Start with the map, not the brochure
Bigger than you expect: Jaipur sprawls and its traffic is slow. The walled city is in the middle, Amer and the ridge forts about eleven kilometres north, the airport south at Sanganer.
Location over pools: a hotel that saves you forty minutes each way before dawn is worth more than an extra pool.
So we start with the map: before rooms, we think about which part of Jaipur you'll use most.
- Walled city
- Havelis and townhouses, walk to the sights
- Southern quarter
- The great garden palaces
- North and east
- Resort palaces on open land
- Countryside
- Forts and palaces an hour or more away
- Amer
- About 11 km north of the old city
- Airport
- South, at Sanganer
- Inside or beside the walls: walk to Hawa Mahal at sunrise, back for breakfast, and out again into the bazaars after dark. Mostly converted havelis and townhouses, smaller and full of character.
- South of the walls: around Rambagh and the leafy roads of the old residential quarter, the great garden palaces, ten minutes from the old city and close to the polo grounds and the Albert Hall.
- North and east: on the Amer road and the Delhi highway, the newer resort palaces, with space for gardens, pools and spas.
- The countryside: an hour or more away, forts and palaces turn a city visit into a stay in rural Rajasthan.
- Splitting a stay: many guests take two nights in a city palace for the sights, then one or two in the hills to rest.
- Only three nights? We'd usually keep them in one place. Packing up costs half a day.
- Shape of the days: our Jaipur itinerary guide shows how each base changes them.
How Jaipur invented the palace hotel
After independence: in 1947 the princely states joined the new Indian union, and their rulers kept their palaces and a government allowance called the privy purse.
A ruinous expense: keeping a palace with hundreds of rooms and staff cost a fortune.
The first move: Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II saw the future early. In 1957 he opened Rambagh, his own home, to paying guests, one of India's first palace hotels.
- 1947
- Princely states join India
- 1957
- Rambagh opens to paying guests
- 1971
- Privy purses abolished
- Since then
- Havelis and forts restored as hotels
- Word spread: friends from his polo and society life came to stay, and the idea spread.
- 1971: the privy purses were abolished, and many noble families faced a choice: sell, let the house fall down, or open its doors. Many chose the third.
- Restored one by one: havelis, garden houses and country forts became hotels, often run by the families who had always lived in them.
- Why it still feels personal: many Jaipur hotels have a family member in residence, a darbar hall full of ancestors and a cook who knows the house recipes.
- A wide range: some heritage hotels are restored with great care and investment. Others are lived-in homes that need a little patience. Both can be wonderful if you know which you're choosing.
- The wider story: our journal piece on royal families today.
The garden palaces south of the walls
- Rambagh Palace
- Garden house of 1835, hotel since 1957
- Jai Mahal Palace
- Eighteenth century, Mughal gardens
- Narain Niwas
- Late 1920s, the Kanota family
Rambagh Palace, the maharaja's home
Its history: a garden house of 1835 that became, in stages, a royal hunting lodge, a guest house and the principal residence of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II.
The royal couple: he was crowned here in 1931 and lived here with Maharani Gayatri Devi.
- The architect: Samuel Swinton Jacob shaped much of its Indo-Saracenic exterior.
- As a hotel: opened in 1957, run by the Taj group since 1972.
- What it's like: lawns large enough to lose yourself in, long verandahs, a marble swimming pavilion, and the Suvarna Mahal dining room under gilded ceilings and chandeliers.
- Polo next door: the polo ground explains the photographs of horses and trophies in the bar.
- Choose it: for royal Jaipur in its purest form.
Jai Mahal Palace, gardens and quiet
What it is: the Taj's second Jaipur palace, a few minutes from Rambagh, an eighteenth-century residence in formal Mughal gardens.
The gardens: fountains, pavilions and a chessboard laid out in the lawn.
- Calmer: smaller in scale than Rambagh, and many repeat guests prefer it for exactly that.
- Practical: an easy run north to Amer before dawn.
- Choose it: if you love gardens and want palace style without the day visitors who come to see Rambagh.
Narain Niwas Palace, a noble family's house
Its history: built in the late 1920s by the Kanota family, nobles of the Jaipur court.
- What it's like: a garden house that still feels private, with family portraits, old furniture and a long lawn with peacocks.
- Honestly: gently faded rather than polished, and not a five-star palace in the way Rambagh is.
- Choose it: if you love history and character more than marble bathrooms.
Sleeping inside the pink city
- Samode Haveli
- North-east of the walled city
- The Raj Palace
- Just outside the northern walls
- Raj Palace built
- 1727, for the nobles of Chomu
- Smaller havelis
- Only those we've stayed in
Samode Haveli
Whose house: the townhouse of the Rawals of Samode, a noble family who served at the Jaipur court, in the north-east of the walled city.
Arriving: from a busy lane into a quiet courtyard with a garden and a pool.
- Inside: painted rooms, a dining room covered in murals, and a mirrored suite guests ask about long after they've left.
