The hot months, honestly
We won't pretend. Summer in Rajasthan is hard. But the desert has had a thousand years to learn how to live with it, and that knowledge is the reason to come.
April: the season's shoulder. Mornings and evenings are still pleasant, and the crowds have gone. Our Rajasthan in April guide covers it.
May: the heart of the heat, with hot winds and afternoon dust storms. See Rajasthan in May.
Facts to know
- April
- Hot, still pleasant at dawn and dusk
- May
- The hottest month, dust storms common
- June
- Hot and humid until the rains
- Jaipur and Udaipur
- Afternoons often around 40°C
- Jaisalmer and Bikaner
- Often above 45°C
- June: still very hot, and heavier as moisture builds before the monsoon. The rains usually break in late June or early July. See Rajasthan in June.
- The loo: the hot, dry wind that blows across the plains in May and June. Locals cover their heads and close the shutters when it rises.
- Nautapa: the nine days of fiercest heat at the end of May, by old reckoning. Farmers say a good nautapa means a good monsoon.
- Our honest view: we don't recommend summer for a first visit, for small children or for older travellers. For everyone else, it can be a rare, quiet Rajasthan.
Local tip
If you are choosing between April and June, choose April. The first half of the month still feels like the end of the season, not the start of the heat.
How Rajasthan lives with the heat
Look at any old building here and you are looking at a cooling machine. The forts and havelis were built for May, not for December.
Our grandfather used to say the British built for the rain and the Rajputs built for the sun. Thick walls, small windows, deep courtyards and water wherever it could be held. Walk into an old haveli at noon in May and the air is ten degrees kinder than the street. Nothing about it is an accident.
Thick walls: stone and lime walls absorb the day's heat slowly, so the rooms stay cool until evening.
The jaali: carved stone screens break up the glare and speed up the breeze. The 953 small windows of Hawa Mahal draw air through the building.
- The courtyard: every haveli turns inward to a shaded court, where the air settles cool at night. Our piece on what a haveli is explains the plan.
- The stepwell: a baori was a cool place as well as a well, where families sat on the lower steps through the hottest hours. See our stepwells of Rajasthan.
- Water gardens: palace gardens such as Saheliyon ki Bari in Udaipur were built around fountains and channels for exactly this season.
- Khus screens: mats of fragrant vetiver root hung in doorways and wetted, so the hot wind cools as it passes through. Some old houses still use them.
- Clay pots: the matka, an unglazed clay pot, cools drinking water by evaporation. Every home and shop keeps one in the shade.
- Sleeping on the roof: in many houses families still sleep on the roof on summer nights, where the air finally moves.
- White clothes: men wear white cotton and a turban that shades the neck, women an odhni over the head. Copy them and you will feel the difference.
A summer day the Rajasthani way
Every day in the heat has the same shape. Out at dawn, home by eleven, rest until four, out again until dark. The trick is to stop fighting it.
Dawn, the best hours of the year
- Why: summer dawns are soft and hazy, with the stone still cool from the night and the cities busy doing everything before the sun gets high.
- Where: Amber Fort at opening, Mehrangarh while the ramparts are in shadow, or a walk around Fateh Sagar at six.
Eleven to four, the long rest
- What locals do: lunch, then sleep on cool stone floors. Bazaars close after lunch and reopen in the evening.
- What you do: the pool, a long lunch, a massage, a book. Plan nothing outdoors.
Evening, the city wakes again
- Why: as the sun drops, everyone comes out. Bazaars fill, kulfi carts appear and families walk by the lakes.
- Where: a sunset boat in Udaipur, a rooftop in Jaipur's walled city, or the ghats of Pushkar.
Night, dinner under the sky
- Why: after dark the air finally cools a little, and terraces are the only place to be.
- What to ask for: a terrace or rooftop table, with fans if the night is still.
Local tip
Temples and courtyards of marble and sandstone burn bare feet by mid-morning. Visit early, or carry thick socks you can wear once your shoes come off.
Where to go in the heat, and where not to
Not all of Rajasthan is equally hot. A few places reward a summer visit, and a few should simply wait for winter.
Mount Abu, the cool mountain
- Why: Rajasthan's only hill station is several degrees cooler than the plains, with forest around Nakki Lake and the marble of the Dilwara temples.
- The catch: families from Rajasthan and Gujarat come up in thousands in May and June. Go midweek and book early.
Ranthambore, for the tigers
- Why: with water scarce, tigers spend long hours at the lakes and waterholes, and the leafless forest is wide open.
- The catch: very hot drives and busy holiday weeks. The park's core zones close for the monsoon from July.
