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Mark Moxon's Travel Writing

Great Journeys: India: Northwest India

Visiting the sights of Rajasthan, this journey includes some of the most evocative destinations India has to offer.

Map of northwest India

Click on the links below to find out more about individual destinations.

Journey Summary

We start in Delhi, soon hopping on the bus to the pink city of Jaipur, home to shops, scams and strange happenings, after which Pushkar provides a beautifully holy place to take it easy for a few days. Udaipur, home to James Bond movies and idyllic hotels, is our next stop, after which we turn north for Jodhpur, dominated by its amazing cliff-top fortress. A train ride to Jaisalmer reveals a fairy-tale desert fort and the opportunity to take a camel safari in the Thar Desert; this is followed by the holy city of Bikaner, with its rat-infested temple at the top of the must-see list. Capping off this journey we visit Amritsar, spiritual home to the delightful Sikhs, and from here it's an easy journey back to Delhi.

Suggested Itinerary

The following is only a suggested itinerary – one of the things about India is how it manages to make all carefully laid plans irrelevant after just a few hours. In India planning as you go is pretty much the only thing to do, and bear in mind that transit days are often just as fascinating as days spent exploring, especially if you're taking the train...

Day Suggested Itinerary
1 Fly to Delhi
2 One day in Delhi
3 Delhi to Jaipur
4-5 Two days in Jaipur
6 Jaipur to Pushkar
7-9 Three days in Pushkar
10 Pushkar to Udaipur
11-12 Two days in Udaipur
13 Udaipur to Jodhpur
14-15 Two days in Jodhpur
16 Jodhpur to Jaisalmer
17 One day in Jaisalmer
18-20 Three days on a camel safari in the Thar Desert
21 One day in Jaisalmer
22 Jaisalmer to Bikaner
23 Day trip to Deshnok
24 Bikaner to Amritsar
25-26 Two days in Amritsar
27 Amritsar to Delhi
28 One day in Delhi
29 Fly from Delhi