The Route: A 22-day canter through India's Aravalli Hills and Thar Desert, with accommodations ranging from tents to farmhouses to a maharaja's lakeside palace, including stops at sandstone-walled Jaisalmer and the 25,000-dromedary-strong (and tourist-scarce) camel fair at Nagaur.

When to go: January to February

Difficulty: Moderate

Travel advisory: A journey for equestrians who like their steeds on the fiery side. The indigenous Marwari mounts, as sinewy and athletic as Arabians, were bred as warhorses and average 15 or 16 hands high. You'll ride hard — 20 miles or more a day.

High/low points:

• Galloping across the sands toward Kumbhalgarh's 15th century hilltop citadel, 23 miles in circumference.
• Finishing your daily outfitter-rationed one liter of mineral water and shelling out for six more to make it through an afternoon of desert riding.