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Rajasthan

Rajasthan

All states

North India

Land of kings, forts & golden deserts

Desert forts, lake palaces and painted towns strung out across the Thar.

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Jaipur
Jaipur
Udaipur
Udaipur
Jodhpur
Jodhpur
Jaisalmer
Jaisalmer
Pushkar
Pushkar
Ranthambore
Ranthambore
Bundi
Bundi

What Rajasthan is known for

FortsDesertWildlifeCraftsFestivalsTemples

Rajasthan is the state most first trips to India are built around, and the mistake almost everyone makes is trying to fit in one city too many. Four is plenty for two weeks: Jaipur for the forts, Jodhpur for Mehrangarh, Udaipur for the lake, Jaisalmer for the desert. Adding Bikaner and Pushkar and Mount Abu to that list turns the trip into a series of six-hour drives. If you have ten days, do three. The state divides in a way the map does not show. Everything east of the Aravallis — Jaipur, Bundi, Ranthambore — is greener and closer together. Everything west of Jodhpur is desert, and the distances get serious. Bundi and Bikaner are the two places that reward people who leave the standard circuit. October to March, without exception. April brings forty degrees, May and June bring more, and the forts have no shade. The monsoon is short and the desert briefly turns green, which very few visitors ever see. Trains between the main cities are comfortable and worth booking well ahead; the overnight Delhi-Jaisalmer is a genuine pleasure.

Best time to visit

October to March, when desert days are mild and the nights turn properly cold. Avoid April to June, when Jaisalmer and Bikaner sit above 45°C. Pushkar's camel fair falls in November.

Browse Rajasthan by theme

The same places, sorted the way you might be thinking about the trip.

Hill Stations

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Dilwara Temples (Mount Abu)

Dilwara Temples (Mount Abu)

The Dilwara Temples at Mount Abu are a group of five exquisite Jain temples built between the 11th and 13th centuries, known for marble carving cut so thin that the ceilings pass light — ceilings, …

Mount Abu

Mount Abu

Rajasthan's only hill station, at 1,220 metres on a granite plateau in the Aravallis, and it exists largely because Gujarati and Rajasthani families need somewhere cool in May. Dilwara is the reas…

Spiritual & Pilgrimage

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Ambika Shakti Peeth

Ambika Shakti Peeth

Ambika Shakti Peeth in Bharatpur, Rajasthan is one of the Shakti Peethas, the sacred shrines of the Divine Mother in the Shakta tradition of Hinduism. According to tradition, this is where the **to…

Manibandh (Gayatri Temple)

Manibandh (Gayatri Temple)

Manibandh (Gayatri Temple) in Pushkar, Rajasthan is one of the Shakti Peethas, the sacred shrines of the Divine Mother in the Shakta tradition of Hinduism. According to tradition, this is where the…

Nathdwara (Shrinathji)

Nathdwara (Shrinathji)

Nathdwara, on the banks of the Banas river in Rajasthan, is the principal Pushtimarg pilgrimage town in India, home to the revered Shrinathji Temple. The deity, a form of Krishna as a seven-year-ol…

Pushkar

Pushkar

Pushkar is an ancient, sacred pilgrimage town curled peacefully around the perimeters of the natural, sacred Pushkar Lake. Flanked by the rugged hills of the Aravalli range near Ajmer, it ranks as …

Ranakpur Jain Temple

Ranakpur Jain Temple

The Ranakpur Jain Temple, set in a quiet Aravalli valley, is a 15th-century marble masterpiece dedicated to Adinath, the first Tirthankara. Famed for its forest of 1,444 individually carved marble …

Adventure

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Ranthambore National Park

Ranthambore National Park

Ranthambore National Park is one of the preeminent and largest wildlife conservation sanctuaries in Northern India, known for its thriving population of the endangered Royal Bengal Tiger. It lies i…

Sariska Tiger Reserve

Sariska Tiger Reserve

Sariska, set in the Aravalli hills near Alwar, is a tiger reserve known for its dry forests, ancient temples and the dramatic Kankwari Fort. It made conservation history as the first reserve to suc…

Heritage

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Amber Fort (Amer Fort)

Amber Fort (Amer Fort)

Begun in 1592 on the hill above Maota lake, in pale sandstone and marble, and the Sheesh Mahal is what the queue is for. The fort stands over the town of Amer, eleven kilometres from Jaipur, and Ma…

Bala Quila (Alwar Fort)

Bala Quila (Alwar Fort)

