The Four Cities — Seven Nights from Jaipur to Udaipur

You are met at Jaipur airport and driven to your hotel. Jaipur was laid out on a grid in the eighteenth century and its walled quarter is painted the pink that gives the city its name. 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.

A long travel day west and then north into the Thar desert to Jaisalmer. The landscape thins out steadily as you go, from farmland to scrub to open sand. You check in on arrival and the remainder of the day is free.

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 out of the desert to Jodhpur, roughly 300 kilometres, arriving in the afternoon beneath the walls of Mehrangarh fort. The rest of the day is free in the blue old town below it.

You continue south to Udaipur, leaving the desert behind for the Aravalli hills. Udaipur is built around a chain of artificial lakes and is noticeably greener than anywhere else on this route.

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.

After breakfast you check out and are driven to Udaipur airport for your onward flight. Your onward flight is not part of this package, so allow the check-in time your airline requires.