Rajasthan Village & Rural Life Tour

A representative of Payless Tours India meets you in the arrivals hall at Indira Gandhi International Airport, holding a board with your name, and walks you to your private air-conditioned car. The transfer to your hotel takes about forty-five minutes to an hour depending on the time of day. During the drive your driver will run through the plan for the coming fortnight, hand over a printed itinerary and give you his mobile number, which you can call at any time. Check-in at Indian hotels is usually at two in the afternoon, so if your flight lands early in the morning, we can arrange an early check-in on request.

If you arrive with energy left, the afternoon is a good time for a gentle first look at the city. A short walk around Lodhi Garden takes you past fifteenth-century tombs of the Sayyid and Lodi rulers, set among lawns where Delhi families jog, picnic and play cricket. Nearby, Khan Market has bookshops, cafés and a few good stores selling handloom cotton and organic tea. This is an easy way to adjust to the heat, the traffic and the sounds of India before the longer days begin. Your driver can take you there and wait, or you may prefer to rest at the hotel after a long flight.

In the evening, you can eat at the hotel or try a nearby restaurant for a first taste of North Indian food, such as dal makhani, tandoori roti and paneer tikka. Your driver will remind you of the start time for the next morning, which is usually around eight o'clock to beat the city traffic heading north. Pack a light shawl or jacket if you are travelling between November and February, as the Shekhawati nights can be cold. A copy of your passport and visa should be kept handy, because heritage hotels in Rajasthan register every foreign guest on arrival.

Overnight stay in Delhi.

After breakfast, you leave Delhi on the highway towards Rajasthan, passing the new towers of Gurugram before the road narrows into a two-lane route through wheat and mustard country. The drive to Mandawa takes five to six hours, with a stop for tea and samosas at a roadside dhaba. Once you cross into the Shekhawati region, you will see camels pulling carts loaded with fodder, women in bright odhnis walking to wells, and small shrines under khejri trees. Your driver can stop for photographs whenever you ask. Shekhawati was once a crossroads on the caravan trade between the Gujarat ports and Central Asia, and its merchant families grew very wealthy.

You reach Mandawa by early afternoon and check in at a restored haveli or a heritage hotel inside the old fort. Mandawa was founded in the eighteenth century, and its Thakurs built the fort to protect the caravan route. The rich Marwari merchants who traded from here later moved to Kolkata and Mumbai, but they kept building grand homes in their home town and commissioned painters to cover the walls with frescoes. Those painted walls show gods, horses, elephants, British soldiers, steam trains and even early motor cars, because the artists painted whatever their patrons had seen on their travels.

Late in the afternoon, take a short orientation walk with your guide through the market lanes near the fort. You will pass tailors working at pedal sewing machines, sweet shops frying jalebis, and shops selling brass pots and colourful bangles. Stop for a cup of masala chai at a small stall and watch the town slow down as the light turns golden. The evening is free, and dinner can be eaten on the rooftop of your hotel with a view over the flat-roofed houses and the fort walls. Most hotels in Mandawa serve simple Rajasthani dishes such as ker sangri, bajra roti and gatte ki sabzi. 

Overnight stay in Mandawa.

The morning starts with a guided walk through the painted havelis of Mandawa, best done before ten when the light is soft and the lanes are quiet. Your guide will take you to the Chokhani Double Haveli, built for two brothers with mirror-image wings, and the Murmuria Haveli, where one fresco shows Jawaharlal Nehru on horseback holding the Indian flag. At the Gulab Rai Ladia Haveli you will see a painting of a man on a bicycle and another of an early aircraft. Many havelis are still lived in by caretaker families, who will invite you into courtyards for a small donation that helps with upkeep and repairs.

After lunch at the hotel, a jeep takes you out of town to the farm villages that surround Mandawa. This part of Shekhawati is dry farming country, where families grow bajra, moong and guar during the monsoon and rely on underground tanks called kunds to store rainwater for the rest of the year. Your guide will show you how these round, domed tanks work and why they have been built in the area for centuries. You can visit a farmer's home, see the cattle and camels in the yard, and watch women grind millet by hand on a stone chakki, a scene that has become rare in many parts of India.

