Why these three cities belong together
Where Rajasthan's story starts: almost everyone lands in Delhi. The Chauhan king Prithviraj held it in the twelfth century, and the Mughal emperors ruled the Rajput kingdoms from here for two hundred years.
Maharajas in New Delhi: the rulers of Jaipur and Bikaner kept grand houses along its avenues.
The Jantar Mantar: near Connaught Place, built in 1724 by Sawai Jai Singh II, three years before he founded Jaipur.
- Nights
- Seven: Delhi one, Jaipur three, Udaipur three
- Pace
- Gentle, two short travel days
- Best months
- October to March, July to September for Udaipur
- Good for
- First-timers with one week
- Starts
- Delhi
- Ends
- Udaipur, via Delhi or Mumbai
- The road home: driving out towards the Aravalli hills, you follow the road the Kachwaha kings took home from the Mughal court.
- Jaipur, that home: Jaipur is the capital Jai Singh laid out in 1727 on a grid of broad bazaars and squares, washed pink in 1876 and still lived in by the family who built it.
- The best introduction: busy, bright, full of craftsmen and rooftops. Its forts, the hill palace at Amer and the observatory are close together, so three nights give you the whole city without a long drive.
- Udaipur, the contrast: Udaipur was founded in 1559 by Maharana Udai Singh II after the sieges of Chittor, as the capital of Mewar, the proudest kingdom and the one that held out longest against the Mughals.
- Grid against lakes: Jaipur is a grid. Udaipur is a ring of man-made lakes in a bowl of hills, its palaces facing the water and the evening light.
- Six hours or one: the two cities are about six hours apart by road and an hour by air, and the change of mood between them is the whole point.
- Left out on purpose: Agra and the Taj need at least one more night, and Jodhpur and the desert several. Squeezing them in turns a week into a blur of car windows.
- Want the Taj: our nine-night Golden Triangle and Udaipur.
- Want all of Rajasthan: our fifteen-night Royal Rajputana. This week is for travellers who would rather know three places well.
The journey, day by day
- Delhi to Jaipur
- Train a little over four hours, or four to five by road
- Jaipur to Udaipur
- About an hour by air, six by road
- Airport to Delhi centre
- About forty minutes at night
- Udaipur airport
- Dabok, about 22 km east
- Amer from Jaipur
- 11 km north
Day 1: arriving in Delhi
Met inside arrivals: at Indira Gandhi International Airport, with your name on a card and cold water in the car.
Evening landing: straight to a central hotel in Lutyens' Delhi, about forty minutes at night. The only plan is a hot bath and room service dal and rice.
- Morning landing: rest first, then walk in Lodhi Garden before lunch, among the fifteenth-century tombs of the Sayyid and Lodi sultans.
- Humayun's Tomb: in the last two hours of light visit Humayun's Tomb, finished around 1570, the first great garden tomb in India, as its sandstone turns rose and gold.
- On a Thursday evening: we may take you across the road to the shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin to hear the qawwals sing.
Day 2: Old Delhi at dawn, then to Jaipur
Jama Masjid early: Shah Jahan's great mosque, before the heat and the crowds.
On foot and by rickshaw: Chandni Chowk, the silver lane of Dariba Kalan and the spice warehouses of Khari Baoli, with kachori and jalebi along the way.
- The Red Fort: add an hour at the Red Fort if the day allows. It closes one day a week, so we plan around it.
- To Jaipur after an early lunch: the afternoon train takes a little over four hours on the fast services, or your chauffeur drives the new expressway in about four to five.
- Why we like the train: smooth and punctual, with wheat fields, mustard and camel carts sliding past the window.
- Arrival: at your Jaipur palace hotel in time for dinner under the stars.
Day 3: the walled city of Jaipur
Hawa Mahal after sunrise: at Hawa Mahal the low light falls full on its 953 small windows while the street is still asleep.
Chai on a rooftop: opposite, then the bazaars as the shutters lift, with a guide who grew up in these lanes.
- What you'll find: lac bangles on Maniharon ka Rasta, the jewellers of Johari Bazaar, and breakfast of pyaaz kachori and lassi.
- Midday: rest.
- The City Palace: a private tour of the City Palace in the late afternoon, including the royal apartments of the Chandra Mahal that most visitors only glimpse.
- Pritam Niwas Chowk: its four painted gates. The Peacock Gate is the one everyone photographs.
Day 4: Amer, the stepwell and Nahargarh
Amber at opening: leave at dawn for Amber Fort, 11 kilometres north, and have the Sheesh Mahal, the hall of mirrors, almost to yourselves.
No elephants: we walk or drive you up. We don't book elephant rides.
- Nearby: Panna Meena ka Kund, the geometric stepwell, and the Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing in its restored haveli.
- Midday: lunch at Amer and a long rest.
- Nahargarh before sunset: Nahargarh Fort on the ridge, built in 1734. Watch the grid of Jaipur turn from pink to gold while kites circle overhead.
- Dinner: in a haveli courtyard with folk musicians.
Day 5: craft in the morning, science at noon
Bagru: a morning with a printing family in Bagru, where indigo, iron black and pomegranate red are stamped onto cotton with hand-carved wooden blocks.
