How we would choose, if we were you
Two cities in one: Jaipur before eleven and Jaipur after four. Our uncle's advice is still the best we know.
Why late morning is hard: the coaches from Delhi arrive and the light is flat and hard. Early and late, the same places are calm, cool and golden.
- Best hours
- Sunrise to eleven, four until dark
- Midday
- Lunch, a swim and a sleep
- Short stay
- Amber, City Palace, old city, one craft
- Longer stay
- Add the day trips
- Our rule
- No elephant rides, no commission shops
- Our daily shape: a sight or a walk at first light, a second stop before the heat, a long lunch, a swim and a sleep, then something beautiful into the evening.
- Grouped by theme: pick two or three from each section below for a balanced stay.
- Short of time: start with Amber, the City Palace, the walled city on foot and one craft morning.
- More time: the day trips at the end are where Jaipur stops being a city and becomes a region.
- Ready-made days: our Jaipur itinerary guide, and the main Jaipur destination page for the history.
- Two promises: we don't book elephant rides at Amber, and our guides never take you to a shop that pays them a commission. Everything below works without either.
Forts, palaces and the sky machines
- Amber Fort
- As the gates open
- Hawa Mahal
- Sunrise
- Jantar Mantar
- Close to midday
- City Palace
- Late afternoon, private tour
- Jaigarh and Nahargarh
- Late afternoon to sunset
- Gaitore
- Morning
Be at Amber Fort as the gates open
Why: the palace-fortress of the Kachwahas, begun by Raja Man Singh I in 1592, is the reason many people come to Jaipur at all.
- The first hour: stand alone in the Sheesh Mahal and watch your guide strike a match under its mirrored ceiling.
- How: leave the city before seven, walk up the old ramparts from below, or take a jeep to the upper gate. By ten the courtyards fill.
- Court by court: our full Amber Fort guide.
See the private rooms of the City Palace
What most see: the museum galleries, the Mubarak Mahal's textiles and the two giant silver urns in the Diwan-i-Khas.
- The urns: Maharaja Madho Singh II filled them with Ganga water for his voyage to London in 1902.
- What fewer see: the private tour of the Chandra Mahal, the royal family's seven-storeyed residence, with its blue Sukh Niwas and mirrored upper rooms.
- When: late afternoon, when the light warms the painted gates of Pritam Niwas Chowk.
Read the time by a stone shadow at the Jantar Mantar
What it is: Sawai Jai Singh II's observatory, built in the years after he founded the city, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- When: close to midday, when the shadow on the giant Samrat Yantra moves visibly along its scale.
- Hire the guide: without one you'll see sculpture. With one, you'll understand how a king measured the heavens with stone and plaster.
Climb inside Hawa Mahal at sunrise
Why sunrise: the famous facade of 1799 faces east, so it glows at first light.
- Then climb: go round to the entrance and up ramps rather than stairs to the narrow upper storeys where the court women watched the processions.
- From the top: straight down Siredeori Bazaar and across the rooftops to Nahargarh.
Watch the city turn gold from Nahargarh
Why: the ridge fort of 1734 is where Jaipur goes to watch the sunset.
- How: arrive an hour before dusk, walk the Madhavendra Bhawan with its matching queens' apartments, then find a place on the walls.
- The moment: as the light goes, the pink city turns amber and then into a field of lamps.
Stand beside the Jaivana cannon at Jaigarh
What it is: the soldiers' fort above Amber and, for a long time, its cannon foundry.
- The cannon: the Jaivana, cast here in 1720, is enormous.
- The view: the ramparts look down onto Amber and Maota Lake.
- When: late afternoon, combined with Nahargarh on the ridge road.
Climb Isarlat, the tower over Tripolia
What it is: a slim minaret above the rooftops near Tripolia Bazaar that most visitors never notice.
- Its story: Sawai Ishwari Singh built it in the mid-eighteenth century to mark a victory. Locals call it Swargasuli, the spike that pierces heaven.
