From New Delhi: Jaipur Tour by Fast Train or by Private Car

Rail or road, and the choice is real

By train: a 5am pickup, dropped at New Delhi station, and the morning fast train to Jaipur. No traffic, no tolls, and you arrive able to walk rather than unfold. The evening return also misses the crawl back into Delhi, which is what ruins the road version.

By car: 270 km each way, four to five hours. The vehicle is yours all day, so you can stop where you like and stay longer at anything that holds you.

First class on the train is a wider seat and a quieter coach; second class is perfectly comfortable on a four-hour run.

In Jaipur

A private car and a licensed guide for the day, whichever way you travelled.

Amber Fort, the hilltop complex above Maota Lake begun in 1592 — the painted Ganesh Pol gateway, the Sheesh Mahal where mirror fragments in the ceiling turned a single candle into a sky of stars, and the water-cooled Sukh Niwas.

Jal Mahal from the causeway; four of its five storeys are underwater.

City Palace, part of it still the former royal family's home, with the armoury and the two enormous silver urns cast to carry Ganges water to England.

Jantar Mantar, nineteen masonry astronomical instruments built in the 1730s by a ruler who was an astronomer first. UNESCO-listed, and the great sundial still keeps time to about two seconds.

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

Five options

Car with guide; second class train with car and guide; car with guide and tickets; second class with car, guide and entrances; or first class with everything.

Practical

Train seats are limited and release on a fixed schedule — book early, and carry the passport you booked with, because Indian Railways checks ID against the ticket.

Entrance fees run about ₹1,500 a head for a foreign adult where not included.