"I travel because I'd rather look back At My Life,
saying 'I can't believe I did that,' instead of 'If Only I Had...'"
-Florine Bos
INDIA
November 9th - 23rd 2024
$4680.00 AUD p.p twin share
with local guides
Standard occupancy 2 persons, inclusive
Single occupancy extra $1,895 AUD per person
India is a country of tipping, this tour includes all tipping - guides, hotels, monuments, drivers, and cameleers on safari
*Exact 2021 dates will be listed early in 2020 and expected to be the same as 2020
Accommodation Sharing Double / Twin room basis ~ Single rooms incur the single supplement additional extra extra fee. An optional extra extension tour has been added for guests to visit the Taj Mahal.
Discover India with Hiteshwar, Karen and Ed on an adventure to a world of wonder, luxury palaces, historic forts, temples, markets, and more. India is a welcoming country with endless hospitality and points of interest for every kind of traveller.
Guests can be captivated by traditional music, dancing, and festivities as they explore with our crew and local guides experiencing culture, cuisine and an extraordinary camel journey.
Rajasthan is enriched with vibrant history and a culture with an unparalleled call to celebration. This journey is a magnificent way to explore the rustic beauty of the Great Indian Desert and participate in the festivities at the spectacular Pushkar Camel Fair.
Rajasthan, India - Land of the Kings
Rajasthan is India at its colourful best...the incredible light, the austere and atmospheric landscapes of the desert and ancient Aravali mountains, the romance of Rajasthan’s heritage and chivalry, the hospitality and humour of the people whether from regal lineage or dignified desert-dwellers, and their arts and crafts.
It is also the largest state of the Republic of India, encompassing the Great Indian Desert known as the Thar. The people of this region have filled the plain canvas of
the arid desert with a profusion of vivid colours. The sheer vibrancy and festivities
in their lifestyle leaves no room for anything dull or pale.
Once guests arrive in India, they will be met at the airport. We provide bi-lingual guides and transportation in an air-conditioned vehicles for most of the journey except in Udaipur where the sightseeing tour will be conducted in local tuk-tuks due to the ancient cities narrow streets originally planned for foot traffic and nothing wider than an elephant's
Step back in time...India will change your life!
Day 01: 2021: New Delhi ARRIVAL
Visiting enchanting Rajasthan is always an exciting experience. Enriched with glorious history and culture, this 13 days and 12 nights Rajasthan tour package is one of the magnificent ways to explore the rustic beauty of the desert. From the luxury palaces to the huge forts, to the havelis, to a safari at the Amber Fort in Jaipur, it has something fascinating to offer to everyone. You will also get captivated with the traditional folk dance and music. So, with our thoughtfully designed adventure, have a brush with history and return with pleasurable memories.
On arrival at Delhi our representatives Devendar, Hiteshwar and Karen will meet you at the airport & welcomes each guest with a traditional Indian greeting or gesture of respect, made by bringing the palms together(NAMASTEY)as well as assist you through the check in process at the hotel.
Meals Included: Dinner
Accommodation: Radisson BLU Plaza / Holiday Inn aerocity.
Day 2: 2021: DELHI – UDAIPUR (FLIGHT)
New Delhi to Udaipur in Rajasthan ~ Udaipur is known as Venice of the East!
After breakfast, transfer from hotel to Delhi airport - Arrival in Udaipur.
Udaipur, formerly the capital of the Mewar Kingdom, is a city in the western Indian state of Rajasthan. Founded by Maharana Udai Singh II in 1559, it’s set around a series of lakes and is known for its lavish royal residences. The City Palace overlooks Lake Pichola, and is a monumental complex of 11 palaces, courtyards and gardens, famed for its intricate peacock mosaics.
Udaipur has a romance of setting unmatched in Rajasthan and arguably in all India – Udaipur’s tag of ‘the most romantic spot on the continent of India’ was first applied in 1829 by Colonel James Tod, the East India Company’s first political agent in the region. Snuggled beside tranquil Lake Pichola, with the purple ridges of the Aravalli Range stretching away in every direction. Fantastical palaces, temples, havelis (traditional, ornately decorated residences) and countless narrow, crooked, timeless streets add the human counterpoint to the city’s natural charms. For the visitor there's the serenity of boat rides on the lakes, the bustle and colour of shopping bazaars, a lively arts scene, the quaint old-world feel of its heritage hotels, tempting crafts, clothes, wares and some lovely countryside.
Lunch at local restaurant.