Bala Quila crowns a hilltop over 1,000 feet above Alwar, a sprawling fortification some 5km long and 1.5km wide with fifteen large and fifty-one small towers, and — by one official count — 446 loop…

Bikaner

Bikaner

Bikaner gets a fraction of Jaisalmer's and Jodhpur's visitors and is a better city for it. Nothing here is queued. Junagarh, begun in 1589, is unusual among Rajasthan's forts in standing on flat g…

Bundi

Bundi

Bundi is what Rajasthan looked like before the tour buses found it, and it is an hour off the Jaipur to Udaipur road that most people never take. The palace above the town is only partly open and …

Chittorgarh Fort

Chittorgarh Fort

Chittorgarh Fort is a monumental, historic citadel that stands as the largest fort complex across the Indian subcontinent, spread over a fish-shaped plateau spanning nearly 700 acres, it rises shar…

Gagron Fort

Gagron Fort

Gagron is Rajasthan's great jala-durg — a water fort — standing where the Ahu meets the Kali Sindh, with rivers guarding three of its sides in place of a moat. Seat of the Khichi Chauhans and besie…

Hill Fort Kesroli

Hill Fort Kesroli

Hill Fort Kesroli is one of the oldest fort-hotels in India, a seven-turreted 14th-century structure built by Yaduvanshi kings on dark Hornstone Breccia rock near Alwar. Successive rulers — Nikumbh…

Jaigarh Fort

Jaigarh Fort

Jaigarh Fort sits on Cheelka Teela — the "Hill of Eagles" — 400 metres above Amber Fort, its crimson walls visible from almost anywhere inside the Amber complex it was built to defend. Inside stand…

Weekend Getaways

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Jodhpur

Jodhpur

Mehrangarh is the best fort in India, and if you only climb one in Rajasthan it should be this one. It sits on a cliff a hundred and twenty metres above the city with no gap between rock and wall …

Wildlife & Safari

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Desert National Park

Desert National Park

Desert National Park, spread across the Thar desert near Jaisalmer and Barmer in Rajasthan, is one of India's largest protected areas and the last stronghold of the critically endangered Great Indi…

Keoladeo National Park (Bharatpur)

Keoladeo National Park (Bharatpur)

Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the world's finest bird sanctuaries. A man-made wetland created by a former ruler, it hosts hundreds of re…

Tal Chhapar Sanctuary

Tal Chhapar Sanctuary

Tal Chhapar Sanctuary, in the Churu district of Rajasthan's Shekhawati region, is a flat, saline grassland famed for its graceful blackbuck herds and as one of India's finest hotspots for raptors a…

Discover Rajasthan

Forts on every ridge, lake palaces, and towns painted pink, blue and gold — with the Thar desert running out behind them to the west.

HeritageFoodFestivalsRoad trips

Food

Built for a desert: slow-cooked, ghee-rich, and sweeter than you expect.

Ghewar

Ghewar

A honeycomb disc of fried batter soaked in syrup, sold hardest around Teej and Raksha Bandhan.

Festivals

Dates move each year — check before you book.

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Pushkar Camel Fair

Pushkar Camel Fair

Livestock trading, racing and a huge fairground beside the lake, usually November.

Gangaur

Gangaur

Processions of decorated images through the old cities, usually March, brightest in Jaipur and Udaipur.

Jaisalmer Desert Festival

Jaisalmer Desert Festival

Music, camels and dunes outside the fort, usually February.

Food & cuisine

Signature dishes and local flavours to look for while exploring Rajasthan.

5 dishes

Dal Baati Churma

Dal Baati Churma

Baked wheat balls with lentils and sweet crushed wheat — the signature Rajasthani thali

Laal Maas

Fiery Rajput mutton curry with Mathania red chillies

Pyaaz Kachori

Pyaaz Kachori

Flaky deep-fried pastry stuffed with spiced onions

Ghevar

Ghevar

Disc-shaped honeycomb sweet soaked in syrup

Ker Sangri

Tangy desert-bean and berry curry

Hidden gems

Kumbhalgarh

The world's second-longest fort wall, ringed by wilderness

Shekhawati

Open-air gallery of frescoed havelis in tiny towns

Top cities in Rajasthan

Rajasthan

Bikaner

Bikaner gets a fraction of Jaisalmer's and Jodhpur's visitors and is a better city for it. Nothing here is queued. Junagarh, begun in 1589, is unusual among Rajasthan's forts in standing on flat ground rather than a hill, and it was never taken — which is why the painted interiors survived intact. The lacquer ceilings and the gold-leaf Anup Mahal are the reason to come, and the museum has a First World War biplane in it. Inside the old walls the city is a grid of red Dulmera sandstone havelis, the Rampuria cluster being the best of them and most still lived in. Bhujia was invented here. The Karni Mata temple at Deshnoke, thirty kilometres south, is the one with the rats — you go barefoot or you do not go. October to March. April to June sits well over 40°C.

