Jaipur: Private Luxury Full-Day City Tour by Car

Private, and the full day costs barely more than the half

Worth noticing on this listing: the gap between the half-day and the full-day rate is small. If you have the time, take the full day — it is the difference between the old city alone and the old city plus Amber Fort.

Amber Fort

Eleven kilometres north on a ridge above Maota Lake, begun in 1592 by Raja Man Singh, Akbar's general.

The Ganesh Pol gateway is the painted one everyone photographs. The Sheesh Mahal behind it is why you go inside — convex mirror fragments set across the ceiling so that one candle would fill the chamber with points of light. The Sukh Niwas was cooled by water running through channels in the marble walls, four centuries before there was another way.

And the zenana: twelve queens' apartments around one courtyard, with the corridors arranged so the maharaja could visit one without the others knowing which.

Go first thing. Amber at nine and Amber at noon are not the same experience.

Jal Mahal

From the causeway. Four of its five storeys are under the lake and there is no way in.

City Palace

Still partly the residence of the former royal family — the flag over Chandra Mahal tells you whether they are in. The armoury, the textile galleries, and the two silver urns in the Diwan-i-Khas, the largest silver objects in the world, cast so a maharaja could carry Ganges water to England.

Jantar Mantar

Nineteen stone astronomical instruments, UNESCO-listed, including the 27-metre Samrat Yantra sundial that still keeps time to about two seconds.

Hawa Mahal

The 953-window screen, best from the street opposite in the morning when it goes properly pink.

Three options

Half day with car and guide; full day with car and guide; or the full day with lunch at a five-star hotel.

Practical

Entrance fees are paid at each site — about ₹1,500 a head for a foreign adult across the main monuments.