Rajasthan in 7 Days

It was for the very first time that I was traveling with my family which included our two-year-old daughter on a long trip. To be precise for 7 days we wished to cover Rajasthan as much as possible. Due to our work schedule along 10 – 15 days complete Rajasthan tour was an impossible feat which we cannot even think of so we decided to split our Rajasthan adventure into sections. The biggest chunk of holidays that we the people from Kolkata would normally get is during Durga Puja where the city comes to stand still and the whole city is in a party mood. The streets become choked and the best possible means of transportation would be to use your legs to travel from one place to another. So it’s quite common for people to actually go on a vacation during this period and the same applies to me.

Due to the limited timeframe, the itinerary had to be perfect and should be able to cover as many places possible but keeping in mind that we will not rush through them and also another point to be taken care of would be that our toddler daughter should be comfortable.

If you cannot manage to book all the hotels, sightseeing, local transportation etc. you need not worry there are many organizations that have Rajasthan Tour Packages which you can check out online and most of their rates are very competitive. For Rajasthan Tourism is one of the biggest income generators thus you are sure to feel comfortable and safe.

Rajasthan seven day Itinerary

Somehow you might say that by luck I managed to get all the tickets confirmed for all the internal train travels between Rajasthan. The final plan was something like this:-

Kolkata to Jaipur

Jaipur (City Tour)

Jaipur to Ajmer / Pushkar (Day Trip)

Jaipur to Jaisalmer

Jaisalmer (City Tour)

Jaisalmer to Longewala (Day Trip)

Jaisalmer to Jodhpur

Jodhpur (City Tour)

Jodhpur to Kolkata

Rajasthan is a big state and all the major tourist spots are spread over the state thus covering all the tourist spots at one go is extremely difficult with the above itinerary we would be covering quite a few major important towns with some world famous palaces.

Places To See In Jaipur (Day 1)

Amer Fort

Jaigarh Fort

Jal Mahal

Jantar Mantar

Albert Hall Museum

Birla Mandir

Hawa Mahal

City Palace

Nahargarh Fort

Rambagh Palace

Jaipur Zoo

To see the entire place mentioned above it would take two to three days and we had just a day in Jaipur so we decided to see the most important places and skip the rest. It’s always recommended to take hire a car for a day so that maximum places can be covered.

Jaipur to Ajmer / Pushkar – Day Trip (Day 2)

Ajmer and Pushkar are located close to each other so on day two we decided to hire a car and go for a day trip to Ajmer and Pushkar. The roads from Jaipur are all four land highways thus expect a quick and smooth ride. We had our train from Jaipur to Jaisalmer in the late evening thus had the whole full day for this trip.

For Ajmer Dargah you need to park your vehicle a bit far from the main entrance and walk the rest of the way, photography is prohibited inside the Dargah thus keep your cameras back in the car. At Pushkar, there is not much to see unless the Pushkar Cattle Fair is on however you can always visit the Bramha Temple and the Pushkar Lake.

Jaisalmer (Day 3)

Jaisalmer was actually the main reason why I was visiting Rajasthan in the first place, I always wanted to see Jaisalmer fort since I had watched the movie Sonar Kella by the famous director Satyajit Ray. However, this town has other attractions too and a day or two in this part of Rajasthan is always recommended.

The places that you can visit in Jaisalmer are:-

Jaisalmer Fort & Museum

Nathmal Ji Ki Haveli

Patwon Ki Haveli

Bada Bagh

Gadisar Lake

Jaisalmer Wind Park

Jain Temple

Sam Sand Dunes

Jaisalmer (Day 4)

It’s difficult to see all the above places in a single day so we left some for the next day also. All the above places are within a small radius thus can easily be covered by foot or by an auto. Only for the trip to Sum Sand Dunes, you would need to book a package trip which would include transportation, camel ride, evening entertainment program and dinner. These packages can be booked by the hotel reception desk.

Jaisalmer (Day 5)

We were having our train to Jodhpur in the evening so basically, we had a day to kill not knowing what to do we approached the hotel owner and he informed us about Longewala. This was the same Longewala which was the highlight of the second Indo-Pak war. Since this place is a bit far away from Jaisalmer we decided to hire a car for the day trip. Even though you cannot see the actual border you get to see the barbed wire fence with watch towers on the Indian side. At the main junction, there are some relics from the war like tanks and trucks that were either captured or damaged during the war.

That evening we took the evening train from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur our last stop in our Rajasthan adventure. The distance between Jaisalmer and Jodhpur is not much and even after a slight delay, we reach Jodhpur by 11 PM.

Jodhpur (Day 6)

If you have ever seen photographs of Rajasthan with indigo blue colored houses from a top view then it’s from Jodhpur. It’s relatively a small town and can be covered in around two days. These are some of the places that you can visit around Jodhpur:-

Mehrangarh Fort

Jaswant Thada

Umaid Bhawan Palace

Clock Tower (Ghanta Ghar)

Sardar Market

Mandore Garden

Jodhpur (Day 7)

On the first day, we managed to see the two major tourist attractions which are Mehrangarh Fort and Umaid Bhawan Palace so on the second day we visited the rest of the places.

We had our train to Agra in the evening since we did not get a direct train from Jodhpur to Kolkata. We stayed for two days in Agra before proceeding back to Kolkata. We have just covered some of the important locations in Rajasthan and still places like Udaipur, Mount Abu, Bikaner etc. are yet to be covered so I am again planning a phased trip soon to Rajasthan may be next year. To spice things up I might do a bike tour around these places.