Late in the afternoon you return to Mandawa, stopping at a stepwell on the edge of town where village boys sometimes gather to talk and play cards on the steps. The rest of the evening is yours. You can climb to the hotel rooftop for sunset or walk again through the lanes, which feel very different once lamps are lit in doorways and families sit outside. Shopping in Mandawa is modest, but there are good small stalls selling block-printed bedcovers, leather mojari shoes and copies of fresco designs painted on paper. Your guide can point you to the honest sellers and warn you about the shops that pay commission. 

Overnight stay in Mandawa.

After breakfast you drive west towards Khimsar, crossing a flatter and drier part of Rajasthan where the fields gradually give way to scrub, sand and grazing land. The road passes through Salasar, a pilgrimage town with a well-known Hanuman temple, and then reaches Nagaur, about two-thirds of the way to Khimsar. Nagaur is famous across India for its cattle fair held in winter, when farmers bring bullocks, camels and Marwari horses to trade. Your driver will stop here for lunch at a local restaurant, which you pay for directly, and for a short visit to the town.

Nagaur's main sight is Ahhichatragarh Fort, one of the earliest Rajput-era forts in the state, with origins going back to the fourth century and later rebuilt by the Mughals and the Rathores. Its restored palaces have delicate wall paintings, water channels and fountains that once cooled the rooms in summer. The restoration project won a UNESCO Asia-Pacific award for heritage conservation, and the fort is quiet compared with the big forts in Jaipur and Jodhpur. Your guide will explain how water was carried up through the walls, and how the fort changed hands between rulers many times. Allow about an hour for the visit.

From Nagaur, it is a short drive of around an hour to Khimsar, a small village dominated by a fifteenth-century fort that is now a heritage hotel. Khimsar Fort was built by Rao Karamsji, a son of Rao Jodha, the founder of Jodhpur, and the family still lives in part of it. You will check in at the fort and spend the evening wandering its courtyards, the old ramparts and the gardens where peacocks gather at dusk. Dinner can be taken at the fort restaurant, where tables are often set on the terrace overlooking the village and the fields beyond. 

Overnight stay at Khimsar Fort.

After a slow breakfast at the fort, your guide leads you on foot through Khimsar village, which has grown up around the fort walls. You will meet the blacksmiths who make iron tools for local farmers, a shoemaker stitching camel-leather jootis, and families of the Meghwal community who are known for their embroidery. Women often sit together in the shade with needle and thread, working mirrorwork patterns onto skirts and cushion covers. If you wish to buy anything, the money goes straight to the person who made it, which is the simplest way to support village crafts.

In the afternoon, you transfer by jeep to the dunes village a few kilometres outside Khimsar, where you check in to a round mud-plastered hut with a thatched roof, built in the style of local Rajasthani homes but with private bathrooms and comfortable beds. The dunes here are smaller than those near Jaisalmer, but they are far quieter, and you may see only a handful of other visitors. A jeep safari takes you across the sand to the homes of Raika herders, who keep camels, sheep and goats and still move with their animals during the dry months. Your guide will translate as the herders talk about grazing routes, water and the changes they see in the weather.

As the sun goes down, you will be driven to the top of a dune for sunset, with tea and pakoras served on a rug in the sand. Chinkara deer sometimes cross the dunes at this time, and you can hear the bells of returning goat herds from the nearby villages. After dark, a group of local musicians plays folk songs by the fire, using the kamaycha, dholak and khartal. Dinner, included tonight, is served at the dunes village and features dishes such as bajra khichdi, kadhi and churma made with jaggery and ghee. The sky out here is clear and dark, so do step outside before bed to look at the stars. 

Overnight stay at the dunes village, Khimsar.

The drive to Jodhpur after breakfast is short and easy, around two hours on a good highway. As you approach the city, Mehrangarh Fort appears long before anything else, rising about 120 metres above the plain on a sheer sandstone cliff. You check in at your hotel and then head straight up to the fort with your guide. Mehrangarh was founded in 1459 by Rao Jodha, and its gates still carry the marks of cannonballs from old battles. Near the Loha Pol you will see the handprints of royal widows, a sobering part of the fort's past that your guide will explain with care.

