The good, bad and ugly sides to a holiday in India’s Rajasthan state
From resplendent forts to luxury locomotives, Rajasthan has much in the way of cultural riches – just remember to take your rubbish with you when you leave
The good
A travel poster come to life, Rajasthan is India at its most quintessential. Teeming cities give way to arid desert, fairy-tale palaces rub shoulders with audacious forts and clothes come in colours dazzling enough to cause cataracts. The piquant regional cuisine is fit for a maharaja and you won’t have to wait long until the drums start thumping and another festival gets under way.
The popular Golden Triangle tourist route reaches into Rajasthan at Jaipur but don’t leave the Land of Kings for the other corners of Delhi and Agra before you’ve had a thorough look around India’s largest state.
Huddled around a holy lake, the temple-rich town of Pushkar is on the bucket lists of Hindu pilgrims and tourists alike. If you’re in the market for a ship of the desert, you’ve come to the right place – up to 300,000 people converge on Pushkar each November for the world’s largest camel fair.
Shimmering like a mirage and within (camel) spitting distance of the frontier with Pakistan, the Golden City of Jaisalmer is a cross between an open-air museum, a giant sandcastle and the setting for a tale from the Arabian Nights.