- The climb: a narrow spiral to a tiny balcony with the whole walled city at your feet.
- Who for: not anyone nervous of heights. It is one of our favourite views in Jaipur.
Walk among the royal cenotaphs at Gaitore
Where: a quiet valley below Nahargarh.
- What: chhatris, domed memorials of carved marble and sandstone, for the maharajas from Jai Singh II onwards.
- The finest: Jai Singh II's own, its pillars carved with flowers, battle scenes and dancers.
- When: the morning, when the stone is cool and the only sound is the pigeons. One of the most peaceful places in the city.
The walled city, its bazaars and its makers
- Dawn walk
- Chandpole Gate to Badi Chaupar
- Lac bangles
- Maniharon ka Rasta
- Gemstones
- Johari Bazaar
- Block printing
- Bagru and Sanganer
- Before Bagru
- Anokhi Museum, Amer
- Street by street: our guide to the bazaars of Jaipur maps them.
- Buy honestly: read our shopping guide before you go.
Walk the old city at dawn with a guide who grew up there
When: start at Chandpole Gate before seven and walk east to Badi Chaupar while the shutters are down.
- What you'll see: milk deliveries, temple bells, men reading newspapers on stone platforms, pigeons fed on the squares.
- What your guide shows you: the rastas, lanes named for their trades, and old haveli doorways the coach tours never pass.
- Our walks: our heritage walks are built around this hour.
Watch lac bangles being made on Maniharon ka Rasta
Where: off Tripolia Bazaar, in a lane barely wide enough for a scooter.
- What: families heat lac over small charcoal stoves, roll it into coils, bend it into bangles and press glass and stones into the soft surface.
- How: sit for ten minutes and watch. Most will make a set to fit your wrist while you have a cup of tea.
Learn to look at stones in Johari Bazaar
Why: Jaipur is one of the world's great cutting centres for coloured gemstones, especially emeralds.
- How: with family jewellers we have known for decades, sitting with a loupe to learn how a cutter thinks about colour, clarity and light.
- Buy safely: only from people you trust, and ask for a certificate for a significant stone. Our guide to gems and jewellery explains.
Print your own cloth in Bagru or Sanganer
Bagru: an hour south-west, families still print with carved wooden blocks and dye with indigo, iron and pomegranate.
Dabu: they also use a mud paste that resists the dye.
- Sanganer: near the airport, known for finer florals on white.
- How: a morning with a printing family, stamping a length of cotton yourself and watching it dry in the sun.
- Why: the morning many of our guests talk about most.
Meet the blue potters
What it is: pottery made from ground quartz rather than clay, painted in cobalt and turquoise with Persian floral patterns.
- Why it survives: it almost vanished in the last century, until a few artists, the late Kripal Singh Shekhawat above all, refused to let it go.
- How: visit a workshop to see pieces shaped, painted and fired.
Spend an hour at the Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing
Where: a restored haveli at Amer, a few minutes from the fort.
- What: block printing explained from carving the block to the final wash, with a carver and printer usually at work in the courtyard.
- When: before Bagru, so you understand what you're watching there.
Eating your way through Jaipur
- Breakfast
- Pyaaz kachori at Rawat
- Before eleven
- Lassi at Lassiwala, MI Road
- Street food
- Masala Chowk, by the Albert Hall
- Hands-on
- A haveli cooking morning
- Grand
- A palace courtyard dinner
A kachori and lassi breakfast
Kachori: pyaaz kachori, a flaky fried pastry stuffed with spiced onion, from Rawat Mishthan Bhandar near the railway station.
- Lassi: then Lassiwala on MI Road, for a clay cup so thick you eat it with a spoon.
- Timing: go before eleven, because the lassi runs out.
- The craft: our guide to pyaaz kachori.
Street food at Masala Chowk
Where: beside the Albert Hall in the Ram Niwas Garden, gathering stalls from across the city into one open-air courtyard.
- What: the cleanest, calmest way to try mirchi vada, dal kachori, chaat and kulfi in one evening.
