Notes from the road — written by Karni and the team. Less polished, more honest. Tell us what to write about next.
Three hours north of Jaipur is a region of merchant mansions covered floor to roof in frescoes, and almost no coach tours go there. Here is how to see it properly.
A day-by-day Golden Triangle plan from the people who drive it every week — real distances, honest timings, and the two stops most seven-day itineraries leave out.
November to February is the easy answer. Here is the honest one: what each month of the Rajasthan year does to your comfort, your bill and your photographs, and the two fortnights we tell people to avoid.
Sariska is the tiger reserve you can reach from Delhi in four and a half hours. How the gates, zones, permits and seasons actually work, and how we fit two nights of safari between Delhi and Jaipur.
Inside the Karni Mata temple at Deshnoke, 30 km from Bikaner, where 25,000 sacred rats live beneath silver doors given by a maharaja. What a visit is really like, when to go, and how we fit it into a Rajasthan itinerary.
A 9th-century stepwell 13 storeys deep, an hour and a half from Jaipur, and the two-day folk festival held beside it each September. What to see, when to go, and how we fit it into a Golden Triangle route.
Which state celebrates Teej, the difference between Hariyali, Kajari and Hartalika Teej, and how to watch Jaipur’s royal monsoon procession — from a tour operator based two streets away.
The most beautiful night of the year in Jaipur, and also the loudest. What the five days actually involve, how to be part of a home festival as a visitor, and the practicalities nobody mentions until you are there.
A temple town of twenty thousand takes in two hundred thousand visitors and tens of thousands of camels. After twenty years of sending guests, here is our honest guide to the trading days, where to stay, and whether it is worth planning a trip around.
Hi, I am Mahima, and I'm writing this as a personal note to my father, India Karni—his other child, Popular India Vacations—and to you, our guest, whom I'll have the pleasure of welcoming to India alongside him.
