From Delhi: Private Overnight Jaipur Guided Tour

One night, and Jaipur stops being a rush

The Delhi–Jaipur day trip is fourteen hours with nine of them in a car. A night in the city turns it into an actual visit: the forts on day one, the old city and a ridge sunset on day two, and nobody spending the evening on the NH-48.

Day 1: Delhi to Jaipur

Pickup from your hotel or the airport in Delhi, Noida or Gurugram, then 270 km south — four to five hours with a break. Check in.

Amber Fort in the afternoon, or first thing on day two depending on your arrival. The hilltop complex above Maota Lake, begun 1592 by Raja Man Singh: the painted Ganesh Pol gateway, the Sheesh Mahal where mirror fragments in the ceiling turned a single candle into a ceiling of stars, and the Sukh Niwas cooled by water running through the marble walls.

With an overnight there is time for Jaigarh above it — connected by a tunnel, and holding Jaivana, the largest wheeled cannon ever cast, fired exactly once.

And Nahargarh at sunset, which gives you the whole grid of the walled city below with the streetlights coming on.

Day 2: the old city, then Delhi

Jal Mahal from the causeway, four of five storeys underwater.

City Palace, still partly the royal family's residence, with the armoury, the textile galleries and the two silver urns cast so a maharaja could carry Ganges water to England.

Jantar Mantar, nineteen masonry astronomical instruments from the 1730s, UNESCO-listed, with a sundial still accurate to about two seconds.

Hawa Mahal, the 953-window screen, from the street opposite.

And the bazaars — Johari for gemstones, Tripolia for lac bangles — before the drive back.

Three options

Without accommodation, or with a four-star or five-star hotel.

Practical

Entrance fees are paid at each site, about ₹1,500 a head for a foreign adult.