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The ropeway cabin rose steadily above Pushkar, and with every few metres, the town below seemed to rearrange itself.
I was on my way to the Savitri Mata Temple, which sits atop Ratnagiri Hill. Reaching it traditionally involves climbing up the hill, but I had chosen the considerably easier option: the passenger ropeway that runs from near the base to the temple. The return ride cost me INR 200.
The journey up was enjoyable enough. It was on the way down, later that evening, that I began paying closer attention to where I was.
Every time I looked directly beneath the cabin, the height made me slightly nervous. Looking ahead was another matter. Pushkar Lake lay below, the town spread out around it, and beyond were the folds of the Aravallis. The sun was beginning to set. From that distance, the bustle I had spent much of the day walking through seemed to disappear.
There was something poignant about it. I was watching Pushkar recede just as my own visit was coming to an end. The nervousness never entirely left, but neither did the stillness. For a few minutes, suspended above the hillside in the evening light, the town felt remarkably peaceful.
By the time I came down, much of my sightseeing was over. I returned to Pushkara Resort & Spa for my last evening and was due to leave the following morning.
It may seem an unusual place to begin writing about a hotel stay, but looking back, the view from that ropeway explained much of what I had enjoyed over the previous two days. There was Pushkar, tightly gathered around its lake. And then there was the quieter stretch outside town where I had been staying.
Away From Pushkar’s Centre
Pushkara Resort & Spa managed by Black Rock Hotels & Resorts is located at Nedaliya on the Pushkar Bypass Road, away from the busiest streets around the lake. The property is located roughly 14 km from Ajmer.
I arrived on an August afternoon after being picked up from the railway station. The timing changed my first impression of the landscape. This was the monsoon, and the Aravalli hills around the resort were much greener than the dry Rajasthan scenery I had half expected before setting out.
The first afternoon was intentionally slow. After lunch, I was shown around the resort, including its rooms, restaurants, event venues and recreational areas. That had been the main plan for my arrival day, before I headed into Pushkar properly the following morning.
Pushkara is a large property, although it rarely presents itself as one single hotel block. Rooms, cottages, lawns and common spaces are spread across the grounds, with the hills forming a backdrop in several directions. The resort currently has nine accommodation categories, ranging from its Evoke and Elegant rooms to cottages, luxury tents, a family suite and the larger Pushkara Suite. Some of the higher categories add balconies, bathtubs or private Jacuzzi.
My own room was comparatively straightforward. It was spacious, with warm interiors and a view towards the hills. More importantly, it was comfortable to return to without making me feel that I ought to spend the entire trip inside the resort.
That is an important distinction because Pushkara also has the infrastructure of a destination property. There are substantial lawns and banquet spaces, and weddings and large gatherings are clearly part of what it is built to accommodate.
I experienced it differently. My stay was quieter and revolved largely around breakfast, dinner and periods of doing very little between excursions. Qube Café is the resort’s principal multi-cuisine restaurant, while Gravity Lounge provides a second dining and social space.
What I came to appreciate most, however, was something less tangible: the physical distance from central Pushkar.
This is not a hotel from which you walk out and immediately find yourself beside the ghats. You need to drive into town. For someone who wants to spend most of a trip within Pushkar’s historic centre, that is worth knowing before booking.
For me, the separation worked. Pushkar could be intense in short bursts, with traffic, shops, pilgrims and travellers competing for space in its narrow streets. Returning afterwards to somewhere more spread out gave each day a natural pause.
And there was enough happening outside the resort to make those excursions essential.
Around The Lake
My introduction to central Pushkar came through its market.
The streets were full of textiles, jewellery, handicrafts, rose products and the small souvenirs that appear repeatedly across Rajasthan but acquire a distinctly local character here. My itinerary had specifically set aside the morning for exploring the market before the temple visits later in the day.
It was colourful, but not in the exaggerated way the word is often used when writing about Rajasthan. Colour was simply everywhere: in fabrics suspended outside shops, embroidered bags, jewellery, turbans and displays spilling into the lanes.
What surprised me more was how approachable the market felt. There were tourist-oriented shops, certainly, but plenty of what I saw was pocket-friendly enough to encourage browsing rather than serious bargaining over a major purchase. The smaller lanes could feel almost quaint when the crowds thinned out.
More importantly, walking gave me a better sense of Pushkar than moving directly between landmarks would have.
Pushkar is one of Rajasthan’s major pilgrimage towns, set around Pushkar Lake and surrounded by hills on three sides. The lake has 52 bathing ghats and remains at the centre of the town’s religious life.
That relationship between the sacred and the everyday is visible almost constantly. A shopping lane can turn towards a temple. Another street suddenly opens near a ghat. Pilgrims, residents, shopkeepers and visitors move through much of the same compact area.
The Jagatpita Brahma Temple was my principal temple stop in the centre of town. Pushkar’s Brahma Temple is one of the relatively few prominent temples dedicated to Lord Brahma and sits close to the lake. The present temple is believed to date largely to the 14th century, though the site itself is considered much older.
I had arrived knowing about the temple largely because of that rarity. Once there, however, its significance felt less like a piece of trivia and more like something embedded in the way Pushkar functions. Worshippers continued to arrive for darshan while the town carried on immediately outside.
From there, I spent time around the older streets and the lake before reaching Varah Ghat for the evening aarti.
By this point the character of the day had begun to shift. The market’s commercial energy receded, people gathered near the water, and chants became part of the soundscape around the ghat. It was not silent or removed from the town around it, but it demanded a different pace.
My final excursion was to Savitri Mata Temple. At the base of Ratnagiri Hill, I boarded the ropeway that would take me up to the temple rather than attempting the climb on foot. As the cabin gained height, Pushkar Lake gradually became visible behind us. At the top, the elevated position opened up views across the town and surrounding hills.
I spent some time at the temple before taking the same ropeway back down as sunset approached. That return journey remains the image I remember most clearly from the visit: part nervousness, part quiet, with Pushkar laid out beneath me after a day spent navigating it at ground level.
Over two days, I had moved between the hotel’s open grounds and Pushkar’s crowded lanes, between slow mornings and busy markets, and between meals at the resort and evenings beside the lake. The resort gave me somewhere comfortable to return to. Pushkar gave me reasons to leave it.
The Information
Stay: Pushkara Resort & Spa, Village Nedaliya, near Sudha Bai Budha Pushkar, Pushkar Bypass Road, Ajmer, Rajasthan 305022.
Getting there: Ajmer Junction is the most useful major railway station for Pushkar and is roughly 14 km away. Kishangarh Airport serves the Ajmer region, while Jaipur International Airport is the larger air gateway. Rajasthan Tourism lists Kishangarh Airport as operational for domestic services.
Best time to visit: The cooler months, particularly October to February, are generally more comfortable for exploring Pushkar on foot. The town gets considerably busier around Kartik Purnima and the annual Pushkar Fair.
