India › Rajasthan
Rajasthan is the India most travellers picture before they arrive, and it rarely disappoints: sandstone forts on bare hills, lake palaces, turbaned camel herders and a tiger reserve within a day of Jaipur. We host you through all of it, from the airport to the dunes.
Rajasthan covers around 342,000 square kilometres, which makes it India's largest state, and the Aravalli range cuts it diagonally in two. East of the hills you get farmland, lakes and the painted merchant towns of Shekhawati. West of them the Thar Desert runs to the Pakistan border. Mount Abu at 1,220 metres is the only hill station. Distances are long, so almost every visitor flies into Delhi and continues by road or rail.
The Rajput clans who held this land from the eighth century built defensively and spent lavishly. Mewar fought off three famous sieges at Chittorgarh, Marwar raised Mehrangarh on a cliff above Jodhpur, and the Kachhwahas of Amber married into Mughal power and grew enormously rich on it. When the British arrived these were separate princely states, which is exactly why Rajasthan holds more intact working palaces than any other part of India.
For a first trip from London, New York or Frankfurt, Rajasthan gives the clearest return on travel time anywhere in the country. Six of its hill forts carry a joint UNESCO listing, Jaipur's walled city and its Jantar Mantar observatory are inscribed separately, and the Keoladeo wetland near Bharatpur is a fourth listing. Add one tiger drive, one night on the dunes and a festival, and the state stands alone as a full itinerary.
You travel as our guest, not as a booking number. One named person looks after you from the first video call to the drive back to the airport, and explains the meaning behind everything you are looking at.
In Rajasthan that matters most where the crowds are thickest and the customs least familiar.
Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Islamic dates follow lunar calendars, so each year shifts. We confirm every date against the panchang before a departure goes on sale.
| Festival | When | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Pushkar Camel Fair | Oct-Nov (Kartik Purnima, lunar) | Up to 20,000 camels, horses and cattle change hands on the dunes beside Pushkar lake, alongside moustache contests, matka phod races and a mass pilgrim bathing on the full moon. |
| Desert Festival, Jaisalmer | Feb (Magh Purnima, lunar) | Three days of camel polo, turban-tying competitions and Manganiyar folk singing split between the Jaisalmer stadium and the Sam dunes, closing with a full-moon concert. |
| Jaipur Literature Festival | Jan | Five days of authors, translators, historians and musicians at Hotel Clarks Amer. Entry is free, the programme is largely in English, and foreign visitors simply register online. |
| Nagaur Cattle Fair | Jan-Feb | Second only to Pushkar in scale and far less visited. A genuine working market for Nagauri bullocks and Marwari horses, with tug of war, camel races and mirchi bada stalls. |
| Gangaur | Mar-Apr (Chaitra, lunar) | Eighteen days in which women carry painted images of Gauri through the streets, ending with a procession out of Jaipur's City Palace and decorated boats on Lake Pichola in Udaipur. |
| Teej | Jul-Aug (Shravan, lunar) | The monsoon welcome. Green lehengas, garden swings and a royal elephant and palanquin procession through Jaipur's old city, with syrup-soaked ghevar on every sweet counter. |
| Marwar Festival | Oct (Sharad Purnima, lunar) | Jodhpur honours its folk heroes with two nights of music at Mehrangarh and the Umaid Bhawan grounds, plus horse shows, polo and a camel tattoo on the maidan. |
| Holi | Mar (Phalguna Purnima, lunar) | Colour throwing statewide. Bikaner holds the rough and cheerful Dolchi Holi water fight, while several Jaipur hotels run organised, alcohol-controlled parties that suit nervous first-timers. |
Ranked the way a local host would feed you, starting with the dish you should not leave without.
Lakes and the Bharatpur wetland are at their fullest from October to February, which is also when migratory birds arrive. Rajasthan's lakes are not for swimming: they are shallow, silty and often sacred, and monsoon waterfalls near Bundi have slippery rock edges and no railings.
