Planning a Rajasthan tour
We have been planning private Rajasthan tours from our office in Jaipur since 2005. The tours on this page run from ten to nineteen nights, and the length of your trip decides the route far more than your wish list does. All of them start and finish in Delhi, because that is where long-haul flights land, and all of them come with your own car and driver for the whole journey.
Which route for how many days
Ten nights, the Best of Rajasthan with Agra, is the route we recommend first: Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, then west through Ajmer and Pushkar to Udaipur, over the hills past Kumbhalgarh and the Jain temple at Ranakpur, and on to Jodhpur. Twelve nights adds either Jaisalmer and the Thar Desert, or Varanasi on the Ganges. Fifteen to nineteen nights covers the state properly: the classic loop, the northern desert route through Mandawa, Bikaner and Deshnoke to Jaisalmer, or a forts-and-palaces tour that stays in heritage hotels such as Samode and Devigarh. Our article on 7, 10 or 14 days in Rajasthan compares the lengths with drive times.
The drives, honestly
Rajasthan is big. Jaipur to Udaipur is about 450 km, nine hours with stops at Ajmer and Pushkar, and it is the longest day of most routes. Udaipur to Jodhpur via Kumbhalgarh and Ranakpur is about 300 km and six hours, and it is our favourite driving day in the state: Kumbhalgarh's wall runs for some 36 km over the Aravalli hills, and the fort is one of the six Hill Forts of Rajasthan listed by UNESCO in 2013. Where a flight saves a full day, we use it.
When to go
November to February is the easy answer: clear, dry days and cool nights. October and March work well too. The core zones of the tiger reserves, Ranthambore and Sariska, close from 1 July to 30 September. Our best time to visit Rajasthan guide goes month by month, including the festivals, and the Rajasthan festival calendar lists dates to 2030.
Places guests ask us to add
The Karni Mata temple at Deshnoke, the painted havelis of Mandawa, a camel safari in the Thar and a night or two by the lakes of Udaipur. Tell us what matters to you and we will build it into the route.