UNESCOJaisalmer Fort
- Entry
- Free to enter the fort complex
- Hours
- 24 hours — it is a living fort – Palace museum 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM
- Needs
- 3 hours
Turn for the guide’s part →
Licensed tour guides · Jaisalmer, Rajasthan
Hire a tour guide in Jaisalmer
A licensed guide in Jaisalmer is ₹1,500 for a full day of eight hours and ₹900 for a half day of four, in English — 10 languages are available, from ₹1,200 to ₹3,000 a day. This page carries all 4 of the city's main monuments with their entry fees and opening hours, a half-day and a full-day itinerary, and the licence basis you can check before you pay.
Full day · 8 hours
₹1,500
Half day · 4 hours
₹900
Languages
10 available
Monuments covered
4
Guiding in Jaisalmer
What a guide is actually for in Jaisalmer
Jaisalmer Fort is one of very few living forts anywhere — about a quarter of the town still lives inside the walls, in houses their families have held for generations, alongside shops, hotels and seven Jain temples. That changes what a guide does here completely. There is no ticket gate and no circuit: you walk into a working neighbourhood, and the job is to explain whose house you are standing next to, and why the drainage of the fort is a live political argument rather than a piece of heritage trivia.
Orientation. The fort sits on Trikuta hill in the middle of the town, and the lanes below it hold the havelis — Patwon ki, Salim Singh ki, Nathmal ki — within a few hundred metres. Gadisar Lake is a kilometre south-east. The Sam dunes are forty kilometres west, about an hour, and are an evening trip rather than an afternoon one.
1 UNESCO World Heritage site. Jaisalmer Fort — all of which admit a licensed guide and turn an unlicensed one away at the ticket gate.
What it costs
Guide rates in Jaisalmer
The fee below is for an English-speaking guide. The guide fee is set by language rather than by city, so the ten-language table underneath applies in Jaisalmer exactly as it does in Delhi. The vehicle half of a bundled day is the site's published 4 hr / 40 km and 8 hr / 80 km rental package — every total here is two published rates added together.
Half day
4 hours, 40 km included
₹900guide only
With a vehicle and driver
- Sedan (Swift Dzire / Honda Amaze) — 4 seats
- ₹2,400
- SUV (Ertiga / Innova) — 6–7 seats
- ₹3,100
- Innova Crysta — 7 seats
- ₹3,700
Guide ₹900 plus the published 4 hr / 40 km rental package. Monument entry tickets are paid at the gate and are not included.
Full day
8 hours, 80 km included
₹1,500guide only
With a vehicle and driver
- Sedan (Swift Dzire / Honda Amaze) — 4 seats
- ₹4,000
- SUV (Ertiga / Innova) — 6–7 seats
- ₹5,000
- Innova Crysta — 7 seats
- ₹6,000
Guide ₹1,500 plus the published 8 hr / 80 km rental package. Monument entry tickets are paid at the gate and are not included.
The half-day guide fee is 60% of the day rate, rounded up to the nearest ₹50. Monument entry is extra and listed by monument below.
All ten languages, in Jaisalmer
| Language | Half day | Full day | Who it serves | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hindi हिन्दी | ₹750 | ₹1,200 | Domestic travellers from across India, and NRI families returning with relatives | Hindi in Jaisalmer |
| English English | ₹900 | ₹1,500 | United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Singapore, South Africa | English in Jaisalmer |
| Russian Русский | ₹1,500 | ₹2,500 | Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Armenia | Russian in Jaisalmer |
| French Français | ₹1,700 | ₹2,800 | France, Belgium, Switzerland, Québec, Morocco, Tunisia | French in Jaisalmer |
| German Deutsch | ₹1,700 | ₹2,800 | Germany, Austria, German-speaking Switzerland, South Tyrol | German in Jaisalmer |
| Italian Italiano | ₹1,700 | ₹2,800 | Italy, Italian-speaking Switzerland, San Marino | Italian in Jaisalmer |
| Portuguese Português | ₹1,700 | ₹2,800 | Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique | Portuguese in Jaisalmer |
| Spanish Español | ₹1,700 | ₹2,800 | Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, United States (Hispanic travellers) | Spanish in Jaisalmer |
| Japanese 日本語 | ₹1,800 | ₹3,000 | Japan — independent travellers and organised group tours | Japanese in Jaisalmer |
| Mandarin 中文 | ₹1,800 | ₹3,000 | Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia | Mandarin in Jaisalmer |
What you will see
Jaisalmer's monuments, and what they cost at the gate
Every figure is taken from this site's own published guide to that monument, linked from each card and row. None of them closes for a weekly rest day.
Jaisalmer monuments · 1 of 4
Jaisalmer Fort
- Entry — Indian
- Free to enter the fort complex
- Entry — foreign
- Free to enter the fort complex
- Hours
- 24 hours — it is a living fort – Palace museum 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM
- Time needed
- 3 hours
Turn a card for the guide’s part
UNESCOJaisalmer Fort
The fort itself is a working town and free to walk into. The Jain temples and the palace museum inside it charge separately.
