Why Jaipur lives on its roofs
A room, not a lid: the flat roof of a Jaipur haveli is the coolest place in the house after dark. Families slept there before fans.
A working space: women dried grain, papad and red chillies on the roofs in winter sun. Many still do.
- The city
- Laid out in 1727 by Sawai Jai Singh II
- The colour
- Pink since 1876, for the Prince of Wales
- The roofs
- Flat, joined, and used as rooms
- Kite day
- Makar Sankranti, 14 January
- The kite roof: on Makar Sankranti, the whole city climbs onto its roofs from dawn to dusk to fly kites and cut each other's lines.
- The Diwali roof: in October or November, every parapet in the walled city is lined with clay lamps. Our Diwali in Jaipur guide explains the night.
- The view: because the old city was planned around a palace and below a ridge of forts, almost every roof faces something worth seeing.
- The catch: rooftop restaurants have multiplied, and many are ordinary. The view is free. A clean kitchen is the thing to pay for.
Facing Hawa Mahal, the cafes across the road
The Tattoo Cafe and Lounge
Where: on the third floor across Hawa Mahal Road from the palace, up about four flights of stairs.
- Why go: the Hawa Mahal facade at eye level, close enough to count windows. It is one of the best-known viewpoints in the city.
- How we use it: for chai, a cold drink and a light snack, timed for the late afternoon. Dinner we keep for elsewhere.
Wind View Cafe
Where: also across the road from Hawa Mahal, on a rooftop facing the facade.
- Why go: the view is superb and the photographs are the reason most people climb. Seating fills quickly.
- Honest note: opinions on the food and service are mixed. Come for the view and a drink, and keep expectations simple.
How to get the best of the Hawa Mahal roofs
Go early or late: at sunrise the light falls full on the facade. In the late afternoon it is in shade and the walls behind glow.
- Order and stay: these cafes live on the view. Order something, stay a while and don't just photograph and leave.
- Mind the stairs: steep, narrow and often unlit. Not a good choice for anyone unsteady on their feet.
Badi Chaupar at dusk
Where: the great square at the eastern end of Johari and Tripolia bazaars, beside Hawa Mahal.
What you see: the evening crowds, families out for kulfi, and the arcades of the bazaars lit up one shop at a time.
- Which roof: several cafes and shops around the square have terraces. Our guides know which family will put out a chair and a cup of chai.
- How to arrive: ask your driver to drop you at Sanganeri Gate and walk the last stretch up Johari Bazaar as the lights come on.
- Then: walk the bazaars after dark with a guide. Our page on bazaars after dark explains how.
- Read more: our guide to the bazaars of Jaipur has the lanes and the shops.
Nahargarh, the whole city at sunset
The view: the grid of the pink city, the Man Sagar lake with Jal Mahal in it, and the plains beyond.
Where to sit: the fort has terraces and a simple cafe on the ramparts where you can sit with a drink as the light goes. It is not fine dining. It is the view of the city.
- Where
- The ridge above the walled city
- Built
- From 1734, under Sawai Jai Singh II
- Best hour
- An hour before sunset
- Getting there
- By car up the ridge road
- The private version: for a special evening we arrange drinks and canapes on a quiet terrace at the fort, then drive down for dinner.
- Go on a weekday: at weekends and on holidays, Nahargarh fills with Jaipur families and couples. Weekday evenings are calmer.
- On Diwali night: the view of the lit city and the fireworks from the ridge is one of the great sights of Rajasthan.
- Read more: our Nahargarh Fort guide and the best sunsets in Rajasthan have more.
Long-running rooftops outside the walls
Peacock Rooftop Restaurant, Hotel Pearl Palace
Where: on the roof of Hotel Pearl Palace, west of the walled city near the small Hathroi Fort.
- Why go: a long-running favourite with travellers, with a decorated terrace, views over the neighbourhood and a mixed Indian and international menu.
- How: book for dinner in the high season. Ask about drinks before you go, as the bar arrangements are not those of a hotel lounge.
Tapri Central
Where: a rooftop tea cafe facing Central Park, in the newer part of the city south of the walls.
- Why go: this is where young Jaipur meets over chai and snacks, with the park's greenery below. It shows the modern city.
- How: go in the late afternoon for tea. It is casual, lively and popular with students and families.
The hotel terraces
- Samode Haveli: inside the walled city, with painted rooms and a terrace where dinner is served. Calm, and a short walk from the bazaars. See Samode Haveli.
- Other palace hotels: most of Jaipur's palace hotels serve dinner on a terrace or lawn in the cool months. Our luxury hotels in Jaipur guide compares them.
A roof of your own in the walled city
What it is: a haveli roof in the walled city, closed to everyone but your party, with a view of the old city or the forts on the ridge.
How it is set: rugs, bolsters and low tables in the Rajasthani style, or a proper table with linen if you prefer, lit with lamps and lanterns.
- The food: a family cook prepares a thali, dal baati or, with a day's notice, laal maas and safed maas from recipes that have never been written down.
- The music: a pair of folk musicians, perhaps Manganiyar singers, playing quietly for an hour. Our page on the Manganiyar singers explains who they are.
- Fair pay: we pay the family and the musicians properly and directly, and we visit every roof we use.
- Notice: a few days in most weeks, a few weeks around Diwali and New Year. Our private palace dinner page covers courtyards and durbar halls too.
The right hour, and how an evening unfolds
Thirty minutes before sunset
- Arrive: take the table at the parapet and order a drink. The walls are still bright pink and the bazaar is loud below.
- Look west: the sun sets behind the Nahargarh ridge, so the forts darken first and the sky behind them turns orange.
Sunset
- The colour: the city turns from pink to rose to ochre in about fifteen minutes. Put your phone down for at least some of it.