Udaipur, for the evenings
- Why: afternoons are around 40°C, but evenings by the water are lovely, and a lake palace is a fine place to wait out the heat.
- The catch: after a weak monsoon the lakes can be low.
Jaipur, from a palace pool
- Why: a resort with deep shade and a large pool makes the city work, with Amber and the City Palace at dawn.
- Where: The Oberoi Rajvilas or Rambagh Palace, with their gardens.
Where we would not go
The deep desert: Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Barmer often pass 45°C, many desert camps close and some flights stop for the summer.
- Shekhawati and Kutch: brutally hot, with some smaller haveli hotels reducing their services.
- If you must cross the desert: one night per stop, a hotel with a pool, the fort at first light and the dunes at sunset.
- Pushkar and Ajmer: hot and dusty, with the lake sometimes low. The ghats at sunrise are lovely, but one night is enough.
Why wildlife lovers come in May
In May the forest of Ranthambore is gold and grey. Leaves have fallen, dust hangs in the low sun, and every animal in the park has to come to the water.
Tigers at the water: they lie half submerged in shrinking pools to stay cool, sometimes for hours, and the open forest makes them easier to see.
Fewer leaves: the dry deciduous forest is bare, so sightlines run deep into the trees.
Facts to know
- Best sightings
- April to June
- Drives
- Early morning and late afternoon
- Park closes
- Core zones for the monsoon, from July
- Bring
- Hat, scarf, cold water, a long lens
- Leopards at Jawai: the camps that stay open drive at first light and dusk, when leopards sit on the cooling rocks.
- Lodges: choose one with good cooling and a pool, such as The Oberoi Vanyavilas. Some tented camps, SUJAN Sher Bagh among them, close for the hottest months, so we check dates each year.
- Book ahead: Indian school holidays fill the safari permits and lodges, so two to three months' notice is wise.
- Learn more: our piece on the best time for tigers compares every month.
Cooling drinks and summer food
In summer, every Rajasthani kitchen turns to one question: what will cool the body? The answers are delicious.
Chaach: thin, salted buttermilk with roasted cumin, drunk with every meal. The most cooling thing in Rajasthan.
Aam panna: a drink of boiled raw mango, sugar, salt and cumin, believed to guard against the hot wind.
Bel sharbat: a thick, sweet drink made from the pulp of the wood apple, sold from carts in summer.
- Nimbu pani: fresh lime water, sweet, salted or both. Ask for it without ice if you are unsure of the water.
- Ker and kachri: sharp pickles and chutneys of ker berries and kachri, a small wild desert melon, add bite to a light summer thali. Every family has its own recipe.
- Aam ras: thick mango pulp, eaten with hot puris as a meal in itself. May is the heart of mango season.
- Kulfi: dense frozen milk with cardamom, saffron or pistachio, the taste of a summer night.
- Makhaniya lassi: Jodhpur's thick, sweet lassi with saffron and cardamom. Our piece on lassi in Jaipur has the Jaipur version.
- Light meals: cooks keep summer food simple, with kadhi, raita, lentils and fewer fried dishes. Our food guide explains the dishes.
- Street food care: in the heat, food spoils fast. Eat where it is cooked in front of you and served hot.
Local tip
Watch for the first kairi, raw green mangoes, in the bazaar in April. Our grandmother pickled them the same week, and the whole house smelled of mustard oil.
Festivals of the hot season
Even in the heat, Rajasthan finds a reason to gather. Most summer festivals follow the lunar calendar, so we confirm the dates each year.
Gangaur: in March or April, in the month of Chaitra, women honour the goddess Gauri. Our Gangaur in Jaipur piece has the detail.
Akha Teej: the third day of the bright half of Vaishakh, one of the most auspicious days for weddings. In Bikaner it is the city's birthday, with kites on the rooftops.
Festival calendar
- Gangaur
- Chaitra, March or April
- Akha Teej
- Vaishakh, April or May
- Buddha Purnima
- Full moon of Vaishakh
- Pratap Jayanti
- May or June
- Buddha Purnima on Mount Abu: Rajasthan Tourism has held its Summer Festival beginning on this full moon, with folk dance and boat races on Nakki Lake.
- Maharana Pratap Jayanti: the birth anniversary of Mewar's hero, by the Hindu calendar in May or June, with processions in Udaipur and Kumbhalgarh.
- Wedding season: auspicious dates in April and May bring brass bands and baraats through every town. Expect music late into the night.
Staying well in the heat
This is what we tell our own family. It is general advice from people who live here, not medical advice.
See your doctor first: if you have a heart condition, are pregnant, take regular medication or travel with small children or older relatives. Read official travel-health advice too.
