Rajasthan known as the Land of Maharajas is one of the beautiful example how beautiful and royal India and Indian culture is. Rajasthan is known for its royalty, culture, tradition, arts, vibrant colors, scintillating lakes, masterpiece architectures, food and much more. So, grab your gears and pack your bags for experiencing this beautiful state in North India.
The Route:
We started from Bangalore early morning and reached Jodhpur. We thought we would cover Jodhpur with the Sam sand dunes, Then proceed next day to Udaipur. We opted for a bus to reach Udaipur and spend 2 days there. We then went to Pushkar. It is just 2 hours road trip from Jaipur or you can take a bus from Jaipur/Udaipur. Then our final destination was Jaipur where we spent the rest of the trip exploring places.
The Suggested Route:
Jodhpur -> Udaipur -> Pushkar -> Alwar - > Jaipur
Jaisalmer (Thar)-> Jodhpur -> Pushkar-> Alwar -> Jaipur
Itinerary:
This is the itinerary we spread across 7 days:
Jodhpur is called as the BLUE CITY/Sun City/Gateway to Thar. Try to roam around the Blue city as you may find some awesome doors and buildings to create memories in instagram.
Top Attractions: Umaid bhawan, Mehrangarh Fort, Jaswant thada, Blue city tour, Ghanta ghar.
1. We started with Mehrangarh fort (The Must visit place ) You can visit this fort in the morning to see the architecture, intrinsic designs of the fort and visit in night to see the stunning beauty of this fort with Lights. The entry fee is 60 Rs for Indians and 600Rs for Foreigners. The Chamundeshwari temple inside the fort gives a breathtaking view of the city from the fort.
2. This is the marble marvel of Rajasthan. One of the finest architectures where this place is the mausoleum of jodhpur called as Taj mahal of mewars. The view of Umaid bhavan palace from the Jaswant thada is mind blowing. The entry fee is 15 Rs for Indians and 30 Rs for foreigners.
3. Umaid Bhawan Palace is magnificent. It’s made of sandstone put together without the use of mortar. The project took 15 years to complete and employed 3,000 artisans. With its balconies, gardens, courtyards, the palace symbolises the best of Indo-Saracenic architecture. A part is now handled by Taj groups as heritage resort is not permitted for visitors and rest of the palace is allowed to visit by tourists.
4. Then we proceeded to Ghanta ghar (Clock Tower) Market where you can do shopping of dress, crafts, jewellery and eat lots of street food. You can try street side Chotta Tikki, Pyaaz Kachori etc.
Driving one and half hours is the Osian Sand dunes in Thar desert. Go for Early sunrise or a late sunset to see the awesome colors of the weather. The cost for a camel ride is 1500 for single person and 3000 for Group of 3 or 4.
Top food stories: Ghanta ghar chats.
Where to Stay : We stayed at Umed hotel. It was good. we had pre booked the taxis. You can use ola/travel websites for transportations and stay. You can always prefer a heritage hotel to enjoy the architecture. Jodhpur to Udaipur we had our bus booked at Khalsa travels.
Udaipur is called as the city of Lakes/ White city. So as its name the place was so beautiful, clean and clear.
Top Attractions: City palace, bagore ki haveli, Boating and Sunset at Lake pichola, Kumbhalgarh fort, Ranakpur jain temple, Eklingji temple, Vintage car museum.
We started with the City palace. To a awesome structure and colorful doors and windows with marble-work, mirror-work, silver-work, inlay-work, wall paintings, murals. It also had marvellous view from the top of the palace. This palace is an example of the splendour royal lifestyle of the rulers of mewars, and it still appears to be just as majestic. Of all you get picturesque images if you roam around this place. You can hire a auto so that they will drop at the location because the road is hilly and has small width cab does not go beyond certain points.
Route:
It is located on the eastern banks of Pichola lake. So you can plan your route like Palace -> Bagore ki haveli -> Lake pichola (Boating and Sunset) -> Ambrai Ghat .
