Jaisalmer Desert Safari — 3 Days from Jodhpur with a Night in the Dunes
A short desert escape from Jodhpur: the golden fort of Jaisalmer, a camel ride across the dunes at sunset and a night…
Private Rajasthan tours with your own car and driver. Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jaisalmer, honest driving times, and routes for four days to two weeks.
A Rajasthan tour by private car is the best way to see India’s land of forts and palaces. Rajasthan is the India people picture — fort walls above painted cities, camel caravans in the Thar, marble palaces sitting on lakes. It is also the state where having your own car matters most, because the distances between the good places are long and the roads between them are the point.
We run every Rajasthan route privately, with your own vehicle and driver for the whole circuit.
We run 19 Rajasthan routes, from a three-day desert escape to an 18-day grand circuit, every one of them private, with your own car and the same driver throughout. Prices are for the whole car, not per person, and every route can be changed to suit you.
| Tour | Days | Route | From (whole car) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short trips: 3 to 6 days | |||
| Jaisalmer Desert Safari from Jodhpur | 3 | Jodhpur – Jaisalmer – desert camp – Jodhpur | $267 |
| Jaipur and Ranthambore Tiger Safari | 4 | Delhi – Jaipur – Ranthambore – Delhi | $356 |
| Southern Rajasthan from Udaipur | 5 | Udaipur – Kumbhalgarh – Ranakpur – Mount Abu – Udaipur | $445 |
| Rajasthan Tour 6 Days | 6 | Jaipur – Pushkar – Ranthambore | $534 |
| Jodhpur and Jaisalmer Desert Tour | 6 | Jodhpur – Jaisalmer – the Thar Desert | $534 |
| Pushkar Camel Fair Tour 2026 | 6 | Delhi – Jaipur – Pushkar fair (17–24 Nov 2026) | $534 |
| Classic routes: 7 to 11 days | |||
| Rajasthan Tour 7 Days: Shekhawati and Bikaner | 7 | Delhi – Mandawa – Bikaner – Pushkar – Jaipur – Delhi | $623 |
| Golden Triangle with Ranthambore | 7 | Delhi – Agra – Ranthambore – Jaipur | $623 |
| Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur | 8 | Jaipur – Pushkar – Jodhpur – Ranakpur – Udaipur | $712 |
| Golden Triangle with Udaipur | 8 | Delhi – Agra – Jaipur – Chittorgarh – Udaipur | $712 |
| Golden Triangle with Ranthambore Tiger Safari | 8 | Delhi – Agra – Ranthambore – Jaipur | $712 |
| Rajasthan Tour 10 Days: to the Thar Desert | 10 | Jaipur – Pushkar – Jodhpur – Jaisalmer – Bikaner – Mandawa | $890 |
| Golden Triangle with Jodhpur and Udaipur | 11 | Delhi – Agra – Jaipur – Pushkar – Jodhpur – Udaipur | $979 |
| Grand tours: 12 to 18 days | |||
| Rajasthan Grand Circuit | 12 | Six cities across Rajasthan | $1,068 |
| Rajasthan and the Taj Mahal | 14 | Shekhawati – Bikaner – Jaisalmer – Jodhpur – Udaipur – Pushkar – Jaipur – Agra | $1,246 |
| Rajasthan Royal Odyssey | 18 | Palaces, forts and deserts, the complete circuit | $1,602 |
| Special interest | |||
| Rajasthan Wildlife Tour | 8 | Bharatpur birds – Ranthambore tigers – Jaipur leopards | $712 |
| Hidden Rajasthan | 10 | Bundi – Chittorgarh – Udaipur – Kumbhalgarh – Ranakpur – Jodhpur | $890 |
| Luxury Rajasthan Palace Tour | 10 | Jaipur – Ranthambore – Udaipur – Jodhpur, palace hotels | $890 |
Prices cover the vehicle and driver for the whole journey: fuel, tolls, state taxes, parking and the driver’s own meals and room. Hotels, meals, monument tickets and safari permits are separate and booked at cost if you wish.
A short desert escape from Jodhpur: the golden fort of Jaisalmer, a camel ride across the dunes at sunset and a night…
A short break from Delhi that pairs the Pink City with the best chance of seeing a wild tiger in India: two…
A five-day loop from Udaipur into the Aravalli hills: the lake city, the great walls of Kumbhalgarh, the marble temple at Ranakpur…
Two full days at one of the great festivals of India, the Pushkar Camel Fair, with Jaipur on the way. Timed for…
Six days into the Thar Desert — Mehrangarh Fort, the golden sandstone of Jaisalmer, and a night out on the dunes at…
Six unhurried days from Delhi — two nights in Jaipur, the lake town of Pushkar and two safaris at Ranthambore, with your…
A week-long Rajasthan loop from Delhi that skips the obvious first: the painted mansions of Shekhawati, the desert city of Bikaner, holy…
Delhi, Agra and Jaipur with three days added for Ranthambore National Park — India's best-known tiger reserve — all by private car.
Rajasthan for nature lovers: the wetlands of Bharatpur, tiger safaris in Ranthambore and the leopards that live inside the city limits of…
The classic Golden Triangle with the lakes and palaces of Udaipur added on, driven in your own car with one driver from…
The three great cities of Rajasthan in eight days — the Pink City, the Blue City and the lake city of Udaipur…
Delhi, Agra and Jaipur by private car, with two days at Ranthambore National Park for the tigers.