- The sound: temple bells for the evening aarti, the lamp ceremony, and pigeons wheeling over the roofs.
The blue hour
- The lights: the arcades and the floodlit monuments come on one after another. This is when photographers make their pictures.
- Now order dinner: the heat has gone out of the stone, and the city below is at its liveliest.
After dark
- The walk: your guide walks you back through the bazaars to the car, which cannot follow you into the lanes.
- Or stay: on a private roof, the evening can stretch late with music. Keep voices low after ten, for the families below.
What to order with the view
At sunset: masala chai with pakoras or mirchi vada, the stuffed chilli fritter. Simple, hot and fresh.
For dinner: a Rajasthani thali, or dal baati churma, gatte ki sabzi and ker sangri with hot rotis. Our thali guide explains the bowls.
- If you eat meat: laal maas, the fiery red mutton curry, or safed maas, its mild white cousin. Our laal maas recipe tells the story.
- In the monsoon: ghevar for dessert, in the Teej season. Read about ghevar and Teej.
- In winter: gajar ka halwa, slow-cooked carrots with milk and cardamom, and hot saffron milk to finish.
- To drink: fresh lime soda, sweet or salted, is the rooftop classic. Licensed places serve beer and wine.
- Skip: anything raw, and complicated dishes from far away. The kitchens up four flights of stairs are often small.
Rooftops through the year
October and November: warm evenings and clear skies, and Diwali, when every roof is lit with lamps. Book well ahead.
December to February: clear and cold after dark. Choose an early table, ask for a heater and bring a shawl. The sunset light is superb.
- Best months
- October to March
- Coldest evenings
- December and January
- Summer
- Only late at night, from about nine
- Monsoon
- Covered terraces, and a plan B indoors
- Busiest
- Diwali, Christmas and New Year
- January: kite day, when roofs are the centre of the world. Our kite flying page explains how to join in.
- March: soft evenings and Holi, best watched from a roof rather than the street.
- April to June: hot. Roofs come alive late, when the breeze picks up. We plan dinners for nine rather than seven.
- July to September: dramatic skies, cooler air and the smell of rain on stone, but also downpours and mosquitoes. Choose covered roofs. See our best time to visit Jaipur guide.
Rooftops on festival days
Makar Sankranti, kites from dawn
When: 14 January, one of the few festivals fixed to the solar calendar.
- What happens: every family is up on the roof with kites, spools of glass-coated string, music and hot snacks. At dusk, paper lanterns float over the city.
- How we arrange it: a haveli roof with a kite-flying teacher and a picnic of sesame sweets. Our journal on kite day in Jaipur has more.
Gangaur and Teej, processions below
When: Gangaur in spring and Teej in the monsoon. The dates follow the lunar calendar, and we confirm them each year.
Diwali, lamps on every parapet
When: October or November, on the new moon of Kartik.
- What happens: the bazaars are lit end to end, every roof is lined with clay lamps and the fireworks go on for hours.
- Where to watch: a walled-city roof for the lamps, or Nahargarh for the whole city at once.
Holi, colour from above
- When: February or March, on the full moon of Phalgun.
- Why a roof: the street can be wild by late morning. From a roof you watch the colour without being drenched in it, unless you want to be. Our Holi guide covers safety and consent.
What most visitors miss
The pigeons: at dusk, men on the neighbouring roofs fly flocks of pigeons in great circles, calling them home with whistles. It is an old Jaipur hobby.
The forts on the ridge: look north-west and you can pick out Nahargarh and, on clear evenings, the walls of Jaigarh above Amer.
- Bring
- A shawl in winter, small notes, a torch
- Wear
- Flat shoes for the stairs
- Allow
- An hour for chai, two for dinner
- Book
- Ahead for Diwali, Christmas and New Year
- The temple bells: the walled city has temples in almost every lane. At aarti time the bells start in one and spread across the roofs.
- The washing lines: the colour of Jaipur is not only the walls. Saris and turbans drying on the roofs are as pink, green and saffron as any bazaar.
- The monkeys: in some parts of the old city, langurs and macaques cross the roofs at dusk. Keep food covered and give them room.
- The morning roof: the same terraces at sunrise, with tea, are quieter and just as beautiful. Our journal on a Jaipur morning explains how we spend one.
Rooftop good sense
Clean kitchens over famous views: if the stairs pass through a kitchen you would not eat in, trust that instinct and order only a drink.
Cooked and hot: eat cooked food served hot and drink bottled or filtered water. Our health and safety guide has more.
- Mind the parapets: many are low, and the stairs are steep and narrow, especially after dark. Hold children's hands.
- Respect the neighbours: don't photograph the roofs around you without thinking. Women often use them as private space in the morning and evening.
- Quiet after ten: the lanes below are full of families going to sleep.
- Alcohol: many small rooftop cafes have no licence. Some will offer beer in a teapot. We suggest you decline. Our guide to dry days and alcohol explains the rules.
- Opening times change: cafes open, close and change hands. We check the places we book each season, so you don't climb four floors to a locked door.
Who will love it, and who should plan ahead
Couples: a private haveli roof with lamps and a single musician is the most romantic evening in the city. Our Rajasthan for Two journey includes one.
Families: children love the kites and the bats at dusk. We choose roofs with proper railings and an easy climb, and eat early.
- Photographers: the blue hour after sunset is the moment. Ask before setting up a tripod. Our best photo spots in Jaipur has more.
- Limited mobility: most old roofs have no lift. We choose hotel terraces with lifts, or garden dinners that are just as beautiful.
- First-time visitors: a rooftop chai facing Hawa Mahal on the first evening is the perfect introduction. Our Jaipur in three nights journey builds it in.
- Everyone: our rooftop dining page covers the best roofs across Rajasthan, from Udaipur to Jaisalmer.