Why we travel this road from water to sand
Instead of finishing in a hotel lobby, you finish with a fire, a Manganiyar singer and a sky so dark you can see the Milky Way from your tent.
We turn the map around: most visitors meet Rajasthan in Jaipur and leave from Udaipur. We start in Udaipur.
Udaipur: the Sisodia Maharanas built a capital among the Aravalli hills in 1559 and spent four centuries damming lakes and floating palaces on them.
- Udaipur founded
- 1559, by the Sisodia Maharanas
- Mehrangarh begun
- 1459, by Rao Jodha
- Jaisalmer founded
- 1156, by Rawal Jaisal
- Marwar's name
- From maru, the desert
- Sam dunes
- About 40 km beyond Jaisalmer
- Up into the hills: to the fortress of Kumbhalgarh, in the hills that protected Mewar.
- Down into Marwar: whose old name comes from maru, the desert, and where so little grew that every well had a name.
- The land changes by the hour: the green folds of the Aravallis give way to thorn scrub, then fields of millet and mustard watered by wells, then open plain where camels outnumber cars.
- Jodhpur on the edge: Jodhpur has a fort grown out of a red cliff and an old city washed blue below.
- Jaisalmer: five hours further west, Jaisalmer rises out of the Thar in yellow sandstone, a fort still lived in by thousands of people, built by Rawal Jaisal of the Bhatis in 1156.
- The end of the road: forty kilometres beyond it, the dunes of Sam.
- Never really apart: caravans carrying opium, spices, silk and salt came from Sindh to Jaisalmer, on to Jodhpur and down through the hills towards Gujarat and the sea.
- The merchants' link: the Jain merchants who built Jaisalmer's carved havelis also paid for the marble temple at Ranakpur.
- Royal marriages: the princes of all three kingdoms married into each other's houses for centuries.
- Following the trade backwards: travelling west, you go from the green court cities into the desert that fed them.
- Kind pacing: the softest, most restful city comes first, when you are tired from the flight, and the wildest landscape last, once you have the rhythm of early mornings and long lunches.
- The hardest drive on day seven: Jodhpur to Jaisalmer, when you are ready for it.
Day by day, at the right hour for each place
- Nights
- Nine, travelling east to west
- Pace
- One short hop to the hills, two longer drives west
- Best months
- October to March
- Good for
- Lakes, forts and desert in one westward line
- Starts
- Udaipur, Maharana Pratap Airport (UDR)
- Ends
- The Sam dunes, then Jaisalmer or Jodhpur
Days 1 to 3: Udaipur and its lakes
Arrival: your driver meets you at Maharana Pratap Airport at Dabok, about 22 kilometres from the city. By the end of your welcome drink you will be looking at Lake Pichola.
An empty first afternoon: on purpose. If you arrived early, take a short walk along the ghats near Gangaur Ghat.
Sunset boat: a private boat in the hour before sunset, drifting past Jag Mandir while the City Palace turns from cream to amber.
- Day two at opening: walk into the City Palace and climb straight to the upper courtyards before the groups. Our guide shows you the peacock mosaics of Mor Chowk.
- Out through Badi Pol: to the Jagdish Temple and the old lanes of silversmiths and miniature painters around it.
- Evening: after lunch and a rest, the Dharohar folk dances in the courtyard of Bagore ki Haveli.
- Day three, the gentler Udaipur: the fountains of Saheliyon ki Bari, the garden of the maidens, then an hour with a miniature painter who still grinds his own colours.
- After a slow lunch: walk the embankment of Fateh Sagar, where Udaipur's families go for roasted corn and the breeze.
- The widest view: the Monsoon Palace an hour before sunset. Our Udaipur itinerary has swaps.
Day 4: Into the hills at Kumbhalgarh
The road north: leave after a late breakfast for about two and a half hours through the Aravallis, past women in red and orange odhnis carrying water and fodder on their heads.
Lunch and rest: at your hotel below the fort.
- The fort: in the late afternoon, walk up through the gates of Kumbhalgarh, built by Rana Kumbha in the fifteenth century and listed by UNESCO in 2013 as one of the Hill Forts of Rajasthan.
- Badal Mahal: climb to the palace of clouds. On a clear evening you can see across the hills to the Marwar plain you reach tomorrow.
- A birthplace and a sacrifice: Maharana Pratap was born here in 1540. Our guide tells how the nurse Panna Dhai saved the infant heir Udai Singh, Pratap's father, by sacrificing her own son.
