Jaipur: Private Instagram Tour of Top Photography Spots

A city built on a grid photographs differently

Jai Singh II laid Jaipur out in 1727 on a nine-square plan with street widths fixed by rule, and the architecture that followed is full of repeating arches, mirrored facades and stepped geometry. That is why it photographs the way it does.

Ten hours with a guide who knows which hour each location works in.

Patrika Gate

Nine painted arches at Jawahar Circle, every surface covered in murals of Rajasthan's regions, receding in perfect perspective. The most photographed non-fort spot in the city, and busy by nine — so go first.

Panna Meena ka Kund

The 16th-century stepwell below Amber: criss-crossing symmetrical staircases dropping eight storeys to the water. Escher geometry, and quiet because the coaches skip it.

Hawa Mahal

From the street opposite, in the morning, when the sun is on the facade. 953 windows across five storeys, and barely a metre deep — which is why it reads as pattern rather than mass. There is a rooftop café across the road that every photographer uses.

Amber Fort

The Ganesh Pol gateway, the Sheesh Mahal mirror chamber, and the courtyards stepping up the ridge above Maota Lake. Early, before the crowds.

City Palace

Pritam Niwas Chowk, where four gates each carry a season and a deity. The peacock gate is the one everyone shoots, and there is usually a queue of people in matching outfits waiting for it.

Gaitor ki Chhatriyan

The royal cenotaphs in carved white marble at the foot of Nahargarh hill — photographed by almost nobody.

And a ridge at sunset

Nahargarh, with the whole walled city below going orange as the lights come on.

Two options

By tuk-tuk with an English-speaking driver, or by car with a guide.

Practical

Ten hours, starting before sunrise. Half of these locations only work in the first two hours of light.