Why these six places belong together
Cross from one former kingdom into the next and the stone, the food and the songs all change. The old borders never quite vanished, and that is what this route is built around.
No Rajasthan until the late 1940s: there was Rajputana, a patchwork of princely kingdoms, each with its own dynasty, its own dialect, its own colour of turban and its own version of history.
One name, many kingdoms: the British grouped them under one name. When India became independent, those kingdoms merged in stages into the state we know today, and we still mark Rajasthan Day on 30 March.
- Jaipur
- Kachwahas, planned city laid out in 1727
- Jodhpur
- Rathores of Marwar, Mehrangarh founded 1459
- Jaisalmer
- Bhatis, raised in the Thar in 1156
- Udaipur
- Sisodias of Mewar, founded 1559
- Rajasthan Day
- 30 March
- Jaipur: the capital of the Kachwahas, who ruled from the hill fort of Amer for centuries before Sawai Jai Singh II laid out his planned city on the plain in 1727.
- Jodhpur: home of the Rathores of Marwar, who have ruled from the rock of Mehrangarh since Rao Jodha founded it in 1459.
- Jaisalmer: the Bhati capital, raised on a hill in the Thar by Rawal Jaisal in 1156 and grown rich on the camel caravans.
- Udaipur: the city of the Sisodias of Mewar, founded by Udai Singh II in 1559 after Chittorgarh fell, and the proudest of them all. The longer story is in our guide to the Rajput dynasties.
- Ranthambore tells a different story: Ranthambore was a royal hunting forest around a fortress that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today it is one of the best places in the world to see a wild tiger.
- Why start in Delhi: Delhi is the city of the sultans and the Mughals, whose courts the Rajput kings fought, married into, served and defied for four hundred years.
- It makes the rest make sense: once you have seen the empire the Rajputs lived alongside, every fort and palace on the route reads differently.
- Geography does the rest: the route runs from the green Aravalli plains around Jaipur, through the dry forest of Ranthambore, west across Marwar into the dunes of the Thar, then south into Mewar's lake country, where the hills turn green again.
- Four colours of city: by the end you have crossed the whole state, from pink city to blue city to golden city to the city of lakes, and you finish with three slow nights by the water.
- Our first-visit favourite: we think it is the best possible introduction to Rajasthan, and it is the one most of our families choose for a first visit.
Day by day, at the pace we would travel ourselves
- Nights
- Fifteen nights, sixteen days
- Pace
- Two nights or more in every stop
- Best months
- October to March
- Good for
- First-timers who want all of Rajasthan
- Starts
- Delhi airport
- Ends
- Udaipur airport
Days 1 and 2: Delhi
Arrival: our driver and a member of our team meet you as you come out of arrivals at Indira Gandhi International Airport, however late the flight, and take you straight to your hotel.
Sleep late on day one: if you feel like a walk, Lodhi Garden is where Delhi takes its morning exercise, among fifteenth-century tombs.
- Late afternoon: Humayun's Tomb, the first great garden tomb in India, finished around 1570. Go in the last two hours of light, when the sandstone turns rose.
- Day two, the old city: start early at the Jama Masjid, then walk and cycle-rickshaw through Chandni Chowk and the spice market of Khari Baoli with a guide who eats as he walks.
- Late morning to dusk: the Red Fort in the late morning, a rest in the afternoon, then a drive past India Gate and the lit avenues of Lutyens' Delhi at dusk.
- Or the Qutub instead: if you would rather see the Qutub Minar, we go at opening time. Our Delhi itinerary has other versions.
Days 3 to 5: Jaipur
The road or the rails: leave Delhi after breakfast. The road to Jaipur takes about four to five hours, or a fast train arrives in a little over four.
Lunch on the way: we like to break the drive at Neemrana Fort-Palace. Arrive in the afternoon and keep the evening for your palace hotel's gardens.
Home ground: this is home for us, and our family's guides take over from here.
- First full day: reach Amber Fort as the gates open, while the Sheesh Mahal is still quiet. We walk or drive you up, and we never book elephant rides.
- Then the stepwell: visit the geometric Panna Meena ka Kund nearby, then come down for lunch and a rest.
- Late afternoon: a private tour of the City Palace, including the royal apartments of the Chandra Mahal, where the former ruling family still lives.
- Second full day at sunrise: Hawa Mahal with chai on a rooftop opposite, then into the bazaars as their shutters lift.
- Near midday: the Jantar Mantar, the one hour when its giant sundial is easiest to read. After a long lunch, drive up to Nahargarh for sunset over the city.