Bagore ki haveli has a beautiful structure on the banks of lake pichola. We found a awesome to dine - Hari garh Restaurant. It had an awesome view from top floor, candle lit dinner awesome interiors and good food.
We stayed at Garden Hotels by HRH. To say they provided the best service is the least. The hotel had a vintage car museum which opens at 11 AM . These are few pictures from the museum and there are many more cars there.
We proceeded to have a look at the India's Longest fort "Kumbhalgarh Fort" which has made its mark in history as the second largest wall after the Great Wall of China. Next is one of the most finest jain architecture "Ranakpur Jain temple" and Eklingji temple . Udaipur to Kumbhalgarh fort is 85km and it took us 2 and half hour to reach there. In mid way we stopped for a road side wala poha.(Must try)
Kumbhalgarh fort has a great history as its spreads its great wall over aravalli hills. It is also called as the great wall of India. Locals say that when they planned constructing this fort, they faced many problems during construction but was resolved by performing a human sacrifice and the main gate which is the Hanuman Pol, contains the shrine and a temple to thank and remember the great sacrifice of the sage. The badal mahal [ Mansion of clouds] is a portion of main fort has views from top of the hill. It takes 3 hrs to see the fort completely. It also has a Neelkanth Mahadev temple which is known as one of the most powerful temples.
Kumbhalgarh to Ranakpur takes around 1 and half hours Ranakpur jain temple is known for its white architecture. It is open till 6PM. This is a must visit place near udaipur.
Top food stories: Hari garh restaurant, Rajwada bites(With music and dance performance)
Top places to stay: Udai kothi, Garden hotel by HRH
Udaipur to Pushkar is 277 kms and takes 5 hrs to reach it via road trip. Top attractions of Pushkar is you can visit the pushkar camel fair places and get dressed up as Rajasthani and click some cool pictures. Then proceed with the pushkar lake followed by Mandir, Main street for some street wala chats.
Top food stories: Main Street
The Pink city / jaipur is another one awesome place with traditional touch, food and endless shopping.
Top Attractions: Forts. Light and sound show at amber / albert hall museum, hawa mahal lights at night, hawa mahal, city palace, Swirl around patrika gate.
Fort Day : The day was filled up visiting forts amber fort -> Jaigarh Fort -> Jal mahal palace lined up. Jal mahal palace is good after evenings as you see the lights in the mahal. Tourists are not permitted inside but you can see the awesome view from the road.
Amber fort/palace is one of the UNESCO known forts in jaipur. One can hire an elephant ride to reach the entrance / take cab to reach there. Jaipur to Amer Fort takes around 30 mins to reach
The Mughal architecture greatly influenced the architectural style of the fort. It is constructed with red sandstone and marble, the attractive opulent palace is laid out on four levels, each with a courtyard. It consists of the Diwan-e-Aam or "Hall of Public Audience", the Diwan-e-Khas or "Hall of Private Audience", the Sheesh Mahal (mirror palace), or Jai Mandir, and the Sukh Niwas where a cool climate is artificially created by winds that blow over a water cascade within the palace.
From Amer proceed to Jaigarh to witness the longest wall of the fort. One of the picturesque place with plenty of birds. On the way back to Jaipur visit Jal mahal from the road view.
We went to the Hawa mahal at Night to witness the Lights and architecture that's glowing in dark.
This day we proceeded to visit Galtaji Temple-> City Palace-> Hawa Mahal.
Galtaji temple is in the Outskirts of Jaipur in the Agra-Jaipur Highway. It is 10kms from Jaipur main. It is in the Aravalli hills situated by the forest area where If one visits at the sunrise time one can visit more than 30 peacocks on the road, more than 100 parrots and in the temple one can see more than 500 monkeys sitting all over the way. The Galtaji temple has a Green water pond in the centre with water always. The architecture is completely different with a royal temple for Lord Ram , Krishna and Hanuman. It is now quite famous among the visitors as many foreigners are visiting the place. The route is you can rent a ola and you can ask him wait for 30 mins to pick you back since it is so deep inside. He may charge you 350 for round trip else you can hire a auto from the city. The auto makes you spend around 150 rupees. Such a beautiful architecture and awesome place but can be maintained a little more.