- Close to everything: Hawa Mahal and the bazaars are a short walk or rickshaw ride away.
- Choose it: to be part of the old city, if you don't mind a little street noise at the gate.
- The pairing: we often combine two nights here with a night at Samode Palace, the same family's country seat in the hills.
The Raj Palace
Its history: this mansion dates from 1727, the year Jaipur was founded, built as the city house of the nobles of Chomu, one of the great estates of the Jaipur court.
As a hotel: the family restored it and opened it in the 1990s.
- Inside: richly decorated rooms, gilded and mirrored interiors, and suites that double as small museums of the family's history.
- Where: just outside the northern walls, on the Amer side of the walled city, which saves precious minutes on the way to the fort at dawn.
- Choose it: if you like opulence and want a palace feel within easy reach of the old city.
Smaller havelis
What they are: family-run heritage havelis within and just outside the walls, simpler than the palaces but warm and characterful.
- The bonus: often rooftop views of Nahargarh.
- Quality varies: widely, so we only recommend those we've stayed in. See heritage havelis.
The new palaces on open land
- The Oberoi Rajvilas
- Late 1990s, 32 acres east of the city
- The Leela Palace
- Reopened as the Leela in 2021
- Leela location
- On the Delhi road beyond Amer
- Fairmont Jaipur
- Delhi road, north of Amer
- Best for
- Calm, space, families, spas
The Oberoi Rajvilas
Its story: opened in the late 1990s on 32 acres east of the city, it set the standard for the modern Indian palace resort.
Laid out like a village: pink walls, courtyards, fountains, an orchard and a restored eighteenth-century Shiva temple in the grounds.
- Where you sleep: rooms, luxury tents with carved wooden furniture, or villas with their own pools.
- The spa: set in a restored haveli, one of the best in India.
- Choose it: for calm after the bazaars, for couples or families who want space, or if you're a light sleeper.
- The trade-off: distance. The old city and Amer are a drive away, so we plan the days around each journey.
The Leela Palace Jaipur
Its story: the newest of the grand names. The Leela took over a palace-style property outside the city and reopened it under its own brand in 2021.
- What it's like: a palatial scale, with domes, courtyards, long corridors, a large pool and the Leela's polished service.
- Choose it: for contemporary luxury with Rajput styling and plenty of space, and a hotel that works smoothly for families and celebrations.
Fairmont Jaipur
Where: on the Delhi road north of Amer, with the Aravalli hills behind.
- What it's like: a large modern palace in Mughal and Rajput style, with mirrored halls and a big pool.
- The advantage: close to Amber Fort for early starts, though further from the walled city.
- Choose it: for families and weddings, and if you like its scale.
City business hotels with a palace look
What they are: large five-star hotels built for business and conferences, some in haveli style. Comfortable and central.
- When we use them: when your dates fall on a busy festival weekend and the palaces are full.
- Rarely first choice: they don't give you the same sense of place.
Forts and palaces an hour or two away
- Samode Palace
- About an hour north-west
- Alila Fort Bishangarh
- About an hour and a half north
- Neemrana Fort-Palace
- Halfway to Delhi
Samode Palace
Where: about an hour north-west, the country palace of the Rawals of Samode, rising in terraces at the head of a village with a hilltop fort above.
- Inside: a Durbar Hall and Sheesh Mahal painted and mirrored as richly as anything in Jaipur.
- Outside: pools looking over the hills, and a village below going about its life.
- When: a night or two at the end of a city visit, or on the road to Shekhawati. Our Samode destination page has the full story.
Alila Fort Bishangarh
What it is: a warrior fort on a granite hill about an hour and a half north, with rooms set into the thick walls and views from every window.
- What it feels like: utterly unlike a city palace, dramatic, a little austere and very romantic.
- Choose it: as a last night of rest, or as a base for Amer and the countryside if you'd rather not sleep in the city.
Neemrana Fort-Palace, on the Delhi road
- What it is: a terraced fort-palace climbing a hillside in fifteenth-century stone, halfway between Delhi and Jaipur.
- Why stop: to break the drive and arrive in Jaipur rested.
Heritage or modern: an honest comparison
What heritage gives you: a house once lived in by a royal or noble family, with history in the rooms, portraits in the corridors and staff from families who have worked there for generations.
Built for the climate: thick walls that stay cool, courtyards that catch the breeze, and furniture someone's great-grandfather commissioned.
What it costs you: rooms that differ wildly in size and light, thresholds to trip on, stairs without lifts, and occasional echoes from the courtyard at night.
- Heritage gives
- History, portraits, cool thick walls
- Heritage costs
- Uneven rooms, steps, courtyard echoes
- Modern gives
- Same-size rooms, quiet, lifts, big gardens
- Modern costs
- The sense of sleeping inside the story
- What a new palace gives you: a hotel designed around you, with the same generous bathroom, quiet air conditioning and pool view in every room.