Timings, fees and full guidePatwon ki Haveli
- Hours
- 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
- Needs
- 1 hour
Turn for the guide’s part →
Patwon ki Haveli
Five adjoining merchant mansions built over fifty years, with the most elaborate carved sandstone facades in Rajasthan
Gadisar Lake
- Entry
- Free; boat hire charged separately
- Hours
- Daylight hours – —
- Needs
- 45 minutes
Turn for the guide’s part →
Gadisar Lake
A fourteenth-century rainwater reservoir that was the town’s only water supply, ringed with small shrines and ghats
Sam Sand Dunes
- Hours
- Afternoon and sunset – —
- Needs
- 4 hours including the drive
Turn for the guide’s part →
Sam Sand Dunes
Forty kilometres west, about an hour each way. Camel and jeep rides are run by operators at the dunes and priced by them.
| Monument | Entry — Indian | Entry — foreign | Hours | Closed | Time needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jaisalmer FortUNESCO | Free to enter the fort complex | Free to enter the fort complex | 24 hours — it is a living fort – Palace museum 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM | Open all days | 3 hours |
| Patwon ki Haveli | Not published | Not published | 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM | Open all days | 1 hour |
| Gadisar Lake | Free; boat hire charged separately | Free; boat hire charged separately | Daylight hours – — | Open all days | 45 minutes |
| Sam Sand Dunes | Not published | Not published | Afternoon and sunset – — | Open all days | 4 hours including the drive |
2 of 4 carry a published entry fee. Where one is not shown it is because this site holds no verified figure for it, and a gap is better than an unchecked number.
The shape of the day
A half day and a full day in Jaisalmer
Both plans are written against this city's own monument opening hours, which is why the start times are what they are.
Half day · ₹900 guide
The fort and the havelis
Jaisalmer’s half day is a walking morning. The fort has no vehicle access beyond the first gate, and the havelis are in lanes a car cannot enter.
- 08:30
Hotel pickup
The car takes you to the first fort gate; everything after that is on foot and uphill.
- 09:00
Jaisalmer Fort
Three hours inside a living fort — the four gates, the palace museum, the Jain temples, and the lanes where people actually live. Free to walk into, which surprises most visitors.
- 11:30
Patwon ki Haveli
Down into the lanes below the fort. Five merchant mansions and the finest carved sandstone in the state.
- 12:30
Drop
The 4 hr / 40 km package covers the morning. The dunes are a separate evening trip.
Full day · ₹1,500 guide
Fort, havelis and the dunes at sunset
The full day here is built backwards from sunset at the dunes, which is the thing people come to Jaisalmer for and the one part that cannot be moved.
- 08:30
Hotel pickup
Early, because the fort is pleasant before eleven and hard work after it.
- 09:00
Jaisalmer Fort
Three hours — the gates, the palace museum, the seven Jain temples and the inhabited lanes.
- 12:00
The havelis
Patwon ki, and Salim Singh ki or Nathmal ki depending on the time. All within a few hundred metres.
- 13:30
Lunch and a break
The middle of a desert afternoon has nothing to offer and the dunes are better taken rested. Paid separately.
- 16:00
Gadisar Lake
The old reservoir, the ghats and the shrines, on the way out of town.
- 17:00
Drive to the Sam dunes
Forty kilometres, about an hour. Camel and jeep rides are arranged at the dunes by the operators there and priced by them, not by us.
- 18:15
Sunset on the dunes
The reason for the day. Your guide will tell you which stretch is quieter than the main arena.
- 20:00
Back to Jaisalmer
The dunes run is eighty kilometres return, so a dune day goes beyond the package distance and the extra bills at the published per-km rate — stated before you set off, not after.
The fare, stated plainly
What is in the price and what is not
What the fare covers
- A Ministry-of-Tourism licensed Regional Level Guide for the Rajasthan
- The guide’s licence card photographed and sent on WhatsApp at confirmation, before anything is paid
- An AC vehicle with a driver on the published rental package, if you take the bundled rate
- Driver waiting at every stop for the full package duration — no re-booking between sights
- Fuel, tolls within the package distance, parking at the monuments, and the driver’s allowance
- Ticket-counter help: which tier to buy, which gate to use, and which queue is the short one
What it does not
- Monument entry tickets, paid at the gate — the Jaisalmer figures are in the table on this page
- Meals, shopping and any optional activity during the day
- Distance beyond the package’s included kilometres, at the published per-km rate
- Guide and driver gratuity, customary but never compulsory
- Monument camera or video charges where the monument levies them
Ministry of Tourism, Government of India
Regional Level Guide (RLG)
- Language examined in
- Ten languages
- Licensing region
- Rajasthan
- Full day · 8 hours
- ₹1,500
- Half day · 4 hours
- ₹900
Every licence card carries a photograph, a licence number, the issuing region and the languages the holder is examined in. We send a photograph of the card on WhatsApp when a booking is confirmed, before you pay anything, so you can check the number, the region and the language against the guide who meets you.
The credential
What a government guide licence is, and how to check one
A Regional Level Guide licence is issued by the Ministry of Tourism after a written examination, an interview and a training course run through the Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management. It is issued for a tourism region, not for the whole country, and it names the foreign languages the holder is examined in.
Archaeological Survey of India monuments admit licensed guides and turn away unlicensed ones at the ticket gate. An unlicensed "guide" who approaches you outside the Taj Mahal or Amber Fort cannot accompany you inside, which is why the pitch is always made in the car park.
In Jaisalmer: Rajasthan — the state issues its own regional guide licences
Questions people ask
Guides in Jaisalmer
FAQs
The fort itself is, and that catches most visitors out. It is a living fort with about a quarter of the town inside the walls, so you walk in through the gate like any resident and there is no ticket. What charges separately is the palace museum inside it and the seven Jain temples. Anyone selling you a fort entry ticket at the gate is selling you something that does not exist.
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Book a licensed guide in Jaisalmer
Send your dates, the language you want and whether you need half a day or a full one. We come back with a licensed guide, a photograph of their licence card, and the total in writing before anything is paid — from ₹900 for a half day in English.
We send the guide’s licence card before you pay anything. Nothing is charged to confirm.