Golden Triangle with Jaisalmer Desert Safari – 12 Days

A Payless Tours India representative will meet you at the arrivals exit of Indira Gandhi International Airport, holding a placard with your name, and accompany you to your private air-conditioned car. The drive to a central Delhi hotel takes roughly an hour. After the long flight, most travellers like to settle in and sleep for a few hours, so nothing is scheduled until the late afternoon. Your representative will go through the twelve-day plan with you, hand over contact numbers for your driver and the local office, and answer practical questions about currency exchange, SIM cards and the weather you can expect in the desert later in the trip.

Around 4 pm your driver takes you to Lodhi Garden, a 90-acre park where the people of South Delhi come to walk, jog and play cricket. Scattered across the lawns are the tombs of the Sayyid and Lodi dynasties, who ruled Delhi in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, long before the Mughals arrived. The octagonal tomb of Muhammad Shah and the domed Bara Gumbad are the easiest to find, and a sixteenth-century bridge, the Athpula, crosses a small lake at the northern end. An hour here is a gentle way to shake off jet lag, and the light through the old trees is soft at this time of day.

From the garden it is a short drive to Dilli Haat, an open-air craft market where artisans from different Indian states rent stalls on a rotating basis. You will find Kashmiri shawls, Kutch embroidery, Madhubani paintings from Bihar and terracotta pieces, all at fixed or lightly bargained prices. The food courts at the back serve regional dishes that are hard to find elsewhere in the city, such as momos from Sikkim, fish curry from Bengal and steamed rice cakes from the North-East. Dinner is at your own cost and choice. Your driver will take you back to the hotel whenever you are ready. Overnight stay in Delhi.

Your Delhi guide collects you after breakfast and starts the day at Humayun's Tomb, commissioned in 1565 by Hamida Banu Begum, the widow of the second Mughal emperor. Unlike many guided tours, this one also covers the smaller tomb of Isa Khan in the same complex, an octagonal structure from 1547 that predates the main mausoleum and shows the older Afghan building style. Your guide will explain the charbagh garden layout, divided into four parts by water channels, and point out the double dome, one of the first in India. A recent restoration removed cement plaster added in the twentieth century and replaced it with traditional lime mortar.

From Humayun's Tomb you cross the road to the Nizamuddin basti, the old neighbourhood surrounding the shrine of the Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya, who died in 1325. Narrow lanes lined with stalls selling rose petals, prayer caps and attar lead to the white marble dargah. Visitors should cover their heads, and women are not allowed inside the inner tomb chamber. If you are in Delhi on a Thursday, ask your guide about returning after sunset, when qawwali singers perform in the courtyard. Next, you drive to Connaught Place, the colonial-era shopping circle, and walk into a side lane near Hailey Road to see Agrasen ki Baoli, a 108-step stepwell of uncertain origin.

The last stop is Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, the most visited Sikh temple in Delhi, built at the site of a bungalow where the eighth Sikh guru, Guru Har Krishan, stayed in 1664. Visitors remove their shoes and cover their heads with a scarf, which is provided free of charge. Your guide will take you into the langar, the community kitchen, where volunteers cook and serve free meals to many thousands of people every day regardless of religion. You are welcome to sit on the floor and eat with everyone, or to help roll chapatis with the volunteers. On the way back you drive past India Gate and the President's House. Overnight stay in Delhi.

After breakfast you leave Delhi on the Yamuna Expressway, the main road to Agra, which takes between three and a half and four hours depending on traffic leaving the city. Your driver will stop at one of the food plazas on the way so you can stretch your legs and have a coffee. On arrival in Agra, you check in at your hotel and meet your local guide. As the Taj Mahal is closed every Friday, your sunrise visit is planned for tomorrow morning only on a day when it is open, and the order of today's and tomorrow's visits can be swapped if needed.

In the afternoon you visit Agra Fort, a red sandstone citadel on a bend of the Yamuna, which Akbar began rebuilding in 1565. The walls run for about two and a half kilometres and stand up to 21 metres high. This tour pays special attention to the later marble additions made by Shah Jahan, such as the Khas Mahal with its gilded roof pavilions and the Moti Masjid, the small Pearl Mosque. Your guide will also show you the Anguri Bagh, a geometric garden where the ladies of the court once grew grapes, and the Sheesh Mahal, a bathhouse inlaid with small mirrors, which is usually seen only through a window grille.

