A first trip to Rajasthan: the route that actually works
Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jaisalmer in ten days — which legs to fly, which to drive, and where the extra night belongs.
Four cities is the limit for ten days
The classic loop is Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Udaipur. It is a good loop and it is longer than it looks on a map: Jodhpur to Jaisalmer alone is around 285 km and a solid five hours, and Jaisalmer to Udaipur is closer to nine.
With ten days, four cities works if you accept two long driving days. With seven, cut Jaisalmer — it is the furthest and the most expensive leg in time. Three cities properly seen beats four seen through a windscreen.
Where the extra nights belong
Two nights in Jaipur is enough for Amber, the city palace and Hawa Mahal without rushing. Two in Jodhpur, because Mehrangarh deserves most of a day and the old city below it deserves the rest.
Udaipur is where people wish they had stayed longer. Give it three. It is the one city on the loop that rewards doing nothing in particular — a morning on the lake, an afternoon in the bazaar behind Jagdish Temple.
Drive the short legs, fly or train the long one
Jaipur to Jodhpur and Jodhpur to Jaisalmer are fine drives with things to stop for — Ranakpur's marble temple sits neatly on the Jodhpur to Udaipur road and is worth the hour.
Jaisalmer to Udaipur is the leg to avoid in a car. Take the overnight train, or fly via Jaipur or Delhi. Nine hours on that road is a day of the trip gone for nothing.
Go between November and February
Rajasthan in May routinely passes 45°C and sightseeing becomes something you do for two hours at either end of the day. November to February is cool, clear and busy; late February and early March is the sweet spot, with warm days, thin crowds and rates below peak.
Book the desert camps at Jaisalmer ahead in December and January. The good ones — the ones actually out at Sam or Khuri rather than parked on the edge of town — fill up.
