Best Travel to Jaipur
Jaipur is a tourist friendly destination certainly to be found on almost every heritage travel itinerary.
It's a city built with a great deal of planning and love by Maharaja Jai Singh - a man who was a valiant warrior, a righteous ruler and an astronomer par excellence. Contrary to common usage, all of Jaipur is not pink - it's only the old city, surrounded by protective walls, that is known as the Pink City. This part of the city is wonderfully planned and is a delight to stroll through. Best of Indian Travel provides a comprehensive travel guide for Jaipur.
Your holiday in Jaipur can start with a leisurely stroll around the markets that are a main part of the old city. The bazaars in the old city are places where you can shop till you drop, or till you run out of the patience to bargain. What each peddler sells here determines where his shop will be - and it's worth taking a walk through the bazaar just to see one lane made up wholly of handicraft shops, another of shining jewellery store, a third a colorful riot of fabric.
In the center of the old city is the City Palace complex. The most striking monument here is the Hawa Mahal, the one landmark of Rajasthan that makes it to almost every picture-postcard representation of India. The sandstone windows of the Hawa Mahal were built to afford the women of the palace a view of the royal processions in the streets below, while remaining unseen themselves.
After a warm welcome at the Mubarak Mahal, you can move on to the Maharani's Palace. The palace houses an amazing collection of armory. If you're on a guided tour, you can bet your last buck that you'll be asked to stop and gaze in awe at two enormous silver vessels in the Diwan-i-Khas here. Your guide will tell you that the gigantic vessels were used by Maharaja Madho Singh II to carry Ganges water on his trips abroad!
Step out of the royal air of the palace into the fascinating Jantar Mantar. Built by Jai Singh, it reveals his keen interest in astronomy. You can spend an hour or even two here, watching the rays of the sun leave behind their tale on the sundial, or figure out which zodiac sign the next eclipse will be in.
As the sun sets over the city, clamber up the walls of Fort Nahargarh and get your fill of the exotic view from here. No tour to Jaipur is complete without a visit to the nearby Amber Fort, the ancient capital of the state of Jaipur. You can ride up in luxury on the back of an elephant. Within the fort are a Kali temple, and the Jai Mandir with its famous mirrored ceiling.
Jaipur is a shopper's delight. The city attracts foreign wholesalers as well as buyers from all over the world to shop for textiles, miniature paintings, gems and jewellery as well as puppets and pottery. A great center of souvenirs, Jaipur has different markets reserved for purveyors of different goods. For silver jewellery and gemstones, Chameliwala Market deserves special mention,
When to Visit Jaipur
The best time to visit Jaipur is between October and March.
Jaipur : How to Get There
Air: Jaipur is connected to Delhi, Mumbai, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Aurangabad, Calcutta and Varanasi by domestic flights.
Bus: Jaipur can be accessed from all the major places in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Delhi and Mumbai by bus.
Train: The train service to Jaipur is available from all the major parts of the country. The train services to Jaipur are slower, because of the meter gauge line.