- When: after you've seen the museum lit up.
Cook with a family in a haveli kitchen
The cooks: they measure in handfuls and pinches, as our grandmothers did.
- The menu: dal baati, gatte and a proper tempering of ghee and cumin, then you eat what you've made.
- Choices: vegetarian and meat menus are both possible.
A private dinner in a palace courtyard
Behind closed gates: a table in a lantern-lit courtyard, folk musicians on a carpet in the corner.
- The food: laal maas and safed maas cooked the old way.
- Why: the closest thing to being a guest of a Jaipur noble family a century ago.
Temples, gardens and quiet places
Join the morning darshan at Govind Dev Ji
Where: in the City Palace gardens, the temple of Govind Dev Ji, the form of Krishna who is the true king of Jaipur to its families.
- The image: brought from Vrindavan in the eighteenth century.
- Darshan: a sight of the deity, when the curtain is drawn back several times a day. The early morning one is crowded, joyful and full of singing.
- Etiquette: remove your shoes, cover your shoulders and stand at the back. Nobody will mind you watching.
Walk the valley of Galtaji
- What it is: a gorge east of the city with temples and bathing tanks fed by a natural spring, often called the monkey temple for its macaques.
- How: go early, carry no food, and climb to the Surya Mandir on the ridge for a view back over Jaipur.
Sit in the Sisodia Rani garden
What it is: a terraced garden on the Agra road, laid out by Sawai Jai Singh II for his Sisodia queen from Mewar.
- What you'll see: fountains, pavilions and murals of Krishna and Radha.
- When: a weekday morning, when it is quiet and green, on the way to or from Galtaji.
See Jal Mahal and its birds at first light
Look, don't enter: the water palace on Man Sagar Lake is not open inside, and that is part of its charm.
- When: on the promenade on the way to Amer, when the water is still and the hills are blue.
- Winter: the lake fills with migrant ducks.
Leopards, balloons and the hills at dawn
- Leopards
- Jhalana, at dawn or late afternoon
- Balloons
- Calm winter mornings near Amer
- Cycling
- Six to eight in the morning
- Tigers
- Ranthambore
Go on a leopard safari in Jhalana
Where: the scrub-covered hills on the city's south-eastern edge, a protected leopard reserve.
- When: open jeeps go in at dawn and in the late afternoon.
- Why: sightings are frequent enough to make it one of Rajasthan's best short safaris, with nilgai, peacocks and plenty of birds too.
- An easy half day: it pairs well with a lazy afternoon. For tigers, continue to Ranthambore.
Float over Amer in a hot-air balloon
- What: on calm winter mornings, balloons rise near Amer and drift over villages, mustard fields and the ridge forts.
- Plan for wind: flights depend entirely on it, so we keep a second morning free in case the first is cancelled.
Cycle the walled city before the traffic
When: between six and eight in the morning, when the broad bazaars are wide open.
- The route: a slow ride from Chandpole to Badi Chaupar, with stops for chai and a temple or two.
- Why: one of the best ways to understand the scale of Jai Singh's plan.
Jaipur after dark
- Albert Hall
- Floodlit after dark
- Raj Mandir
- Opened 1976, balcony seats
- Folk music
- A private haveli courtyard evening
- Polo
- Roughly January to March
- Rooftop
- Badi Chaupar, an hour before dusk
See the Albert Hall lit up
What it is: the city's oldest museum, designed by Samuel Swinton Jacob in an Indo-Saracenic style.
- After dark: floodlit against the sky, beautiful by day and spectacular at night.
- How: galleries in the late afternoon, then step outside to watch the lights come on.
Watch a Hindi film at Raj Mandir
What it is: the great cinema off MI Road that opened in 1976, with a foyer like a pink meringue.
- The audience: cheers, whistles and sings along. Even if you don't follow a word, it is pure Jaipur.
- Seats: we book the best in the balcony.
Folk music and puppets in a haveli courtyard
- Who: Rajasthan's travelling musicians and kathputli puppeteers, with string puppets with painted wooden faces, who have performed for Jaipur's nobles for generations.