- After dark: the light and sound show on the lit walls, then bed early.
- The best hour: the first after sunrise, walking a stretch of the wall, which runs about 36 kilometres over the ridges, with the stone still cool and mist in the valleys.
- The night most journeys skip: and the one our guests talk about.
Day 5: Ranakpur, then down to Jodhpur
Down to Ranakpur: after breakfast, about an hour west on a winding road through the Kumbhalgarh sanctuary, arriving as the temple opens to visitors.
The Chaumukha temple: built in the fifteenth century by Dharna Shah, a Jain minister at Rana Kumbha's court. By tradition its 1,444 marble pillars are each carved differently.
- How long: two unhurried hours with a guide, then the small Sun temple by the road.
- No leather inside: we leave belts and bags in the car.
- Out of the hills: after a vegetarian thali lunch in the valley, about three and a half hours to Jodhpur, the land flattening and drying as you go.
- First look at the fort: arrive in the late afternoon for a drink on the terrace, with Mehrangarh glowing on its cliff.
- Every stop described: our journal piece on the road from Udaipur to Jodhpur via Ranakpur.
Day 6: Jodhpur, the fort and the blue city
Mehrangarh at opening: Rao Jodha began the fort in 1459 on a ridge about 122 metres above the plain.
One of the great walks of India: up through its seven gates in the morning quiet, past the handprints of the queens beside Loha Pol.
- The museum: galleries of palanquins, howdahs, paintings and arms, among the best kept in the country.
- Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park: walk its trails on the volcanic rock below the walls.
- The blue lanes: come down through the old city with a guide who lives there, past Brahmin houses washed in indigo and the stepwell of Toorji ka Jhalra.
- Late afternoon: after lunch and a rest, sit at Jaswant Thada, the white marble memorial completed in 1906, as the light turns the fort above it gold.
- Dusk: the clock tower and Sardar Market, with a makhaniya lassi and a pyaaz kachori, then dinner on a terrace facing the floodlit walls.
Day 7: The long road into the Thar
The one long day: about five hours of driving, so we leave after an early breakfast.
The road: west through Marwar's farming villages and past Pokaran, through country where the khejri tree is often the only shade for miles.
- Tea stop: at a roadside dhaba your driver knows.
- Along the way: a Bishnoi village or a potter at work, if you tell us the night before.
- Golden arrival: reach Jaisalmer in the late afternoon as the fort turns from yellow to gold. Go straight to Vyas Chhatri, the cenotaphs on the hill above town, and watch the light leave the walls.
- Dinner: simple and early, because tomorrow starts at dawn.
Day 8: Jaisalmer, the living fort
Sunrise at the lake: Gadisar Lake, with a rowing boat and tea on the ghats as pilgrims come down to the water.
The fort as it wakes: walk up into the fort, Sonar Qila. Thousands of people still live inside its three rings of wall, among schoolchildren, cows and women sweeping doorsteps.
- The Jain temples: during morning worship, when the priests dress the images and the carving glows by lamplight.
- Patwon ki Haveli: after lunch and a long rest, Patwon ki Haveli, begun in 1805 by Guman Chand Patwa, five houses for five sons, its facade carved like lace.
- Salim Singh ki Haveli: Salim Singh ki Haveli, the house of a feared prime minister, swells outwards at the top like the prow of a ship.
- A courtyard supper: ker sangri and bajra roti with Manganiyar musicians, the hereditary singers of the desert.
Day 9: Bada Bagh, Kuldhara and the dunes of Sam
A slower morning: sleep in a little, then drive to Bada Bagh, the royal cenotaphs on a ridge north of town.
Kuldhara: the abandoned village of Kuldhara, whose Paliwal Brahmin families left it empty long ago.
- Midday: lunch at your hotel and rest through the heat.
- To Sam: in the late afternoon, about an hour west. Your camp sits back from the main road and the busy dune where most day visitors gather.
- Sunset on a crest: walk out onto the sand with a camel herder alongside, then back to a fire, a desert dinner and music.
- When the lamps go out: the stars come down to the horizon. We can arrange stargazing with a telescope and someone who knows the sky.
Day 10: Dawn on the dunes, then home
Tea on the dune before sunrise: the sand turns from grey to rose to gold. This cool, silent hour is the one you will remember from the whole journey.
