Luxury Rajasthan Tour with Private Chauffeur

At Indira Gandhi International Airport you meet two people who matter for the next fortnight: our representative, who checks your documents and hands over a welcome pack, and the chauffeur who will drive you all the way to Udaipur. He introduces himself by name, loads the bags into the boot and shows you the car, its water supply, charging points and the small cool box he keeps topped up. The run to the hotel takes about an hour, which gives you a chance to talk through the route, the music you like and how you prefer to spend your days, fast and full or slow and easy.

Check-in is at The Leela Palace New Delhi, our usual choice, or a similar luxury hotel, subject to availability, in the embassy district of Chanakyapuri. Rooms are large and quiet, and the rooftop pool is pleasant for a swim once you have slept. There are no fixed activities today. If you would like to stretch your legs in the evening, your chauffeur can take you to the lawns around India Gate, where Delhi families gather for ice cream and balloon sellers work the crowds after dark. He will collect you from the lobby at a time you agree, and his mobile number is saved in your phone. Overnight stay in Delhi.

The day opens in the lanes of Shahjahanabad, the walled city built by the emperor who also built the Taj Mahal. Your chauffeur drops you at the Red Fort, closed on Mondays, where a local guide leads you past the Lahori Gate and through the Diwan-i-Aam to the white marble pavilions overlooking the old riverbed. From there you walk into Chandni Chowk for a guided tasting: crisp jalebi from a century-old sweet shop, stuffed paranthe fried in ghee in Paranthe Wali Gali and a glass of thick lassi. Your guide steers you through the spice lanes of Khari Baoli, where the air is heavy with chilli and cardamom.
Your chauffeur meets you at an agreed spot and drives to the calmer avenues of Lutyens' Delhi for the afternoon. Stop at Humayun's Tomb, then visit the Lotus Temple in Kalkaji, whose petal-shaped marble halls are open to people of every faith and are closed on Mondays. If time allows, the car can swing past Agrasen ki Baoli, a stepwell hidden between the office blocks of Connaught Place, where the steps drop down to a dry well and pigeons roost in the arches. The evening is free for dinner at Indian Accent or one of the hotel's restaurants. Overnight stay in Delhi.

After breakfast your chauffeur takes the Yamuna Expressway south towards Agra, one of the smoothest roads in the country, with clean service plazas for a coffee break. On a long straight stretch he may point out the sugarcane fields and brick kilns of western Uttar Pradesh, and the tall chimneys that dot the landscape between Mathura and the Taj city. You reach Agra around midday and check in at the Trident Agra or ITC Mughal, subject to availability, where large gardens give you room to rest after the drive. A light lunch at the hotel sets you up for the afternoon visits.

Your local guide joins at about three o'clock for Itmad-ud-Daulah, a small marble tomb on the east bank of the Yamuna built by Empress Nur Jahan for her father. Its delicate stone screens and inlay work came before the Taj Mahal and influenced it heavily, and because fewer visitors come here, it is calm and good for photographs. Continue to the Agra Fort to walk through the Amar Singh Gate and see the Khas Mahal and the Sheesh Mahal, a mirrored bathhouse. Your chauffeur suggests Pinch of Spice or a similar restaurant for dinner if you prefer to eat out tonight. Overnight stay in Agra.

Morning starts early with the Taj Mahal, which is closed on Fridays, timed for the first light when the marble turns from grey to soft pink. Your guide will take you through the main gate and explain the symmetry of the garden, the four minarets that lean very slightly outward to protect the tomb in an earthquake and the cenotaphs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan inside. Take your time on the marble platform and the riverside terrace before walking back through the garden. Your chauffeur collects you at the eastern gate and returns you to the hotel for a relaxed breakfast and check-out.

The road to Jaipur crosses eastern Rajasthan, and halfway your chauffeur leaves the highway for Abhaneri village. Here the Chand Baori stepwell drops thirteen storeys into the ground, with around three and a half thousand narrow steps arranged in perfect triangles. Next door the ruined Harshat Mata temple shows fine eighth-century carvings of musicians and dancers. Back on the road, you reach Jaipur in the late afternoon and check in at The Oberoi Rajvilas, our usual choice, where courtyards, a tented villa garden and an old Shiva temple sit within thirty-two acres. Dinner is at the hotel tonight. Overnight stay in Jaipur.

Amber Fort is first on the list, reached by car up the winding road to the Jaleb Chowk courtyard. Your guide introduces the fort's history as the seat of the Kachwaha rulers before the move to Jaipur, and leads you through the Sukh Niwas, where water once ran through channels in the walls to cool the rooms, and the Sheesh Mahal with its mirror mosaics. From the ramparts you can see the Jaigarh walls snaking across the hills. On the way back, stop at the Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing in Amber village, set in a restored haveli, which shows the craft of block printing.

