2 week rajasthan itinerary suggestions please?

moosh

Hello, I've just joined IndiaMike - fabulous website! My partner and I want to travel through Rajasthan for around 15 days in January, and of course our list of places to visit is too long! We're flying in and out of Delhi, and plan on doing some train journeys but also have budget for some car/driver options. Also to prevent backtracking, does anyone know if we can fly from Udaipur back to Dehli? We'd like to include Udaipur and Jaisalmer. And either Bundi or Pushkar .... any advice or suggestions would be very welcome!

arconsaurabh

dear
rajasthan frm delhi to ranthombore(wildlife tiger safari) to jaipure to pushkar(visit bramha temple,holy bath,camel ride)to ajmer(dargaha muslim pilgrimage) to udaipure to (enjoy this city of lakes its fort,dinner in ummed palace),if u can take out time visit chittorgargh to see valor of rajasthan rullers,its fort so in brevity u can expect....
wildlife in ranthambore
camel riding on sand dunes anround jaiselmer,pushkar
beautyful sunset
royal lifestyle every where in rajasthan
great respect
unique culture
boating in udaipure..
and esp people with moustache.and beard......haha
padhare mahare desh

bruce3404

Here's a rough sketch of a trip I did a few years back. It did not include Udaipur, but you could certainly add it on. Delhi>Bikaner>Jaisalmer>Jodhpu r>Pushkar>Jaipur>Delhi. All of these places are reachable by train and you wouldn't have to backtrack.

moosh

thanks to you both eugene and arconsaurabh for your recommendations. eugene ... that sounds like a good beginning to our plans. now i'll go off and read some more. how long did you take to travel around on this trip?

jyotirmoy

1. Most places you want to visit are either well connected by train or bus.
2. Hiring a car is certainly the best thing and you could easily visit interesting places like Ranakpur, Kumbhalgarh.
3. There is a comfortable overnight train from Udaipur to Delhi

moosh

oh sorry bruce, i've just realised that eugene is where you live. my apologies

bruce3404

No worries. I took about 15 days to do that trip. As I can recall, I spent 3 nights in Bikaner, 4 in Jaisalmer, 2 in Jodhpur, 3 in Pushkar and 3 in Jaipur. With the exception of Jodhpur, I could have easily deleted a night in all the other places and still visited all the major sites, but I was on a relaxed itinerary that trip. My order of enjoyment: 1. Jaisalmer (loved staying in the fort area and the overall ambience out in the middle of the desert) 2. Bikaner (hardly touristed at all, camels in the streets, lovely guesthouse near one of the palaces...sorry, can't recall the name) 3. Pushkar (was there during the camel fair) 4. Jodhpur (while I rather dis-liked the people there and the town seemed dirtier than most, the market is interesting and the various palaces spectacular) 5. Jaipur (tons of touts and much more than in the preceeding towns; still, a lot of interesting places to visit, best done on an inexpensive city tour through the local tourist agency).

moosh

thanks very much, Bikaner sounds fantastic so we shall try to include that. Always a shame about being 'touted', but that's the big cities I guess. We're going to see if we can squeeze Bundi in as well but like you, hope to avoid making the trip too hectic.

Cameleer

If you do go to Bikaner you may like getting there on the first day of the Camel Festival Jan 10th 2009. The first day is the best of if you want to see performing camels! The second day is out in the desert where they will have camel races and good entertainment that evening.

Here is a 360 degrees virtual realty tour of Bikaner, just click and drag the photo to view in any direction, use your wheel to zoom, click on one of the hotspots (red dots) and it will take you there.
http://www.indiavrtours.com/bikaner/fort_roof4.html

You can go to the sitemap to tour other places in India too.

__________________
Only those who will risk going too far
can possibly find out how far one can go.

moosh

hey that is fabulous ... thank you for that. i can see we may need to give ourselves a few more days ... the festival sounds amazing!
ps i like your quote.

bruce3404

Moosh, I found the name of the great hotel in Bikaner. It's the Hotel Palace View. Really great people running the place and fantastic value; in fact, probably the best value I found during a 6 week trip to India. The LP says the food is "hit and miss", but I found it to be very good for a meal or two. It's right across the street from the Lalgarh Palace which also has a hotel (top end) with a decent buffet and live music if you feel like a splurge (it's a small splurge...maybe $10pp).

Cameleer

I have not seen the Palace View Hotel, but check these out.
On that VR tour of Bikaner starting out on the Junagarh Fort Rooftop you can mouse over the 3 hotspots (red dots) in the sky and click on one of them to take you to the Sagar Hotel, Laxmi Niwas Palace, or Lalgarh Place Hotel. And then you can go inside to have a look around as you travel from room to room.
Or here’s a shortcut that will drop you off in front of the Laxmi Palace Hotel, look around before going inside and you will see the hotspots for the other hotels nearby.
http://www.indiavrtours.com/bikaner/laxmi_niwas4.html

The Camel Man Guesthouse is a very nice budget place to stay, but it’s on the edge of town and a little far from things.

Enjoy,
Cameleer

moosh

thanks Bruce and Cameleer ... always good to have recommendations for a hotel. We'll definitely check it out. Apart from booking a hotel in Dehli, is it worth booking ahead for January? Not sure how busy it will be at that time. Perhaps Bikaner if the Camel Festival is on.

radhikajain

Covering Rajasthan in 15 days is quite short duration, as the state is full of tourist destinations. However, you may visit the popular destinations of Rajasthan in two weeks time by customising your itinerary propertly. Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Bikaner, Bharatpur and Mount Abu are most famous tourist destinations of Rajasthan, so include these places in your plan. Also include camel safari and wildlife tours in your holiday planning.

singsub

i agree but would venture to say that ranakpur and kumbhalgarh/chitoregarh are better than bharatpur. also though the places are great individually they are a tad repeatative collectively - all in the "fort and surrounding city" mould. udaipur, ranakpur and pushkar stand apart though.