The Grand Rajasthan Circuit — Eleven Nights and Seven Destinations

You are met at Jaipur airport and driven to your hotel. The walled quarter is painted pink and the city was laid out on a grid in the eighteenth century. The rest of the day is free.

A full day in Jaipur. Amber Fort stands on a ridge above a lake outside the city, built in pale stone with mirrored halls inside. In the city itself are the City Palace, the Jantar Mantar observatory with its outsized stone instruments, and the Hawa Mahal, the screen of latticed windows built so the women of the court could watch the street unseen.

You travel northwest about 350 kilometres into the desert to Bikaner, built around a red sandstone fort that was never taken by siege. The surrounding country is camel-breeding land.

You travel southwest about 350 kilometres deeper into the Thar to Jaisalmer, by air-conditioned car, crossing open desert for long stretches. You check in on arrival for the first of two nights here, with the guided Jaisalmer sightseeing covering the fort and the merchant havelis following on the next day.

A day in Jaisalmer. The fort here is one of the very few in the world still lived in, with families, shops and temples inside the walls, and the yellow sandstone turns gold in low light. The merchant havelis in the town below are carved in the same stone.

You travel southeast about 300 kilometres out of the desert to Jodhpur, the sand giving way to scrub and then to farmland. You arrive beneath Mehrangarh fort, which rises straight out of a rock escarpment above the blue-painted old town, and the rest of the day is free below it.

You travel south about 300 kilometres, stopping at Ranakpur where a fifteenth-century Jain temple stands on more than a thousand carved marble pillars, then climb into the Aravalli range to Mount Abu, Rajasthan's only hill station.

You descend about 200 kilometres to Udaipur, built around a chain of artificial lakes with the Aravallis behind. The rest of the day is free by the water.

A day in Udaipur. The City Palace runs along the shore of Lake Pichola and is the largest palace complex in Rajasthan, built up by successive rulers over four centuries. Jagdish temple, the Saheliyon ki Bari garden and the old lanes around the lake complete the day.

A long day, about 450 kilometres, broken by Chittorgarh — the largest fort in India by area, a hilltop plateau of palaces and victory towers. You continue to Ranthambore. The park is closed from 1 July to 30 September.

A full day at the reserve. Dry deciduous forest surrounds a tenth-century hilltop fort inside the park, and tigers are sometimes seen around its walls. Game drives operate to fixed park timings and are subject to permit availability.

After breakfast you check out and travel back northwest about 200 kilometres to Jaipur, continuing to the airport for your onward flight. Allow for a half-day drive when booking your onward flight.