- Faster and larger: service is often quicker, and gardens built on open land can be bigger.
- What you lose: the sense that you are sleeping inside the story.
- Who minds less: families with young children and anyone with limited mobility may value a lift and a level path to breakfast more.
- Our honest view: every visitor to Jaipur should spend at least one night in a real palace or haveli.
- Light sleepers and hot months: pair that night with two in a modern resort.
- Read more: heritage hotels explained and the best palace hotels in Rajasthan.
Which hotel for which traveller
First visit, love of history: Rambagh Palace, for the sense of royal Jaipur and its gardens.
Honeymooners and couples: The Oberoi Rajvilas for privacy, or a night at Alila Fort Bishangarh for drama. Our honeymoon journeys combine both.
- Walkers and photographers: Samode Haveli or The Raj Palace, so the old city is at your door before sunrise.
- Families with young children: The Oberoi Rajvilas, The Leela Palace or Fairmont, for space, pools and level paths. See travelling with children.
- Multi-generation groups: Rambagh or Jai Mahal, where grandparents sit in the gardens while the young ones explore.
- Repeat visitors: Jai Mahal Palace or Narain Niwas, for a quieter, more personal Jaipur.
- Limited mobility: the modern resorts are easiest. We check every room in advance, and our accessible travel guide explains how.
Three ways we often split a Jaipur stay
- City, then hills
- Samode Haveli, then Samode Palace
- Palace, then fort
- Rambagh, then Alila Fort Bishangarh
- Resort plus haveli
- Rajvilas or the Leela, plus The Raj Palace
- Ready-made: our Jaipur in three nights journey uses the first split below, and the Royal Rajputana journey shows how Jaipur fits a longer route.
Old city, then the hills
- The plan: two nights at Samode Haveli for sunrise walks and the bazaars, then one or two at Samode Palace in the Aravallis to rest.
- Why it works: the same family runs both, the drive is about an hour, and you go from temple bells to village silence in an afternoon.
Royal palace, then a fort
- The plan: two nights at Rambagh Palace for the history and gardens, then a night at Alila Fort Bishangarh on the way north to Shekhawati or back towards Delhi.
- Who it suits: especially couples, who get grandeur first and drama second.
Resort calm, with a haveli night
The plan: three nights at The Oberoi Rajvilas or The Leela Palace, with a single night at The Raj Palace in the middle.
- Why it works: you can be at Hawa Mahal and Amber at first light without a long drive.
- Who it suits: families and light sleepers. The luggage can stay where it is.
Rooms, requests and the small things we arrange
Rooms are not equal: in the old palaces the category names tell you little. One historic suite may have a garden balcony, another a fine painted ceiling and no view.
We ask by location: garden-facing at Rambagh, away from the kitchen courtyards in the havelis, and on upper floors where the light is better.
- Old palaces
- Rooms vary, names say little
- We ask for
- Garden-facing, upper floors, quiet sides
- Modern resorts
- Private pool or tent
- Wedding season
- About November to February
- Modern resorts: the choice is simpler, mostly whether you want a private pool or a tent.
- What hotels don't advertise: breakfast on a terrace before an early start at Amber, or a guide waiting in the lobby at six.
- Occasions: a quiet table for a birthday, or a private dinner on a rooftop or in a courtyard.
- Departure days: a late check-out so you can rest before a night flight.
- Wedding season: from about November to February we check the event calendar before booking. A grand wedding in the gardens is wonderful to glimpse and difficult to sleep through.
What money really buys in Jaipur
When it costs most: the finest palace rooms are expensive, especially from late December to early January, during the literature festival in January and around Diwali.
When it costs less: rates drop sharply from April to September, and the monsoon months can be beautiful, green and calm.
- Most expensive
- Late December to early January
- Also high
- The literature festival, Diwali
- Rates drop
- April to September
- Spend it on
- The right hotel, a guide and a car
- On a fixed budget: a slightly smaller room in the right hotel, plus a private guide and a car, beats the biggest suite in a badly placed hotel.
- What more money buys: calm, with a suite to rest in between morning and evening sightseeing, and a spa that resets you after a long drive.
- No queues: a chauffeur who waits so you never stand in line.
- Access: a private tour of the City Palace's royal apartments, or a dinner in a courtyard no one else can book.
- An honest breakdown: our guide to what a luxury Rajasthan journey costs.
Eating well without leaving the hotel
Serious kitchens: most palace hotels take food seriously, and many serve a Rajasthani menu alongside Indian and international dishes.
What to order: laal maas, the fiery Rajput mutton curry, or a vegetarian thali with dal baati, gatte and ker sangri.
- An occasion: at Rambagh, dinner in the Suvarna Mahal.
- Family dishes: in the havelis, cooks are often happy to make dishes that aren't on the menu if you ask in the morning.
- Beyond the hotel: our food of Jaipur guide covers the city's great tables and street food.
- Plan around your hotel: our list of things to do in Jaipur has thirty ideas, each with its best hour.