Later, you visit a family-run marble inlay workshop in the Taj Ganj area, where craftsmen descended from the artisans who worked on the Taj Mahal still practise pietra dura. You will watch how tiny pieces of malachite, lapis lazuli and mother-of-pearl are cut on a hand-turned grinding wheel and fitted into grooves carved into white marble with no gaps visible. There is no obligation to buy, though small coasters and boxes make good souvenirs if you want one. In the evening, walk through Kinari Bazaar near the Jama Masjid of Agra, known for wedding decorations, petha sweets made from ash gourd, and spicy bedai puris. Overnight stay in Agra.

Your guide meets you at the hotel in the dark and takes you to the western gate of the Taj Mahal, about thirty minutes before it opens at sunrise. Through the main gateway, the tomb appears grey-blue in the dawn light before it slowly turns warm white. Your guide will show you the calligraphy carved around the main arch and explain why the tomb is perfectly symmetrical apart from one detail: Shah Jahan's own cenotaph, added after his death in 1666, sits off centre next to that of Mumtaz Mahal. Take time to walk along the riverside terrace at the back of the tomb, where far fewer visitors go and the river views are open.

After returning for breakfast and checking out, you begin the drive towards Jaipur. About an hour and a half before the city, you turn off the highway at Sikandra village to reach Abhaneri, home to Chand Baori, built by King Chanda of the Nikumbha dynasty in the ninth century. It is one of the deepest stepwells in India, around 20 metres and thirteen storeys deep, with about 3,500 narrow steps arranged in a zigzag pattern on three sides. Next to it stands the Harshat Mata temple, damaged in the tenth century, whose broken carvings of musicians and dancers are now arranged around the stepwell courtyard.

From Abhaneri, it takes about an hour and a half to reach Jaipur on the national highway, passing Dausa and fields of millet. You should arrive at your hotel in the late afternoon. Later you can head out to Bapu Bazaar and Nehru Bazaar near the walled city's southern gates, where shops sell mojari shoes in embroidered leather, block-printed cotton and lac bangles. Lac bangle-makers are worth looking for in Maniharon ka Rasta, a lane where families heat sticks of coloured resin over a small charcoal fire and roll them into rings set with glass stones. Dinner at Laxmi Mishthan Bhandar in Johari Bazaar, open since 1954, is a Jaipur tradition. Overnight stay in Jaipur.

You leave early for Amber Fort with your Jaipur guide, aiming to reach the main courtyard, Jaleb Chowk, soon after it opens. In the past, returning armies paraded here to show off their spoils. Your guide will take you through the Diwan-i-Aam, its double row of columns topped with carved elephant capitals, and into the Sheesh Mahal, where the walls are set with thousands of pieces of convex mirror brought from Belgium. Instead of returning straight to the city, you continue uphill along a narrow road to Jaigarh Fort, built in 1726 by Jai Singh II to guard Amber from the ridge above.

Jaigarh's main attraction is the Jaivana cannon, one of the largest wheeled cannons ever made, cast in the fort's own foundry in 1720. Its barrel is more than six metres long, and the story goes that it was test-fired only once, sending a cannonball some 35 kilometres. The fort also has huge underground water tanks, and from the watchtowers you get a clear view down to Amber Palace and Maota Lake. After lunch you return to the old city to see the City Palace, where the Mubarak Mahal displays royal costumes, including a robe made for Sawai Madho Singh I, who was said to be two metres tall and to weigh 250 kilograms.

On the way, ask your driver to stop opposite Hawa Mahal, where a rooftop café in the building facing it offers the best straight-on view of the palace's pink facade. In the late afternoon you drive ten kilometres east of the city to Galta Ji, a group of eighteenth-century temples built in a narrow gorge, with natural spring-fed tanks where pilgrims bathe. Hundreds of rhesus macaques live around the temples, which is why visitors often call it the Monkey Temple. A short climb up the path behind the complex brings you to the small Surya Mandir, a sun temple with views over Jaipur at sunset. Overnight stay in Jaipur.

After breakfast, you travel west on the highway towards Ajmer. After around two and a half hours you turn north at Ajmer and cross the Nag Pahar hills, 15 kilometres to Pushkar, a small pilgrim town built around a sacred lake. According to Hindu tradition, the lake formed where a lotus petal fell from the hand of Lord Brahma. Fifty-two ghats lead down to the water, and your driver can arrange a local guide to accompany you down the steps for a short prayer ceremony if you would like one. Do agree on any donation beforehand, as some self-appointed priests at the ghats ask for large sums.

Pushkar is home to one of the very few temples in India dedicated to Brahma. The present structure dates mainly from the fourteenth century, with a red spire and a silver turtle set into the floor. From the temple, walk through the main bazaar, where shops sell Rajasthani textiles, silver jewellery and rose products, because roses are grown in large quantities in the fields around Pushkar. The town is strictly vegetarian, and no alcohol or eggs are served. The bakeries and cafés along the market street serve falafel, malpua and lassi, making it a good spot for lunch. Every November, the camel fair turns the surrounding fields into a large livestock market.

