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Outway Club

7 photographs, all taken on this route.

WildlifeSmall group4 to 8 Sep 2026

Jawai × Udaipur

Jawai, Rajasthan 5 days / 4 nights Easy 6 to 18 travellers
Janmashtami departure₹2,000 off per traveller, applied automaticallyUntil 4 Sept

Out of Delhi on a night train, two days in Jawai's granite leopard country, then three hours east for one long, slow day in Udaipur. Five days, two of them spent travelling overnight, and eighteen people who arrive not knowing each other.

Escape 001 is built the wrong way round on purpose. Most Rajasthan trips start with the postcard and end somewhere quieter; this one starts in the quiet. You leave Delhi on a night train and wake up at Jawai Bandh, where the Aravallis have stopped being hills and turned into enormous bare granite domes sitting straight out of the ground. Breakfast is slow and nothing is scheduled until you have actually looked at the place. Then you meet it properly — time with a Rabari shepherd family in the country they have herded for generations, and an afternoon out in an open jeep with a naturalist who can tell you which family of leopards is denning where. Around fifty of them live on these rocks, directly above villages that have never hunted one. We are not going to promise you a sighting. The sighting is never promised. The experience is. Day two is deliberately unhurried: the dam and the crocodiles on its bank in the morning, the cave temple at Devgiri where the priests and the leopards have an arrangement nobody has written down, and then an afternoon with nothing in it at all, because an escape should not feel like work. Both evenings end around a table and a fire, with a question — what made you say yes to this journey, and later, what surprised you most about this place. On the last morning the trip changes character completely. Three hours east and Rajasthan turns from granite into water: Udaipur's old city on foot, lunch somewhere a local would actually eat, an hour of your own, and the lake at last light with the phones away. Dinner is the whole group at one table, then everybody writes a letter to somebody they met four days ago and hands it over. You leave on the overnight coach still talking, and you get into Delhi on Tuesday morning having spent two days of leave.

Where it starts, and how you get there

Starts and ends at: Delhi — we meet on the platform on the night of departure, and the exact station comes with your ticket.

Aim to arrive before midday on the first day and to leave after 8pm on the last. Everything between those two points — stays, transport, sightseeing — is ours to arrange.

Travelling in from another city?

Pick where you're starting from. We can book the flight or train with the rest of the group and you pay the fare, or you arrange it yourself and we'll tell you exactly when to land and when to leave.

We can book your flight We can book your trainOr travel on your own, entirely up to you

All timings are indicative and subject to change with weather, traffic, local conditions and monument hours.

Trip highlights

  • Two nights in Jawai, which is two more than almost anybody gives it — enough to stop being a visitor and start recognising the place
  • Meet the Land: real time with a Rabari shepherd family, in the granite country they have herded for generations
  • An open-jeep exploration of Jawai with a local naturalist, built around understanding the landscape rather than chasing a photograph
  • Devgiri, the cave temple in the granite, where priests and leopards have shared a hill for longer than anyone can date
  • Jawai Bandh at first light: still water, mugger crocodiles on the bank, and whatever has flown in that week
  • The Story Circle — a fire, a sky full of stars, and one question: tell us about a journey that changed you
  • The Road Between Two Worlds: three hours that take you from bare granite to lake water without leaving the state
  • Udaipur at golden hour with the phones away, then The Last Table and The Letter

Where you sleep

Named, not “3-star or similar”.

Overnight train, Delhi to Jawai Bandh

1 night · Day 0

Jawai — camp in leopard country, twin sharing

2 nights · Days 1 to 2

Overnight coach, Udaipur to Delhi

1 night · Day 3

Every one of these is booked and paid for before the date goes on sale. If a property lets us down we move you to the same standard or better, and tell you before you travel.

Full itinerary, day by day

  1. 0

    Leave Ordinary

    The journey starts on a platform in Delhi, with people you have not met. Your Outway host finds you, hands you a Journey Card, and that is the last piece of admin for five days. The train pulls out late and the carriage does what carriages do — somebody has snacks, somebody has a speaker, somebody knows a card game, and at some point the question goes round that this whole thing is built on: what made you say yes to this journey? Answers vary wildly and that is the interesting part. Sleep when you feel like it. Tomorrow is deliberately unhurried, so an imperfect night on a train costs you nothing at all.

