Beyond the city, a quiet desert stay in Jaisalmer teaches you how to slow down

Jaisalmer doesn’t announce itself loudly. It eases you in. The colours are warmer, the air feels heavier, and once you leave the city behind, the desert quietly takes over. Conversations slow down, silences stretch longer, and suddenly you’re not checking the time as often. While travelling for Deserts of India, we realised the Thar isn’t meant to be rushed, it’s meant to be felt.

That feeling settled in properly when we reached Lakhmana Desert Camp. Sitting amid wide, open dunes, the camp doesn’t try to dominate the landscape. It simply exists within it. The tents are spaced out enough to give you breathing room, and the overall setting feels calm and unforced. Inside, everything is comfortable and thoughtfully done, nothing flashy, nothing missing. You wake up to quiet, step outside barefoot, and the first thing you see is sand rolling endlessly into the horizon.


Evenings were our favourite. The desert changes its mood slowly, almost politely. One moment everything is glowing gold, and the next the sky has turned a deep blue. One night, dinner was set up right on the dunes. No music playing in the background, no distractions, just candlelight, warm food, and conversations that naturally stretched longer than planned. It didn’t feel arranged; it felt like the desert had allowed us to sit with it for a while.

As the night grew cooler, folk musicians and dancers gathered around a bonfire. There was no sense of performance pressure, just music drifting into the open space, mixing with the sound of the wind. We found ourselves watching quietly, not in a hurry to record or capture anything. Some moments are better lived than saved.


Mornings followed the same rhythm. A slow camel ride, then a jeep drive deeper into the dunes, where the scale of the desert really hits you. There was nothing to tick off, nowhere to rush to. Meals came when they were ready, conversations happened when they happened.

What stayed with us was how natural everything felt. We moved at our own pace, felt looked after without ever feeling interrupted, and left feeling lighter than when we arrived. When it was time to go, it genuinely felt like pressing play after a pause. Lakhmana Desert Camp isn’t about grand gestures, it’s about quiet moments that stay with you long after the sand is gone from your shoes.