
- Valuables: keep them in your cabin safe or on you, and lock the cabin when you leave it.
- At Jawai: wear muted colours and keep voices low on drives. The leopards notice.