    • Evening (8:30 PM) — Meet your Outway host and the group on the platform in Delhi
    • Departure (10:25 PM) — The overnight train west, booked with the group so nobody travels in alone
    • On board — Journey Cards, introductions, and the first question: what made you say yes to this journey?
    • Late — Music, chai, a card game, and whoever is still awake
    • Sleep. Day 01 does not start early
    Breakfast not includedLunch not includedDinner not includedOvernight train, Delhi to Jawai Bandh
  2. 1

    Enter the Wild

    You see Jawai before the train stops. The hills flatten out and then the granite starts — enormous smooth domes sitting straight out of the scrub, nothing like the Rajasthan on the postcards. We collect you at Jawai Bandh and take you to the camp, and then we deliberately do nothing for a while. Breakfast is slow. Nobody is rushed into a jeep. The first thing that happens here is that somebody who lives here explains the place to you, because Jawai makes no sense until you understand the arrangement it runs on: the Rabari have herded these hills for generations, around fifty leopards live on the rocks directly above the villages, and in living memory neither has killed the other. Late afternoon is when the granite gives its warmth back and the cats come out onto it, so that is when we go out — an open jeep, a naturalist who knows which family is denning where, and no promises. The sighting is never promised. The experience is. Afterwards we take chai up onto a rock for the sunset and stay past the point where anybody would normally head back to their room. Dinner is outside. If the fire is allowed, there is a fire, and around it the Story Circle: tell us about a journey that changed you.

    • Morning (9:50 AM) — Into Jawai Bandh, and the granite starts before the station does
    • Slow breakfast (10:30 AM) — At the camp. Nothing is scheduled for an hour and that is deliberate
    • Meet the Land (12:00 PM) — Time with a Rabari shepherd family, with a local host who can translate more than the language
    • Rest (2:00 PM) — The afternoon heat is not a thing worth fighting
    • Late afternoon (4:00 PM) — Open-jeep exploration of Jawai with a local naturalist
    • Jawai Sunset (6:45 PM) — Chai on a granite dome, and nobody in a hurry to leave
    • After dark (8:30 PM) — Dinner, stars, a fire where it is permitted, and The Story Circle
    Breakfast includedLunch includedDinner includedJawai — camp in leopard country, twin sharing
  3. 2

    Live the Wild, Slowly

    No packed sightseeing today, and no apology for it. Breakfast runs long, the coffee is good, and the hills are doing exactly nothing in particular. Mid-morning we go down to Jawai Bandh — the dam is full this time of year, mugger crocodiles sit out on the banks, and whatever has flown in for the season is out on the water. From there it is a short way to Devgiri, a cave temple set into the granite where local families have come to worship for as long as anyone can date, often with a leopard asleep on the rock above them. Nobody there finds that remarkable, which is the most remarkable thing about it. Lunch is Marwari, cooked by people who live here. Then the afternoon is yours, genuinely: read, photograph, sleep, talk, walk, or nothing. An escape should not feel like work. If the group wants a second time out in the jeep and the season allows it, we go — and if we do not, this list does not get padded to look bigger. The last night in Jawai is The Outway Table: everybody, one dinner, and the question that turns a group into something else. What surprised you most about this place?

    • Slow morning (8:00 AM) — Breakfast, coffee, and no agenda until you have finished both
    • Beyond the Leopard (10:00 AM) — Jawai Bandh at its fullest, the muggers on the bank, and the birds that come with the water
    • Devgiri (11:30 AM) — The cave temple in the granite, where the priests and the leopards share a hill
    • The local table (1:00 PM) — Marwari lunch, cooked by people who live here
    • Your Afternoon (2:30 PM) — Free. Read, photograph, sleep, talk, or nothing at all
    • Second Wild (4:00 PM) — An optional second time out, if the group wants it and the season allows
    • The Outway Table (8:30 PM) — Last dinner in Jawai: what surprised you most about this place?
    Breakfast includedLunch includedDinner includedJawai — camp in leopard country, twin sharing
  4. 3

