Jaipur Day Tour from Delhi by Express Train – Pink City

Train there, and the reason it is worth it

Delhi to Jaipur by road is 270 km and four to five hours, worse coming back on a Sunday evening. The morning express does it in about four and a half hours on rails — no traffic, no tolls, and you can sleep or eat rather than watch a windscreen.

Pickup between 4:30 and 5:00 am from anywhere in Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida, Gurugram, Ghaziabad or Faridabad, and a transfer to New Delhi Railway Station for the 06:00 departure.

In Jaipur

A private car and a licensed guide take over for the day.

Amber Fort, the hilltop complex above Maota Lake begun in 1592 — the painted Ganesh Pol gateway, the Sheesh Mahal where mirror fragments set into 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 and there is no entry.

City Palace, part of it still the royal family's residence, with the armoury and the two enormous silver urns cast so a maharaja could take Ganges water to England.

Jantar Mantar, the reason a guide earns their fee here: nineteen masonry astronomical instruments from the 1730s, UNESCO-listed, including a 27-metre sundial whose shadow moves six centimetres a minute and which still reads to about two seconds.

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

Then the evening train back into Delhi.

Two options

Train, car and guide; or the all-inclusive version with monument entrances and meals.

Practical

Seventeen hours door to door. That is a real day and the train is what makes it survivable.

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.