- Last morning: spend time with a block-printing family in Bagru, or simply stay by the pool. Our Jaipur itinerary has more ideas.
Days 6 and 7: Ranthambore
The drive: leave Jaipur mid-morning for about three and a half hours south, so you arrive for lunch and an afternoon at the lodge.
Your briefing: your naturalist tells you over dinner which tigers have been seen where.
- The safaris: two nights give you three or four drives, each about three hours, at dawn and in the late afternoon.
- Always a Gypsy: we book the open six-seat jeep rather than the larger canter.
- Between drives: sleep, swim or visit the craft cooperatives of Sawai Madhopur.
- The fort: on the second day, keep the late morning for Ranthambore Fort, which stands above the forest with a temple to the three-eyed Ganesh inside its walls.
- The honest odds: over three or four drives most of our guests see a tiger, but no honest planner can promise one. Read our Ranthambore guide and our journal on the best time for tigers before choosing dates.
Days 8 and 9: Jodhpur
The longest road day: about eight hours, so we leave after the morning safari and an early lunch, or skip the last drive and leave after breakfast. We break the drive near Ajmer or Pushkar.
Softer options: add a night at Pushkar and make it a sixteen-night journey, or let us arrange a charter flight.
- Arrival: you reach Jodhpur in the evening, with Mehrangarh floodlit on its rock above you.
- Mehrangarh at opening: be at Mehrangarh as it opens and give it the whole morning. The Phool Mahal and Sheesh Mahal hold some of the finest rooms in Rajasthan.
- The museum: its collection of palanquins and howdahs is extraordinary.
- Walk down: past Jaswant Thada, the white marble cenotaph, then rest after lunch.
- Evening in the blue lanes: walk Brahmpuri with a local guide to the clock tower market for mirchi bada as the lights come on.
- Alternatives: our things to do in Jodhpur page runs from Bishnoi villages to the stepwell of Toorji ka Jhalra.
Days 10 to 12: Jaisalmer and the desert
The drive west: about five hours, through Marwar's farming villages and past Pokaran, timed to arrive in the late afternoon, when the fort turns gold.
First evening: sit at Vyas Chhatri and watch the walls catch the last light.
- Full day at sunrise: row on Gadisar Lake, then walk up into the living fort, where families still live inside the walls, to see the Jain temples during morning worship.
- The merchant houses: after lunch and a rest, walk to Patwon ki Haveli and Salim Singh ki Haveli, whose stone balconies look as if they were carved from wood.
- Music after dark: we sit you in a courtyard with Manganiyar musicians, hereditary singers of the desert.
- Day three, to the dunes: drive out past the abandoned village of Kuldhara and the cenotaphs of Bada Bagh, reaching camp in the late afternoon for a gentle walk onto the dunes.
- Camp night: dinner is by the fire, and the stars here are the brightest of the journey. How we choose camps is in our guide to luxury desert camps.
Days 13 to 16: Udaipur
The honest transfer: by road Jaisalmer to Udaipur is about nine hours. In winter, when Jaisalmer's seasonal flights run, we usually fly you with a connection, and for some families we arrange a private charter.
The reward: either way, you arrive at the lakes, and the last three nights repay the distance.
- City Palace first: enter the City Palace as it opens and climb straight to the top courtyards for the view over the lake.
- Down through the lanes: walk to the Jagdish Temple and on to Gangaur Ghat.
- Sunset on the water: a private boat on Lake Pichola, past Jag Mandir and the Lake Palace, timed so you are mid-lake as the sun drops behind the hills.
- Second day, loose: the fountains of Saheliyon ki Bari, a miniature painter's studio, then the Monsoon Palace for sunset.
- Third day: drive north to Eklingji and Nathdwara, or do nothing at all by the pool.
- Day sixteen: we take you to Maharana Pratap Airport for your flight home, usually through Delhi or Mumbai.
How the days actually feel
Count the distances: fifteen nights sounds like a lot until you do. Rajasthan is larger than many European countries, and these six stops stretch from the edge of Delhi to the far west of the Thar and back to the southern hills.
Why not ten nights: most companies squeeze this route into ten. We don't, because the cost is paid in hours in the car and sights seen at the wrong time of day.
No single nights: nobody sleeps in one place for one night, so you unpack properly six times, not twelve.
- Delhi to Jaipur
- About 4-5 hours, or a fast train
- Jaipur to Ranthambore
- About 3.5 hours
- Ranthambore to Jodhpur
- About 8 hours, with lunch
- Jodhpur to Jaisalmer
- About 5 hours
- Jaisalmer to Udaipur
- About 9 hours, or fly in season
- Long drives after lunch: or after a late breakfast, never at dawn, because dawn is for Amber, the tigers and the stillness of Pichola.
