Rajasthan: The Inner Kingdoms

Rajasthan has three hundred forts and a handful of families still living in them. This route stays only in small heritage houses: an unfinished 1835 palace at Tijara, a thakur’s castle outside Jaipur whose…

Length: 12 days, 11 nights
From: ₹2,68,000 per person
Pace: Gentle
Stops: 7
Best months: October to March

The route

7 stops over 12 days

Delhi
Tijara
Kanota
Mandawa
Khimsar
Rohet
Udaipur

Seven heritage houses, most still lived in by owners
Ninety volumes of Thakur Amar Singh’s diaries at Kanota
Nagaur’s restored fort, its water channels and Bikaneri murals
Dawn with the Bishnoi: blackbuck, khejri, demoiselle cranes
Frescoes cleaned by hand over eleven years at Mandawa

Day by day

What actually happens

Length: 12 days
Stops: 7
Pace: Gentle
From: ₹2,68,000

1D

Delhi

Arrival in Delhi

You arrive in Delhi and are driven to a 1950s house in Friends Colony with twelve rooms and a lawn worth sitting on. No sightseeing. If you want air, the Sunder Nursery gates are ten minutes away and open until seven, sixteen restored Mughal monuments in ninety acres, and a bird list of over eighty species.

Night: The Manor, New Delhi
2B

Delhi

Mehrauli on foot, qawwali at dusk

A slow day on foot. Mehrauli Archaeological Park in the morning: Balban’s tomb, Jamali Kamali’s painted ceiling, a stepwell nobody visits. Lunch, a rest, then Nizamuddin Basti at dusk for the qawwals, who sing after the evening prayer on Thursdays. Sit on the marble, take your shoes off, and stay longer than you meant to.

Night: The Manor, New Delhi
3B D

Tijara

An unfinished palace at Tijara

Three and a half hours south-west into Alwar district. Tijara Fort-Palace was begun in 1835 by Balwant Singh and left unfinished when he died; it stayed a ruin until 2018. You get Rajput-Afghan arches, a hilltop, and rooms named for the artists who painted them. Walk the ramparts before dinner; the village lamps come on below at seven.

Night: Tijara Fort-Palace
4B D

Kanota

Alwar, Siliserh, on to Kanota

Down to Alwar for the City Palace’s marble Moosi Maharani chhatri, then Siliserh lake for an hour. On to Kanota, fifteen kilometres east of Jaipur, where the Kanota family have kept a castle since 1872. A stable yard, a museum of shikar trophies and cricket bats, and a garden that grows the vegetables you eat at dinner.

Night: Castle Kanota
5B D

Kanota and Jaipur

Jaipur, and the Kanota diaries

Into Jaipur for the morning: Amber’s Ganesh Pol, the City Palace, and the Jaigarh cannon that has been fired once. Back at Kanota after tea, ask for the library. Thakur Amar Singh kept a diary every day from 1898 to 1942, eighty-nine volumes, in English, one of the longest personal records anywhere in the world.

Night: Castle Kanota
6B D

Mandawa

Two havelis, eleven years’ work

North four hours to Shekhawati and a pair of 1920s havelis restored over eleven years by one family. Vivaana’s frescoes were cleaned with cotton wool and distilled water, not chemicals; you can see the difference at a metre. Afternoon in Mandawa’s lanes with a fresco specialist, then dinner on the roof with the generator off and the stars up.

Night: Vivaana Culture Hotel, Mandawa
7B D

Khimsar

Nagaur fort, then the dunes at Khimsar

A long day west, broken at Nagaur. Ahhichatragarh is a twelve-hectare fort with no cannon scars, restored over eighteen years and given an Aga Khan award; its water channels and Bikaneri murals are the best-kept secret in the state. Khimsar by five, a 1523 fort on the dune edge, half of it still the family’s home.

Night: Khimsar Fort
8B D

Rohet

Blackbuck at dawn, Mehrangarh by noon

Jeeps out to the dunes at six-thirty, where blackbuck graze and the sand is properly orange for about forty minutes. Then two and a half hours to Jodhpur for Mehrangarh, allow three hours, the audio guide is one of the best in India, and on to Rohet Garh by six. The house has stood on its lake since 1622.

Night: Rohet Garh
9B D

Rohet

Bishnoi villages and Salawas weavers

Out at half six with a Bishnoi guide. The Bishnoi have protected khejri trees and blackbuck since 1485 and once lost 363 people defending a grove. You will see chinkara, and between November and February demoiselle cranes on the tanks. Afternoon at Salawas, where the Prajapat weavers make dhurries on pit looms, camel hair and cotton.

Night: Rohet Garh
10B D

Ranakpur and Delwara

Ranakpur, then a palace at Delwara

South through the Aravallis to Ranakpur, where 1,444 marble pillars hold up the Chaumukha temple and the ceiling drips carved lotus. Non-Jains enter from noon. Another hour and a half brings you to Delwara, and a palace built in 1760 on the Eklingji pass that took fifteen years to bring back from ruin.

Night: RAAS Devigarh, Delwara
11B D

Udaipur

Eklingji, Nagda and lake Udaipur

Twenty-two kilometres down the hill, Eklingji’s 108 shrines open to the public only three times a day; the black marble Shiva is four-faced. Nagda’s Sas-Bahu temples are a ten-minute walk on. Afternoon in Udaipur proper, City Palace, the Jagdish steps, a boat at five, or stay put and swim. Dinner in the Devi Garh courtyard.

Night: RAAS Devigarh, Delwara
12B

Udaipur

Departure

Nothing early. Breakfast, a last walk through Delwara village to the two eleventh-century Jain temples the tour buses miss, and then forty minutes to Udaipur’s airport for your connection to Delhi or Mumbai. Our staff meet you on arrival and see you through to international check-in. Twelve days, seven houses, and you fly home tonight.

Night: Day use room, if required