Pushkar sits on the eastern edge of the Thar, and the desert starts closer to the bazaar than most visitors expect: ten minutes past the last guesthouse the lanes run out, the scrub thins, and you are on open sand with the Aravalli hills behind you.
This is why the classic Pushkar afternoon is a camel safari. They are short by Jaisalmer standards — an hour or two out to the dunes rather than days — but they are also cheap, easy to arrange and genuinely lovely at the right hour, with chai brewed on a fire, folk musicians in the evening and a horizon with nothing built on it.
Top things to do at The Pushkar Dunes
Take a sunset camel safari
The standard trip leaves mid-afternoon, reaches the dunes for golden hour and returns after dark. One to two hours in the saddle is plenty for most people.
Stay overnight at a desert camp
Tented camps on the dunes outside town run from simple to genuinely luxurious, most with dinner, a fire and folk music. A good alternative to a town hotel in high season.
Swap the camel for a jeep
Jeep safaris cover more ground and suit anyone who would rather not ride — the same dunes and the same sunset, in a quarter of the time.
See the rose fields
Pushkar’s damask roses are harvested in spring. In season the fields on the way to the dunes are worth the detour on their own.
How to get to The Pushkar Dunes
- Almost every guesthouse and agency in town arranges camel safaris, and the pick-up is usually from your door.
- On foot: you can walk out past the Mela ground to open sand in about 25 minutes from the bazaar, no guide required.
- By tour: the Pushkar day trip from Jaipur includes a camel safari as part of the day, which is the easiest way to fit it in if you are not staying overnight.
- Agree the price, the duration and whether chai or dinner is included before you set off, and ask to see the camel — welfare varies between operators and it is fair to choose.
- Long trousers make a real difference on a camel. So does going late: between noon and four the dunes are punishing.
- Nights are genuinely cold from December to February. If you are camping, bring a layer more than the desert’s daytime heat suggests.
Best tours & tickets for The Pushkar Dunes
These top-rated experiences are the easiest way to enjoy The Pushkar Dunes and its surroundings:
Full-day trip from €62 From Jaipur: Pushkar Temple Town Day Trip with Camel Safari
If Pushkar has to fit into one day of a Rajasthan itinerary, this is the shape that day should take. You are collected from your Jaipur hotel, driven the roughly three hours west, and given the two things Pushkar does better than anywhere else: the temple-and-ghat circuit around the holy lake, and a camel ride out into the sand at the town’s edge. Lunch and shopping time in the bazaar sit in between. You are back in Jaipur the same evening, which makes it the best-value way to see Pushkar without moving hotels.
- Door-to-door day trip from Jaipur by private air-conditioned car
- The Brahma Temple, Pushkar Lake and the ghats with a guide
- Camel safari through the dunes on the edge of town
Private transfer from €26 From Pushkar: Private Transfer to Jodhpur
Pushkar sits neatly between Jaipur and Jodhpur, which is why most itineraries continue west. There is no direct train, and the bus takes the best part of six hours with a change; a private car does it in around four, hotel to hotel, and you can break the drive wherever you like. Travellers rate it 4.9 — mostly, judging by the reviews, for drivers who turn up on time and actually stop when you ask.
- Private car and driver for the 185 km to Jodhpur
- Fixed price, hotel to hotel
- Optional stops at Merta City or the roadside temples