- A rest every day: in the middle of the day, when the light is flat and the monuments are crowded.
- Empty afternoons: at least one day in every three has nothing fixed in the afternoon at all.
- What you get: Amber before the coaches, Mehrangarh as it opens, the Jaisalmer fort as the sun hits it and Udaipur from the middle of its lake.
- The hours guests remember: time to swim, read and sleep. Our guests say those hours are often what they remember best.
- How we plan each leg: see our guide to getting around Rajasthan and our table of road distances and drive times.
- Two long days, said up front: Ranthambore to Jodhpur is broken with lunch in the Ajmer country. Jaisalmer to Udaipur, in season, usually becomes a flight.
- If either worries you: we have simple ways to soften them, explained under Make it yours.
Where you'll stay
Delhi: a calm first night
Why it matters: after a long flight the hotel matters more than the sights.
- The Imperial: The Imperial on Janpath has been part of New Delhi since the 1930s and is close to the old city.
- The Oberoi: The Oberoi, New Delhi looks over the golf course near Humayun's Tomb, quiet and precise.
- The Leela Palace: The Leela Palace in the diplomatic quarter is the most palatial. Our guide to luxury hotels in Delhi compares them.
Jaipur: a palace in the city
Rambagh Palace: Rambagh Palace began as a garden house in 1835, became the home of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II and Maharani Gayatri Devi, and opened as a hotel in 1957. Still the grandest address in Jaipur.
- The Oberoi Rajvilas: The Oberoi Rajvilas is a walled retreat on the edge of the city, with villas and tents around pools.
- Inside the old walls: Samode Haveli is a nobleman's townhouse with painted rooms, a short walk from Hawa Mahal.
Ranthambore: a lodge on the forest's edge
SUJAN Sher Bagh: SUJAN Sher Bagh is a tented camp with some of the best naturalists in the park and the feel of an old hunting camp.
- The Oberoi Vanyavilas: The Oberoi Vanyavilas has luxury tents in walled gardens and suits families who want every comfort between drives.
- Aman-i-Khas: Aman-i-Khas is a small camp of large white tents, deliberately simple and very calm.
- Check the season: the tented camps keep a shorter season, so we check them against your dates.
Jodhpur: a maharaja's home or a haveli under the fort
Umaid Bhawan Palace: Umaid Bhawan Palace was built between 1929 and 1943. The former royal family still lives in one wing, and the rest has been a hotel since 1971.
- Art Deco rooms: some of the finest in Asia.
- RAAS Jodhpur: RAAS Jodhpur sits right under the walls of Mehrangarh in the old city, with the floodlit fort filling your window at night.
- Ajit Bhawan: Ajit Bhawan is a family-run palace with the feel of staying with an old Jodhpur household.
Jaisalmer: a modern fort, then a camp
We split Jaisalmer in two: two nights near town, then one in the desert.
- Suryagarh: Suryagarh, about thirteen kilometres out on the Sam road, is a fort built in the old Jaisalmer manner in the same yellow stone, with courtyards, a pool and a quiet the town itself lacks.
- The Serai: for the third night, The Serai, SUJAN's camp on about a hundred acres of private desert, has large tented suites and dinners by firelight.
- Dunes rather than scrub: if you want sand dunes outside the tent, we choose a camp near Khuri instead.
Udaipur: water outside the window
Taj Lake Palace: the Taj Lake Palace was built between 1743 and 1746 as a summer palace. It covers almost its whole island and is reached only by the hotel's boats.
- The Oberoi Udaivilas: The Oberoi Udaivilas spreads across the western shore of Pichola, with many rooms opening onto semi-private pools.
- The Leela Palace Udaipur: The Leela Palace Udaipur sits beside it with grand lake-view rooms.
- Inside the City Palace: Shiv Niwas Palace lets you walk the courtyards after the visitors have gone.
If you prefer something smaller
Not a palace every night: we can swap any of these for a family-run heritage house.
- A rural fort: near Jodhpur, Rohet Garh is a favourite. Inside the old cities, we choose a smaller haveli.
- Know the difference: our pages on palace hotels and heritage havelis explain it.
- The right room: we will tell you honestly which rooms in which hotels are worth asking for.
When to go, and what each season trades
October to March: days are warm and dry across the state and nights are cool. In December and January they are cold, close to freezing in the dunes and on early safari drives.
Ranthambore's calendar: the main season runs from October to June, and the core zones close from about the start of July to the end of September.
