Royal Rajasthan & Shrinathji, 8 Nights

Met at Jaipur airport or Jaipur Junction and taken to your hotel. The evening is the pink old city — Hawa Mahal from the Wind View café opposite, then Johari Bazaar for kundan and meenakari work and Bapu Bazaar for mojris and block print. Dinner on your own at Laxmi Mishthan Bhandar, which does the best pure-veg Rajasthani thali in the walled city.

A shared jeep takes you up the Amber ramp at opening time, before the queues — Sheesh Mahal, Ganesh Pol and the Sukh Niwas water channel. Jal Mahal and the Panna Meena stepwell follow on the way back. The afternoon is Jantar Mantar, whose Vrihat Samrat Yantra is the largest stone sundial on earth and still accurate to two seconds, and the City Palace with the two 900-litre silver urns in the Diwan-i-Khas.

Three hours south-west to Pushkar, with an optional stop at the Ajmer Sharif dargah on the way in. Pushkar’s Jagatpita Brahma Mandir is one of very few Brahma temples anywhere and the reason the town exists; darshan is easiest between 4 and 6 pm. The evening aarti runs on all fifty-two ghats around the lake at sunset. Note that Pushkar is a strictly vegetarian town — no meat, no eggs and no alcohol are sold anywhere inside it.

Five hours south on NH-48 through Beawar and Rajsamand, the road climbing gently into the Aravallis and turning green well before Udaipur. You arrive by mid-afternoon. The evening is Ambrai ghat on the Pichola west bank, where the Lake Palace and the City Palace both sit in one frame at dusk — this is the single best free view in Rajasthan.

The City Palace complex takes a solid three hours — the Mor Chowk peacock mosaics, the Krishna Vilas miniatures and the Zenana Mahal. Jagdish Mandir, the 1651 Indo-Aryan Vishnu temple up the sixty-four steps, is a five-minute walk away. Afternoon is Saheliyon ki Bari and the shared sunset boat on Lake Pichola that halts at Jagmandir island. Evening free at Bagore ki Haveli, where the 7 pm Dharohar folk show ends with a woman dancing on ten brass pots.

An early start for Shrinathji at Nathdwara, 48 km north. Darshan runs in fixed jhankis and the Mangla and Rajbhog slots are the ones to aim for; phones and cameras are surrendered at the counter, and our representative handles the deposit and the queue. Ranakpur’s Adinath temple follows — 1,444 marble pillars, no two carved alike, and worth the ninety minutes. You reach Jodhpur by evening.

The morning belongs to Mehrangarh — the audio guide is included and takes two hours through Moti Mahal, Phool Mahal and the palanquin gallery, with Jaswant Thada’s marble cenotaph just below. After an early lunch it is five and a half hours west across the Thar via Osian and Pokhran. You reach Jaisalmer around sunset with the fort already lit.

Morning inside Sonar Quila, where three thousand people still live within the walls, then Patwon ki Haveli — five mansions a Jain brocade trader built for his five sons from 1805 — and Salim Singh ki Haveli. After lunch you drive 40 km to the Sam dunes for a camel ride to a far ridge at sunset and a Manganiyar folk dinner at a desert camp, returning to your Jaisalmer hotel by about ten.

Gadisar Lake at first light is the quietest half hour of the tour, with the Tilon ki Pol gateway reflected in still water and migratory birds through the winter. After breakfast you are dropped at Jaisalmer airport or the railway station. A road transfer to Jodhpur airport instead is available at no extra charge if your flight is after 6 pm.