Jaipur in Two Days: A Weekend Plan Built From Saved Reels

Everyone has a Jaipur folder. Hawa Mahal at golden hour, a rooftop with a fort view, a kachori shop with a queue round the corner. The trouble is that forty saved reels are not a plan. They are a pile, and a pile does not tell you that Amer Fort is best before the crowds, or that the old city markets wake up late.

Here is a two day plan that puts the usual saves in an order that works.

Photo: A.Savin, Free Art License, via Wikimedia Commons.

Saturday: Forts First, Markets Last

Morning: Amer Fort and Panna Meena ka Kund. Go early. The fort sits on the hill above Maota Lake, about 11 km from the city, and the mornings are cooler and quieter. Panna Meena ka Kund, the stepwell everyone films from above, is a short walk away. Ten minutes there is enough for the photo and the stillness.

Afternoon: City Palace and Hawa Mahal. Head back into the walled city. City Palace takes a couple of hours if you want the courtyards and the museum. Hawa Mahal is a few minutes away, and the best view of its face is from across the road, from one of the cafes upstairs.

Evening: Bapu Bazar, then a rooftop dinner. The markets of the old city are at their best after sunset. Bapu Bazar is where to look for mojaris, quilts and printed fabric. Bargain politely, and walk on if the price does not move. End with dinner somewhere high, where you can see the lights.

Sunday: Breakfast, Museums, Sunset

Morning: pyaaz kachori and chai. Jaipur's breakfast is fried, spiced and eaten standing up. Have it with a cutting chai and you are set until lunch.

Afternoon: Albert Hall Museum and Patrika Gate. Albert Hall sits in Ram Niwas Garden and is as good from the outside as it is in. Patrika Gate, at Jawahar Circle, is the painted gateway in half the reels you have saved. Go when the light is soft.

Evening: Nahargarh at sunset. The fort on the ridge looks over the whole city. Stay until the lights come on, and pass Jal Mahal on the way back down.

Make Your Own Version

This plan is a starting point. Your saves are different: maybe you kept a cafe in C Scheme, a block printing workshop, a lassi shop. The trick is the same. Put the far things in the morning, the old city in the afternoon, the markets at night.

That is what Wanna Try does with a Jaipur folder. Share your reels to it and it reads each one for the place, the area and what it is worth going for. Ask it to plan the trip and it lays your own saves out day by day, with the distances between them. And when you are in Jaipur, it reminds you of the ones that are close.