Jaipur: Full Day City Highlights Tour with Tour Guide

Jaipur's headline sights in one day, at a workable pace.

Eight hours is enough for the four buildings everyone comes for, plus the stepwell almost nobody sees, without spending twenty minutes at each and calling it done.

What you see

Amer Fort, from 1592, above Maota Lake. The Sheesh Mahal mirror chamber, the Ganesh Pol gateway, and the Sukh Niwas with water channels cut through the marble to cool it.

City Palace, still partly lived in by the royal family. The Mubarak Mahal textile collection, the Diwan-i-Khas with two sterling silver urns that remain the largest single silver objects ever made, and the four painted seasonal doorways of Pritam Niwas Chowk.

Jantar Mantar, the eighteenth-century observatory, which is more interesting than it sounds: nineteen stone instruments that still work, including the Samrat Yantra, a 27-metre sundial accurate to two seconds.

Hawa Mahal, the five-storey pink facade with 953 windows, built in 1799 so royal women could watch street processions unseen.

And Panna Meena ka Kund near Amer, the eight-storey stepwell with criss-crossing symmetrical staircases, usually empty.

Options

Two at checkout, both with a private car and guide, differing in what else is bundled.

Included

Hotel pick-up and drop-off in Jaipur, professional tour guide, private air-conditioned car, bottled water, tolls and parking. Monument entry is separate.

Worth knowing

Who it suits

First-time visitors with one day in Jaipur, and travellers who would rather have a car waiting than negotiate autos between sites.