JAIPUR · RAJASTHAN
The Pink City, fort by fort.
Amber on the hill and the City Palace below it. Heritage walks through the painted old town, block-printing and bazaar trails, a cooking fire after dark, and the road out to the Taj and the tigers.
Only in Jaipur
Three things you can only really do here.
Old towns, hill forts and handicrafts exist across India. A whole capital painted rose-pink, a ridge lined with Rajput forts, and a living trade in block prints and gemstones — those are Jaipur’s own.
A city the colour of terracotta
The Pink City
In 1876 the whole walled old town was painted a single rose-terracotta to welcome the Prince of Wales, and it has stayed that colour ever since. Walk it on foot and the Hawa Mahal’s honeycomb of 953 windows, the City Palace, the bazaars and the stone astronomy of Jantar Mantar all sit inside the same pink-washed grid — a UNESCO old city you can read like a map.
- 1 Jaipur Bazaar & Food Walking Tour
- 2 Heritage Walk & Street Food Tasting in Jaipur
- 3 Magical Walk of Jaipur
Rajput forts on the ridge
Amber & the Hill Forts
Above the lake, Amber Fort climbs the hillside in honey sandstone and marble, its Sheesh Mahal lit by thousands of tiny mirrors. Behind it Jaigarh guards the world’s largest cannon on wheels, and Nahargarh crowns the ridge for the sunset over the whole city. A line of Rajput strongholds you can spend days inside.
- 1 Jaipur: Jaipur & Amber Fort Full or Half-Day Guided Tour
- 2 Jaipur Amer Fort, Jal Mahal & Stepwell Private Half-Day Tour
- 3 Jaipur Guided City Tour: City Palace, Jantar, Hawa & Jal Mahal
India’s craft capital
Block Prints & Bazaars
Jaipur is a city of makers. In the villages of Sanganer and Bagru, artisans still hand-carve wooden blocks and stamp cloth by hand; in the old city, Johari Bazaar trades gemstones and kundan jewellery the way it has for three centuries. Print your own fabric, throw blue pottery, or just get lost in the lanes of dyers and silversmiths.
- 1 Private Jaipur Full-Day Tour with Block Printing
- 2 Learn Hand Block Printing Techniques & Print Your Own Fabric
- 3 Jaipur: Block Printing Workshop and Hands-on Experience
The one everyone books
Jaipur's single most popular day out.
More travellers book this than anything else on the site. If you only lock in one thing before you arrive, this is the safe bet.
The classics
Jaipur's Most Popular Tours
Amber Fort mornings, private city sightseeing, heritage walks and bazaar food trails. The experiences most travellers book first.
Where to begin
The days a Jaipur trip is built around.
The forts and palaces, heritage walks, cooking classes, block-printing, tuk-tuk runs and the tiger safari south of town. The handful of categories most Jaipur trips are planned around, and the best of each.
The big question
How to see the forts and palaces.
Jaipur has more forts and palaces than a short trip has mornings, so the real question is which ones and in what order. Here is how the headline three stack up, and what each is best for.
The old-city bazaars
Where the whole city goes shopping.
Inside the pink walls the trades still cluster by lane. Johari Bazaar deals gemstones and kundan jewellery, Bapu Bazaar stacks leather juttis and block-printed cotton, Tripolia sells lac bangles by the armful. A good guide walks you past the touts to the real dyers, silversmiths and printers — and gets you a fair price when you find the thing you can’t leave without.
Read the guide: bazaar & shopping tours →Rajasthani kitchens
Dal baati, kachoris and a home-cooked thali.
Jaipur eats well and eats spicy. Graze the old city for pyaaz kachori and hot jalebi, line up at a century-old lassi shop, then sit down to a Rajasthani thali of dal baati churma and laal maas. Better still, cook it — market-to-table classes in family kitchens send you home able to make the whole spread from scratch.
See the food tours & classes →The walled city
A whole capital, painted rose-pink.
Laid out on a grid in 1727 and washed terracotta for a royal visit in 1876, the old town is the only city of its kind — the Hawa Mahal, the City Palace, Jantar Mantar and a maze of bazaars all inside the same pink walls. Best seen slowly, on foot, with someone who knows which gate to turn at.
Browse Pink City tours →Tiger country
Wild tigers, a morning’s drive south.
Three or four hours from Jaipur, Ranthambore was once the maharajas’ hunting forest; now it’s one of the best places in India to see a wild Bengal tiger, padding past a thousand-year-old fort and crumbling pavilions in the dry grassland. An open-canter safari at dawn, and a real shot at the stripes — book it well ahead, the gates fill fast.
- 1 Golden Triangle & Ranthambore: 4-Day Private Tour from Delhi
- 2 From Jaipur: Ranthambore National Park Day Trip with Safari
- 3 Ranthambore Tiger Safari from Jaipur – 1 or 2 Days
Jaipur after dark
The city has a whole second life at night.
When the heat drops, Jaipur lights up. Out at Chokhi Dhani the lanes fill with folk dancers, puppet shows and a thali eaten under the stars; in town the Hawa Mahal and the forts glow gold, and a heritage night walk reads the city in a different light. Time it right and you catch a singing, dancing Bollywood blockbuster at the gloriously over-the-top Raj Mandir.
See all 36 evening tours →Beyond the Pink City
Six day trips out of Jaipur.
The Taj at sunrise from Agra. Wild tigers at Ranthambore. The Golden Triangle loop, holy Pushkar and its camel fair, the blue city and lake palaces of deeper Rajasthan, and a leopard reserve right on Jaipur’s edge.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
Tuk-tuk if you want to cover ground. A cooking class if you want to eat your way in. Block-printing or a heritage walk if you want it slow. Plus cycle tours at dawn, photo walks, the elephant sanctuary and a Bollywood dance night.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in Jaipur? A short stay that pairs the Pink City and its forts with one big day on the road.
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