- Flying from Jaisalmer: in the winter season, flights connect it with Delhi and other cities.
- Or Jodhpur: about five hours by road for a flight onward.
- Planned to the real timetable: we plan this leg around the schedule actually running that month.
Where you'll stay along the way
Udaipur, three nights on the lake
The island itself: Taj Lake Palace, the summer palace of Maharana Jagat Singh II, reached only by the hotel's boats.
Space and service: The Oberoi Udaivilas on the western shore, looking back at the City Palace, with gardens and service that anticipates you.
- Beside it: The Leela Palace, with grand lake-view rooms.
- An island of its own: Raffles Udaipur, on Udai Sagar outside the city.
- Inside the palace complex: Shiv Niwas Palace curves around a courtyard pool, and Fateh Prakash Palace holds the Durbar Hall and the Crystal Gallery.
- Compare them all: our guide to luxury hotels in Udaipur.
Kumbhalgarh, one night in the hills
Below the walls: a handful of heritage-style resorts on the slopes, comfortable rather than grand, with gardens, pools and forest views.
- Why we choose them: you can walk to the evening show and be on the wall at sunrise without a long drive in the dark.
- More character: Rawla Narlai, a seventeenth-century hunting lodge beneath a granite hill, within reach of both Kumbhalgarh and Ranakpur.
Jodhpur, two nights below the fort
Umaid Bhawan Palace: Umaid Bhawan Palace, the great Art Deco palace on Chittar Hill, begun in 1929 and finished in 1943. The royal family still lives in one wing.
- RAAS Jodhpur: RAAS Jodhpur is the opposite, a modern hotel in restored old buildings inside the blue city, with the fort rising straight above the pool.
- Ajit Bhawan: Ajit Bhawan, one of Rajasthan's first heritage hotels, warm and family run.
Jaisalmer and Sam, three nights in the desert
Suryagarh: for two Jaisalmer nights we usually choose Suryagarh, a modern fort in the old yellow stone about thirteen kilometres out on the Sam road. Town by day, calm at night.
The Serai: couples sometimes prefer The Serai, SUJAN's tented camp on private desert scrub off the Jodhpur road.
- The last night at Sam: one of the few camps we inspect ourselves each season, set back from the busy dunes.
- What we insist on: proper private bathrooms, fresh food and acoustic music that ends at a civilised hour.
- Why we inspect: names and owners change, so we don't trust a website photo. Our guide to luxury desert camps explains what we look for.
What you see from the car
- Udaipur to Kumbhalgarh
- About 2.5 hours
- Kumbhalgarh to Ranakpur
- About an hour
- Ranakpur to Jodhpur
- About 3.5 hours
- Jodhpur to Jaisalmer
- About 5 hours
- Jaisalmer to Sam
- About an hour
- Jaisalmer to Jodhpur
- About 5 hours, for flights
The Aravallis around Kumbhalgarh
The oldest mountains in India: worn down to rounded ridges of grey and green.
- On the way: terraced fields, mango trees and small shrines smeared with vermilion for Bheru ji, a protector god of the villages.
- The people: mostly farmers and herders, the women's skirts and odhnis dyed in deep reds, yellows and greens.
Godwar, below Ranakpur
Sandier country: as you come out of the hills, the soil turns sandy and the villages spread out.
- The Rabari: herders in white with red turbans, walking their sheep and goats along the verges.
- Marwari horses: with ears that curve inwards until they touch.
- Bishnoi homesteads: blackbuck and chinkara graze close to the houses, because the Bishnois have protected them for more than five centuries.
The true Thar, west of Jodhpur
Fields shrink: to patches of millet around a well, then thin out into low scrub, rocky plain and the first sand.
- The khejri: the desert people call it the kalpavriksha, or wish-fulfilling tree. It gives fodder, firewood, shade and the pods called sangri that end up on your plate.
- Watch for: round thatched huts in the hamlets, painted underground water tanks called tankas, and herds of camels drifting across the road.
How we plan the drives
After breakfast, never in the dark: the long stretches fall in daylight, with a stop roughly every two hours.
- Every leg listed: our guide to road distances and drive times.
- Why road, not air: there is nothing to fly to between Udaipur and Jodhpur except a change of planes in Delhi, and you would miss Kumbhalgarh and Ranakpur. See getting around Rajasthan.
When to go, and what each month brings
October: warm, especially in the desert, but the light is clear and Udaipur's lakes are usually full after the monsoon.