Your own cloth: you print a length yourself and carry it home.
- Jantar Mantar near midday: the Jantar Mantar is the one sight best when the sun is high, because its giant sundial reads local time to within about two seconds.
- The late afternoon is yours: a swim, a spa treatment or a slow walk on the palace lawns.
- Evening: a private rooftop dinner, a cooking lesson with a family cook, or a quiet last night in the Pink City.
Day 6: the flight to Udaipur and the first sunset
Fly, don't drive: the morning flight takes about an hour, instead of six on the road.
- Met at Dabok: our team meets you at Maharana Pratap Airport, about 22 kilometres east of the city, and you reach your lakeside hotel before lunch.
- If you prefer the road: we break it at Chittorgarh's great hill fort, but it makes a long day.
- The first sunset: a private boat on Lake Pichola in the last hour of light, timed so you drift past Jag Mandir as the sun drops behind the western hills and the City Palace turns from cream to amber.
Day 7: the City Palace and the gardens
City Palace at opening: enter the City Palace of Udaipur and climb straight to the upper courtyards before the groups.
Mor Chowk: its glass mosaic peacocks are best in the morning light.
- The old city: the Jagdish Temple, then the lanes to Gangaur Ghat, with a stop at a miniature painter's studio where artists still grind their own pigments.
- Gardens: after lunch and a rest, the fountains of Saheliyon ki Bari, the garden of the maidens.
- The widest view: the Monsoon Palace on its hilltop an hour before sunset, over the lakes and the Aravallis.
- Evening: the folk dance show at Bagore ki Haveli on the ghat, or a rooftop dinner facing the lit palace.
Day 8: Eklingji or a slow morning, then home
An afternoon flight: drive north at dawn to Eklingji, the family deity of the Mewar rulers, and the carved Sas-Bahu temples at Nagda, back for a late breakfast.
- Or stay put: breakfast on your terrace with the lake completely still is a perfectly good last morning too.
- Flights home: Udaipur has direct flights to Delhi and Mumbai, both connecting to international flights.
- To the end: our team takes you to the airport and stays in touch until you are on your way.
Where you'll stay
Delhi: a calm, central first night
The Imperial: on Janpath, opened in the 1930s as New Delhi was being built, and still feels like it, with colonial-era prints in its corridors and a palm-lined drive.
- The Oberoi, New Delhi: overlooks the Delhi Golf Club, close to Humayun's Tomb and Lodhi Garden.
- The Leela Palace: in the diplomatic quarter, the most palatial.
- Very late landing: a hotel in Aerocity beside the airport buys you an extra hour of sleep.
Jaipur: a palace, a garden village or a haveli
Rambagh Palace: a garden house in 1835, then the home of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II and Maharani Gayatri Devi, and a hotel from 1957. The grandest address in the city, with peacocks on its lawns.
- The Oberoi Rajvilas: 32 acres outside town, like a private village, with a restored Shiva temple in its grounds.
- Samode Haveli: a nobleman's townhouse inside the walled city, a short walk from Hawa Mahal, for waking up in the old city.
Udaipur: on the island or across the water
Taj Lake Palace: built between 1743 and 1746 as a summer palace, it covers almost its whole island in Pichola and is reached only by the hotel's boats.
The Oberoi Udaivilas: domes and courtyards along the western shore, looking back at the City Palace. Many rooms have semi-private pools by the water.
- The Leela Palace Udaipur: beside it on the lake.
- Shiv Niwas Palace: inside the City Palace complex, curving around a courtyard pool.
- Fateh Prakash Palace: also in the complex, holding the Durbar Hall and the Crystal Gallery.
- Raffles Udaipur: on its own island in Udai Sagar east of the city, for complete quiet.
Choosing by style
Couples: tend to choose the Lake Palace and Samode Haveli, for romance and for being in the heart of things.
- Families with children: usually prefer the space and gardens of Rajvilas and Udaivilas.
- History in every corridor: first-timers love Rambagh and Fateh Prakash.
- The differences explained: our guides to palace hotels and heritage havelis.
When to go, and what the seasons change
October to March: warm, clear days, cool nights, and Udaipur's lakes usually full after the monsoon.
December and January: early mornings at Amer and on the water are cold, so pack a shawl and a light down jacket.
- Classic season
- October to March
- Most comfortable
- February and March
- Delhi smog and fog
- November and December
- Hot season
- April to June, often above 40°C
- Monsoon
- July to September, Udaipur at its loveliest
- Delhi in November and December: heavy smog and dense morning fog can delay flights and trains, one reason we keep Delhi to a single night.
- February and March: often the most comfortable weeks of the year in all three cities.
- April to June: hot in Jaipur and close to it in Udaipur. Hotels are quieter and kinder on rates, and we plan around dawn starts, long lunches and pools.
- The monsoon: short heavy showers, green hills and almost no crowds. Jaipur is humid but beautiful.
- Udaipur in the rains: at its loveliest when the lakes fill and the Monsoon Palace finally makes sense.
- Month by month: our guide to the best time to visit Rajasthan.
