OMG, This is India! (Rajasthan)

Thirteen nights from Delhi in a loop through Rajasthan to the Taj Mahal, guided, on a Royal Enfield Himalayan, rated easy by the operator.

Mandawa opens it in Shekhawati, where merchant families covered their havelis in painted frescoes in the nineteenth century and then left, so the whole district is an open-air gallery in slow decay.

Bikaner follows with Junagarh Fort, then Jaisalmer across the Thar Desert on a military road, a golden sandstone fortress city still inhabited, with a camel ride and a dune camp. Jodhpur comes next, the Blue City under Mehrangarh, then Ghanerao and Udaipur by way of the white marble Jain temples at Ranakpur, with Lake Pichola and the Aravallis. Jojawar follows near Kumbhalgarh, whose wall is often said to be the longest anywhere after the Great Wall of China, then Pushkar, with the only significant temple to Brahma and the annual camel fair, Jaipur and the Amber Fort, a tiger safari at Ranthambore, and sunset at the Taj Mahal to finish.

The bike hire is included; the full inclusions are not itemised on the operator’s page and are worth confirming at booking. No tiger sighting can be promised at Ranthambore, which is the honest position on any safari. October to March is the season, since Rajasthan in May approaches fifty degrees. Fourteen days rated easy, on sealed roads and at modest daily distances, makes this the obvious first Indian tour for anyone who wants the country rather than the altitude, and the price is the lowest of the operator’s long tours.