The desert's calendar: Jaisalmer and the camps are at their best from November to February, and the camps close in the heat. Our guide to the best time to visit Rajasthan goes month by month.
- Best season
- October to March
- Our pick
- February, or late October to mid-November
- Desert camps
- Best November to February
- Ranthambore core
- Closed about July to September
- Hardest months
- April to June
- February: the softest light and the most comfortable days for long drives. The Jaisalmer Desert Festival falls around the full moon of Magh, often in February.
- Late October and November: Diwali, when Jaipur's bazaars are lit end to end. In October the Rajasthan International Folk Festival fills Mehrangarh with music.
- The camel fair: in some years the Pushkar Camel Fair also falls in this window, and a night in Pushkar slots neatly between Ranthambore and Jodhpur.
- December and January: beautiful but busy, especially around Christmas and New Year, when the palace hotels and desert camps book out months ahead.
- January in Jaipur: Makar Sankranti on 14 January, when the whole walled city flies kites from its roofs, and the Jaipur Literature Festival later in the month.
- March: Holi and the first real warmth, which is fine for Udaipur but hot by afternoon in the desert.
- April to June: the tigers are easiest to see at Ranthambore in this heat, but Jaisalmer passes 45°C and the desert camps close.
- July to September: Udaipur is at its loveliest and greenest, but Ranthambore's core is closed. For summer or the rains we suggest Monsoon in Mewar instead.
Make it yours
With less time
Twelve nights: keep the route but take a night from Jaipur, Jaisalmer and Udaipur, accepting more one-day pace.
- Ten nights: drop Ranthambore or the desert rather than rush all six. Look at Rajasthan in ten days or Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur.
- Our honest view: trimming nights from a grand tour usually costs more joy than it saves.
With more time
A night in Pushkar: between Ranthambore and Jodhpur, which also halves the longest drive.
- The wall and the temple: two nights between Jodhpur and Udaipur at Kumbhalgarh and Ranakpur, the great wall and the marble temple.
- A village fort: a night at a village fort in Marwar is another favourite.
- Three weeks: add Agra and the Taj Mahal at the start, as in Rajasthan with the Taj Mahal, or Bikaner and the painted towns of Shekhawati.
For families
What children love: the safaris, the camels and the desert camp. They usually tire of museums before their parents do.
- What we change: a third night at Ranthambore, hotels with big gardens and pools, and shorter drives with stops for lunch.
- What we add: kite flying, puppet shows and cooking. More on our page on travelling with children and in our family journeys.
For couples
Two nights in the dunes: couples often swap the second Jaisalmer night for a second night at camp.
- Udaipur for two: a private dinner on Jag Mandir, and the island Lake Palace for the last three nights.
- If romance is the whole point: look at Rajasthan for Two, which keeps the evenings for the two of you.
How we look after you
We don't publish prices for this journey, because no two versions are alike. After one conversation with your planner, we send you a written plan and a clear quote.
What sets the price: the season, the hotels and rooms you choose and how many nights you add. Our page on what a luxury Rajasthan journey costs explains what drives the numbers.
- One chauffeur, start to finish: a private car for the whole journey, the same driver from Delhi to Udaipur wherever we can, so he learns how you like to travel.
- Local guides in every city: chosen for knowledge and manners, who grew up in the places they show you. We never take you to commission shops.
- Met everywhere: meetings at every airport and station, with help at check-in and with luggage.
- Flights and trains that save time: the fast train to Jaipur, or a flight out of the desert in season, booked and timed by us.
- Safari permits early: permits, naturalists and Gypsy jeeps at Ranthambore are booked as soon as your dates are fixed, since permits sell out.
- Your planner on WhatsApp: for the whole journey, from the first question to the drive to the airport, ready to change a dinner or a whole day.
- Private moments, arranged quietly: a rooftop dinner in Jaipur, a boat at sunset on Pichola, a courtyard concert in Jaisalmer.
Who will love it, and who should choose another journey
First visits done properly: you want the whole of Rajasthan, from its cities to its tigers to its desert.
Lovers of variety and history: told by people who grew up with it, with two days in a place rather than two hours.
Who it works for: couples, friends travelling together, and families with children old enough to enjoy a long trip.
- Not if you have less than two weeks: the route needs the time.
- Not if long drives make you miserable: even with our rules there are two full days on the road.
- Not if you want to rest in one place: this journey moves.
- A shorter first look: take the Golden Triangle and Udaipur.
- If wildlife is your real love: Palaces and Tigers gives the forests more time.
- If you know the classic cities: Mewar Lakes and Temples or Under the Thar Sky go deeper into one region.
