Transfer Agra to Jaipur Via Fatehpur Sikri & Stepwell

Two of the best sites in north India are on this road

Most people pay for an Agra–Jaipur transfer and watch four hours of highway. The same drive passes within a few kilometres of Akbar's abandoned capital and the deepest stepwell in India, and turning the transfer into a day is the single most efficient thing you can do on a Golden Triangle trip.

It runs in either direction, and there are Taj and multi-day versions.

Fatehpur Sikri

Forty kilometres west of Agra. Akbar built this capital in 1571 and abandoned it fourteen years later when the water supply failed — which is exactly why it stands complete. Nobody lived there long enough to alter it.

The Buland Darwaza, 54 metres of victory gate, with an inscription quoting Jesus carved on a Mughal mosque. The Panch Mahal, five open storeys stepping back as they rise, no two of its columns alike. The Diwan-i-Khas, where a single carved central pillar carries four bridges to the corners and Akbar sat while Hindus, Jains, Jesuits and Zoroastrians argued around him. And the marble dargah of Salim Chishti, whose jali screens are still hung with threads tied by people asking for children.

Chand Baori, Abhaneri

Further on, and the reason to take this route rather than the highway.

3,500 steps in perfect double flights dropping thirteen storeys to a square of green water, cut in the 9th century. The base runs five or six degrees cooler than the surface, which was as much the point as the water. The geometry photographs like an optical illusion, and you will have seen it in films.

The Harshat Mata temple beside it is the same period.

Six options

Agra to Jaipur; Jaipur to Agra; either with a sunrise Taj visit added; a two-day version; or three and four-day Delhi–Agra–Jaipur tours built on the same route.

Practical

Eight hours for the one-day transfer. Luggage travels with you, so pack before pickup.

Entrance fees are paid at each site.