Drink steadily: water through the day, with electrolytes if you are out in the sun. Your driver keeps cold water in the car.
Stay in the shade: between about eleven and four, whatever the itinerary says.
Pack for summer
- Clothes
- Loose cotton and linen, pale colours
- Sun kit
- Wide hat, UV sunglasses, sunscreen
- Scarf
- Two cotton scarves, one to wet
- Water
- Insulated bottle, electrolyte sachets
- Swimwear
- Every afternoon ends at the pool
- Cover up: head, neck and arms in light cotton. A wet scarf around the neck helps a great deal.
- Eat light: freshly cooked food, and no alcohol in the heat of the day.
- Know the signs: headache, dizziness, nausea and heavy sweating can mean heat exhaustion. Get into the shade, drink and tell your guide at once.
- Rest days: build one into every four. Heat tires you more than you notice, and a whole day at the pool keeps a summer trip happy.
- Dust storms: if the sky turns brown in the afternoon, go inside and close the windows. It usually passes within an hour.
- More advice: our health and safety page has the rest.
What summer gives you that winter can't
Come in May and the palaces are almost yours. That is the quiet reward for the heat, and some of our repeat guests now come for nothing else.
Empty courtyards: in the first hour of opening you may have a whole court of Mehrangarh or the City Palace to yourselves.
Gentle rates: most great palace hotels offer their gentlest rates of the year, and a suite out of reach in December may be possible now.
- Time with the staff: hotel teams have time for long conversations, kitchen visits and stories.
- Long evenings: summer evenings are long, and dinner on a terrace at nine is the most social hour of the day.
- Private moments: a sunrise breakfast on an empty fort terrace, or a sunset boat with nobody else on the lake, is easy to arrange in summer.
- Mango season: you arrive in the one season when the bazaars are full of fruit from across India.
- The exceptions: Mount Abu, Udaipur at weekends and Ranthambore's best lodges stay busy with Indian holidaymakers.
- How we quote: we explain rates for your exact dates after one conversation, with no published prices. Our page on the cost of a luxury journey explains what drives them.
Small summer pleasures most visitors miss
Winter visitors never see these. They belong only to the hot months, and to the families who know where to look.
The scent of khus: vetiver sharbat, bright green and sweet, sold in the bazaars, and khus attar, the cooling perfume of summer. Ask a perfume seller in Jaipur's old city.
Night markets: in the hottest weeks, some bazaars do much of their trade after dark. The walled city of Jaipur is at its liveliest at nine at night.
- Rooftop sleepers: at dawn from a fort terrace, look down on the old city and you will see families waking up on their roofs.
- The first storm: in late May or June, the first pre-monsoon storm sends children running into the street and the temperature tumbling in minutes.
- Gulmohar and amaltas: the flame-red gulmohar and the golden showers of amaltas flower along city roads in the heat. They are summer's only colour, and the brightest of the year.
- Water for strangers: look for the pyau, free water stalls set up by families and temples in summer. Giving water in the heat is one of the oldest charities here.
- Palm fans: old men in the bazaar still fan themselves with woven palm-leaf fans. They cost very little, and you will use yours.
Local tip
Stick to your own bottled water, but stop at a pyau with your driver and thank the keeper. Giving water in the heat matters here, and so does noticing it.
A summer week we would plan
Seven nights that keep you out of the worst heat: a palace pool, tigers at the water, a lake and a mountain.
Days 1 and 2: Jaipur
- Arrive in the evening: dinner on the terrace as the heat breaks.
- Next morning: Amber at opening, the City Palace straight after, the pool by eleven.
Days 3 to 5: Ranthambore
- The drive: about three and a half hours, after the morning's sightseeing.
- The safaris: five or six drives over three days, resting through every afternoon.
Days 6 and 7: Udaipur and Mount Abu
- Udaipur: the City Palace at opening and a boat in the last hour of light.
- Mount Abu: about three and a half hours up into the forest, for cool evenings by Nakki Lake and Dilwara early next morning.
Local tip
If the heat worries you, look instead at our Monsoon in Mewar journey. The rains bring cooler air, green hills and the same gentle rates.
Who should come in summer, and who should wait
Summer is a season for people with a reason. If you have one, it can be unforgettable.
Tiger lovers and photographers: some of the best sightings of the year.
Repeat visitors: a quiet Rajasthan with empty monuments and unhurried hotels.
- Indian families heading for the hills: Mount Abu is the classic summer escape.
- Travellers bound by school holidays: it can work, with the right shape to every day and pools at every stop.
- Wait if: it is your first visit, you travel with small children or older relatives, or heat makes you unwell.
- Better months: October to March for the classic season. Our best time to visit guide sets every month side by side.