From Pushkar the road returns to the main highway and heads south-west through Beawar into Marwar country, reaching Jodhpur in the early evening. You will notice the land getting drier and the villages farther apart, with flat-roofed houses of local stone and small herds of goats grazing around the khejri trees. After checking in at your hotel, you can take a quiet evening, as tomorrow is a full day of sightseeing. Many hotels in Jodhpur serve laal maas, a fiery Rajasthani mutton curry cooked with mathania red chillies grown in nearby villages, and ker sangri, a dish of dried desert beans and berries. Overnight stay in Jodhpur.

You start with Mehrangarh Fort, rising above the city on a sheer rock outcrop, with your local guide. To understand the setting before climbing up, your guide first takes you along the edge of the Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park below the walls, a 70-hectare area replanted with native desert plants that thrive among the volcanic rock. Inside the fort, the museum has one of the best collections in Rajasthan: elephant howdahs in silver, palanquins used by royal women, miniature paintings from the Marwar school, and an armoury of swords, daggers and shields inlaid with jade and gold. The Zenana Deodi palace courtyards are lined with intricate stone screens.

From the ramparts beside the cannons, you look down over Brahmpuri, the old neighbourhood of blue-painted houses that gives Jodhpur its nickname. After the fort, your driver takes you across the city to Umaid Bhawan Palace, built between 1929 and 1943 as a famine relief project, providing work to thousands of people during years of drought. It is one of the largest private homes in the world, with 347 rooms, and is now divided between the royal family's living quarters, a luxury hotel and a museum. The museum section displays Art Deco furniture, clocks and the family's collection of classic cars.

In the afternoon you drive nine kilometres north to Mandore, the capital of Marwar before Rao Jodha moved to Mehrangarh in 1459. Its gardens hold the cenotaphs of the Rathore rulers, built in red sandstone in the style of Hindu temples rather than domed pavilions, with tall carved spires. The Hall of Heroes has a row of brightly painted figures carved from one rock wall, depicting folk heroes and gods. Langur monkeys wander the grounds, and local families often picnic on the lawns in the evening. Back in Jodhpur, you are free for the rest of the day to walk around the Clock Tower market or rest. Overnight stay in Jodhpur.

After breakfast you head north from Jodhpur to Osian, a desert trading town about 65 kilometres away, which was an important stop on caravan routes between the eighth and twelfth centuries. More than a dozen Hindu and Jain temples from that period still stand here, the oldest built in the Gurjara-Pratihara style. Your driver will take you first to the Mahavira Jain temple, built in 783, with a decorated gateway and fine carvings on its ceilings. You then climb the steps to the Sachiya Mata temple on the hill, still a busy pilgrimage site, where the views stretch across the town and its sand-coloured houses.

From Osian, the drive continues west through Phalodi, a salt-producing town, and Pokaran, where India carried out its nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998. Pokaran also has a fourteenth-century red sandstone fort, now partly a heritage hotel, which makes a convenient lunch stop. As you drive on, the scenery becomes the Thar Desert you imagined, with low dunes, scattered thorn bushes, wind turbines, and the occasional shepherd moving sheep across the road. Wild peacocks and chinkara gazelles can sometimes be seen near the villages. The total drive time is about six hours, including the stop at Osian and time for tea along the way.

You will reach Jaisalmer in the late afternoon, when the fort's yellow sandstone walls begin to glow in the lowering sun. Your hotel staff can help you settle in, and later your driver takes you to Vyas Chhatri, a cluster of sandstone cenotaphs on a low hill on the edge of town, dedicated to the sage Vyas who is believed to have composed the Mahabharata. From here, the whole length of the fort is visible across the rooftops, and at sunset the walls turn a deep gold. Local musicians sometimes play near the entrance for tips. Dinner is at a restaurant of your choice in town. Overnight stay in Jaisalmer.

Your Jaisalmer guide meets you after breakfast to walk up to Sonar Quila, the golden fort founded by Rawal Jaisal in 1156 on Trikuta Hill. It is ringed by 99 bastions and a double wall, and unlike most Rajasthani forts, it is still a living neighbourhood with shops, guesthouses, temples and homes. You enter through four gates, including Suraj Pol, before reaching Dussehra Chowk, the main square. The Raj Mahal palace museum on one side shows the royal throne, copper-plate land grants and stone carvings. Your guide will explain the fort's main problem today: leaking water pipes and drains have weakened the sandstone foundations, and several bastions have partly collapsed in recent decades.