After lunch, the Jaipur city tour continues with the City Palace museum and its textile gallery, then the Hawa Mahal from the opposite side of the road, where a café terrace gives a straight view of its 953 small windows. In the late afternoon your chauffeur drives you up the steep road to Nahargarh Fort. Inside, the Madhavendra Bhawan has nine identical apartments built for the maharaja's queens, connected by hidden corridors. Stay for sunset at the fort's café, when the whole Pink City lights up below you, before returning down the hill in the dark. Overnight stay in Jaipur.

Today is deliberately loose, and your chauffeur is at your disposal from mid-morning. Many guests like to begin at Galta Ji, a temple complex in a narrow gorge on the eastern edge of the city, where natural springs fill a series of stepped tanks and hundreds of macaques roam freely. It is best visited in the morning or late afternoon, when the light slants across the ochre walls and the pilgrims come to bathe. Others prefer a shopping morning: block-printed textiles at Anokhi or Soma, blue pottery from Kripal Kumbh, gemstones in Johari Bazaar or a made-to-measure jacket from a tailor your chauffeur recommends.

In the afternoon you might return to the hotel spa, which is one of the best in Rajasthan, or visit the Albert Hall Museum and the Birla Mandir. Your chauffeur knows the city well and can suggest a lassi at Lassiwala on MI Road or a thali at a family restaurant. In the evening, consider a performance at the Jawahar Kala Kendra or dinner at Bar Palladio, with its painted blue walls and candlelit garden. If you want to try a kite-flying lesson on a rooftop, mention it the day before and we will arrange it with a local family. Overnight stay in Jaipur.

The drive west to Pushkar is short and easy, with a good highway as far as Ajmer and then a winding pass over the Nag Pahar hill. On the way, your chauffeur can stop near Kishangarh, famous for its marble market and the white marble dumping yard that looks like a snowfield, and for the delicate Bani Thani style of miniature painting. In Ajmer, you can visit the Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, a Sufi shrine that draws pilgrims of all faiths, especially on Thursday evenings when qawwali singers perform in the courtyard. Cover your head before entering, and your chauffeur will keep your shoes safe in the car.

Arrive in Pushkar by mid-afternoon and check in at The Westin Pushkar Resort or Ananta Spa and Resort, subject to availability, both set among hills just outside the town. Pushkar is a small, pedestrian-friendly place, so your chauffeur drops you near the main bazaar in the late afternoon and you continue on foot with a local guide. Walk along the Sadar Bazaar, past stalls selling rose syrup, silver jewellery and colourful textiles, to reach the ghats in time for the evening aarti. Fifty-two bathing ghats ring the lake, and the sound of bells and chanting drifts across the water as the lamps are lit. Overnight stay in Pushkar.

Pushkar is one of the oldest towns in India and one of the few with a temple dedicated to Lord Brahma, the creator in Hindu belief. Your guide takes you to the Brahma temple early, before the queues, explaining its red spire and the silver turtle set into the floor. Leather items, including belts and wallets, are not allowed inside. Afterwards, ride the ropeway up Ratnagiri hill to the Savitri temple, dedicated to Brahma's first wife, for a broad view of the lake, the town and the desert scrub beyond. Come back down for a late breakfast at one of the rooftop cafés overlooking the ghats.

The afternoon belongs to the countryside, which is where a private chauffeur really proves its worth. Your driver takes you along the lanes outside town past rose farms, whose petals are dried for gulkand and rose water, and into a village where Rajasthani families keep camels and goats. If you visit during the Pushkar Camel Fair in October or November, he will find the best viewing spots on the fairground. Otherwise, a short camel cart ride into the dunes at sunset is a pleasant way to end the day, before a quiet dinner by the pool at the resort. Overnight stay in Pushkar.

Leave Pushkar after breakfast and drive west into Marwar, the land of the Rathore clan. The road becomes drier and flatter, and you begin to see the red turbans of herders and the round mud huts of the desert fringe. Your chauffeur suggests a stop at a roadside dhaba for mirchi vada, a fat green chilli stuffed with spiced potato and fried in batter, which is a Jodhpur speciality, and a cup of strong tea. As you approach the city, Mehrangarh Fort appears on its rock above the plain, often first spotted from more than ten kilometres away, rising sheer from the sandstone ridge.