Properties we would put our own guests in. Your package includes the level you choose, and we hold rooms before festival dates.
| Place | What it is |
|---|---|
| Bar Palladio, Jaipur | A blue-and-white Italian bar in the garden of Hotel Narain Niwas Palace, the one place in the state everyone recommends for a drink. |
| Dharohar folk show, Bagore ki Haveli, Udaipur | A nightly hour of Mewari dance in a lakeside haveli courtyard, including the bhavai pot-balancing act. Book in person during the day. |
| Rajasthan International Folk Festival, Jodhpur | Held at Mehrangarh around Sharad Purnima in October, pairing Manganiyar and Langa musicians with visiting international acts. |
| Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur | Charles Correa's arts complex, with theatre, classical concerts and exhibitions. Check the noticeboard rather than the website. |
| Chokhi Dhani, Jaipur | A staged village on the Tonk Road with puppetry, fire dancing, camel rides and a floor-seated thali. Unashamedly touristic and genuinely fun with children. |
| Steam, Rambagh Palace, Jaipur | A bar built into a restored 1930s railway carriage in the palace grounds, good for a cocktail without leaving the hotel. |
| Sunset folk sessions, Sam dunes, Jaisalmer | Manganiyar singers and kalbeliya dancers perform at desert camps after dark, usually around a fire with dinner. |
| Airport or route | Detail |
|---|---|
| Jaipur International (JAI) | The state's main airport, 13 km south-east of the walled city, about 30 minutes by taxi. Non-stop links to Dubai, Sharjah, Muscat and Bangkok but nothing from the West. |
| Delhi (DEL) as your gateway | Non-stop from New York, Newark, Chicago, Washington, San Francisco, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Zurich. Jaipur is 260 km on, five hours by road or a one-hour hop. |
| Connecting via the Gulf | Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad put US and European cities into Dubai, Doha or Abu Dhabi, then straight on to Jaipur, so you skip Delhi entirely. |
| Udaipur Maharana Pratap (UDR) | Dabok, 22 km east of the lakes, 45 minutes in. Frequent domestic flights from Delhi and Mumbai, handy for starting a trip in the south of the state. |
| Jodhpur (JDH) and Jaisalmer (JSA) | Jodhpur sits 5 km from the city with daily Delhi and Mumbai flights. Jaisalmer is seasonal, roughly October to March, and 17 km from the fort. |
| Route or station | Detail |
|---|---|
| Delhi to Jaipur, Vande Bharat Express | The fastest daytime run, about four hours from Delhi Cantonment to Jaipur Junction. Chair car, meals included, and worth booking a fortnight ahead. |
| Palace on Wheels | A week-long luxury circuit out of Delhi taking in Jaipur, Sawai Madhopur, Chittorgarh, Udaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Bharatpur and Agra. Runs September to April. |
| Jaipur Junction (JP) | The hub station, with services to Jodhpur in around five hours, Udaipur overnight, and Sawai Madhopur for Ranthambore in two hours. |
| Delhi to Jodhpur, overnight | Roughly eleven to twelve hours in a two-tier air-conditioned berth. The Mandore and Jodhpur Express services both do it as a sleeper. |
| Jodhpur to Jaisalmer | About five and a half hours across open desert, with an overnight option from Jaipur of roughly twelve hours. Book the upper berth for the view at dawn. |
Come between late October and early March, when days sit at 18-33°C / 64-91°F and the camel fairs, Jaipur Literature Festival and Desert Festival all fall inside the window. Avoid April to June outright, when the desert west passes 45°C / 113°F.
| Months | Season | Day temperature | What to expect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct-Nov | Post-monsoon | 22-33°C / 72-91°F | The best all-round window. Clear skies, dust settled by the rains, warm days and pleasant evenings. Festival season peaks now. |
| Dec-Feb | Winter | 18-26°C / 64-79°F | Comfortable sightseeing days but genuinely cold nights, down to 3-8°C / 37-46°F in Jaisalmer and Bikaner. Pack a fleece and a scarf for dawn safaris. |
| Mar-Jun | Summer | 32-45°C / 90-113°F | Jaisalmer and Bikaner regularly pass 45°C / 113°F in May and June. Forts offer no shade. Not recommended for travellers unused to dry heat. |
| Jul-Sep | Monsoon | 28-36°C / 82-97°F | Light to moderate rain, mostly in the east and south. Humid and green, hotel rates fall sharply, and Udaipur looks its best under cloud. |
Per person, twin sharing, excluding international flights. Hotels, private transport, guides, entries, your trip manager and 24-hour support are included.
You camp two nights at the fairground edge, walk the trading lines at dawn with a camel dealer, then decompress among the frescoed merchant houses of Shekhawati.
From US$3,688 per person
Five bases, four of them in heritage or palace properties, with private guides at Amber, Kumbhalgarh, Mehrangarh and the living fort of Jaisalmer.
From US$6,000 per person
Four game drives in open canters and jeeps across different zones, then two mornings of cycle-rickshaw birding inside UNESCO-listed Keoladeo.
From US$3,000 per person
You sit at the loom with Salawas weavers, visit a camel milk dairy outside Bikaner, and spend one night in a herder's camp beyond the Sam dunes.
