The Pink City first. The Taj Mahal is a day away.
Which Amber Fort tour beats the crowds up the ramp, what a tuk-tuk loop of the old city costs, and whether the Taj is worth a pre-dawn start from Jaipur. Reviews of the tours you can book from here.
A palace morning, a bazaar evening, a tiger, and the Taj at dawn.
The four bookings a first week in Rajasthan tends to hang off, with what each costs and what the people who went thought of it.
01Morning one, inside the wallsJaipur Guided City Tour: City Palace, Jantar, Hawa & Jal MahalCity Palace, the Jantar Mantar instruments and the Hawa Mahal front, with a guide who knows which order beats the tour buses.
02Evening one, in the bazaarJaipur Bazaar & Food Walking TourKachori, lassi in a clay cup and the spice lanes of the walled city, eaten on foot as the shops light up.
03The tiger dayRanthambore National Park Day Trip with SafariSouth-east to the park gates, a jeep or canter into the tiger zones, and back in Jaipur after dark.
04Dawn at the TajSkip The Line: Sunrise Taj Mahal & Agra Day Tour From JaipurA pre-dawn pickup, first light at the Taj, Agra Fort after breakfast. The trip most visitors build the week around.
Sunrise at the gate, a fast-track ticket, or Agra in one long day. Choose your Taj.
Agra is four to five hours east by road, so almost every Taj day from Jaipur starts in the dark. Four ways to do it, what each costs, and the one question that decides between them: how early you are willing to stand at the gate.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Private Sunrise Taj Mahal & Agra City Tour
Dawn at the east gateFirst light on the marble, before the coach groups arrive.
2
Fast-track entryA timed ticket and a guide, for anyone already sleeping in Agra.
3
The Taj plus Agra FortThe red sandstone fort upriver, where Shah Jahan spent his last years.
4
Out of DelhiExpressway or fast train out and back, if Delhi is your base.
All 106 Taj Mahal tours →
Jaipur sits inside a ring of hill forts. Start within the walls, then climb.
The old city painted pink for a royal visit in 1876, the palace-fort at Amber on the northern ridge, Nahargarh above the night lights, the temple gorge at Galta, the holy lake at Pushkar and, one long day east, the Taj Mahal.
Jaipur by tuk-tuk, on foot and one plate of kachori at a time.
Inside the city walls the lanes are too tight for a coach and too busy to drive yourself. Take a tuk-tuk out to the forts, walk the bazaars of Johari and Bapu, and let somebody local do the ordering.
Amber Fort is a morning job. Get up the ramp before the heat does.
The palace-fort rises out of Maota Lake eleven kilometres north of the old city, with Jaigarh and its great cannon on the hill above. The courtyards fill by late morning, so the better tours start here and work back into town.
Every Amber Fort tour →
The most popular tours from Jaipur.
Every Jaipur and Agra tour →The days more travellers book than any others between the Pink City and the Taj, and what earns each one its place.
1
Private Full Day Sightseeing Tour By Car with Guide
Spend a full day crossing Jaipur’s royal and scientific landmarks by private air-conditioned car, with a guide in English, French, Italian, or Spanish. Expect Amber Fort, Panna Meena Ka Kund, Jal Mahal, the City Palace, Jantar Mantar, and more, plus an optional craft workshop. Entry tickets and lunch are extra.
Read our review →
2
Skip-the-Line Taj Mahal & Agra Fort Private Tour
3
3-Hour Morning Bike Tour of Jaipur
from $32
4
Spiritual City Walking Tour-THE Pushkar Route
5
Taj Mahal Express Entry Tickets
from $20
6
Taj Mahal and Mausoleum Guided Tour with Skip-the-Line
7
Private Full-Day Sightseeing Tour by Tuk-Tuk
8
Private Guided Taj Mahal Tour with Skip The Line Entry Ticket
from $25
Ranthambore for tigers, and leopards inside Jaipur’s own city limits.
Ranthambore is dry forest wrapped round a ruined hill fort, a few hours south-east, where tigers use the old hunting tracks. Jhalana is closer: a scrub reserve on the edge of the city where leopards den in the rocks and an evening jeep is back in time for dinner.