Rajasthan

Bundi

Bundi is what Rajasthan looked like before the tour buses found it, and it is an hour off the Jaipur to Udaipur road that most people never take. The palace above the town is only partly open and partly falling down, and the Chitrashala inside it holds some of the finest surviving Rajput miniature wall painting anywhere — blue-green, crowded with detail, and you will very likely see it alone. Above the palace, Taragarh fort is overgrown and full of monkeys; go up for the view over the lake and the blue houses, and take a stick for the langurs. Raniji ki Baori is the stepwell to see. Bundi has dozens of them, most neglected, and this one is deep, precise and almost always empty. There is very little here in the way of nightlife, shopping or restaurants, and that is the point. Two nights, on foot. October to March. The town is at its best right after the monsoon when the lake is full — by April it draws down and the setting loses a good deal.

Rajasthan

Jaisalmer

Jaisalmer is built from the same yellow sandstone it stands on, which is why at six in the evening the whole fort looks lit from inside — and why at midday it looks like nothing much at all. Time your first look for the last hour of light. The fort is one of very few in the world still lived in: several thousand people, with shops, homes, temples and plumbing inside the walls. That is what makes it extraordinary and also what is slowly destroying it, because the drainage was never built for modern water use and the bastions are being undermined. Conservationists ask visitors to sleep outside the walls rather than in the fort hotels. It is worth honouring. Patwon ki Haveli is the finest carved stone in the city. The Jain temples inside the fort are quieter and, to my eye, better. For the desert, the choice matters. Sam dunes at sunset is a full circus of camels, jeeps and loudspeakers. Khuri is further out, plainer, and gives you the silence people actually come to the Thar for. November to February. Nights in the desert get genuinely cold — bring more than you think.

Rajasthan

Jaipur

Jaipur repays getting up early more than almost anywhere in Rajasthan, because by ten the coaches have arrived and Amber Fort stops being a fort and becomes a queue. Be at Amber for opening. Walk up rather than taking the elephants — the welfare of those animals is a long-running problem and a jeep does the same job. Inside, the Sheesh Mahal is the room everyone photographs, but the Ganesh Pol above the second courtyard is the better piece of work. Hawa Mahal disappoints people, and it is worth knowing why before you stand in front of it: it is a screen, one room deep, built so the women of the household could watch the street unseen. There is almost nothing behind the facade. The good view is from the rooftop cafés opposite, looking back at it. Jantar Mantar is the one to book a guide for. Without someone to explain them the instruments are handsome shapes; with someone, they are a working observatory and the visit turns into the best hour of your day. For fabric go to Johari Bazaar, for everyday chaos and better prices go to Chandpole. October to March. April onwards the stone gets too hot to touch by mid-morning.

Rajasthan

Jodhpur

Mehrangarh is the best fort in India, and if you only climb one in Rajasthan it should be this one. It sits on a cliff a hundred and twenty metres above the city with no gap between rock and wall — the masonry simply continues the escarpment. The audio guide is one of the few in the country genuinely worth taking. Look for the handprints beside Loha Pol, left by royal widows on their way to the pyre. About the blue: people arrive expecting an entirely blue city and find a mostly ochre one. The blue is real but it is concentrated in the Brahmpuri quarter below the fort's north-east wall, and the way to see it is from the ramparts looking down, or by walking those specific lanes. Anywhere else in Jodhpur you will wonder what you were promised. Toorji ka Jhalra, the restored stepwell in the old city, is where everyone goes at sunset now and it has the cafés to prove it. Rao Jodha desert rock park, just outside the fort gates, has almost nobody in it and is the better hour. October to early March. By May the afternoon heat here is not a discomfort, it is a hazard.

