Insight Guides Rajasthan (Travel Guide eBook)

Insight Guides

• Publisher: Insight Guides
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781786716156
• eBook ISBN: 9781786717139
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

This fully updated, major relaunch of Insight Guide Rajasthan will inspire you to visit this most evocative Indian state, the name of which summons up quintessential images of the India of popular imagination: forts, deserts and palaces. Published in 2017, this is a comprehensive full-colour guide to this vibrantly colourful Indian state.

Inside Insight Guide Rajasthan: A fully-overhauled, major new edition by our expert Rajasthan author. Stunning new photography that brings this breathtaking region and its people to life. Highlights of the state's top attractions, including tigers at Ranthambore National Park and the camel fair at Pushkar in our Best of Rajasthan. Descriptive region-by-region accounts cover the whole state from the pink city of Jaipur to the romantic white city of Udaipur and the golden desert city of Jaisalmer. Detailed, high-quality maps throughout will help you get around and travel tips give you all the essential information for planning a memorable trip.

A-Z: A Handy Summary of Practical Information

A

Accommodation

Accommodation in Rajasthan is extremely varied, ranging from ultra-cheap and unsavoury local dives through to extravagant palaces boasting every conceivable luxury. At the bottom end of the scale are small local guesthouses, often family run. The best places have a real home-from-home feeling, with friendly hosts offering a window into local life and good home cooking. It’s also possible to arrange homestays or to rent rooms with families through various organisations and websites, including Servas (www.servas.org), Air BnB (www.airbnb.com), CouchSurfing (www.couchsurfing.com) and Homestay.com. Smaller local business hotels are also often comfortable and inexpensive places to stay, although usually lacking in much character.

Most of Rajasthan’s more expensive accommodation can be found either in so-called ‘heritage hotels’ set in converted palaces, forts or havelis (traditional courtyard houses), or in heritage-style properties, located in modern replicas of traditional buildings. Heritage properties can be found all over India, but Rajasthan has a particular abundance of such places, with literally hundreds of them all over the state, from city-centre mansions to remote forts. A selection of some of the top places can be found at www.indianheritagehotels.com.

Heritage hotels come in every conceivable shape and size. Some of the cheaper places are stronger on atmosphere than on creature comforts and modern facilities, although the very best places, like the famous Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur or the Rambagh Palace in Jaipur, offer the quintessence of Indian style and luxury at suitably stratospheric prices. There are also a number of marvellous heritage-style resorts including several run by the country’s leading Taj and Oberoi hotel chains, featuring opulent Rajasthani styling and world-class facilities.

In general, it is always wise to ask to see the room first before committing yourself (rooms often vary widely, even within the same hotel, especially in heritage establishments). It is also a good idea to ask if there are any discounts, especially out of season or if you’re going to be staying for longer than a couple of nights.

For a list of recommended hotels in Rajasthan, see the relevant destination content in the Insight Guides Walking Eye app.

Addresses

Addresses in India are less widely used than in the West, and streets signs are generally lacking, while out in the backstreets of smaller towns the streets themselves may well not have an official name. Indians tend to navigate (and give directions) in terms of major landmarks, naming a place in reference to a well-known building, monument, roundabout or road junction – don’t expect rickshaws or taxi drivers to be able to find somewhere by the address alone, and if you think somewhere is going to be tricky to find, ring ahead for directions if possible.

Admission charges

The majority of tourist sites in Rajasthan charge admission fees, although these aren’t too punitive, even at major attractions (entry to Jaipur’s City Palace, for example, currently costs Rs 400 (around £4.50/$6), while entrance charges at more modest sights may be no more than $0.80/$1 or so – although you’ll often have to buy an extra ticket for your camera and/or video, which can bump prices up slightly.

B

Begging

Visitors to Rajasthan will inevitably encounter a fair number of beggars along the way – although these are far less common now than even a decade ago. Beggars particularly congregate around temples, mosques and other shrines, and on railway and bus journeys. Many beggars are physically disabled and they have no way of getting money except by asking for it. It’s up to you whether you give or not, of course, although any offering will be gratefully received and even a small sum may make a big difference – but try to give discretely or every other beggar in the vicinity will make a beeline for you. You should, however, avoid giving money to begging children or apparently well-off adults who might simply be chancing their arm in the hope of getting some free cash out of a gullible visitor.