Inside the fort, the museum is one of the best-run in India. You will see the gilded howdahs once carried on elephants, palanquins with painted panels, a fine collection of miniature paintings, and the Phool Mahal, a hall of gold leaf and coloured glass where the Maharajas held private gatherings. From the ramparts, the old town below spreads out in blue-washed houses, and your guide will explain the different stories about why the houses were painted blue. From the fort you can walk down to Jaswant Thada, a white marble memorial built in 1899 above a small lake, which is calmer and far less crowded than the fort.

In the late afternoon, take a walk through the Clock Tower market at Sardar Market, where traders sell spices, dried chillies, bangles and fabrics. Jodhpur is known for its mirchi bada, a large green chilli stuffed with spiced potato and fried in batter, and for the saffron lassi at a well-known shop near the gate. You may also stop at a family-run tea shop for a glass of makhaniya lassi. Your guide will brief you on the next day's Bishnoi village visit and explain local customs, including how to greet elders and what to wear when you enter homes. 

Overnight stay in Jodhpur.

Leave Jodhpur early by jeep for the Bishnoi village safari, which covers several hamlets south of the city. The Bishnoi community follows twenty-nine rules set down by their founder Guru Jambheshwar in the fifteenth century, including the protection of animals and trees. In 1730, more than 360 Bishnoi villagers led by Amrita Devi gave their lives at Khejarli to stop the felling of khejri trees, an event that still inspires India's environmental movement. At Guda Bishnoi you will see blackbuck, chinkara, nilgai and peacocks moving freely near the lake, and in winter flocks of demoiselle cranes arrive here from Central Asia.

You will be welcomed into a Bishnoi home where elders perform the amal ceremony, a traditional welcome in which opium is dissolved in water, strained through cloth and offered to guests in the palm of the hand. Your guide will explain its cultural role in western Rajasthan; visitors only watch and are never asked to take part. Next, a short jeep ride takes you to the village of Salawas, where families of dhurrie weavers make flat-woven rugs on pit looms using cotton, wool and camel hair. You can watch a rug grow line by line and buy directly from the weaver. Lunch, included today, is served with a Bishnoi family and includes bajra roti, dal, seasonal vegetables and buttermilk.

In the afternoon, you will visit the potter families of Salawas, who work on wheels turned by hand or by a stick, shaping water pots, lamps and storage jars from local clay. Many of these potter families belong to the Kumhar community and have practised the same craft for generations. Afterwards, you drive on to Rohet Garh, a seventeenth-century fort around forty kilometres south of Jodhpur, which the Singh family has turned into a heritage hotel. The author Bruce Chatwin wrote part of his book The Songlines here. You can relax by the pool, walk in the garden and enjoy dinner on the terrace. 

Overnight stay at Rohet Garh.

Today is slower, with the morning spent around the farmland and grazing land of the Rohet estate. Your guide will take you on a walk or horse-cart ride through fields of wheat, mustard and cumin, depending on the season, and stop at a well where cattle are watered. Rohet is a farming community where many families grow crops on small plots and keep goats, cows and buffaloes. Women often carry fodder on their heads, and children walk to school along the dusty tracks. You can stop to talk with farmers, with your guide translating, and learn how changes in rainfall have affected crops here over the last few decades.

Later in the morning, you visit a village temple and the homes of the Raika camel herders, a community whose traditions are closely tied to the camel. The Raika people are known for their bright red turbans and for their deep knowledge of animal health, passed on by word of mouth. Some families in the Rohet area now make products from camel milk and camel wool, and your guide will introduce you to these efforts to keep the herding way of life going. You return to Rohet Garh for lunch, which you pay for directly, followed by a lazy afternoon by the pool or in the shaded garden.