Udaipur is known as the Venice of East, and has many attractive sightseeing places, Saheliyon ki Bari is one of them. This rambling garden has abundant natural beauty, fountains, and museum, will definitely grab most visitors attention. This 18th century garden built by Maharana Sangram Singh is on the banks of Fateh Sagar lake.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: Castle Mewar or Similar
Day 03: 2021:150 KMS 3 ½ HRS Visit India's Great Wall of China
Udaipur to Kumbhalgarh, Rajasthan ~ After breakfast we travel to Kumbhalgarh
We check into a local hotel and enjoy lunch then visit the Kumbhalgarh Fort.
The Fort is a Mewar fortress on the western range of Aravalli Hills, in the Rajsamand district near Udaipur of Rajasthan state in western India. Some call it by the name of the fort it surrounds – Kumbhalgarh. Others simply refer to it as The Great Wall of India.
Kumbhalgarh Fort is majestic, it was built in 1458 AD surrounded by hundreds of temples, it is the creation of one of Mewar’s legendary heroes Rana Kumbha. The Fort boasts seven massive gates, seven ramparts folded with one another with designed walls and toughened by curved bastions. Walls enclose around 360 intact and ruined temples, some of which date back to the Mauryan period in the 2nd century BC, as well as the palaces. The fortifications of the Fort extend to the length of 36 km and this fact has assisted this Fort's listing as a World Heritage Site. Its unique location and its grandeur makes it a must visit place in Rajasthan that we look forward to sharing with you.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: Kumbha Bagh or Similar
Day 04: 2021: 100 kms / 2 hrs
Kumbhalgarh - Ranakpur ~ After breakfast we travel to Ranakpur
We check in with our friends at Camel Charisma farm near Ranakpur village which is located in Desuri Tehsil near Sadri town in the Pali district of Rajasthan in western India. Camel Charisma has grown out of a long struggle – a struggle to get recognition for the value of camels, a struggle for Livestock Keepers rights on a global level, and a struggle for camel milk to be recognised as a valuable source of nutrition and a nutraceutical. Camel Charisma pioneered the production of bio-diverse paper from the dung of Kumbhalgarh camels. In our tiny factory, local women proudly manufacture the most bio-diverse paper on earth. Their camel milk soaps are handmade from pure camel milk, coconut oil and a splashing of various scents. The Raika shear their camels at the time of Holi and traditionally gave the wool to local weavers for turning into the traditional baql, a heavy-wear rug that they took along on migration. We are trying to revive this craft, introducing some new designs. On our campus we have a wool carding unit in which the wool is cleaned and separated into fine and coarse fibres. The coarse wool is used for dhurries, while the fine fibres are made into shawls in collaboration with Kullu Karishma (link). The coarse wool is spun by men with the drop spindle, while the fine fibres are spun into yarn on the Gandhi cherka by women in Jaisalmer.
Camel Charisma is a social enterprise that aims to develop, promote and market environment friendly products from the camel. Founded in 2010 by two founders, Mr. Hanwant Singh Rathore & Dr. Ilse Kohler-Rollefson, Camel Charisma has been inspired by the experiences and close connection of Lokhit Pashu Palak Sansthan (LPPS) with Rajasthan’s camel pastoralists. It was set up as an outcome of a project by LPPS to revive Rajasthan’s camel husbandry for creating sustainable rural livelihoods in semi-arid and arid areas, as well as creating job income opportunities for the local communities.
The purpose of Camel Charisma is to provide economic incentives for camel breeders to continue keeping camels for their livelihood and to contribute to the sustainable management of the Thar Desert and conserve this biodiversity rich agro-ecosystem.
Rajasthan is famous for its rich and prolific art treasures. Some of its architectural monuments are considered among the best in the world. The Ranakpur Jain Temple excels them all as an exquisite work of art and architecture. There are a number of beautiful and delicately carved sculptures in this shrine which defy comparison. The temple is an eloquent testimony to India's cultural heritage, her unique architecture and the vision and acumen of her past master artists.
This temple is the realisation of the vision and endeavours of four great and devout seekers They were Acharya Somasundatsuri Dharanashah, the Minister to Kumbha Rana, Rana Kumbha himself, and above all, Depa or Depaa, the architect who made the realisation of the dream possible.
