Why we still love Rajasthan by road
Fly between the capitals and you see the palaces. Drive between them and you see the country that paid for them. Done well, a road journey through Rajasthan never feels like transport. It feels like the story moving from one chapter to the next.
India's largest state: Rajasthan's great cities sit a long way apart.
Separate kingdoms: Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Udaipur were each built where water, stone and trade allowed.
- The land between: wheat and mustard fields, village wells, shepherds walking their flocks to winter grazing, roadside shrines painted orange and hung with red cloth.
- One car, one driver: they stay with you from your first morning to your last.
- He learns you quickly: within a day, how you like the air-conditioning, which music you prefer and whether you want silence after lunch.
- Like a friend: by the end of a fortnight most of our guests talk about him that way.
- Not an accident: we choose drivers for their calm, their judgement on the road and their manners, and work with the same small group year after year.
- No airport, no station: many of the places we love most have neither.
- By road or not at all: Castle Mandawa in Shekhawati, the desert camp at Manvar, the marble temple of Ranakpur, the village forts around Jodhpur.
- Sleep there: a car lets you stay in these places rather than glimpse them on a coach stop.
- The rhythm of the day: the morning belongs to a fort or a bazaar, and the middle of the day to the road, when the light is flat and the monuments crowded anyway.
- Arrive for the light: in the late afternoon, in time for a swim and the golden hour.
How a private chauffeur journey works
- Usual car
- Toyota Innova Crysta or similar
- Most drives
- Three to six hours, with stops
- After a long day
- At least one day without the car
- After dark
- No driving between cities
- Permits
- Tourist permits for state lines
The car
For two: usually a large, high-seated vehicle such as a Toyota Innova Crysta, the workhorse of Indian touring.
Why it works: comfortable on rough village roads, room for luggage behind the seats, and spare parts in any small town.
- Larger families: a bigger van, or two cars so everyone can stretch out.
- A luxury saloon: we can arrange a Mercedes for city days, though on the desert roads we still prefer the higher car.
- In every car: bottled water, tissues, a first-aid kit and a phone charger, and a clean, cool cabin without being asked.
- Tourist permits: touring cars carry the proper permits for crossing state lines, which matters if your journey continues into Agra, Delhi or Gujarat.
The driver
Professionals: our drivers have spent years on Rajasthan's highways.
Languages: Hindi and Rajasthani, and most speak enough English to chat about the road, the crops or the cricket. Some are wonderful storytellers.
- Safety first: we ask them never to race or to drive after dark between cities.
- Not your guide: and he will not take you shopping.
- No showrooms: many visitors have been steered into them by drivers earning a commission. We pay our drivers properly so that never happens.
- If you want to buy: a carpet or a block-printed quilt, we take you to workshops we know, not ones that pay us.
The guides
Separate and licensed: a local guide meets you in each city for the sightseeing.
- Local knowledge: a guide who grew up under Mehrangarh knows Jodhpur in a way no touring escort ever could.
- Matched to you: an art historian for the painted havelis, a naturalist for the desert, a lively storyteller for children.
- At the gate: your driver drops you there and is waiting when you come out.
The length of a day on the road
Most drives: three to six hours, with stops.
The longest days: such as Bikaner to Jaisalmer or Jodhpur to Udaipur by way of Ranakpur, are worth it for what you see on the way. We break them with lunch, a temple or a walk.
- A five-hour drive: becomes a seven-hour day with stops, so we leave after breakfast and the morning's sightseeing, and arrive for tea and the evening light.
- Older travellers: we add more stops and split the longer legs.
- Never back to back: we never plan two long drives in a row, and after any big day you have at least one full day without the car.
- The main legs: our guide to road distances and drive times.
When flights and trains are better
We are not purists: a one-hour flight from Jaipur to Udaipur saves six hours of highway.
- Fast trains: from Delhi to Jaipur, or to Sawai Madhopur for Ranthambore, are pleasant and quick.
- Often a mix: with the car sent ahead empty to meet you at the other end.
- Weighed honestly: in our piece on train versus car in Rajasthan.
Our sample route, day by day
- Nights
- Thirteen nights, fourteen days
- Pace
- Drives of 3 to 6 hours, rest after long legs
- Best months
- October to March
- Good for
- Seeing the country between the palaces
- Starts
- Delhi airport
- Ends
- Udaipur
Day 1: Arrive in Delhi
Sleep first: most international flights land at night, so your driver meets you at the airport and takes you to a calm hotel such as The Imperial or The Oberoi, New Delhi.
- Arriving in daylight: a late-afternoon visit to Humayun's Tomb, when its sandstone turns rose, is the gentlest introduction to the country.
- An extra night: our Delhi guide has more.
Days 2 and 3: Delhi to Mandawa
The drive: five to six hours north-west into Shekhawati, through Haryana's farmland and then the sandier country of Jhunjhunu district.
A break on the way: we often stop at Neemrana, the old fort on the Delhi road.
- Castle Mandawa: you arrive at Castle Mandawa, the 1755 fort of Thakur Nawal Singh, in time for tea on the ramparts.