    From the Wild to the Royal

    Three hours east, and Rajasthan changes species. The granite gives way to green Aravalli ridges, the ridges give way to water, and you arrive in a city that has spent four hundred years being decorative. We call this stretch The Road Between Two Worlds and we treat it as part of the journey rather than a transfer — the windows are the point, there is music, there are the stories that only come out once a group has been together three days, and there is one stop along it worth making. Udaipur starts on foot. Not a monument race: a walk through the old city with somebody who lives in it and can tell you why the lanes are the shape they are, what the doors mean, and which of it is actually old. Lunch is a food experience rather than the nearest restaurant with a table free. Then an hour is yours — a café, a camera, the shops, or a wall by the water. Golden hour is the last thing we plan, and it is the one we ask you to put your phone away for: the lake, the light going, and enough quiet to notice that four days have happened. Dinner is everybody at one table, and one question. Then everybody writes a letter to somebody they met on Saturday, and hands it over. The coach out is late enough that nobody has to cut that short.

    • Check out (8:30 AM) — Breakfast, goodbyes to the camp, then the road
    • The Road Between Two Worlds (9:30 AM) — Three hours east through the Aravallis, with one stop worth making
    • Walk Into the Story (1:00 PM) — Udaipur's old city on foot with a local host. Places and stories, not a monument race
    • The Local Table (2:30 PM) — Lunch as a food experience, not the nearest restaurant with a free table
    • Your Udaipur Hour (4:00 PM) — Cafés, cameras, shopping, walking, or a wall by the water
    • Golden Hour (6:15 PM) — The lake at last light. Phones away for this one
    • The Last Table (8:00 PM) — Final dinner together: what are you taking home from this journey?
    • The Letter (9:30 PM) — Write to someone you met here. Exchange before you leave
    • Departure (10:30 PM) — Private overnight coach, Udaipur to Delhi
    Breakfast includedLunch includedDinner includedOvernight coach, Udaipur to Delhi
  5. 4

    Return Home

    Into Delhi in the morning, two days of leave spent. Nobody goes home a stranger — the group thread stays open, the photographs land on it over the next week, and so does the answer to whatever you forgot to ask on Monday night. That is the part of this that does not fit in an itinerary, and it is the part people write to us about afterwards.

    • Morning (7:00 AM) — Into Delhi
    • The group thread stays open, and so does the invitation
    Breakfast not includedLunch not includedDinner not included

Who runs this trip

One person is with the group the whole way. This is them.

Every departure runs with one Outway trip captain, and we name them here as soon as the roster for a date is fixed. Until then, here's what the job actually is — we'd rather leave the space empty than put a stock photo in it.

  • Runs the route, holds every booking reference and deals with what changes.
  • Travels with the group start to finish. One captain, one group, no handovers.
  • You get their direct number with the joining email, a few days before departure.

Inclusions, exclusions & packing list

What's included

  • 2 nights in Jawai, in a camp in leopard country, on twin sharing
  • An open-jeep Jawai exploration with a local naturalist
  • Meet the Land: a curated, responsibly arranged experience with a Rabari host
  • Private air-conditioned transport across the whole ground route, including the 150km crossing to Udaipur
  • A walk through Udaipur's old city with a local host who lives in it
  • 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches and 3 dinners, including The Outway Table in Jawai and The Last Table in Udaipur
  • All entry fees named in the journey
  • An Outway host with the group from the Delhi platform to the Delhi platform
  • All applicable taxes: the price you see is the price you pay

What's not included

  • The Delhi legs. We book the overnight train out and the private overnight coach back alongside the group, and you pay the fare at cost — nothing is marked up on it
  • Anything eaten on the train, and lunch on the day you leave Delhi
  • A second Jawai safari, if the group wants one. Quoted separately, and never added just to make this list longer
  • Personal expenses, shopping, tips and anything at the bar
  • Travel insurance, we strongly recommend arranging your own
  • Single-occupancy upgrade, available on request and quoted separately

What to pack

  • Original government photo ID, mandatory on the train and at check-in, no exceptions
  • Neutral colours for the safari — no white, no bright red
  • One warm layer. An open jeep at dusk in the hills is colder than the day suggests
  • A light rain jacket. Early September still catches the end of the monsoon
  • Comfortable walking shoes, and something you can slip off quickly at a temple
  • Modest clothing for Devgiri and Udaipur's old-city temples: shoulders and knees covered
  • Sunscreen, a refillable water bottle, and anything you need for motion sickness on the ghat roads
  • Something to write with. Day 03 ends with a letter, and a borrowed pen is a poor start to one

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