Makar Sankranti in Jaipur, 14 January
- Kites everywhere: the whole walled city climbs onto its roofs, and the sky over Hawa Mahal fills with paper.
- Join us: if your dates allow, spend the day on a haveli roof. It is the most joyful day of the Jaipur year.
Holi and Gangaur, February to April
Holi: bonfires the night before and colour the next morning.
- A private Holi: we arrange a family one in a courtyard for guests who would rather avoid the street crowds.
- Gangaur: about two weeks later, women in their finest clothes walk in procession to the lakes in Udaipur and out through Tripolia Gate in Jaipur.
- Mewar Festival: Udaipur holds its spring festival at the same time.
Diwali, October or November
Lamps and light: Jaipur's bazaars are lit end to end, and Udaipur's ghats are lined with lamps reflected in the lake.
- Our family's pick: if you can choose only one week for this journey, many of us would choose this one.
- Book early: the best rooms go fast.
Make it yours
Shorter: five nights
Skip Delhi: if you connect through Mumbai or arrive rested, fly straight to Jaipur for two nights, then three in Udaipur.
- The trade: you lose the Mughal chapter but keep both Rajput capitals.
- First time in India: we would still keep the Delhi night.
Longer: nine or ten nights
A second Delhi night: for the Qutub Minar and Lutyens' avenues.
- A hill night: at Samode, in the Aravalli hills an hour from Jaipur, or the hill palace of RAAS Devigarh north of Udaipur.
- Beyond Udaipur: continue to Kumbhalgarh and its great wall, and Ranakpur and its marble temple, our Mewar Lakes and Temples journey in miniature.
With the Taj Mahal
Two nights in Agra: between Delhi and Jaipur, with the Taj at sunrise and the Abhaneri stepwell on the road west.
- What it becomes: our Golden Triangle and Udaipur journey.
- Without Udaipur: see Delhi, Jaipur and Agra in luxury.
With tigers
Three nights at Ranthambore: Ranthambore is about three and a half hours south of Jaipur, for four to six jeep safaris in the forest below the old fort.
- Then on: fly or drive to Udaipur.
- The favourite change: the single most popular one families ask for.
For couples
A fourth Udaipur night: on the island at the Lake Palace.
- Jag Mandir by candlelight: dinner after the day visitors have left.
- More ideas: our Udaipur romance journey and Rajasthan honeymoons page.
For repeat visitors
Private access, slower mornings: in place of the classic tours.
- Ideas: a historian in the City Palace archives, a day in the gem-cutting workshops of the old city, or Nathdwara's painters of pichwai cloths.
- Eklingji and Nagda: a morning at the temples when they are full of local families rather than visitors.
How we look after you
If you have questions before you book, our guides to getting around Rajasthan and airports and flights explain how we plan the travel days, and you can plan your journey with a local planner whenever you are ready.
Met everywhere: inside the arrivals hall in Delhi and at every airport and station on the way, with help for bags and check-in.
- A private chauffeur: in a comfortable car in each city, waiting outside every sight.
- In the walled lanes: of Jaipur and Udaipur we switch to walking, cycle rickshaws and boats.
- Local guides: who grew up in each city lead every tour. They are paid properly and never take you to commission shops.
- Train and flight booked: the fast train from Delhi to Jaipur and the short flight from Jaipur to Udaipur save hours and you arrive rested.
- Your planner on WhatsApp: from the first message to the drive back to the airport, for a changed dinner, a doctor or a different idea for the afternoon.
- Arranged in advance: private boats, rooftop dinners, palace tours and craft visits, timed for the right light.
- No published prices: every journey is different. After one conversation we send a quote and a day-by-day plan you can change as often as you like.
Small things that make this week better
Keep the first afternoon empty: jet lag hits hardest on day two, and the train to Jaipur is a fine place to doze.
Carry a scarf or shawl every day: it covers your head at the Jama Masjid, your shoulders at the Jagdish Temple and your neck on a cold boat at dawn.
- Learn one greeting: khamma ghani, the Rajasthani hello. Boatmen, shopkeepers and palace guards all light up when they hear it.
- Save your shopping: for Jaipur's textiles and gems and Udaipur's miniature paintings, and buy only from makers or shops we trust.
- Temple manners: leave shoes at temple doors and leather outside Jain shrines, and ask before photographing anyone at prayer or bathing on the ghats.
- Water and street food: drink bottled or filtered water, and try street food only with your guide beside you, who knows which stall fries fresh.
Who will love this journey, and who won't
First time, about a week: this is your first time in Rajasthan and you have about seven days.
Palaces and free afternoons: you want both, not one at the cost of the other.
- Fewer hotel changes: you are a couple, or travelling with older parents who prefer them.
- Two kinds of city: a great Rajput city and a romantic lake city, without long days in the car. There are only two travel days, and both are short.
- Coming for the Taj: choose the Golden Triangle and Udaipur instead.
- Dreaming of dunes: camels and a desert camp belong to Jodhpur and Jaisalmer and our Under the Thar Sky journey.
- Wildlife first: Palaces and Tigers is the better choice.
- Two weeks to spare: use them. Rajasthan rewards every extra day.
