Hello, hello!
2024 has not been a year filled with jet-setting for me, with only 3 trips this year – Kerala, Dehradun + Rishikesh and now, Jaipur. For those of you who have been following me since I started digital nomad-ing and blogging before it became the in-thing, you’ll know that my itineraries aren’t exactly logical or conventional. They aren’t based on the convenience of clubbing experiences in one area on one day – because I usually have to see a place and then rush back to my hotel/Airbnb for a work-related Zoom call, and then go back to the area on another day to tick something else off my list. It’s the same with my Jaipur itinerary!
On many of my latest trips, I now bring Mum along. So in addition to work, I also have to see that my days of travel don’t tire Mum out and that she gets to rest, and do the things she’d like to do as well – things which I ordinarily wouldn’t have included in my travel plans – such as shopping.
So with that in mind, here’s my 5-day itinerary for Jaipur:
5-Day Jaipur Itinerary
Day 1
Check in to the Hotel – Kanha for Lunch – Hawa Mahal – Thalis & More for Dinner
We left Goa on the only direct Goa-Jaipur flight which departed at 10 AM and arrived in Jaipur at 12 noon. From the Jaipur International Airport, it was a quick 10-minute Uber drive to Four Points by Sheraton, Jaipur City Square – our hotel for 3 nights. After freshening up, we crossed the street to Kanha – a spot that we found out was a sweet shop on the ground floor, a food court on the first floor, and a restaurant on the second floor. We went to the food court and had a light snack-y lunch of Dal Pakwan, chaat, and chole bhature, before hopping back to the hotel to rest and catch up on work after the long day of travel.
At around 4 PM, a friend joining us on the trip arrived from Delhi by car and checked into his room too. And now, it was time to explore Jaipur! Our first stop was, of course, Hawa Mahal, the rite of passage for travellers visiting Jaipur. We got there at the perfect time – 6 PM – as the sun was about to set. So we got the best of both worlds – the day view, the night view, and a sunset view – I even captured the moment the lights of the Hawa Mahal lit up on camera – pure coincidence!
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We walked along the very touristy Hawa Mahal road and were tempted to shop, but refrained, knowing that it is common sense that being the most touristy spot in Jaipur, the prices would be steeper than necessary. Instead, we climbed some flights of stairs to Tattoo Cafe – one of the 2-3 cafes opposite the monument that gives you a vantage point of Hawa Mahal. We had to pay an entry fee to get in (250 per person) which could be redeemed against our food and drink inside. If one wants to enjoy the view and get a photograph, one has to pay whether one likes it or not, since all the establishments here milk the opportunity of having prime real estate to make some extra cash.
The food and drinks were highly priced – we spent more than our cover charge of Rs. 750 (Rs. 250 each for the 3 of us) on 1 lassi, 1 coffee and 1 plate of Maggi – which should cost no more than Rs. 400. Other cafes have a similar policy – so if the photo is important to you, you will need to suck it up and deal with it since getting a photograph outside is nearly impossible due to the constant flow of traffic.
As we were driving back to our hotel to end the night, we Googled a place to stop for dinner and zeroed in on Thalis and More – and we were extremely pleased with the ambiance, service and Rajathani thalis. I’d highly recommend this restaurant!
Day 2
Patrika Gate – Maharaniyo ki Chhatriya – City Palace – Bar Palladio – Handi for Dinner – Pandit Kulfi
Is it just me, or do you also overexert yourself on Day 2 after a light Day 1?
We started our day with a lavish buffet breakfast at Four Points by Sheraton Jaipur and then popped back to our rooms for about an hour or two of work. We then set off to Patrika Gate, which is in the opposite direction of most other tourist sites. Patrika Gate is stunning and I’ll talk about it in more detail in my blog on things to do in Jaipur.
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By now it was peak afternoon and the sun was blazing hot, but we decided to visit another offbeat site after Patrika Gate, called Maharaniyo ki Chhatriya. This is a monument dedicated to the queens of Jaipur and the site comprises of cenotaphs for each one and they date back to the 1700s. The space was cool and shady; we were the only people there. This is one monument where only slow travellers go as it isn’t on the must-see list of things to do in Jaipur. The Indo-Mughal architecture of each cenotaph is beautiful!
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Since we had such a big breakfast, we skipped lunch and went to City Palace next, which is one of the most popular things to do in Jaipur, apart from the Hawa Mahal and Amer Fort. We did not anticipate how large the space was and how much there was to do and see here or we would have dedicated a day just for it. The ticket fares range from Rs. 300 to Rs. 3000 per adult, depending on the things you would want to do inside. Once the former palace and administrative block for the rulers of the city, the palace is spread over several courtyards and it is still home to the last ruling royal family, who stay in a separate private section.
