Jaipur: 8-Day Rajasthan Heritage Tour with Transfers

Starting in Jaipur rather than Delhi

Most Rajasthan itineraries begin in the capital. This one starts where the state does, which suits anyone flying directly into Jaipur or arriving from the south.

Jaipur

Amber Fort on its ridge above Maota Lake — the Ganesh Pol gateway, the Sheesh Mahal where mirror fragments turned a single candle into a ceiling of stars, and the courtyards stepping up the hill.

City Palace, still partly the royal residence, around a sequence of courtyards. Hawa Mahal, the five-storey honeycomb of 953 windows built in 1799 so the women of the court could watch the street unseen. Jantar Mantar, nineteen masonry instruments including a sundial accurate to two seconds.

Evenings in the bazaars, where the city still works trade by trade: Johari for gemstones, Tripolia for lac bangles and brass.

Onward through Rajasthan

The itinerary continues across the state with private transfers on every leg and local guides in each city — the distances here are the constraint, and eight days is what it takes to cover them without spending every second day in a car.

Expect the desert and lake cities that make the state worth a week rather than a weekend: Mehrangarh in Jodhpur, which rises 120 metres straight off the rock and was never taken; the blue lanes beneath it; the golden sandstone of Jaisalmer and the dunes beyond it; and Udaipur on Lake Pichola, where the City Palace runs most of a kilometre along the water and a boat at sunset ends the trip properly.

How it runs

Private air-conditioned vehicle with a driver throughout, including the intercity legs, and licensed guides for the sightseeing in each city.

Practical

October to March is the season. April to June regularly passes 45°C in the desert, and December and January nights out there drop close to freezing.

Monument entrance fees and meals are paid separately.