JAIPUR · RAJASTHAN, INDIA
Pink city, golden forts, marigold streets.
Amber Fort and the City Palace, Hawa Mahal and the old-town bazaars, hands-on block printing and Rajasthani cooking. With the Taj Mahal and the Ranthambore tigers a day trip away.
Only in Jaipur
The pink, the print and the mirror palace.
Forts and bazaars turn up all across Rajasthan. A whole city painted rose, cloth still block-printed by hand in the villages it was always made in, and a hall lined floor to ceiling with mirrors belong to Jaipur in particular.
The rose-pink city
The Pink City
In 1876 the whole walled old town was washed terracotta-pink to welcome the Prince of Wales, and it has stayed that colour by law ever since. Hawa Mahal’s honeycomb of 953 windows, the bazaars of Johari and Bapu, and the City Palace all sit inside one rose-coloured grid. No other city wears a single colour quite like this.
- 1 Pink City Cooking Class
- 2 Private Jaipur Full One Day Tour In Pink City With Guide
- 3 Private Jaipur Pink City Tour by Car & Driver with a Tour Guide
Cloth and carved wood
Hand Block Printing
In the villages of Bagru and Sanganer just outside the city, families still print cloth by hand with carved teak blocks and natural dyes, a Rajasthani craft handed down for three centuries. You carve, dye and stamp your own length of fabric and carry it home still smelling of indigo.
- 1 Private Jaipur Full-Day Tour with Block Printing
- 2 Learn Hand Block Printing Techniques & Print Your Own Fabric
- 3 Jaipur: Block Printing Workshop and Hands-on Experience
Mirrors and amber stone
Amber Fort & the Sheesh Mahal
The honey-coloured fort climbs the hills above Maota lake, and inside the Sheesh Mahal a single flame throws its light across a ceiling of thousands of tiny mirrors. Cross the painted Ganesh Pol and stand in the mirror hall where the maharajas once slept under an indoor sky of stars.
- 1 Jaipur: Jaipur & Amber Fort Full or Half-Day Guided Tour
- 2 Jaipur Amer Fort, Jal Mahal & Stepwell Private Half-Day Tour
- 3 Full-Day Jaipur City Tour with Amber Fort and City Palace
Where to start
The day most people book first.
New to Jaipur? More travellers build their trip around this one than anything else here.
The classics
Jaipur's Most Popular Tours
Amber Fort, the Pink City, the City Palace and the Taj Mahal run. The days most people come to Jaipur for.
Where to begin
The experiences a Jaipur trip is built around.
The forts and the old city, a day at the Taj, a tiger safari, a cooking class and the lanes by tuk-tuk. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The big day trip
How to do the Taj Mahal from Jaipur.
Agra is 240km each way, so the how matters as much as the if. Three ways to reach the Taj from Jaipur, depending on the time you have and the pace you want.
The Golden Triangle
One corner of India's most-travelled loop.
Jaipur is the third point of the Golden Triangle, with Delhi and Agra. It is the route most first trips to India follow, and from here the Taj is a single day east or the start of the classic three-city circuit.
The Rajasthani table
Dal, ghee and a kitchen full of spice.
Rajasthani food is desert cooking turned into a feast: dal baati churma, fiery laal maas, ghevar dripping with syrup. Learn it at the source, in home kitchens and rooftop classes where someone’s grandmother hands you the masala box and shows you the order things go in.
Read the guide: the best cooking classes in Jaipur →The bazaars
Block print, blue pottery, silver and gems.
Jaipur is a city of makers. Johari Bazaar for gemstones and kundan jewellery, Bapu Bazaar for textiles and embroidered juttis, Sanganeri block-prints and the city’s famous blue pottery. Go with someone who knows which lane is which, and how to tell the real thing from the rest.
See the markets and bazaar tours →Amber Fort
A hall built entirely of mirrors.
High in the Amber palace, the Sheesh Mahal is lined floor to ceiling with thousands of tiny convex mirrors and coloured glass. Light a single flame and the whole room fills with stars. It is the picture most people carry home from Jaipur.
Amber Fort tours →Ranthambore
Wild tigers, three hours south.
Ranthambore is one of the few places left in India to see a wild Bengal tiger in daylight, prowling the lake-edge ruins of an old maharajas’ hunting reserve. A dawn or afternoon jeep safari from Jaipur puts you in tiger country and back, the biggest wildlife day in the region.
- 1 Golden Triangle & Ranthambore: 4-Day Private Tour from Delhi
- 2 From Jaipur: Ranthambore National Park Day Trip with Safari
- 3 Ranthambore Tiger Safari from Jaipur – 1 or 2 Days
Three wheels
The old city at tuk-tuk pace.
Nothing fits the narrow rose-pink lanes like a tuk-tuk. The little auto-rickshaws thread the bazaars and the temple gates where cars cannot follow, stopping wherever the chai is good, and they are how locals have crossed the old town for generations.
See all 43 tuk-tuk tours →By pace
Pick the day you feel like.
Jaipur runs at every speed. A slow morning in the old city, a full day of forts and palaces, or a long run out to the tigers and the Taj. Set your own pace.
Take it slow
Old-city mornings, on foot.A heritage walk through the Pink City, a cooking class in a family kitchen, an afternoon at the block-printing table.
The classic day
Forts, palaces and bazaars.The full city by car or tuk-tuk: Amber Fort, the City Palace, Hawa Mahal and Jantar Mantar, then the markets at dusk.
Out of the city
The big day out.A dawn jeep safari for wild tigers at Ranthambore, the long run to the Taj at Agra, or a balloon over the Amber hills.
By place
The Pink City and the road beyond.
The Pink City for the bazaars and the palaces. Amber Fort for the hill and the mirrors. Agra for the Taj. Ranthambore for the tigers. Pushkar for the holy lake. The Golden Triangle to tie it all together.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
A guided city tour or a tuk-tuk through the lanes. A heritage walk on foot. A cooking class, a food crawl, a block-printing table, a bike at dawn or a camera in good hands.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in Jaipur? A three-day plan that takes in the forts, the crafts and the big day trip without a wasted hour.
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