Rajasthan

Udaipur

Udaipur, the 'City of Lakes', sits among the green Aravalli Hills, built around a chain of interconnected lakes created over the centuries for water and defence. The largest, Lake Pichola, is the visual centre of the city, its shores lined with white marble palaces, bathing ghats and lakefront hotels. The grandest is the City Palace, which is really eleven palaces built against each other over four centuries by successive maharanas — which is why the inside is a maze of levels and courtyards rather than a single plan. Udaipur has a noticeably slower pace than Rajasthan's other big cities. In bad drought years Pichola has emptied completely, so if the lake is the reason you are coming, check before you book.

Attractions in Rajasthan

Places across themes — pick a vibe to dive in, or browse them all.

Heritage

24 places in Rajasthan

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Rajasthan

Amber Fort (Amer Fort)

Begun in 1592 on the hill above Maota lake, in pale sandstone and marble, and the Sheesh Mahal is what the queue is for. The fort stands over the town of Amer, eleven kilometres from Jaipur, and Ma…

Rajasthan

Bala Quila (Alwar Fort)

Bala Quila crowns a hilltop over 1,000 feet above Alwar, a sprawling fortification some 5km long and 1.5km wide with fifteen large and fifty-one small towers, and — by one official count — 446 loop…

Rajasthan

Chittorgarh Fort

Chittorgarh Fort is a monumental, historic citadel that stands as the largest fort complex across the Indian subcontinent, spread over a fish-shaped plateau spanning nearly 700 acres, it rises shar…

Rajasthan

Hill Fort Kesroli

Hill Fort Kesroli is one of the oldest fort-hotels in India, a seven-turreted 14th-century structure built by Yaduvanshi kings on dark Hornstone Breccia rock near Alwar. Successive rulers — Nikumbh…

Rajasthan

Jaigarh Fort

Jaigarh Fort sits on Cheelka Teela — the "Hill of Eagles" — 400 metres above Amber Fort, its crimson walls visible from almost anywhere inside the Amber complex it was built to defend. Inside stand…

Rajasthan

Jaisalmer Fort

Built in 1156 by Rawal Jaisal at a crossroads of trade routes that fed into the old silk roads, and the second-oldest fort in Rajasthan. It is one of the very few living forts left anywhere: around…

Rajasthan

Junagarh Fort

Begun in 1589 and never taken, which is why the painted and gold-leaf interiors survive as well as they do. The walls and moat went up between 1589 and 1594 under Karan Chand, prime minister to Rai…

Rajasthan

Khejarla Fort

Khejarla Fort rises directly out of granite boulders near Jodhpur, its red sandstone walls carved with latticework friezes and jharokha balconies in a style typical of Marwar Rathore thikana forts.…

Rajasthan

Khimsar Fort

Khimsar Fort sits on the edge of the Thar Desert between Jodhpur and Bikaner, its heavy bastions and double-layered walls built as a purely military garrison for two centuries before a mid-18th-cen…

Rajasthan

Kumbhalgarh Fort

Kumbhalgarh, a UNESCO-listed Mewar fort in the Aravalli Hills, is famed for its immense perimeter wall, which stretches roughly 36 km and is often called the second-longest continuous wall in the w…

Rajasthan

Lohagarh Fort

Lohagarh — the "Iron Fort" — stands in Bharatpur behind a wide moat and earthen ramparts that proved harder to breach than any masonry wall. Its two main gateways, the eight-metalled Ashtadhatu Gat…

Rajasthan

Mehrangarh Fort

Founded around 1459 by Rao Jodha of the Rathore clan, though most of what stands is seventeenth-century work by his successors — a hundred and twenty metres above the city, spread across twelve hun…

Spiritual & Pilgrimage

7 places in Rajasthan

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Rajasthan

Ajmer Sharif Dargah

Ajmer Sharif is the most revered Sufi shrine in India — the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, the 12th-century saint who founded the Chishti order. Drawing millions of pilgrims of all faiths, esp…

Rajasthan

Ambika Shakti Peeth

Ambika Shakti Peeth in Bharatpur, Rajasthan is one of the Shakti Peethas, the sacred shrines of the Divine Mother in the Shakta tradition of Hinduism. According to tradition, this is where the **to…

Rajasthan

Manibandh (Gayatri Temple)

Manibandh (Gayatri Temple) in Pushkar, Rajasthan is one of the Shakti Peethas, the sacred shrines of the Divine Mother in the Shakta tradition of Hinduism. According to tradition, this is where the…

Rajasthan

Nathdwara (Shrinathji)

Nathdwara, on the banks of the Banas river in Rajasthan, is the principal Pushtimarg pilgrimage town in India, home to the revered Shrinathji Temple. The deity, a form of Krishna as a seven-year-ol…

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