Udaipur to Jaisalmer — the Lake, the Blue City and the Thar

Met at Udaipur airport, about half an hour east of the city, and settled by a lake that most Rajasthan routes reach exhausted on their last day. The afternoon is Saheliyon ki Bari's fountains or nothing, and the late afternoon is the boat from the City Palace jetty for the sunset circuit of Pichola — past the Lake Palace on its island, around Jag Mandir, and back as the palace facade turns gold. Dinner on a rooftop above Gangaur Ghat.

The City Palace in the morning — the largest palace complex in Rajasthan, grown by successive Mewar rulers from 1559 into a facade nearly a quarter of a kilometre long above Pichola, with the Mor Chowk mosaics and the Crystal Gallery — and the Jagdish temple of 1651 at its gate. The afternoon is Bagore ki Haveli on the ghats and the miniature-painting workshops in the old lanes, and the evening is the Monsoon Palace on its ridge west of the city for the sunset over the whole lake system, twenty minutes up. The dance performance in Bagore ki Haveli's courtyard at seven if you would rather stay by the water.

The loveliest road in the state, north over the Aravallis: two hours to Ranakpur, where a Jain temple begun in 1439 stands in pale marble on 1,444 columns, no two carved alike — non-Jain visitors are admitted from noon, so the day leaves Udaipur at ten and arrives as the doors open. An hour inside. Then three hours on across the plain to Jodhpur by late afternoon, in time for Jaswant Thada's marble terrace as the light goes and the indigo city below Mehrangarh turning blue-black — the fort itself is for the morning.

Mehrangarh at nine — begun in 1459, standing 120 m above the old city on a sheer rock, never taken by siege, with the marks of the 1808 cannonade still in the gate and a museum of palanquins, howdahs and Marwar painting that is the best of its kind. Two hours, then the Sardar Market clock tower below for the spice stalls. West after lunch, about five hours across country that turns from scrub to sand, into Jaisalmer by evening with the fort catching the last of the light — the yellow sandstone that turns gold in low sun is what gives the city its name.

Gadisar lake at sunrise, with its pavilions standing in the water, then the fort while the lanes are still cool: built in 1156, around two thousand people still live inside its walls — houses, Jain temples and shops along lanes that are somebody's street rather than an exhibit. Patwon ki Haveli and Salim Singh ki Haveli in the town below are the merchant houses, carved with a fineness hard to credit in stone. In the afternoon, forty kilometres west to the dunes beyond Sam and a night under canvas: camel out onto the sand for the sunset, dinner and Rajasthani folk music at the camp, and the desert sky afterwards. The camps sit within earshot of each other and are not silent; they run from October to March, and from April to September this night stays in Jaisalmer with the dunes as an evening drive.

Sunrise over the dunes from the camp, breakfast, and back into Jaisalmer. From October to March flights leave Jaisalmer's airport for Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad and the morning is free until the transfer; for the rest of the year the road goes back east to Jodhpur, about five hours, for an evening flight, or the overnight train from Jaisalmer to Delhi or Jaipur does the work while you sleep. Your specialist books whichever suits the dates, and says which before you commit.