Within the fort is a group of seven Jain temples, built between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries and dedicated to Tirthankaras including Parshvanath, Rishabhanath and Sambhavnath. The yellow sandstone is carved as finely as lace, with figures of dancers and deities covering pillars and ceilings. The temples are open to visitors in the morning, usually until around midday, and leather items must be left outside. Leaving the fort through its lower gate, you walk into the narrow lanes of the old town to Patwon ki Haveli, a row of five connected mansions built from 1805 by the brocade and opium trader Guman Chand Patwa for his five sons.

The first of the five Patwa havelis is now a museum with painted ceilings, mirror work and original furniture. Next, you visit Nathmal ki Haveli, built in the 1880s for the prime minister of the time by two brothers who worked on opposite halves of the facade; your guide will show you that the two sides match closely but are not identical. Salim Singh ki Haveli, with its peacock-shaped roof brackets and an upper storey that bulges outward, was built for a powerful and much-feared minister. In the evening, walk around Gadisar Lake, a fourteenth-century reservoir with shrines and a carved gateway, the Tilon ki Pol, at its entrance. Overnight stay in Jaisalmer.

After breakfast you check out of your hotel, taking only an overnight bag for the camp, as your main luggage can stay in the car. You first visit Bada Bagh, six kilometres north of town, where the cenotaphs of the rulers of Jaisalmer stand in rows on a ridge, their carved domes framed by modern wind turbines on the horizon. Next you drive to Kuldhara, a village of the Paliwal Brahmin community, who abandoned it along with dozens of nearby settlements almost overnight, around 1825. The usual explanation is that they left to escape the demands of a cruel minister, though drought may also have played a part. Roofless houses and a temple still line the original streets.

On the way to the dunes, ask your driver for a short stop at Khaba Fort, another empty Paliwal village whose small fort museum displays fossils found in the surrounding desert. You reach the camp at Sam, about 42 kilometres west of Jaisalmer, in the mid-afternoon. Your tent has proper beds, linen, electric lighting and an attached bathroom with running water, so it is comfortable rather than rough. After tea and snacks, you set off on a camel ride into the dunes, sitting on a padded saddle while a camel driver leads the animal by a rope. The ride takes around an hour and stops on the crest of a high dune for the sunset.

Back at camp, the evening programme takes place around a fire in an open courtyard. Manganiyar and Langa musicians, hereditary folk performers of western Rajasthan, sing ballads to the sound of the kamaicha, a bowed string instrument, and the khartal, wooden clappers played with the fingers. A Kalbelia dancer then performs in a black, mirrored skirt, the dance of a nomadic snake-charming community now recognised by UNESCO. Dinner is a buffet of Rajasthani food, usually including dal, kadhi, gatte ki sabzi and fresh bajra rotis cooked on a wood fire. After dinner, step away from the lights to see a sky full of stars. Overnight stay at the desert camp.

Set your alarm before dawn, put on a warm layer, since desert nights from November to February can be cold, and walk the short distance from your tent to the nearest dune. The sand is cool underfoot, and as the sky gets lighter you can see the tracks of beetles, lizards and desert foxes from the night before. Watching the first rays reach across the ridges is a quiet moment that most guests find as memorable as the sunset. After breakfast at the camp, which is included, you return to Jaisalmer by mid-morning, with an option to stop at a village on the way to meet a local family.

The rest of the day is free in Jaisalmer. Many travellers spend it shopping in the bazaars below the fort, which are well known for patchwork and mirror-work bedspreads, camel-leather bags, carved wooden boxes and fossil stones. You could also visit the Desert Culture Centre near Gadisar Lake, a small museum run by a local historian, with traditional musical instruments, old coins and household objects from desert villages. It also hosts a short puppet show in the evenings. If you are staying in Jaisalmer for one more night before flying out, your driver will check you back into your hotel in town.

If you have chosen the overnight train instead of the flight, your driver will take you to Jaisalmer railway station in the late afternoon for the direct train to Delhi. The journey is about eighteen hours in an air-conditioned sleeper berth, with bedding provided by the railways. Payless Tours India will book your ticket and share the coach and berth details in advance, and food can be ordered on the train or brought from town before you board. Please note that with this option, your last night is spent on the train rather than at the Jaisalmer hotel. Your driver will say goodbye at the station. Overnight stay in Jaisalmer, or on the train.

If you are flying, your driver collects you from your Jaisalmer hotel after breakfast and drops you at Jaisalmer airport, about 15 kilometres away, for your flight to Delhi; flight schedules from Jaisalmer vary by season, so the timing will be confirmed when you book. If you took the overnight train, you arrive at Delhi station during the day, where a Payless Tours India representative meets you. In both cases you are then transferred to Delhi airport for your flight home or to a Delhi hotel if you are staying on.