Golden Triangle with Jodhpur

Experience My India's Golden Triangle with Jodhpur adds Rajasthan's Blue City to the classic circuit: the colossal Mehrangarh Fort looming over a sea of indigo houses, the marble Jaswant Thada, the Umaid Bhawan Palace, and the buzzing Clock Tower market. Jodhpur adds about 2 days (making 8 to 9 total), private, from Rs 10,000 per person per day, reached by a roughly 5 to 6 hour drive from Jaipur or a short flight. It is the desert-fort counterpoint to the triangle, and it also sets you up perfectly to continue to Jaisalmer or loop back via Udaipur. Here's how it works and what it really costs.

Jodhpur is Rajasthan at its most dramatic. The Mehrangarh Fort, one of India's largest, rises about 410 feet on a sheer rock above the old city, and from its ramparts the famous Blue City spreads below — a maze of indigo-washed houses. It is a different flavour from the triangle: less polished, more elemental, all desert light, fort walls and market colour. Two days is right — one for the fort and the palaces, one for the blue old town, the stepwell and the market — and it slots neatly onto the circuit, especially if you are continuing to the desert at Jaisalmer or looping down to Udaipur.

Mehrangarh Fort. Built from around 1459 by Rao Jodha, the founder of Jodhpur, it is a vast red-sandstone fort with beautifully preserved palaces (Moti Mahal, Phool Mahal), an excellent museum of royal artefacts, and the best views in the city. Allow 2 to 3 hours; the audio guide is included in the foreigner ticket. Jaswant Thada. A serene white-marble cenotaph near the fort, built for Maharaja Jaswant Singh II, often called the 'Taj of Marwar'. Umaid Bhawan Palace. A grand 20th-century palace that is now part royal residence, part luxury hotel and part museum — note that you visit the museum section, not the whole palace, since the royal family lives in part and the rest is a working hotel. The Blue City old town. The indigo houses, the narrow lanes, the Toorji Ka Jhalra stepwell, and the Clock Tower's Sardar Market — come hungry for kachoris, mirchi vada and jalebi. Mandore Gardens. The old Marwar capital, dotted with temples and cenotaphs, a quieter half-stop.