Tim Leffel’s Cheapest Destinations

Cheap Country Bargain: Indian Camel Safari

Every few months I see an article somewhere about an Indian camel safari in Rajasthan, near Jaisalmer. Hey, I even wrote a camel safari article myself once upon a time. That’s okay though, because long after I went on mine, this is still one of the great adventure travel bargains out there in India.

As this new story from the San Francisco Chronicle points out, it’s not all that comfortable if you book it the normal way and pay $20 to $40 a person, but somehow the luxury treatment doesn’t seem quite right anyway when you’re acting like a man (or woman) of the desert. Plodding along in the hot sun, sleeping under the starts, and eating chapatis. That’s the way it should be. I still have great memories of that trip, despite the boring food and the fact that one of the dirty old men tried to cop a feel from the lady of my life. (Ahhh, India.)

For more perspective, here’s another piece from a while back from GoNomad. Don’t think you’ll have any trouble setting one of these up on your own once you get to Jaisalmer. Everybody and their brother will offer a trip to you. Ask around for recommendations and get a good feel for prices—including what they’re bringing along, what you sit on, and the people to camel ratio.