Your chauffeur meets you at Bhuj airport (or the railway station) and transfers you to your hotel in this historic capital of Kutch.

In the afternoon you tour the adjoining royal palaces: the 18th-century Aina Mahal, the 'Palace of Mirrors' with its Venetian glass and Indo-European craftsmanship, and the Italian-Gothic Prag Mahal next door, whose bell tower gives sweeping views over the old city.

You drive north to Dhordo, the gateway to the Great Rann of Kutch and the hub of the Rann Utsav tent city, roughly two-and-a-half hours across increasingly stark landscape.

In the evening you head onto the endless white salt flats for sunset and, on the right nights, a full moon rising over the desert, the signature image of the region, with camel carts, folk music and craft stalls at the festival grounds.

The morning climbs Kalo Dungar (Black Hill), the highest point in Kutch, for a panoramic view over the white expanse of the Rann stretching to the Pakistan border, with its 400-year-old Dattatreya temple.

You then visit Gandhi ni Gam and the surrounding craft villages, meeting the weavers, block-printers and embroiderers who make Kutch one of India's great handicraft regions, an honest look at living artisan traditions.

You drive south to the coastal town of Mandvi, an old shipbuilding port where wooden dhows are still made by hand on the shore.

The day combines relaxed time on Mandvi's clean private beach with a visit to the Vijay Vilas Palace, the 1920s royal summer retreat set in gardens, its Rajput-style domes and pavilions a familiar Bollywood filming location.

After breakfast and any last-minute craft shopping in Bhuj's bazaars, your chauffeur transfers you to the airport or station for your onward journey.

If your departure is later in the day, we can add the Bhujodi weaver village or the Aina Mahal museum, so no time is wasted.