The Chaturmukha Jain Temple of Ranakpur In the heart of the remote and enchanting valley of the Arvallis, skirting the rivulet Maghai and enveloped in the solitude of the surrounding forest, stands, in solemn grandeur, the Chaturmukha Jain Temple of Rishabhadeva. Placed on a lofty plinth, the three-storeyed marble edifice, to which the genius of the artist has imparted exquisite artistic grace, and which his deep devotion has endowed with serene spiritual dignity is, verily, a poem in stone. Majestic yet in complete harmony with Mother Nature, in whose beautiful lap it rests, this magnificent monument of devotional architecture seems bathed in celestial bliss. The very hills around, dwarfed by its imposing bearing, appear absorbed in mute meditation, as if spell-bound. The concord achieved between the bounteous generosity of Nature and man's creative expression of gratitude, stands uniquely symbolised in this Divine Creation. To behold this holy shrine in its spectacularly sublime settingis to experience instant uplifting of the soul.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: Camel Charisma
Describe your image
Day 05: 2021: ~ 160km 4 hours Ranakpur to Jodhpur
After breakfast, we say goodbye to our friends at Camel Charisma and arrive in Jodhpur to visit the Mighty Mehrangarh, the muscular fort that towers over the Blue City of Jodhpur.
Jodhpur, the second largest city in Rajasthan is popularly known as the Blue City. The name is clearly befitting as most of the architecture, forts, palaces, temples, havelis, and even houses are built in vivid shades of blue. The strapping forts that tower this magnificent city sum up to a create a memorable spectacle.
Mehrangarh Fort is also known as 'Mehran Fort' located in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The foundation of the Mehran fort was decided on 12 May 1459 by Rao Jodha on a rocky hill 9km to the south of Mandore. Rao Jodha, previously known as Marwar, founded Jodhpur in 1459. Mehrangarh Fort is a magnificent spectacle, and an architectural masterpiece. Rising perpendicular and impregnable from a rocky hill that itself stands 120m above Jodhpur’s skyline, Mehrangarh Fort is one of the most magnificent forts in India. The battlements are 6m to 36m high, and as the building materials were chiselled from the rock on which the fort stands, the structure merges with its base. Still run by the Jodhpur royal family, Mehrangarh Fort is packed with history and legend. Around Mehrangarh Fort's base, is the old city, a jumble of Brahmin-blue cubes, stretching out to the 10km-long, 16th-century city wall. The Blue City really is blue. Inside is a tangle of winding, glittering, medieval streets, which never seem to lead where you expect them to, scented by incense, and roses, with shops and bazaars selling everything from trumpets and temple decorations to snuff and saris.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: Marugarh or Similar
Days 06- 10: 2021: Jodhpur to Thar Desert
Camel Safari towards Bikaner, Rajasthan (5 Days / 4 Nights)
We depart Jodhpur for The Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, is a large arid region in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent that covers an area of 200,000 km2 (77,000 sq mi) and forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan. It is the world's 18th largest desert, and the world's 9th largest subtropical desert.
The Thar Desert extends between the Aravalli Hills in the north-east, the Great Rann of Kutch along the coast and the alluvial plains of the Indus River in the west and north-west. Most of the desert is covered by huge shifting sand dunes that receive sediments from the alluvial plains and the coast. The sand is highly mobile due to strong winds occurring before the onset of the monsoon. The Luni River is the only river integrated into the desert
After a few hours drive, we travel with the camels and start on a half day safari tour. Visiting interesting landscapes, reaching remote villages by late afternoon for overnight stays. The 5 days in this region will be full of adventure in the company of villagers, local artists, and musicians.
The meals are nothing short of amazing and a credit to what these locals can create fresh in their desert pots and pans. Specialised local dishes are featured and many who consider themselves Indian food connoisseurs are surprised to receive tasty unknown and new dishes on the menu every breakfast, lunch and dinner. Each meal includes three courses with beverages such as delicious masala chai, fresh fruit and salads, hot chapatis, mains and sweets. The cooks are eager to please, so if spicy isn't your cup of tea they will adapt meals to suit individual tastes. There is also never a shortage of clean bottled spring water!
Sheltered toilets are set up at each campsite, clean bedding is provided and placed within clean camp tents that sleep two guests. Every day the camp shift crew packs down the tents and bedding, then collects guests luggage that is transported on a camel wagon arriving each night at the next campsite with us. It's as close to glamping as possible whilst offering a traditional safari experience!
On the fifth day, we return to the guest house to freshen up and attend a cooking lesson from the lady of the house.
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08h00 – 09h00: Breakfast
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10h00: Camel Safari for 2 hrs towards Surdhana.
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Lunch in the middle of the desert (fresh lunch will be prepared in the desert).
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Safari terminates & transfer towards Bikaner by Jeep.
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Check-in at local resident guest house (Rajput Family), it’s a Family run guest house by the very famous CAMELMAN family of Rajasthan.
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Here will get to learn more about Rajasthan Culture and traditions.
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Clients will get chance to learn more about Indian Food, unique cooking classes will be arranged by lady of the house.
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Dinner will with the family at guest house
Meals Included: All meals during the safari.
Accommodation: Safari tents; Guest House
