Jaisalmer — The Golden City
On the Palace on Wheels route: Day 5 of the 7-night, 8-day itinerary.
About
About Jaisalmer
Jaisalmer was founded in 1156 by the Rajput ruler Rawal Jaisal on a ridge deep in the Thar Desert. Its position astride the old trade routes between India, Persia, and Central Asia brought centuries of merchant wealth, which still shows in the honey-gold sandstone carving found across the old city.
Jaisalmer Fort itself is one of the world's few remaining "living forts" — nearly a quarter of the old city's population still resides within its walls, running homes, shops, and guesthouses inside a structure most visitors expect to find abandoned. Beyond the fort, the city's merchant families built ornate havelis whose carved facades rival the fort's own.
The Journey
Jaisalmer on Palace on Wheels
Palace on Wheels guests spend the day threading through Jaisalmer Fort's narrow lanes and its intricately carved Jain temples, then step beyond the walls to Patwon Ki Haveli, a cluster of five merchant mansions famed for latticed stone windows carved to a degree of detail rarely matched elsewhere in Rajasthan.
As afternoon turns to evening, the excursion moves out to the Sam Sand Dunes for a camel ride and sunset over the Thar Desert — golden light on gold sand, the literal origin of Jaisalmer's nickname, and one of the most photographed moments of the entire journey.
Top Highlights in Jaisalmer
- Jaisalmer Fort (living fort)
- Patwon Ki Haveli
- Jain temples within the fort
- Sam Sand Dunes camel safari at sunset
Climate & Best Time to Visit
Jaisalmer has a true desert climate: summers (April–June) are extreme, regularly exceeding 45°C, making this by far the harshest stop on the route outside the Palace on Wheels season. Winters (November–February) are the reason the season runs when it does — warm, clear days ideal for the fort and dunes, with genuinely cold desert nights that make an evening camel ride feel dramatically different from the afternoon heat.
Food & Cuisine
Food in Jaisalmer
Famous Local Food
Jaisalmer's desert cuisine is built around ingredients that survive the Thar's scarcity of water: ker sangri (wild desert beans and berries), bajre ki roti (pearl millet flatbread), and a distinctive Jaisalmeri kadhi. Mawa kachori appears here too, alongside dal served drier and spicier than in the rest of Rajasthan — food designed to keep well in a harsh climate.
Onboard on This Leg
Dinner aboard Palace on Wheels on the Jaisalmer night often carries a deliberate desert-region flavor, with live folk music drifting through the lounge car — a culinary echo of the ker sangri and millet-based dishes guests may have already sampled in the old city that afternoon, before the train turns back east toward Jodhpur.
On This Stop
Day 5 · Night 4
Best for: Desert forts & camel safaris
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