8 Days Rajasthan Tour - Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer & Bikaner

The desert half of Rajasthan

This route skips Udaipur and the lakes and runs west instead — Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Bikaner, which is the Thar and the caravan cities that grew out of it.

It is a drier, harder, more spectacular trip than the standard Rajasthan circuit.

Jaipur

Amber Fort above Maota Lake with the Sheesh Mahal, the City Palace, Jantar Mantar's nineteen stone instruments, and the Hawa Mahal — plus the bazaars, where the gem cutters and lac-bangle makers still work where the 1727 city plan put them.

Jodhpur

Mehrangarh is the fort that changes minds about Indian forts: 120 metres straight off the rock, never taken, and with the best-run museum in the state inside it. The cannonball scars on the second gate are from a Jaipur siege.

Below it, Jaswant Thada in marble thin enough that sunlight comes through, and the blue lanes around the clock tower — the colour was a lime-and-copper wash that kept termites out.

Jaisalmer

Sonar Quila, built in 1156 and one of the last living forts on earth: around three thousand people still live inside the walls in houses their families have held for generations. The yellow sandstone goes honey-coloured at sunset.

The Jain temples within are carved to the point of lace. Patwon ki Haveli is five merchant mansions built side by side in the 1800s, with jali screens that move in the light. Gadisar Lake, a 14th-century reservoir, is best at dawn.

Then Sam dunes for a camel ride at sunset and a night in a desert camp.

Bikaner

Junagarh Fort, unusually built on flat ground rather than a hill and never taken either. The camel breeding farm on the edge of town, and the Karni Mata temple at Deshnoke, where several thousand rats live as sacred residents.

Two options

With three-star or four-star hotels, private vehicle and guides throughout.

Practical

October to March. The desert passes 45°C from April, and December nights out there approach freezing.