Budgeting for your trip

To a large extent, a visit to Rajasthan can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be. Double rooms in inexpensive but acceptable hotels can be had for a little as Rs 800 (£9/$12) per night, while a room at one of the state’s top places can cost over £1,000; Rs 4,000 (£50/$65) will get you a decent room at a mid-range hotel. Food is generally inexpensive. Cheap main courses in local cafes and tourist restaurants can go for around £1.50/$2 or less, while five-star hotel restaurants aren’t astronomical, and are certainly cheaper than in the West. Alcohol is relatively expensive, but still not exorbitant: a large bottle of local beer will go for around Rs 175 (£2/$3) in a cheap tourist café, although imported wines are pricey. Transport is extremely good value. The train journey from Delhi to Jaipur, for example, costs as little as Rs 120 (£1.40/$1.80) in second class reserved, rising to Rs 1380 (£16/$21) in first class on Shatabdi services. Bus fares are similar. Admission prices will also add to your daily budget, as will of course, additional costs like tours, car hire and so on (for ideas of rickshaw, taxi and car-hire prices, see the ‘Transport’ section).

C

Children

Indians love children and are very tolerant and indulgent with them, which significantly eases the stress of negotiating India with young ones in tow. The problem is that children can be more easily affected by the heat, unsafe drinking water and unfamiliar food seasoned with chillies and spices. In case of diarrhoea, rehydration salts are vital. Keep the child away from stray animals, especially dogs and monkeys. To avoid the risk of rabies, it may be safer to give children an anti-rabies vaccine.

For infants, it is difficult to find nappies and places to change them. Consider bringing a supply of disposables, or changing to washable (which can be given to the hotel laundry or – once you have rinsed them out – the dhobi). A changing mat is essential, as is powdered milk of a brand with which your child is familiar.

For touring, walking and hiking, a child-carrier backpack is well worth its weight.

Children get half-price admission to some sights, but you’ll have to pay full fare on buses (unless they sit on your lap), and half-price fares for kids aged 5–12 on Indian Railways were abolished in 2016, meaning you’ll have to pay the full adult ticket price for them there as well.

Cinema

Cinema is massively popular in India – over 2 billion tickets were sold in 2015, around eight times more than any other country in the world – while top Bollywood stars enjoy almost god-like status. The country is also the world’s most prolific producer of films, with almost a thousand flicks made every year, not only in the Bollywood studios but also in other cities including Chennai (‘Kollywood’) and Kolkata (‘Tollywood’). Cinema buffs shouldn’t miss visiting the spectacular Art Deco Raj Mandir Cinema (Bhagwan Das Road, Off M.I. Road, tel: [phone], www.therajmandir.com), a major Jaipur landmark and a great place to enjoy a night of blockbuster Bollywood action.

Climate

Rajasthan is predominantly hot for most of the year, except in a few elevated places like Mount Abu. Rain is infrequent, except during the monsoon.

October to March is the ‘cool’ season, with average daytime temperatures of between around 20°C and 25°C, although it often rises above 30°C during the hottest part of the day, and falls below 10°C at night. This is the peak tourist season in Rajasthan (November–January in particular), with prices at their highest and pressure on accommodation at its greatest. February is quiet...

Table of contents

• Rajasthan’s Top 10 Attractions
• Editor’s Choice
• Introduction: Land of Sand and Sky
• The Landscape
• Decisive Dates
• From Myth to Modernity
• Rajasthan in the Age of the Raj
• Rajasthan Today
• The People of Rajasthan
• Religion, Myth and Folklore
• Insight: Hindu Deities
• Music and Dance
• The Allegory of Love: Rajput Painting
• Rajasthani Crafts
• Insight: Rajasthani cuisine
• Introduction: Places
• Jaipur
• Bharatpur, Deeg and Dholpur
• Alwar
• Shekhawati
• Ajmer and Pushkar
• In and Around Kota
• Insight: Ranthambore National Park
• Udaipur
• Chittaurgarh
• Mount Abu: Pilgrim Centre
• Insight: Indian Railways
• Jodhpur
• Bikaner
• Jaisalmer
• Transport
• A-Z: A Handy Summary of Practical Information
• Understanding the Language
• Further Reading