Hawa mahal, Jaipur’s most-distinctive pink-painted, delicately honeycombed hive landmark that rises a dizzying five storeys. It was constructed in 1799 to enable ladies of the royal household to watch the life and processions of the city. The top offers stunning views over Jantar Mantar and the City Palace in one direction. The palace of wind has 953 windows(jharokhas) that describes the heritage of rajputs and their architecture
City Palace forms one of the most famous tourist attractions and a major landmark in Jaipur. Among the various forts and palaces of Jaipur, City Palace stands apart, with its outstanding art and architecture. Pritam Niwas Chowk! Lotus Gate of City Palace. The Lotus gate is the south west gate is adorned with Lotus petals in architecture and flower patterns. It represents summer and Lord Shiva . The view from the Sarvato Bhadra courtyard. The Jaipur palace has a variety of architecture and This place was the Diwan-e-Khas of older time.It has a single square open hall. The left is the way for the Chandra mahal and right you have Sabha niwas. The city palace has the best interior with blue and white painted rooms. Indian normal entry fee is 300 Rs and for visiting mahal its 1500 Rs
Jaipur city palace is known for its variety of doors(Peacock Gate, Lotus gate, Rose gate, Lehriya gate of Pritam Niwas Chowk)
In the evening we walked around the Hawa mahal , Bapu bazaar for shopping.
Next day started with visiting Central park in the early morning for a fresh nature walk. Then proceed to Jawahar circle for the Vibrant Colored Patrika Gate! The entrance of Jawahar Circle is through the Patrika gate, which has been designed beautifully. If you ever feel the need to get back in touch with the traditional side of Jaipur but are scared to go to the crowded walled city because of the traffic, this is the place to visit. This gate has been made keeping in mind the other 7 gates which are present in the walled city. Majestic, opulent series of gates at Jawahar Circle's entrance Patrika gate gives you a sneak peek into the vibrant culture of Rajasthan as each pillar is dedicated to some or the other part of the state. Hand paintings of temples, forts, palaces, portraits of Jaipur rulers, blue pottery, jewelry, photographs of Amer, Hawa Mahal, City Palace, Jal Mahal are found here to give a glimpse of the entire history of Jaipur.
When you are in Jaipur try to visit the haunted Bhangarh fort and Chand baori step well. It is 100 kms from Jaipur and located at the borders of the Sariska Tiger Reserve is not for the faint-hearted. It is forbidden to enter borders of the haunted Bhangarh Fort before sunrise and after sunset.
Chand baori step well is known for its beauty. Located in the Abhaneri village is dedicated to goddess of happiness and Joy known as Harshat Mata. The history about the Construction of this step well is to conserve maximum amount of water. At the bottom of the well, temperature is 5 degrees lesser than that of outside temperature, this well was an iconic place for the gatherings during the ancient days. The well also composed of a room built for the Royal Family to rest. The well has about 3500 steps with a depth of 30 meters. The Chand Baori is 13 stories massive construction.
In the evening , we visited the Albert hall museum which has a crowd of pigeons near it and has one of the awesome architecture. The museum is famous for light and sound show in evening. It starts around 6PM and ends by 10pm.
Top Places to Stay: Zostel, Hosteller, Welcome heritage, Umaid bhawan
Top places to Munch Bites: Tapri cafe (Breakfast), Tattoo cafe and bar (For hawa mahal view) , Govindam restaurant (Lunch) , Robot restaurant, School cafe (Dinner and snacks), Friends themed cafe.
Flights : Indigo
Cab Service Used: from Ola, Rajputana travels, Go ibibo
Travel Tips: We visited in winter. In winter the weather is pretty cool, so please carry some jackets, sweaters and woolen caps. The temperature will be between 7 deg celsius to 13 deg throughout the day. Avoid long vacation in summer as the weather will be so hot. Prefer to visit between October to March.
#RememberRajasthan