In the late afternoon, the estate can arrange a jeep ride to the lake outside the village, where you can watch birds such as painted storks, spoonbills and ibises during the winter months. As the light fades, villagers drive their cattle home along the tracks, raising a fine golden dust that makes for good photographs. The evening is free. Many guests enjoy dinner in the courtyard at Rohet Garh, where tables are set by lantern light and the kitchen serves Marwari dishes such as laal maas and gatte. You may also ask the family about the history of the estate, which they are often happy to share. 

Overnight stay at Rohet Garh.

After breakfast you leave Rohet and drive south through the Godwar region towards the Aravalli hills. The landscape changes from flat desert scrub to rolling green hills, with small lakes, mango groves and terraced fields. On the way, you can stop to watch farmers working Persian wheels, where bullocks walk in circles to draw water from a well. This system was once common across Rajasthan and is still used in a few places. Your driver can stop for a cup of tea at a roadside dhaba where truck drivers take their break.

Around midday, you reach Ranakpur, home to one of the finest Jain temples in India. The Chaumukha temple, built in the fifteenth century in white marble, has 1,444 carved pillars, and no two of them are the same. The temple is dedicated to Adinath, the first Jain Tirthankara, and is still an active place of worship. Your guide will explain Jain beliefs about non-violence and the strict rules for visitors, which include removing leather items and covering your shoulders and knees. Non-Jain visitors are allowed in from noon until five in the afternoon. A simple vegetarian lunch can be had at the temple canteen or a nearby hotel.

After the visit, you continue for around two and a half hours to Udaipur through the Aravalli hills, where the road winds past tribal villages of the Bhil and Garasia communities. As you descend into the valley, the city comes into view with its lakes and white palaces. You check in at your hotel, which is chosen near the lakes so that you can walk to the old city. The evening is free for a walk along the ghats of Lake Pichola, where the reflection of the City Palace in the water makes for a lovely first view of the city. 

Overnight stay in Udaipur.

Your morning begins with a guided visit to the City Palace, a complex of courtyards, halls and terraces built over four centuries by the Mewar rulers. The palace sits on a ridge above Lake Pichola, and from its windows you look across to the Lake Palace and Jag Mandir. Inside, the Mor Chowk courtyard is decorated with peacocks made of glass mosaic, and the Zenana Mahal houses an exhibition of royal portraits and paintings. Your guide will explain the history of the Mewar dynasty, which held out longer than any other Rajput house against the Mughals and is regarded as one of the oldest ruling families in the world.

Before noon, a short drive of about forty minutes takes you to a farming village in the Aravalli hills outside Udaipur. Here you will be welcomed by a family who grow maize, wheat and vegetables on terraced plots and keep a few cows and goats. You can help with simple tasks such as picking vegetables, churning buttermilk or rolling rotis on the clay hearth. Lunch, included today, is cooked by the family and might include makki ki roti, seasonal sabzi, dal and fresh curd. The family can also show you how they make cow-dung cakes for fuel and how they store grain in tall mud bins.

In the late afternoon you return to Udaipur for a boat ride on Lake Pichola, which you pay for at the jetty. The boat passes the ghats where locals bathe and wash clothes, the old havelis of Gangaur Ghat and the island palace of Jag Mandir, where you can step off for a short walk. Sunset from the boat is one of the most photographed views in Rajasthan. Afterwards, you might walk through the lanes near Jagdish Temple, where shops sell miniature paintings, silver jewellery and leather journals. Dinner is at a rooftop restaurant of your choice, and your guide can recommend a few of the best. 

Overnight stay in Udaipur.

After an early breakfast, you set off for Bundi, driving north-east through the Mewar plateau. The road passes marble quarries, small towns and fields of opium poppies, which are grown here under strict government licence and bloom white and purple in late winter. Your driver will explain how the crop is monitored and why it is so tightly controlled. Around halfway, you pass Chittorgarh, where you can see the walls of the great fort from the highway, and stop for lunch at a local restaurant. The rest of the drive crosses the Chambal valley region, with its rocky outcrops and patches of dhok forest.