You can shop, eat, check out room after room of artifacts, visit a textile gallery, arms and ammunition gallery, a painting gallery, a transport gallery, a gorgeous souvenir shop, a clock tower, and much more. Given the heat and the fact that we had already seen 2 attractions before visiting City Palace, we were a bit saturated and didn’t have the energy to do justice to the place. If you like history and culture, plan to spend the entire day here and marvel at everything – including the architecture – at your own pace. The gift shop is a pure delight – I wish I could have bought every quirky thing I found here.
After all that walking at City Palace, we were hungry, but it was 5 PM – way past lunchtime and too early for dinner. So we headed to a restaurant on my to-eat-list: Bar Palladio. We actually wanted coffee, but they had none, so we opted for mocktails and a pizza instead. The restaurant is stunning – again, a great spot for those for whom travel isn’t complete without great photos.
We headed back to our hotel for coffee, a shower, and a nap and then popped out for dinner to Handi – a very popular spot in Jaipur for their Laal Maas. It was spicy. Extremely spicy. Burn-your tastebuds-off spicy. So our next and last stop for the night was the legendary Pandit Kulfi – a kulfi spot that has been serving up its sole variant of kulfi since 1965. This was located just after Hawa Mahal, in case you would like to club both places on the same day. As you know, we wing it and didn’t realize they were both a couple of hundred meters from each other.
Day 3
Galta Ji Temple – Jal Mahal – Panna Meena Ka Kund
Again, we started with a breakfast buffet at our hotel. Honestly, we were so spoiled here, in terms of food that we overindulged. If it was me, I’d have preferred to skip breakfast or eat something light and then gorge on local food all through the day. But the breakfast was too good to resist – and so we ate to our heart’s content and skipped lunch – not good for my food exploration, but oh well.
After eating and catching up on work, we drove to Galta Ji or Monkey Temple. This is an ancient Hindu pilgrimage site comprising of holy water tanks and a golden-looking temple that’s built into a crevice between two rocks. It didn’t seem too popular as we were one of the handful of people there. There was no entry fee and the place is in desperate need of maintenance. There was garbage strewn around and the smell of (monkey?) urine – and yes, hundreds of monkeys, which give the place the moniker, Monkey Temple.
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Next, we drove half an hour or 14 km to Jal Mahal – which is a palace in the middle of the Man Sagar Lake. This can be viewed from the road itself, which is what we did. Apart from cheap shopping stalls which I’d suggest you don’t even look at, this is a photo op spot for many tourists who dress up in Rajasthani attire which is available for rent. There were so many people taking photos in costumes, that it was a struggle to find a spot to take a decent picture of Jal Mahal at all. I believe entry inside Jal Mahal is currently restricted.
A bit further down the road, you’ll pass by Amer Fort / Amber Fort, which is the main tourist attraction in Jaipur. But we did not stop there as we did not have enough time to spend here that day. If you plan to go, keep a whole day aside for this. We carried on further down the road to Panna Meeha Ka Kund (Amer Stepwell). After navigating through a series of narrow lanes, we parked our car and popped into the stepwell. No entry fees here too, and again, this didn’t have many tourists. We walked around admiring the beautiful symmetrical steps, spotted turtles in the water below, and took in the beauty of the place, framed by imposing hills and bits of the fort in the background.
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We arrived back at our hotel at 4 PM as I had office calls to attend to – and as a late lunch and tea, I ordered a club sandwich to the room. At around 9 PM, we headed out for a drive and had a light street food dinner before returning to the hotel to squeeze in calls to my clients in the USA, but hey, that’s part of the travel hustle!
Day 4
Albert Hall Museum – City Palace – Chokhi Dhani
It was time to check out of our comfy hotel, so we headed down for one last breakfast binge and then piled all our luggage into the car. With a few hours to spare before our Airbnb check-in, we decided to make the most of it by visiting the renowned Albert Hall Museum. We passed this gorgeous building every day and I admired its Indo-Saracenic architecture – it is hard not to be mesmerized by the harmony of Indian, Islamic, and Gothic design. Parking, unfortunately, was a bit of a nightmare. We had to park very far away and we had to walk at least half a kilometer back in the desert heat, as their limited parking was full (or perhaps the attendants wanted a bribe to find some space for our car). The entry fee is Rs. 40 each for Indians and a hefty Rs. 300 for foreigners.
This, being the oldest museum in Rajasthan has the best and most varied and eclectic collection of artifacts I’ve seen so far in India, and I’ll get into it in more detail in a later post. Next, we headed to City Palace for lunch, and upon parking our car, the attendants encouraged us to head off to the side to a spot called Maharani Market. This was a large emporium of sorts, and they had a beautiful collection of printed apparel, bedsheets, cushion covers, formal wear, and much more. We spent about Rs. 10,000 or so shopping there and bought a ton of stuff – which, to be honest, you could get for cheaper outside, if you have the time and patience to do so. That said, we were very happy with all our dozen or so purchases!