- The painted havelis: the next morning belongs to the courtyard mansions the Marwari merchant families built and covered in murals.
- Early light: walk Mandawa's lanes with a guide.
- Further afield: twenty minutes to Fatehpur or half an hour to Nawalgarh, for walls that show trains, motor cars and gods side by side.
- How to read them: our page on painted havelis.
Days 4 and 5: Mandawa to Bikaner
The drive: about three and a half to four hours west to Bikaner, the desert city founded by Rao Bika in 1488.
Your hotel: the grand Laxmi Niwas Palace or the playful Narendra Bhawan, for lunch and an unhurried afternoon.
- Junagarh: the next morning inside Junagarh Fort, whose lacquered and gilded rooms are some of the richest in Rajasthan.
- The Rampuria havelis: then walk their red-stone lanes.
- Deshnoke: in the afternoon, thirty kilometres south to the Karni Mata temple, where thousands of rats are fed and protected as the goddess's children.
- Bhujia: finish with a paper cone of the hot, spiced gram-flour snack that made Bikaner famous.
Days 6 and 7: Bikaner to Jaisalmer
The great desert drive: five to six hours across the Thar, the day guests remember. We leave early.
Khichan in winter: we often go by way of Phalodi and stop at the village where thousands of demoiselle cranes come down to be fed each morning between autumn and March.
- The story: our Khichan cranes story tells how the villagers began feeding them.
- The land empties: the khejri trees thin out, and Jaisalmer Fort appears ahead like a sandcastle on its ridge.
- Your stay: Suryagarh on the Sam road, or The Serai in its private scrubland.
- The fort early: Jaisalmer Fort, founded in 1156 and still home to thousands of people, then the carved merchant houses of the town.
- Carry identity documents: the roads west of Jaisalmer lead towards border areas, and checkpoints may ask for them.
- Sunset on the dunes: late in the afternoon. The car waits, and you walk the last stretch onto the sand.
Day 8: Jaisalmer to Manvar
Breaking a long road: much of the road to Jodhpur looks the same, so we stop halfway.
Manvar: about 175 kilometres and three hours east, Manvar Desert Camp sits off the highway in the Shergarh area.
- The afternoon: lunch, rest through the heat, then out by jeep or camel to the dunes and a Bishnoi or Rabari village.
- The night is the reason: a fire, folk singers and more stars than most city people have ever seen.
- The road in detail: our route guide from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer.
Days 9 and 10: Manvar to Jodhpur
A short drive: about 110 kilometres and two hours, arriving before lunch.
Your hotel: RAAS Jodhpur beneath the fort walls, or the Art Deco grandeur of Umaid Bhawan Palace.
- Late afternoon: walk the blue lanes of the old city around the clock tower and Toorji ka Jhalra, the stepwell.
- Mehrangarh at opening: the next morning, while the palace rooms are quiet and the views over the blue houses are clear.
- A day without a drive: rest after lunch. You will be glad of it before tomorrow.
Days 11 to 13: Jodhpur to Udaipur, by way of Ranakpur
The drive: leave early, five to six hours of driving and about seven with stops, through Pali district and into the green folds of the Aravallis.
Ranakpur around midday: the fifteenth-century Jain temple holds 1,444 carved marble pillars, by tradition no two alike.
- At the temple: dress modestly, leave leather in the car and give it at least two hours.
- The drive explained: Udaipur to Jodhpur via Ranakpur. You reach Udaipur by early evening.
- A slow ending: stay on the water at the Taj Lake Palace or at The Oberoi Udaivilas.
- The days: a morning in the City Palace, an afternoon in the old city's lanes and an hour before sunset on a private boat on Lake Pichola.
- The car on call: on the last day only if you want it, for the Monsoon Palace at dusk or the airport the next morning.
Where you'll stay along the road
City palaces: Umaid Bhawan in Jodhpur, Rambagh in Jaipur or the Lake Palace in Udaipur.
Forts and havelis: often still lived in by the families who built them.
Camps: at Manvar or near Jaisalmer.
- City palaces
- The spectacle
- Heritage forts and havelis
- The stories
- Camps
- The desert itself
- Chosen by
- The drive before and after
- Shekhawati: Castle Mandawa is the most comfortable base. Our page on haveli hotels of Shekhawati covers smaller painted houses if you prefer something intimate.
- Bikaner: Laxmi Niwas for grandeur, or Narendra Bhawan for design and wit.
- Jaisalmer: Suryagarh suits families and anyone who wants space, while The Serai suits couples and lovers of silence.
- Manvar: simpler than the palaces but honest and warm, and it puts you in the dunes.
- Jodhpur: RAAS for the old city, Umaid Bhawan for the palace.
- Skip the big cities: Rohet Garh and Khimsar Fort are family forts within reach of Jodhpur, and Rawla Narlai is a lovely stop between Jodhpur and Udaipur.
- Compare the styles: our guides to palace hotels and heritage havelis.
- Your driver's room: he does not stay with you in the hotel. Good hotels keep separate rooms and meals for drivers, and we check these too, because a rested driver is a safe driver.
The best months for a road journey
October to March: warm, dry days, clear light and desert evenings cool enough for a fire.
