Pushkar is, on a map, almost nothing: one long street bending around the north shore of the lake, with lanes dropping down to the ghats on one side and running up into the town on the other. That street is Sadar Bazaar, and it has been trading for as long as pilgrims have been coming — which is to say, a very long time.
What is sold here is a strange and rather wonderful mixture: temple offerings and silver by the kilo, block-printed cotton, camel-leather journals and slippers, Rajasthani puppets, brass, gemstones, and Pushkar’s own speciality — rose products, from attar to gulkand, grown in the fields around the town. Above the shops, a whole second layer of rooftop cafés looks out over the lake.
Top things to do at Sadar Bazaar
Shop for silver and block-print
Pushkar has been a silver-trading town for decades and the quality is good; block-printed cotton from the surrounding villages is the other genuinely local buy.
Buy rose, properly
The fields around Pushkar grow damask roses. Real attar is expensive and sold by the tola; gulkand — rose petal preserve — is cheap, delicious and travels well.
Take a rooftop table at sunset
The cafés above the bazaar have the best casual view in town. Order chai or a lassi and watch the ghats light up.
Eat a Rajasthani thali
The town is strictly vegetarian, which sharpens rather than limits the food: dal baati churma, gatte ki sabzi, kachoris and malpua are all done well here.
How to get to Sadar Bazaar
- The bazaar runs through the middle of town; from the bus stand it is a five-minute walk and from any guesthouse in the old town, less.
- It is pedestrian in practice — motorbikes squeeze through, but cars cannot, which is why hotel transfers stop at the edge.
- From Ajmer: buses arrive at the Pushkar bus stand a few minutes from the eastern end of the street.
- Haggle, but cheerfully and with a sense of proportion: the first price on textiles and silver is usually well above the fair one, and the difference is often small in your currency and meaningful in the seller’s.
- Cash is still king in the smaller shops, and the ATMs by the bus stand run dry during the Camel Fair. Draw money before November.
- No alcohol, meat or eggs are sold anywhere in town. Some rooftop cafés serve "special" lassi — this is bhang, it is legal here and much stronger than first-timers expect.
Best tours & tickets for Sadar Bazaar
These top-rated experiences are the easiest way to enjoy Sadar Bazaar and its surroundings:
Guided walking tour from €5 Pushkar: Evening Walking Tour with Fire Rituals
The single best-reviewed thing you can do in Pushkar, and the one that turns a pretty lake into a place you understand. A local guide walks you through the old town at the hour it comes alive — past the bathing ghats, into working temples, and down to the water for the Mahaarti, the fire ritual in which lamps are floated and offered to the lake. Along the way you get the practical stuff nobody tells you: where to leave your shoes, which ghats welcome visitors, and how to sidestep the "flower blessing" scam. Rated 4.9 from well over a hundred reviews.
- Walk the ghats and lanes as the town lights its evening lamps
- Watch — and, if you wish, take part in — the Mahaarti fire ceremony
- Visit several of Pushkar’s living temples with a local guide
Private walking tour from €5 Pushkar: Afternoon Walking Tour of Temples & Bazaars
The daylight counterpart to the evening walk, and a private one — useful if you would rather ask a lot of questions than share a group. Your guide threads the lanes between the Brahma Temple, the smaller shrines most visitors walk straight past, and the ghats, explaining what is happening at each and why Pushkar matters to the millions who come here on pilgrimage. The second half is the bazaar, where a local eye is worth real money: you learn what Rajasthani block-print, camel leather and Pushkar rose oil should actually cost.
- Private guide, so the pace and the questions are yours
- The Brahma Temple, Varaha Temple and the lakeside ghats
- Sadar Bazaar: textiles, silver, leather and rose products
Private tour from €5 Pushkar: Private Walking Tour with a Local Guide
A simple, low-cost private guide for however much of Pushkar you want to cover. Because nothing is fixed, this is the option to take if you already know roughly what interests you — the temple circuit, photography around the ghats, the Brahmin quarter, or the market. It is also the friendliest way to visit a town where a lot of first-time visitors feel a little unsure: having someone alongside you who knows which ghats welcome outsiders and which rituals are private removes almost all of the friction.
- Entirely private and shaped around what you want to see
- Temples, ghats, bazaar and the quiet corners in between
- Great value for what a private guide normally costs