Music at Mehrangarh: the Rajasthan International Folk Festival fills the fort with musicians around the full moon of Sharad Purnima, and the Marwar Festival falls in the same season.
Diwali: in October or November, it lights every palace and haveli with clay lamps.
- Window
- October to March
- Heart of the season
- November to February
- Coldest dune nights
- December and January
- Busiest weeks
- Christmas and New Year
- Camps close
- From April, through the monsoon
- November to February: sunny, pleasant days. Nights are cool in the cities and genuinely cold in the dunes, sometimes close to freezing in December and January.
- Book early for the holidays: Christmas and New Year are the busiest weeks for desert camps and lake hotels, and the best rooms go months ahead.
- February's Desert Festival: Jaisalmer's Desert Festival brings camel races, turban-tying contests and music on the dunes at Sam.
- March: Holi and warmer days. In Udaipur the royal household keeps its own Holika Dahan ceremony at the City Palace.
- Gangaur: in some years the Mewar Festival and Gangaur fall at the end of March, with women carrying images of the goddess Gauri down to the lake.
- April onwards: the desert is hot, often above 40°C by May, and the camps close for the summer.
- Not in the monsoon: from July to September the desert camps are closed. Udaipur in the rains is beautiful, and our Monsoon in Mewar journey is built for it.
- Month by month: our guide to the best time to visit Rajasthan.
Make it yours: shorter, longer and different
With seven nights
Drop Kumbhalgarh: drive from Udaipur to Jodhpur in one day via Ranakpur, about seven hours with the temple stop, and take one night from Udaipur.
- The trade-off: you keep the cities and lose the hills, which is a real loss, but it works.
- A gentler seven nights: our Mewar and Marwar journey stays east of the desert.
With twelve nights or more
A family fort: a night at Rohet Garh, by a lake about 40 kilometres south of Jodhpur, for Marwari horse rides and Bishnoi villages.
For families
What children love: the boats on Pichola, the cannons on Mehrangarh's ramparts, the camels and the fort that is also a town.
- Leopards for the hills: swap the Kumbhalgarh night for two at Jawai, where leopards live among granite hills.
- Space and a pool: Suryagarh in Jaisalmer. Our family journeys page has more.
For couples
The stays: the Lake Palace in Udaipur and The Serai in Jaisalmer.
- A private dune dinner: well away from any camp, with a fire, a cook and a single singer.
- A honeymoon: Honeymoon in Udaipur and Jaisalmer takes the same two cities more slowly.
For repeat visitors
Quieter dunes: replace Sam with Khuri, further south.
- The bustard: a day in the Desert National Park looking for the great Indian bustard.
- Jodhpur beyond the sights: a day with the durrie weavers of Salawas and the Bishnois.
How we look after you on the road
Met at Udaipur airport: and the same private chauffeur stays with you for the whole journey.
The car: comfortable and air-conditioned, with water, a cool box and Wi-Fi.
- Drivers from Rajasthan: most have driven these roads for years. They know where the clean washrooms are, which dhaba makes the best tea, and when to slow down for a herd of goats.
- A local guide in each city: chosen for knowledge and temperament, not for which shops they know.
- No commission shopping: for textiles, silver or miniatures we take you to makers and family shops we trust, and you buy only what you love.
- Your planner on WhatsApp: from the first call to the flight home, able to move a dinner, change a guide or rebook a day if you're tired.
- Flights and trains booked: including the last leg from Jaisalmer or Jodhpur. We check the Jaisalmer flight schedule each season, because it changes.
- No fixed prices: no two journeys are the same, so we quote after one conversation, once we know how you like to travel. Start with Plan my journey.
Who will love this journey, and who won't
Three Rajasthans in one trip: lakes and palaces, a warrior fort city and a desert town.
Landscape lovers: travellers who enjoy landscape as much as monuments, and would rather end with stars than with a city.
- Photographers: the light at Kumbhalgarh at sunrise, Mehrangarh in the morning and the dunes at dawn.
- Second-time visitors: if you have already done Jaipur and Agra, this is a natural next step.
- Not for those who dislike the road: there are four driving days, and one of them is about five hours.
- Set on the Pink City or the Taj: choose Golden Triangle and Udaipur, or our Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur route.
- If you want tigers: this isn't the route. Look at Palaces and Tigers, which pairs Ranthambore and Jawai with Udaipur.
