Choosing
How to pick a desert camp in Jaisalmer
- Seven checks
- No ranked list
- Including where we lose
There is no honest top ten of Jaisalmer desert camps, and every one you will find was written by somebody with a camp in it. We are not going to pretend to rank forty businesses whose tents we have never slept in. What we can do is give you the seven things worth checking before you pay anybody, including us, and then answer all seven about ourselves in public.
Before you pay anyone
Seven questions, and what a bad answer sounds like.
Ask where the camp actually is, and get a map pin.
“Sam Sand Dunes” is a forty-kilometre stretch with dozens of camps on it and it is also used loosely by places that are nowhere near it. A pin on Google Maps takes ten seconds to send. A business that will not send one is telling you something.
Ask what the price does not include.
This is the question that separates a ₹1,500 quote from a ₹4,000 bill. Ask it in writing and keep the reply. If the jeep, the camel, dinner and the folk programme are not named as included, assume each is a separate charge waiting at the camp.
Ask how many tents are on the site.
Twelve tents and a hundred and twenty tents are different holidays at the same price. Neither is wrong — a big camp has a real stage and a bar, a small one has quiet — but you should know which you booked before you arrive.
Ask whether there is a washroom, plumbed, attached.
“Luxury tent” is not a regulated phrase. It can mean an attached bathroom with hot water, or a bucket and a shared block a hundred metres away. If you are sleeping in the open there is no washroom at all, which is fine if you were told.
Ask who does the cultural programme, and when it ends.
A camp with its own musicians runs a real programme. A camp that buys one in shares it with three neighbours and you get twenty minutes. Also ask when the music stops — a loudspeaker until one in the morning is the single most common one-star complaint in this town.
Read the one-star reviews, not the five-star ones.
Sort by lowest and read ten. Five-star reviews all say the same four things everywhere. The one-stars tell you what actually goes wrong at that camp, and whether the owner replies to them, which is the more useful signal of the two.
Message them and see who answers.
Send a real question — not “is it available” but something that needs an answer — and see how long it takes and whether a person wrote it. You are about to be driven forty kilometres into a desert by these people. How they handle a message is most of what you can know in advance.
A word to distrust
Everything in Jaisalmer is a luxury camp.
The word appears on almost every camp in the district and it carries no fixed meaning. In practice it is used for three quite different things: a Swiss tent with an attached plumbed bathroom and a proper bed; an ordinary tent with a rug and a heater; and a tent with the word printed on the brochure.
Ask instead for the four facts underneath it. Is there a bed frame and a mattress or a mat on the floor. Is the bathroom attached, and does the hot water work in January. Is there a heater or an air conditioner, and is there power for it all night. Is there someone awake on the site after midnight.
Any camp can answer those four in one message. The answer tells you more than the adjective ever will.
Our own answers
The same seven, about us, including the two we lose.
It would be cheap to publish a checklist we happen to pass. Here are our answers to all seven, and we have marked the ones where another camp would beat us.
- Yes:
Where we are
Siala and Damia, about 40 km out and eleven kilometres north of the Sam strip. The pin is on our Google listing and it is the camp, not the office in town.
- Yes:
What is not included
Alcohol, shopping and tips. That is the list. The jeep, the camel, the programme, dinner, breakfast, bedding and all taxes are inside the number on the page.
- Yes:
How many tents
Small. On the Siala open-camping trip the answer is none — there is no structure on the ground at all, which is either exactly what you want or exactly what you do not.
- Partly:
Washroom
At the camp, yes: attached, with hot and cold water. Out at Siala, no. There is no washroom in the open desert and we say so on the package page rather than at the point you arrive.
- Yes:
The programme
Our own musicians, about three hours — folk music, Kalbeliya, a fire dance and a DJ set to close. It ends and then the desert is quiet, because the second half of that trip is fifteen kilometres further out.
- No:
Reviews
This is where we lose. The camp listing has 43 reviews. Camps on the Sam strip have two, three and nine thousand. Ours average 4.8 and 39 of the 43 are five stars, but the number is small and you are right to weigh it as small. The Fort Road hotel that runs the trips has 3,767 at 4.7, which is the longer record if you want one.
- No:
How to reach us
WhatsApp, answered the same day by a person. There is no instant online booking and no card payment, so if you want a confirmed reservation at two in the morning without talking to anybody, a camp on an OTA will serve you better than we will.
If we suit you
Three to start with.
Good to know
The things people ask.
Which is the best desert camp in Jaisalmer?
There is no honest answer to that from us or from anybody else with a camp. The useful question is which camp suits the night you want — a big site with a stage and a bar, or a small one with a fire and quiet. The seven checks on this page are how you tell which one you are being sold.
How much should a good desert camp cost?
Between about ₹2,000 and ₹5,000 per person for a night with the jeep, the camel, dinner and the programme in it. Below ₹1,500 something is being charged separately later. Above ₹6,000 you are paying for a bathroom and a bar rather than for the desert.
Are luxury desert camps in Jaisalmer worth it?
If “luxury” means an attached plumbed bathroom, a real bed and a heater in January, then in winter it is worth the difference to most people. If it means a rug and a brochure, it is not. Ask the four questions in the section above and you will know which one you are being offered.
How do I know a camp is where it says it is?
Ask for a Google Maps pin before you pay. Camps do not hide their location by accident. If what comes back is an office address on Fort Road rather than a pin in the sand, ask again.
Should I book a desert camp in advance?
Between October and March, yes — the good small camps fill and the ones with space on the day are the ones with space for a reason. April to September you can walk up, and you should also ask yourself why you are in the Thar in June.
Why does your camp have so few reviews?
Because we have historically asked guests to review the hotel in town and never asked at the camp. That is our own mistake and we are fixing it. In the meantime, 43 reviews at 4.8 is a small sample and you should treat it as one.
If that helped
Ask us the thing this page didn’t answer.
A person reads these and replies the same day, in writing, with the price in the message. Nothing is taken online and no card details are collected.
4.8on Google, at the campStill deciding
Tell us who’s coming.
How many of you, which nights, and whether anyone needs a washroom a few steps away rather than a dune. We will tell you which trip actually suits you, including when the answer is none of them.