You reach Bundi in the early afternoon and check in at a heritage haveli in the old town, close to the palace. Bundi is a small and peaceful town tucked into a valley of the Aravallis, and it receives far fewer visitors than Jaipur or Udaipur. Rudyard Kipling stayed here and described the palace as built by goblins rather than men. In the late afternoon, take a walk with your guide through the lanes of the old town, where many houses are painted blue, and you will pass craftsmen making brass utensils, wooden toys and painted boxes.

Before dusk, visit Raniji ki Baori, a stepwell built in 1699 by a queen of Bundi. It is around forty-six metres deep, with carved pillars, elephant figures and a long flight of steps leading down to the water. Bundi has more than fifty stepwells, built because water was scarce in the dry months. Your guide will explain how they once served as both water supply and a cool meeting place. In the evening, you can climb to a rooftop café near the palace to watch the lights come on below the fort. Dinner is at your haveli, often served by the family who run it. 

Overnight stay in Bundi.

After breakfast, walk up the stone ramp to Garh Palace, which rises in tiers above the town. Inside, the Chitrashala is a small courtyard gallery covered with eighteenth-century murals in blue, green and turquoise, showing scenes from the life of Krishna, royal processions and court life. These paintings are some of the best preserved in Rajasthan, and you can stand close to see the fine detail. Your guide will explain the Bundi school of painting, known for its lush forests, monsoon clouds and dancing peacocks. From the palace windows, the view over the blue town and the Nawal Sagar lake is lovely in the morning light.

If you are fit, a steep path leads further up to Taragarh, the Star Fort, built in 1354 on the ridge above the palace. Much of it is now overgrown, and you will share the ramparts with langur monkeys, so carry a stick and keep food out of sight. The view from the top takes in the whole valley, the town and the hills beyond. You come back down to the old town for a light lunch before starting the drive to Jaipur. The drive takes around four hours on a good road through Tonk district, with wheat fields and village markets along the way.

You reach Jaipur in the early evening and check in at your hotel. Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan and was founded in 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, who laid out the city on a grid plan that was unusual for its time. The evening is free for rest after the drive, or for a walk to a nearby market. If you like, your driver can take you to Birla Mandir, a white marble temple that is lit up at night, or to the lanes of Bapu Bazaar for textiles and leather goods.

Overnight stay in Jaipur.

After an early breakfast, drive with your guide to Amber Fort, about eleven kilometres north of the city, before the tour buses arrive. The fort climbs a hill above Maota Lake, with walls running along the ridges behind it. You can walk up the cobbled ramp or take a jeep to the top. Inside, the Diwan-i-Am has carved columns topped with elephant capitals, and the Sheesh Mahal is covered with small pieces of mirror set into plaster. Your guide will also show you the Ganesh Pol, a painted gateway, and the women's quarters where queens lived in separate apartments connected by hidden passages.

On the way back to the city, stop at the Jal Mahal for photographs, and then visit the old walled city. Hawa Mahal, with its 953 small windows, was built so that royal women could watch street processions unseen. The City Palace still houses the royal family, and its museum displays textiles, arms and paintings. Next door is Jantar Mantar, an observatory with nineteen large stone instruments built by Jai Singh II, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Lunch can be taken at a restaurant in the old city, where Jaipur's famous kachori and pyaaz ki kachori are worth trying.

In the afternoon, visit a cooperative of village artisans on the edge of Jaipur, where families from nearby villages bring their blue pottery, lac bangles and hand-printed textiles. This kind of cooperative ensures that the makers receive a fair price, and you can watch some of the work being done in front of you. Later, walk through the old bazaars of Johari Bazaar and Tripolia Bazaar for spices, gems and fabrics, with your guide helping you avoid the most commercial stops. Your last dinner of the tour can be at a well-known Rajasthani restaurant, where you can try a full thali.

Overnight stay in Jaipur.

After breakfast, your driver takes you back to Delhi on the highway, a drive of five to six hours with a tea break along the way. You will be dropped at your Delhi hotel or at Indira Gandhi International Airport in time for your onward flight. Please share your flight time when booking so the departure from Jaipur can be planned around it. This brings your Rajasthan village tour with Payless Tours India to a close.