Offbeat Rajasthan: Bundi, Deogarh & Rohet

Welcome to India. Our representative meets you at Delhi airport or railway station with a traditional garland welcome and escorts you to your hotel in a private air-conditioned car. After a long journey, the rest of the day is yours to rest and adjust to the new time zone. If you arrive early and feel like stretching your legs, take a gentle evening walk around Connaught Place, the elegant colonnaded circle at the heart of New Delhi, with its cafes, bookshops and busy street life. Your tour manager will brief you on the days ahead.

Begin in Old Delhi at Jama Masjid, one of India's largest mosques, built by Shah Jahan in the 1650s, then take a cycle-rickshaw through the crowded lanes of Chandni Chowk, a 17th-century bazaar of spices, silver and sweets. Drive past the red sandstone walls of the Red Fort and pause at Raj Ghat, the simple memorial to Mahatma Gandhi. In the afternoon, explore New Delhi: Humayun's Tomb, the Mughal garden tomb that inspired the Taj Mahal, and the 73-metre Qutub Minar, begun around 1200. End with a drive past India Gate and the grand government buildings of Lutyens' Delhi.

After breakfast, leave Delhi and drive south-west through the farmland of Haryana and into Rajasthan, with tea stops along the way. Arrive in Jaipur, Rajasthan's capital, founded in 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II and laid out on a grid inspired by ancient Indian planning. The old city's buildings were painted pink to welcome the Prince of Wales in 1876, earning it the name Pink City. Check in and spend the evening at leisure, or visit Birla Mandir, a white marble temple to Vishnu and Lakshmi that glows beautifully after dark.

Start early at Amber Fort, the hilltop palace of the Kachwaha rulers above Maota Lake, riding up to the ramparts by jeep. Explore its courtyards and the Sheesh Mahal, a hall lined with thousands of tiny mirrors. Pause for photos at Jal Mahal, the palace in the lake. In the afternoon, visit the City Palace, still home to the former royal family, and Jantar Mantar, the 18th-century observatory of giant stone instruments and a UNESCO site. See the honeycomb facade of Hawa Mahal, then browse the bazaars for block prints, gems and blue pottery.

Drive south to Kota on the Chambal river, once a princely state famous for its school of painting. Visit the City Palace and its Rao Madho Singh Museum, with fine miniature paintings, royal armour and murals. Continue about 40 km to Bundi, a small town of blue houses, stepwells and palaces tucked into a valley of the Aravalli hills. Rudyard Kipling stayed here and wrote of its palace. Check in to your heritage hotel and spend the evening wandering the old bazaar beneath the walls of the Garh Palace.

Explore Bundi with your guide. Climb up to the Garh Palace, whose Chitrashala is lined with blue and green murals of court life, gods and legends. Then visit Raniji ki Baori, a deep stepwell built in 1699 with carved pillars and arches, and wander the blue lanes of the old town. After lunch, drive south-west to Chittorgarh, about three and a half hours away, the great fort city of Mewar. Check in and enjoy the evening at leisure, with views of the fort on its hilltop.

Spend the morning exploring Chittorgarh Fort, the largest in India and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, spread across a high plateau. See the nine-storey Vijay Stambha, or Tower of Victory, the Jain Kirti Stambha, Rana Kumbha's palace and the water palace associated with Rani Padmini, and hear the stories of Rajput valour. After lunch, drive south-west to Udaipur, about two and a half hours away. Check in to your hotel and enjoy the evening by Lake Pichola, perhaps from a rooftop restaurant.

Visit the City Palace, a vast complex of courtyards, balconies and mirrored rooms built over four centuries and rising above Lake Pichola, then the carved Jagdish Temple nearby, dedicated to Vishnu. Stroll through Saheliyon-ki-Bari, the Garden of the Maidens, with its fountains, lotus pools and marble elephants. In the late afternoon, take a boat ride on Lake Pichola past the bathing ghats and the island palace of Jag Mandir, as the light turns gold over the white palaces. The evening is free for the old city's cafes.

After breakfast, drive north from Udaipur to Deogarh, about three hours away, a quiet rural town in the Aravalli hills crowned by a 17th-century hilltop palace, now a heritage hotel run by the royal family. Spend the afternoon on a walk through the village, its markets and farmland, meeting farmers, potters and weavers. You might visit small painted temples and the lakes around the town. In the evening, watch the sunset from the palace terraces and enjoy dinner prepared from the family's own recipes.

After breakfast, drive west from Deogarh to Rohet, about four hours away, where a family-run 17th-century fort has been turned into a welcoming heritage hotel, with a pool, gardens and horses. In the afternoon, take a jeep safari to the nearby Bishnoi villages. The Bishnoi community is known for its devotion to protecting wildlife and trees, and blackbuck and chinkara often graze near their homes. Visit a potter and a weaver, and share tea in a village home. Dinner is served at the fort.

After breakfast, and perhaps a morning ride or a walk around the lake at Rohet, drive east to Pushkar, about four hours away. Pushkar is one of the holiest towns in India, built around a small sacred lake ringed by ghats and white temples. Visit the Brahma Temple, one of very few dedicated to the creator god, and walk the lakeside ghats where pilgrims bathe. In the evening, join the aarti as lamps are floated on the water, then wander the bazaar for bangles, textiles and rose products.

After breakfast, drive north from Pushkar across the dry plains to Mandawa in the Shekhawati region, the land of the painted havelis. Here, wealthy Marwari merchants of the 18th and 19th centuries built grand mansions and covered them inside and out with frescoes of gods, legends and the marvels of their day, from trains to aeroplanes. Check in to your heritage hotel, often a converted castle, and in the late afternoon take a guided heritage walk through the town's lanes, painted havelis and old stepwells.

Spend the morning on a guided walk through Mandawa's frescoed havelis, built by the merchant families of Shekhawati. Look for paintings of gods and legends alongside scenes of trains, motor cars and early aeroplanes, and visit the old stepwell and the castle at the heart of the town. After lunch, drive back to Delhi, about six hours away. You are dropped at the airport for your onward flight or at your hotel. It is a fitting end to a journey through Rajasthan's royal and merchant past.