Rajasthan Adventure (India)

Ten nights across Rajasthan on a Royal Enfield, and this is the harder sibling of the operator’s classic Maharajas route: it is built for experienced riders and spends real time on sand.

Delhi opens it, with hidden tracks used to get clear of the traffic, then Alwar in rural country, and Jaipur by way of Amber Fort on a two-wheels-only road into the old quarter. Pushkar follows across the Sambhar salt lake, which dries seasonally into a riding surface unlike anything else on the trip, with sandy tracks either side of it.

Ghanerao comes next on the slopes and valley tracks of the Aravalli range, with a night in an old royal palace, then Jalore among remote Rabari villages, the nomadic cattle herders of this region, with the terrain around Lake Jawai serving as an off-road playground.

Barmer follows in the Marusthali, the land of sand, on a mix of asphalt and track, and then the Thar proper: deep sand of varying difficulty, the Desert National Park, and a night camped on the dunes around a fire. Jaisalmer closes the riding, a fortress city of yellow sandstone rising straight out of the desert, with a flight back to Delhi and a free day before departure. Bike rental is included and the price is quoted per person. Deep sand is unforgiving of the wrong technique and tiring in a way tarmac never is, so the operator’s insistence on experience here is worth taking at face value rather than as marketing. The reward is a Rajasthan almost nobody sees: no coaches, no fort car parks, and villages where the arrival of a group of bikes is still worth coming out to look at.