3Three things you will only find around Jaipur.
Every Indian city has a fort and a bazaar. A temple gorge run by monkeys, a pattern cut into a block of wood and a camel country around a holy lake do not travel.
Galta Ji
East of the walled city a road climbs into a cleft in the Aravalli hills, where pink sandstone temples step down beside spring-fed bathing tanks. Pilgrims bathe, rhesus macaques own the ledges, and the small Sun Temple on the ridge above is where Jaipur walks up for the last light over the city.
- 1Jaipur Tuk Tuk Sightseeing Tour with Monkey Temple Sunset View★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 108 reviews
- 2Jaipur Guided Tour with Monkey Temple★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 55 reviews
- 3Private Evening Tour with Monkey Temple Sunset★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 27 reviews
Prints cut in wood
In Sanganer and Bagru, on the edge of Jaipur, cotton is still printed by hand with carved wooden blocks, one colour at a time, a pattern repeated hundreds of times down a length of cloth. A workshop puts the block in your hand, and you leave with the piece you printed.
- 1Private Jaipur Full-Day Tour with Block Printing★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 206 reviews
- 2Learn Hand Block Printing Techniques & Print Your Own Fabric★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 95 reviews
- 3Block Printing Workshop and Hands-on Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 78 reviews
Pushkar
A small lake in the desert west of Ajmer, ringed by bathing ghats and hundreds of temples, one of the few in India dedicated to Brahma. Evenings end with the lamp ceremony on the water, and every autumn the dunes outside town fill with camel traders for the fair.
- 1Spiritual City Walking Tour-THE Pushkar Route★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 907 reviews
- 2Afternoon Walk Tour with Sunset & Fire Ritual -The Pushkar Route★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 119 reviews
- 3Evening Walking Tour with Fire Rituals-The Pushkar Route★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 108 reviews
What a day around Jaipur actually costs.
Every tour on the site, sorted by price. Rajasthan is kind to a budget: a guided morning in the old city often costs less than dinner at the hotel.
Tuk-tuk loops, old-city walks, temple runs and Taj entry with a guide.
Full private days by car, cooking classes, block printing and most Agra day trips.
Ranthambore safaris, multi-day Golden Triangle runs and the balloon over Amber.
Four bookings from Jaipur that will not wait.
Most of the Pink City can be arranged from a rooftop table the night before. These four run on gate times, permit quotas and park calendars that take no interest in when your train gets in.
- 01Private Sunrise Taj Mahal & Agra City TourThe Taj Mahal opens around half an hour before sunrise and closes every Friday. From Jaipur a sunrise slot means a pickup in the small hours, fixed the day before.
- 02Ranthambore National Park Day Trip with SafariRanthambore safaris run on a fixed number of jeeps and canters per zone and shift, and the core zones shut for the monsoon from July to September.
- 03Jhalana Panther Safari Park Tour in JaipurJhalana sends out a limited number of jeeps on two shifts a day, morning and late afternoon, and each shift is booked in advance.
- 04SkyWaltz Hot Air Balloon SafariBalloons lift off over the Amber valley at dawn, in the cooler months, and only when the wind allows. Baskets are small and dates go early.
When Jaipur touches forty-five degrees, go early and then go indoors.
From April to June the afternoon sun turns the fort ramps and open courtyards into an ordeal by noon, and the monsoon that follows brings sudden downpours. Put the forts at first light and keep the afternoon for a kitchen, a printing table or the shade of a covered bazaar.
The Taj, Akbar’s abandoned capital, the Pink City, then out to the lake and the tigers.
Fatehpur Sikri
Jaipur
Pushkar
RanthamboreBy place, from the walled city to the Taj
By kind of day: fort, safari, kitchen or road
New tour reviews from Jaipur and Agra.
All the latest reviews →
Full-Day Tour of Agra with Sunrise & Sunset at Taj Mahal
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Taj Mahal Sunset View or Morning View Tour with Hotel Pickup
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Old City & Street Food Tour in Car, Tuk Tuk or Bike
Read our review →
Mohabbat the Taj show tickets and agra transfers
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Agra Local Sightseeing with Sunrise or Sunset Experience
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