With shopping wrapped up, we walked a few meters to the much-hyped Baradari Restaurant in the same complex as the City Palace Museum. I was quite disappointed with the lackluster food and indifferent service. At around 4 PM, we made our way to our Airbnb to check in and rest. In the evening, post some coffee and freshening up, we drove to Choki Dhani. I must confess, I didn’t do much research and assumed it was just a restaurant. Imagine my surprise when, upon paying the entry fee of Rs. 900 each, we walked into an experiential Rajasthani village!
From little shops selling snacks to staff giving head massages at a ‘head massage stall,’ from elephant/horse/camel rides to boating, from traditional dance performances to endless shopping – this spot warrants you to spend at least half a day here to do it justice. We went at 8 PM and had to rush through it all. We walked around for 3 hours before heading to the restaurant only to find an hour of waiting time to get a table. Ugh – we were so annoyed that we spent so much time walking around and now had to wait until midnight for a table. So we went to the other dining area on the premises which is a no-fills buffet area, serving the same food as the restaraunt. We were one of the last people to be served and then headed back to the Airbnb dog-tired but happy that we did not miss out on the experience.
Day 5
Street food hopping – Shopping – Light and Sound Show at Amber Fort
No lavish hotel breakfast today – so it was my turn to enjoy local eats at last! We started our morning with a coffee and some office work at the BnB and set off at 10:30 AM. First stop – Puran Kachori, and it was nice, although I must admit I am not a fan of kachoris.
Next up we tried Khunteta Namkeen Bhandar and had the yummiest, tiny little dal wadas and other small bites – I really liked it! This was a literal hole-in-the-wall stall shutter shop with an open kitchen in the back, which was not very hygienic-looking – something I noticed after having my fill of tiny vadas!
Our third stop was GC Dairy – another modest shop with a table out in the front with snacks. At the shop, you’ll find pictures of Chef Ranveer Brar, Chef Gary Mehigan (ex Master Chef Australia Judge), Chef Steve Litke (a Michelin Star chef) and other culinary lumiaries. Here we tasted some very sweet Shrikand and a dollop of white makkan / butter. I went to check out the table in the front to find out what everyone was getting (which was a plate filled with savoury snacks like fafda, dhokla, khandvi, jalebi, bread pakoras and the likes) and just when I was about to tell the vendor what I wanted, a bird sitting on a branch overhead pooped in the fafda – so we turned on our heels and headed in the opposite direction. Each of our 3 stops was a few hundred meters away, so we kept piling into the car to cool down before jumping to the next spot.
We couldn’t leave Jaipur without visiting the famous Bapu Bazaar – and that was our next destination. We hopped from shop to shop, enamored by the variety of beautiful block-printed Jaipur apparel, footwear, jewelry and more. To say we went all out is an understatement! The prices were so cheap that we had to keep our jaws from hitting the floor – especially when coming from a place like Goa that is so unreasonably expensive in terms of shopping. Shoes for a mere Rs. 300, gorgeous cotton printed tops and pant sets for 400-600, jewelry for as low as Rs. 20; bags and more – each item would have easily cost 8x to 10x more in Goa. And everything was so prettyyyy!!! We came back to our Airbnb 2 hours later laden with bags. And if it wasn’t for the scorching heat, it would have been hard to stop Mum and I from splurging.
We had to return to our accommodation to cool ourselves down, rest for a few hours, fuel up with some coffee and pack our bags as we had a very early morning flight to catch. At 6 PM, we left to go to Amer Fort for the Light and Sound show, which, if you like history, is a beautiful experience that details the history of the city of Jaipur. We had to hire a jeep from the entrance of the fort to the The English show was at 7 PM, which is what we went for, and this was followed by the Hindi show at 8 PM. Sadly, not everyone who came to the show was interested in watching it and most people were just chatting and laughing – spoiling the experience for the rest. Sitting there in an open-to-sky courtyard at the foot of the enormous fort and watching it change colours was beautiful! At around Rs. 300 per person, this is a nice experience, but you can skip it if you are short on time.
Our jeep driver was waiting for us once the show ended and we hopped in to head to our final dinner – a restaurant perched on top of the fort called 1135 AD. Interestingly, it is called 1135 AD because the first stone for the famed Amber Fort was laid that year. We enjoyed an Indian meal to the tunes of a fabulous classical singer playing the santoor and accompanied by a musician playing the tabla.
The food was decent – not the best Indian meal I’ve had by a long shot, and certainly pricey given the location and demand the restaurant enjoys. As we were leaving, one of the waiters offered to show us the Sheesh Mahal – the private dining area upstairs. It was located on top of the restaurant, and while this was one of the things we wanted to see on our trip, we did not find the time to do so since we skipped seeing most of Amer Fort. What a stroke of luck (perhaps the tip we offered him at the restaurant had a part to play in his generous offering). The opulence and sheer wealth the room possessed were insane! Once again, our jeep driver was waiting as we descended the many slopes and stairs from the restaurant and he took us to our car – and we were on our way.
We left for Goa before dawn the next morning. While we did Jaipur justice in 5 days, I would have found plenty more to do if we were there for one more week! Well, I’ve left a lot to do for next time – including shopping a whole lot more!
