Best Things to Do in Jaipur

Jaipur rewards travellers who balance its grand Rajput palaces with quiet morning stepwells, working craft neighbourhoods and hilltop viewpoints. Cluster your stops so you are not crossing the busy city centre twice in the same afternoon.

1. Explore the mirrored halls of Amber Fort (Amer Fort). Walk through the painted Ganesh Pol gateway into the 16th-century hillside citadel of the Kachwaha rulers to see the Sheesh Mahal (Palace of Mirrors), where thousands of convex glass mosaics glitter under a single beam of light.
2. Photograph the symmetrical stairs of Panna Meena ka Kund. Just ten minutes below Amber Fort in Amer village, this eight-storey 16th-century square stepwell (baori) is lined with criss-crossing diagonal stone staircases and corner pavilions.
3. Admire Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds) from both sides. View the five-storey pink sandstone street facade with its 953 carved jharokha lattice windows from a rooftop cafe opposite Sireh Deori Bazaar, then enter from the rear courtyard to look out through the cooling vents.
4. Tour the City Palace and Pitam Niwas Chowk. Still partly home to Jaipur's royal family, the palace complex blends Rajput and Mughal courtyards, textile and armoury museums, giant silver water urns in the Diwan-i-Khas and the four seasonal doors of the Peacock Gate courtyard.
5. Read the sky at UNESCO-listed Jantar Mantar. Directly beside the City Palace, Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II built nineteen monumental stone and marble astronomical instruments, including the world's largest stone sundial (Vrihat Samrat Yantra), accurate to two seconds.
6. Watch sunset over the city from Nahargarh Fort. Perched on the rocky Aravalli ridge directly above the walled quarters, Nahargarh's ramparts and Madhavendra Bhawan suites offer an uninterrupted panorama as Jaipur's streetlights flicker on across the plain.
7. Browse block-printed cottons and gems in the Pink City bazaars. Stroll the uniform terracotta arcades of Johari Bazaar for jewellery, Bapu Bazaar for block-printed quilts and mojari leather slippers, and Tripolia Bazaar for lac bangles.
8. Pause at Jal Mahal on Man Sagar Lake. On your return from Amer, stop along the lakeside promenade to see the symmetrical red-sandstone Water Palace floating in the middle of the reservoir against the Aravalli hills.
9. Visit the Albert Hall Museum and Patrika Gate. Admire the Indo-Saracenic domes and galleries of Rajasthan's oldest state museum in Ram Niwas Garden, and pass through the hand-painted arches of Patrika Gate at Jawahar Circle.
10. Taste hot pyaaz kachori and clay-cup lassi. Join locals on MI Road for a crisp fried pastry stuffed with spiced caramelised onions alongside a thick, creamy lassi topped with clotted malai in an earthen kulhad.