From US$3,250 per person
Flower Holi at the Banke Bihari temple, a widows' Holi at a Vrindavan ashram, then the organised colour party and elephant-free procession in Jaipur.
From US$2,812 per person
Cook laal maas with a Rajput shikar cook, learn thali balance in a Marwari home kitchen, and taste Indian wine at the Udaipur end of the trip.
From US$3,375 per person
Add any of these to a tour. A host stays beside you and tells you what is happening and why it is done that way.
You spend a morning at a family printing yard on the Amanishah riverbed, mixing dye and carving your own small teak block. The Chhipa family who host you have printed here for four generations and will post your finished cloth home once it is cured.
During the winter wedding season we place guests with a host family in Jodhpur or Jaipur, with a loaned safa turban and the correct gift envelope. You walk in the groom's procession, eat at the all-night buffet and leave with a dozen new relatives.
A pandit family from Brahma Ghat takes you down before sunrise to float a leaf lamp and tie the red Pushkar thread. They explain what each step means, which parts you may join as a non-Hindu, and where photography is not welcome.
Before the gates open to the public you climb the ramp with a historian who has worked in the fort archive, reading the cannonball scars and the sati handprints at Loha Pol. It ends over coffee on the ramparts above the blue town.
Because no other Indian state packs this much into one trip. You get four UNESCO entries, including six hill forts, Jaipur's planned city and the Bharatpur wetland, plus genuine palace hotels, a tiger reserve, the Thar Desert and the strongest craft traditions in India. Roads are good, English is widely spoken in tourism, and the distances between highlights are drivable.
October to March. Expect daytime highs of 22-33°C / 72-91°F in October and November, cooler 18-26°C / 64-79°F through December to February, with desert nights near 3-8°C / 37-46°F. March warms quickly. Skip April to June, when Jaisalmer and Bikaner pass 45°C / 113°F and sightseeing becomes genuinely unsafe for visitors from temperate climates.
Rajasthan is one of India's more straightforward states for foreign visitors and solo women travel it regularly. Dress modestly, cover shoulders and knees at temples, and avoid empty lanes in old cities after dark. Staring and persistent touts are the usual annoyance rather than real danger. We provide a vetted driver, female guides on request, and a 24-hour local number.
Yes, but it is simple. Citizens of the USA, UK and all EU states apply online for an India e-Visa at least four days before travel, choosing the 30-day, one-year or five-year tourist option. Upload a passport scan and a photograph, pay by card, and carry the printed approval. Rajasthan needs no additional permits anywhere in the state.
Our ground cost runs from about US$2,250 per person for a seven-night Holi trip to US$4,800 for the twelve-night palace circuit, with the Ranthambore and Bharatpur wildlife week at US$2,400. Palace and safari properties are what move the figure: a night at Rambagh or a Ranthambore tented camp costs several times a good mid-range hotel.
Ten to fourteen nights is the honest answer. Seven nights covers Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur at a rush. Ten adds Ranthambore or Pushkar properly. Fourteen lets you reach Jaisalmer and Bikaner without three brutal driving days, and leaves room for a festival. Under a week, pick two cities and travel them slowly instead.
Rajasthan is a largely vegetarian state, so vegetarians eat extremely well: dal baati, gatte ki sabzi, ker sangri and endless thalis. Vegans need to ask, because ghee, curd and paneer are everywhere, but we brief kitchens in advance. Heat is real in laal maas and mirchi vada. Say kam mirchi and any cook will adjust.
The Pushkar Camel Fair in October or November is the one most Western visitors build a trip around, running for about ten days to the Kartik full moon. Jaipur Literature Festival in January is free and almost entirely in English. February brings the Jaisalmer Desert Festival. All Hindu dates follow the lunar calendar, so confirm with us before booking flights.
Fly non-stop to Delhi from New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Frankfurt or Amsterdam, then take a one-hour flight or a four-hour Vande Bharat train to Jaipur. Alternatively route through Dubai, Doha or Abu Dhabi and connect straight into Jaipur, which saves a Delhi night. Udaipur is the better entry if you plan to travel south to north.
Cotton and linen, long sleeves against the sun, and closed shoes for fort ramps that are steep and uneven. Temples need shoulders and knees covered and shoes removed, and the Jain temples at Ranakpur and Dilwara also ask you to leave leather belts and bags outside. Women should carry a scarf. Winter evenings need a proper jacket.
Each has a full guide of its own, with its own food, heritage, hotels, trains and tours.