Private Half/Full-Day Tour of Pink City Jaipur by TukTuk

A tuk-tuk, with a driver who lives here

The cheapest honest way to see Jaipur, and from October to March the most enjoyable. Open on both sides, fits down lanes no car can enter, and driven by somebody who knows which chai stall is worth stopping at.

There is a guided version and a car version if you want either.

What a local driver gives you

Not a script. A driver-led day is looser than a guided one: you get the city as somebody who lives in it moves through it, including the bits that are not monuments — the flower market, a lassi shop, a bangle lane, a viewpoint they like.

If you want the history properly explained, take the option with a guide as well. If you want to see how the city works, the driver is enough.

The route

Amber Fort on its ridge above Maota Lake, begun 1592 — a tuk-tuk makes the climb, slowly, which is part of the fun.

Jal Mahal from the causeway; four of five storeys are underwater and there is no way in.

Hawa Mahal, the 953-window screen of 1799, best from the street opposite in the morning.

City Palace and Jantar Mantar in the old city, and the bazaars around Johari and Tripolia — gemstones, lac bangles, block-printed cloth, mojari slippers.

On the full day there is room for a stepwell or Nahargarh at sunset.

Four options

Half day by tuk-tuk with driver; full day by tuk-tuk with driver; full day by tuk-tuk with driver and guide; or full day by air-conditioned car with driver.

Practical

Seven hours on the full-day versions, with hotel pickup.

A tuk-tuk is open to the weather and the dust. From April to June take the car — the afternoon heat in Jaipur stops being atmospheric and starts being a problem.

Entrance fees are separate: about ₹1,500 a head for a foreign adult across the main sites.