Private 9 Days Rajasthan Tour from Jaipur

Nine days, five cities, and the desert at the far end

This is the complete Rajasthan loop: the pink city, the lake city, the blue city, the golden city, and Bikaner, which almost nobody includes. Nine days is what the distances demand — Jaipur to Jaisalmer alone is 560 km.

Jaipur

Amber Fort above Maota Lake, the City Palace, Jantar Mantar's stone instruments and the Hawa Mahal, plus the bazaars where the city's gem cutters and bangle makers still work.

Udaipur

The City Palace running most of a kilometre along Lake Pichola, built up in pieces by twenty-two rulers across four centuries. Jagdish Temple from 1651, and Saheliyon ki Bari, the fountain garden built for a queen's forty-eight attendants.

A boat at sunset is what people describe afterwards — the Lake Palace out in the middle and the Aravallis going dark behind.

Jodhpur

Mehrangarh rises 120 metres straight off the rock and was never taken. The museum inside is the best-run in Rajasthan and the cannonball scars on the second gate are from a Jaipur siege. Below it, Jaswant Thada in marble thin enough to pass light, and the blue lanes around the clock tower.

Jaisalmer

Sonar Quila, the golden fort of 1156 and one of the last living forts on earth — around three thousand people still live inside its walls. The Jain temples within are carved to the point of lace; Patwon ki Haveli is five merchant mansions built side by side.

Then Sam dunes for a camel ride at sunset and a night under the sky.

Bikaner

Junagarh, one of very few Rajasthan forts never built on a hill, and the Karni Mata temple at Deshnoke — where several thousand rats live as sacred residents, and you walk barefoot among them. It is not for everyone and it is unforgettable.

Practical

Private air-conditioned vehicle with a driver for all nine days, and local guides in each city.

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