Check in at RAAS Jodhpur, our usual choice, a boutique hotel in the old city whose rooms look directly at the fort walls, or Umaid Bhawan Palace, subject to availability. In the late afternoon, your guide leads you on a walk through the blue lanes of the Brahmpuri district below the fort, where many houses are painted indigo. Continue to the Sardar Market and the Ghanta Ghar clock tower, where spice merchants sell red chilli powder and dried kair berries, and the Mishrilal shop serves its famous makhaniya lassi. End the day with a drink on the hotel terrace as the fort is floodlit. Overnight stay in Jodhpur.

Mehrangarh is one of the largest forts in India, and the morning is the best time to see it. Your chauffeur drives you up the winding road to the main gate, and your guide leads you through the seven gates, past the handprints of royal widows who committed sati, into the palace courtyards. Inside, the museum has fine collections of royal palanquins, howdahs, turbans and weapons, and the Phool Mahal and Moti Mahal show off gilded ceilings and stained glass. The audio guide is excellent, and the café on the ramparts is good for a coffee with a view over the blue city below.

Afterwards, visit Jaswant Thada, a white marble memorial to Maharaja Jaswant Singh II with a small garden and a lake. In the afternoon, your chauffeur takes you to the Umaid Bhawan Palace museum, which covers part of the art deco residence of the present maharaja, and the vintage car collection displayed on the lawn. If you prefer an adventure, the Flying Fox zip-line course over the fort's walls and lakes is a fun option. In the evening, consider dinner at Indique, a rooftop restaurant with a direct view of Mehrangarh lit up at night, best booked a day ahead. Overnight stay in Jodhpur.

This is the most scenic drive of the trip, and your chauffeur will take it slowly. Leaving Jodhpur, the road passes through the Rohet area, where you can stop to visit a Bishnoi village and see the community's commitment to protecting blackbuck and chinkara gazelles. Further south, the landscape turns hilly and green as you enter the Aravalli range. A stop at a Persian wheel, where oxen still draw water from a well, is a favourite photo spot. Lunch is at a heritage hotel near Ranakpur, often a simple thali of dal, gatte ki sabzi and bajra roti, served on a shaded veranda.

The Ranakpur Jain temple, built in the fifteenth century from pale marble, is famous for its 1,444 carved pillars, no two of which are alike. Your guide explains the Jain beliefs reflected in the carvings and the complex's layout. Non-Jain visitors are allowed in from noon, and leather items must be left outside. The final part of the drive winds through forested hills, past mango trees and small villages, to arrive in Udaipur by early evening. Check in at The Oberoi Udaivilas, our usual choice, or a similar luxury hotel on the banks of Lake Pichola, subject to availability. Overnight stay in Udaipur.

The Udaipur city tour begins at the City Palace, a complex of courtyards and balconies built by successive Mewar rulers over four centuries. Your guide shows you the Mor Chowk with its peacock mosaics in coloured glass, the Zenana Mahal and the views across the lake from the upper terraces. Next, walk down to the Jagdish Temple, a seventeenth-century Vishnu shrine with finely carved elephants on its plinth, and through the old lanes where miniature painters work in small studios. A stop at the Saheliyon ki Bari garden, with its fountains and lotus pools, is a peaceful way to round off the morning.
In the late afternoon, enjoy a private boat ride on Lake Pichola, passing the bathing ghats, the Lake Palace hotel and the island of Jag Mandir, where the young Shah Jahan once found shelter. At sunset, your chauffeur drives you up to the Sajjangarh Monsoon Palace, perched on a hill to the west of the city, which offers wide views over the lakes and the Aravalli range. On your final evening, consider a farewell dinner at Ambrai, a lakeside restaurant facing the City Palace, and thank your chauffeur, who will drive you to the airport tomorrow. Overnight stay in Udaipur.

Enjoy a slow last breakfast overlooking the lake, then pack at your own pace. Your chauffeur makes his final run of the trip, driving you to Maharana Pratap Airport at Dabok, about twenty-five kilometres and forty minutes from the city, in time for your domestic flight to Delhi. The flight takes around one hour twenty minutes. Before saying goodbye, many guests like to take a photograph with the driver who has shared nearly two weeks of their holiday, and he will help you with the check-in queue and the luggage trolley before he heads back home to Jaipur, a long drive he makes the same day.

At Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, our representative meets you on arrival and transfers you to the international terminal, or to a hotel near the airport if your onward flight is late at night. We are happy to book a day room at a hotel in Aerocity so you can shower and rest before your long flight home. Our Jaipur office stays in touch by phone until you are safely checked in for your flight. Thank you for choosing Heritage India Private Tours for your luxury Rajasthan tour; we would be delighted to have the same chauffeur drive you again on your next visit.