October: can still be hot in the afternoons.
December and January: cold desert nights and, around Delhi and the northern plains, morning fog that can slow the first and last drives.
- Best
- October to March
- Loveliest
- February and early March
- Fog
- December and January, northern plains
- Hottest
- April to June, past 40 degrees
- Monsoon
- July to September, Mewar green
- When the fog is thick: we simply leave later, after it lifts.
- February and early March: for many of us, the loveliest weeks of the year.
- April to June: severe heat, especially in the Thar, where afternoons pass forty degrees.
- If you come then: very early starts and long rests, fewer moves, more pool time, or the hills of Mount Abu.
- The monsoon: July to September turns Mewar green and fills Udaipur's lakes. Roads stay open, though rain can slow the hill drives, so we build in a little slack.
- Festivals: the Pushkar Camel Fair in the month of Kartik, usually October or November, and the Jaisalmer Desert Festival in February are both easy to fold in.
- Book ahead for them: we book hotels many months in advance.
- Month by month: our best time to visit Rajasthan guide.
Make the road journey yours
A shorter version
Nine or ten nights: drop Shekhawati and Bikaner.
- The shape: fly from Delhi to Jaipur or drive the expressway, then continue by road to Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and back towards Udaipur.
- If the Thar is your interest: our desert triangle journey is a compact loop through Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Bikaner.
A longer version
Three weeks: add Jaipur at the start and Ranthambore for the tigers.
- Slow down in Mewar: with nights at Kumbhalgarh and Deogarh.
- The classic cities with time to spare: our signature Royal Rajputana journey, fifteen nights.
For families
Better than you expect: children manage road days well, provided the drives are short and there is a pool or a camel at the end.
- How we plan: legs under five hours, a second car if needed, and stops with clean washrooms and space to run about.
- More ideas: our page on family journeys.
For couples
Fewer cities: and more nights in small places, a family fort, a desert camp, a lake.
- A swap: a city for a night at Rawla Narlai or Rohet Garh.
- Timing: drives planned so you arrive for sunset rather than dinner.
- The romantic version: our Rajasthan honeymoons.
For repeat visitors
Find the rest of Rajasthan: if you have seen the great cities, the road is how.
- South-east or deep Marwar: head to Bundi and Chittorgarh, or to the village forts of Marwar.
- A good starting point: our offbeat Rajasthan journey.
Small pleasures of the open road
The dhaba: the roadside eatery is an institution on every Indian highway.
What the best serve: hot rotis straight from the tawa, dal with a slick of ghee, and sweet, milky chai brewed with ginger.
Which ones: our drivers know which are clean and which are famous, and will find you one if you want to stop.
- Or not at all: we pack a lunch from the hotel or plan a stop at a heritage property along the way.
- Shekhawati roads: old johras, the walled village ponds, and stepwells half buried in sand.
- Between Bikaner and Jaisalmer: women in bright odhnis, the long head-scarves of the desert, walk to wells with brass pots on their heads.
- In the Aravallis: langur monkeys sit on the road barriers and watch the traffic.
- Near Pali: shepherds moving their camels and sheep to new grazing.
- Stop whenever you like: that freedom is the whole point.
- Photographs: villagers are generally warm and curious, but always ask first, and accept a refusal with a smile.
How we look after you
A private car and driver: for the whole journey, chosen for you and briefed on your tastes before you land.
Local guides: licensed, in each city, matched to your interests, with private visits at the quiet hours.
- Delhi to Mandawa
- 5 to 6 hours
- Mandawa to Bikaner
- 3.5 to 4 hours
- Bikaner to Jaisalmer
- 5 to 6 hours
- Jaisalmer to Manvar
- About 3 hours
- Manvar to Jodhpur
- About 2 hours
- Jodhpur to Udaipur
- 5 to 6 hours, via Ranakpur
- Airports and stations: met in person, with help through the arrivals hall and your luggage handled throughout.
- Flights and fast trains: where they save you a long day, with the car sent ahead to meet you.
- Daylight only: drives planned in daylight, rest days after long legs, and an honest view of road conditions in fog or rain.
- Your planner on WhatsApp: from the first idea to the last morning, speaking to your driver and hotels every day.
- No commission shopping, ever: if you want to buy, we take you to artisans and family shops we trust.
- No prices here: every journey is different. Tell us what you want in one conversation and we send a clear quote. Start with plan my journey.
Who will love it, and who might not
The country, not just the monuments: you will love it if that is what you want to see.
Stopping on a whim: for a village market or a roadside temple.
The slow change: of landscape from farmland to desert to hills.
- Who it suits: couples, families, friends travelling together and solo travellers who want company they can trust.
- Photographers above all: the best light in Rajasthan often falls on the road.
- What it asks: Indian roads are busy and sometimes noisy, and even the best driver cannot make a lorry move faster.
- Carsick or short of time: choose fewer bases and fly between them.
- One moving hotel: if you dream of no packing and unpacking at all, consider our luxury trains of Rajasthan.
- Time above all: our page on helicopter and charter journeys explains what can be done in the air.
