From Delhi: All Inclusive Jaipur Tour with Lunch & Transfers (from $67.72)

Door to door from Delhi, with lunch built in

Pickup from your hotel in Delhi and drop-off back at it. Private car the whole way, a licensed guide in Jaipur, and a proper sit-down Rajasthani lunch rather than a snack in the car at two in the afternoon.

The drive

New Delhi to Jaipur is 270 km on the NH-48, four to four and a half hours with a break. Early start, because the road empties before seven and fills after eight.

Amber Fort

Your guide meets you here. The complex was begun in 1592 by Raja Man Singh, Akbar's general, on the ridge above Maota Lake — a Hindu and Rajput plan built with Mughal money and Mughal craftsmen.

The Ganesh Pol gateway is painted plaster over stone and is the photograph everyone takes. Behind it the Sheesh Mahal, where convex mirror fragments were set across the ceiling so that a single candle read as a sky full of stars.

Jal Mahal

A photo stop on the causeway. Four of its five storeys sit under Man Sagar Lake and there is no way in — no boat, no ticket, whatever you are offered at the roadside.

Lunch

Rajasthani, at a restaurant, sitting down. Dal baati churma if you want the state dish; lal maas if you eat meat and can take chilli.

City Palace, Jantar Mantar, Hawa Mahal

The old-city cluster in the afternoon. The palace is still partly the royal residence; the observatory's 27-metre stone sundial still reads to within two seconds; and the Hawa Mahal's 953 windows were a screen so the women of the court could watch the street unseen.

Three options

Guide only in Jaipur; guide with an air-conditioned car; or the all-inclusive version with lunch and transfers.

Practical

A long day — plan on fourteen hours door to door. Tell us about vegetarian, Jain or no-chilli requirements when you book; all three are ordinary here.