- What we arrange: a private evening with a small group of musicians, a puppeteer and a Kalbelia dancer, in a courtyard rather than a hotel lobby.
Watch polo where the maharajas played
Why here: Jaipur is one of the homes of modern polo, and Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II was among the finest players of his age.
- When: the winter season, with the main matches roughly January to March, on the grounds beside Rambagh Palace.
- A very Jaipur afternoon: a chukka in the late afternoon, then tea on the lawn. See our Jaipur polo season page.
End the day on a rooftop at Badi Chaupar
How: a rooftop facing Hawa Mahal an hour before dusk, with masala chai.
- What you'll see: the facade changing colour while the square fills with flower sellers and families.
- Why: of everything on this list, it costs least and stays longest. Our rooftop dining guide has more.
If your dates fall on a festival
- Makar Sankranti
- 14 January, kites from rooftops
- Gangaur
- March or April, royal procession
- Teej
- The monsoon, royal procession
- Diwali
- October or November, lit bazaars
Fly kites from a rooftop on Makar Sankranti
When: 14 January, when the whole walled city goes up onto its roofs.
- What happens: from dawn the sky over Hawa Mahal fills with paper kites, and every rooftop shouts when a line is cut. At dusk, lanterns rise.
- What we arrange: a haveli rooftop, a kite-flying master and a picnic. Our kite flying page explains the art.
Watch the Gangaur or Teej procession
What: twice a year the goddess leaves the City Palace in a royal procession through Tripolia Gate, with caparisoned horses, bands and women in their finest.
- When: Gangaur in March or April, Teej in the monsoon.
- Where to watch: we arrange a balcony seat above the route.
Walk the bazaars on Diwali
When: October or November, when Johari Bazaar, Bapu Bazaar and MI Road compete for the most dazzling lights.
- How: walk them the evening before Diwali, when families are out shopping, then watch the fireworks from a rooftop.
- A whole trip: our Diwali in Jaipur journey is built around it.
Day trips beyond the city
- Samode
- About an hour north-west
- Abhaneri
- On the road towards Agra
- Sambhar Lake
- West, best in late afternoon
- Bhangarh
- A long morning's drive east
Samode, a palace in the hills
Where: about an hour north-west, at the head of a village beneath a hilltop fort.
- What: a painted Durbar Hall and Sheesh Mahal as fine as anything in the city.
- How: come for lunch, or better, stay a night.
The great stepwell at Abhaneri
What: the Chand Baori, dropping into the earth in a pattern of thousands of steps, one of the deepest and most dramatic stepwells in India.
- Beside it: the Harshat Mata temple, with beautiful carved fragments.
- When: on the way to Agra or Ranthambore.
Flamingos and salt at Sambhar Lake
What: India's largest inland salt lake, west of the city.
- Winter: its shallows can turn pink with flamingos, and the salt pans stretch white to the horizon.
- How: late afternoon for the light, with a stop at the old temple of Shakambhari Mata.
Bhangarh and the Aravalli ruins
- What: a ruined town with temples, a bazaar and a palace climbing a hillside, all wrapped in ghost stories.
- When: a long morning's drive east, a good day out on the way to Sariska or Alwar.
What we tell our own cousins before a Jaipur day
Before eleven, after four: do the big sights then. The middle of the day is for lunch, the pool and a nap.
No shop detours: never let a driver or stranger take you to a shop. Our guides are paid never to, and we can take you straight to the makers.
- Slip-on shoes: you'll take them off at every temple and some havelis.
- Small notes: for chai, tips and offerings. Phone payments are everywhere, but cash still opens doors in the lanes.
- One free morning: the best moments, a wedding band passing or a sweet shop frying jalebis, can't be scheduled.
- Khamma ghani: learn the Rajasthani greeting. People light up when they hear it.
- Before you book: read our Jaipur best time to visit guide to fix dates, and our luxury hotels guide to choose where to stay.