Rajasthan at its most elegant: palace hotels in Jaipur, Udaipur and Jodhpur and a jungle lodge in Ranthambore, with your own driver…
Rajasthan for travellers who want fewer crowds: the stepwells and murals of Bundi, the vast fort of Chittorgarh, the walls of Kumbhalgarh…
Ten days in a full loop from Delhi to the edge of the Thar Desert: Jaipur, Pushkar, Jodhpur, a night under the…
The most complete first trip to north India: the Taj Mahal, the Pink City, holy Pushkar, the blue city of Jodhpur and…
Twelve days and roughly 2,200 kilometres through Rajasthan — Jaipur, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Ranakpur, Udaipur and Pushkar, all by private car.
Two weeks, one loop from Delhi, nothing driven twice: the desert, the forts, the lakes and the Taj Mahal, with the same…
Eighteen days through Rajasthan — Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, then Pushkar, the living fort at Jaisalmer, the dunes at Sam and the…
Amber Fort, the City Palace, Jantar Mantar and the Hawa Mahal, plus bazaars around Johari and Bapu that have not been prettified for visitors. Usually the entry point from Delhi. Two days.
Mehrangarh Fort is the best preserved in the state and the old town beneath it is genuinely blue rather than a marketing line. Two days.
White palaces on Lake Pichola and the gentlest pace in Rajasthan. Most people plan two days and wish they had three.
Golden sandstone deep in the Thar, with people still living inside the fort walls. Camel safari and a night in the dunes are the reason to make the long drive out. Two days.
Pushkar for the lake, the ghats and the camel fair in November. Bikaner for Junagarh Fort and the camel breeding farm. One day each if the route allows.
Three to five days. A taste of Rajasthan: the Jaisalmer desert safari from Jodhpur, Jaipur with a Ranthambore tiger safari, or the hills around Udaipur. Short but real if you are adding Rajasthan to a Golden Triangle tour.
One week. Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur in eight days, or the quieter northern loop through Shekhawati and Bikaner.
Ten days. The desert loop to Jaisalmer and back, or the Golden Triangle with Jodhpur and Udaipur if you also want the Taj Mahal.
Two weeks or more. The full circuit: Rajasthan and the Taj Mahal in 14 days, or the Royal Rajasthan Odyssey in 18.
These are real times on Rajasthan roads, not optimistic ones. We build them into the plan rather than letting you discover them.
Rajasthan has one good season and it is almost certainly the one you are looking at. It runs from October 2026 to March 2027, and the months inside it are not the same as each other.
October 2026. The monsoon has just left. The desert still has some green in it, the crowds have not arrived and hotel rates are the lowest they will be all season. Afternoons are still hot. The Marwar Festival in Jodhpur falls on 24 and 25 October 2026, with folk music below Mehrangarh.
November 2026. The best month, and the busiest one. Warm days, genuinely cold desert nights. The Pushkar Camel Fair runs 17 to 24 November 2026, ending on Kartik Purnima. If you want to be there, tell us early — Pushkar has very few rooms and they go months ahead.
December 2026 and January 2027. Cold, and colder than most people expect. Nights near freezing in the dunes at Jaisalmer and Bikaner, and Delhi fog through late December and January can push a morning departure back by hours. Pack more than you think you need. The days themselves are clear and perfect for forts.
February 2027. The cold has broken, the light is good and the crowds have thinned. The Jaisalmer Desert Festival runs 18 to 20 February 2027, out at the Sam dunes, and the Nagaur cattle fair 12 to 15 February — the second largest in India and almost untouched by foreign visitors.
March 2027. Still comfortable, warming quickly, and quiet. By the end of the month the Thar is heading back towards 40 degrees.
April to June 2027. The Thar regularly passes 45 degrees. We will drive it if you ask us to, but we will also tell you plainly that you will not enjoy the forts.
July to September 2027. A short monsoon. Rajasthan gets far less rain than the rest of India, the desert turns green and prices fall. An unusual trip rather than a bad one.
Book the November and February weeks early. The rest of the season we can usually arrange at short notice, because the car is our own and we are not waiting on anyone else to release it.
Before your Rajasthan tour, check festival dates and monument timings on the official Rajasthan Tourism website, and apply for your Indian e-Visa only on the official Indian e-Visa website.
Your private vehicle and driver for the whole circuit, fuel, tolls, interstate taxes, parking and permits. Hotels, meals, monument entry and guides are not included — Rajasthan has some of the best heritage hotels in India and travellers have strong opinions about them, which is exactly why we do not choose for you. We will book them at cost if you prefer.
Tell us which cities and how many days. We will tell you honestly whether the driving works, and what it costs.
Seven for three cities, ten to fourteen for the full circuit including Jaisalmer. Four to five days works if you are adding it to the Golden Triangle.
By car. Trains connect the main cities well, but the desert forts, the stepwells and the villages between them are much easier with your own vehicle, and you keep your luggage with you.
November to February. December and January are coldest at night in the desert, which is part of the appeal.
With ten days or more, yes. On a one-week trip it costs too much of the trip in transit.
Yes, and most people do. Delhi, Agra and Jaipur form the Golden Triangle, and Rajasthan continues naturally from Jaipur. See our India tours.
Our own guides to each stop on these routes: what to see, how long to stay, where to sleep and the best time to go.
Tell us your dream trip and our family team replies with a fixed price, usually within 24 hours. A detailed day-by-day itinerary costs €100, deducted in full from your tour price.