Explore the beauty of Jaipur

Jaipur: A Love Letter to India's City of Palaces

There is one experience that occurs to most travelers the first time they set foot in Jaipur. It happens while you are somewhere in the ancient part of the city, most likely near Hawa Mahal, and suddenly everything hits you. It’s not only about the architecture, even though it deserves the attention. It’s about all those elements put together - the sandstone walls in the terracotta pink colors, the buzz of the bazaar below, the aroma of cardamom and incense, and auto rickshaws navigating their way through the streets made for elephants. Jaipur Pink City did not create itself for your pleasure. That's how it was built and that's how it has remained.

This is a Jaipur Travel guide, but not a place for taking pictures. It's the one you need before coming here so that you understand it better.

Why Jaipur Exists: The Royal History Worth Knowing

Most cities evolve organically. Jaipur, however, was built in a single instance. Jaipur was established by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II in 1727, who planned the entire city according to principles of Vastu Shastra, made the streets wide enough for royal processions, located the markets along the main roads, and constructed the old city surrounded by walls in a single 18th-century project. That is why UNESCO named it the World Heritage City in 2019 for its unique indigenous city planning that has been preserved in its functional purity.

Pink appeared much later. In 1876, Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh II commanded the whole old city to be painted in terracotta pink to greet the Prince of Wales. The pink color has become a norm. It has stayed that way, which is why all buildings in the old city are painted the same pink shade which you will never find in an organic city. The history of Jaipur royalties is inscribed in the architectural details which you can hardly guess that you're walking through the museum.

Knowing this story about Jaipur city changes your tour experience completely. You stop seeing buildings as places for tourism and start interpreting them as pages of history.

The Heritage Sites: What to Actually See

The best places to visit in Jaipur are concentrated within and just outside the old city walls, which makes a walking-and-rickshaw combination the most logical format for a first day.

Amber Fort Jaipur is the base from which all dedicated tourists should start out, and the 11 km ride from downtown through the foothills of the Aravallis prepares one perfectly for the place. Amber Fort is situated atop Maota Lake, which shows its image in the first hours of the morning until the light becomes flat. Amber Fort was constructed mainly in the 16th and 17th centuries and is a compound of several palaces, courtyards, and halls, which required the effort of different rulers to be completed. Sheesh Mahal is the mirrored hall where a mere candle gives off thousand lights and is considered to be the most photographed room inside the fort.

Hawa Mahal Jaipur is the building that is featured in all promotional materials for Rajasthan tourism Jaipur, and that is definitely justified by the fact. The five-storeyed frontage with 953 windows carved in lattice allows women of the zenana to watch life outside without being noticed. In fact, the building itself is a huge screen rather than a palace, and that is why it looks so impressive from outside and has to be observed through these windows to see its true purpose.

However, for the history of Jaipur royalty to take shape in concrete form, nothing compares with the City Palace Jaipur. This is because there are portions of the City Palace Jaipur that are currently inhabited by members of the royal family of Jaipur. It should be noted that Chandra Mahal, which is the residential palace for the royals, has seven storeys and towers over everything else. One of the buildings in the City Palace is called the Mubarak Mahal, which houses a textile museum of garments worn by the royal family including that of Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh I, said to weigh 250 kg.

The other World Heritage Site near the City Palace is the Jantar Mantar observatory constructed by Jai Singh II in the 1730s. It is made up of nineteen very big stone structures used to measure time, track the movement of the sky, and calculate eclipses. A tour of this site is crucial because the stone structures would simply appear like buildings without interpretation.

Jaipur Culture and Tradition: The Living City

Jaipur is more than just its monuments. Jaipur culture and traditions that permeate the city can be seen in the streets, workshops, and festivals if one knows what to look for.

Block printing is an ancient art form which continues to flourish in Jaipur even beyond the tourist attraction. There are a few workshops located around the Sanganer area, 16 km from the city center, which conduct demonstrations on block printing from wood carving to printing of textiles. Once one sees how block printing is done, one will immediately notice the difference between textile bought from workshops and those bought in the bazaar.

There are other active arts in Jaipur like blue pottery, gem cutting, lac bangles, and miniature painting, which have their own workshop districts in the city that can be explored in the course of an afternoon.

However, should you find yourself in Jaipur at the time of either the Jaipur Literature Festival, which takes place in January, or the Jaipur Heritage Festival, held in October, then either will be reason enough to plan your visit around. The former sees the largest literary festival in the world take place there over five days.

Things to Do in Jaipur: Beyond the Monuments

Activities in Jaipur go beyond the usual sightseeing routine. A hot air balloon over the old Jaipur city at dawn is an activity where the cost is justified as soon as the balloon lifts off. The Jaipur city seen from 1,000 feet in the early morning light, with its forts on the ridges and the old city grid spread underneath, offers a new perspective on the city that no ground-based sightseeing can offer.

Jaipur elephant rides have largely become history after the introduction of reforms for the welfare of the animals. An ethical way of seeing elephants is through sanctuaries located outside of the city that allows for interaction without riding. Always choose these options instead of the circus-type activities.

Cooking classes specializing in Jaipuri food have greatly developed as a part of Jaipur tourist places during the last few years. You will be able to see Jaipur from a completely different angle at a half-day cooking class including such dishes as dal baati churma, ghewar, and ker sangri.

Jaipur Local Food: What to Eat and Where

The regional food of Jaipur does not get enough credit from many travel books. Being created for the conditions of a desert, it focuses on drying and preserving food and includes some interesting cooking methods.

Dal baati churma is the signature dish: sun-baked hard wheat balls cooked in the oven, served with a five-dal mixture and sweet churma crumbles. It is hearty and unpretentious but entirely represents the area it comes from. Dal baati churma can be found in almost all thali restaurants near the old city. Lassiwala at M.I. Road offers only thick sweet lassi from metal jugs since 1944, and the queue starts forming even before opening time.

Ghewar is the most popular sweet from Jaipur and becomes famous mostly during the festivals of Teej and Raksha Bandhan in August. It is made of latticed discs of flour and ghee and covered with sugar syrup. The oldest shops in Jaipur producing sweets near Johari Bazaar offer Ghewar topped with rabri.

Pyaaz ki kachori, spiced onion-filled pastry, is the morning street food of the old city. Find it at the handcart vendors near Badi Chaupar early enough and it costs less than a cup of tea would anywhere else.

Jaipur Shopping Bazaars: The Real Guide

The markets of shopping bazaars in Jaipur are integral parts of the old Jaipur city design and continue to operate as envisaged by their designer, Jai Singh II, with each marketplace dealing in a specialized trade.

Johari Bazaar is the market of jewelry. It is where precious stones, semi-precious stones, Kundan-Meenakari jewelry made of gold and silver, and other jewelry of Rajasthan can be found. The prices are negotiable, and the difference between the initial price quoted and the actual price is large. In particular, silver jewelry is priced on the basis of weight.

Bapu Bazaar offers block printed fabrics, mojaris, and craft items. Most tourists tend to come out from there with more souvenirs than they had planned to buy. The stitched leather mojaris are perhaps one of the most notable Jaipur buys and are handcrafted in small workshops just behind the bazaar stalls.

The key aspect in regard to the Jaipur shopping bazaars that most Jaipur travel guide editions neglect: spend the same amount of time on the bazaar as you would on a monument. A leisurely tour of bazaars rather than rushing around in a hurry to complete your list of souvenirs is one of the best things to do in Jaipur without paying anything.