Jaipur

Jaipur is a city of palaces, colour and planned urban vision. Its pink facades, royal residences, observatories, bazaars and craft traditions express the ceremonial imagination of Rajasthan.

Jaipur was founded by Sawai Jai Singh II, who moved his capital down from the hilltop fortress of Amber and laid out a walled city on a grid of broad avenues and market blocks, following the principles of traditional Hindu architecture. The facades were painted their famous terracotta pink in 1876 to welcome the Prince of Wales, and the colour has been kept ever since. The walled city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

At the centre stands the City Palace, still partly home to the royal family, beside the giant astronomical instruments of the Jantar Mantar and the honeycomb facade of the Hawa Mahal. Above the city rise Amber Fort and the Nahargarh and Jaigarh forts along the ridges. Jaipur remains a working craft capital: gem cutting, block printing, blue pottery and enamel work are still practised in its bazaars and surrounding villages.

The season runs from October to March, when days are warm and sunny and nights can be cool, particularly in December and January. Diwali, in October or November, fills the bazaars with lights; the Jaipur Literature Festival gathers writers each January; and Holi, the festival of colour, arrives with the spring in March. This is also the best time to combine Jaipur with Ranthambore, Jodhpur and Udaipur.

April to June is intensely hot, with temperatures above 40°C, and travel becomes a matter of early mornings and shaded courtyards. The monsoon arrives in July and lasts into September, turning the Aravalli hills green and bringing Teej, a festival of the rains celebrated with processions in the old city. Hotels are quieter in these months, and the palace gardens are at their most lush.

Jaipur’s palace hotels are its defining addresses. Rambagh Palace, a former residence of the Maharaja of Jaipur, is run by Taj, and Rajmahal Palace RAAS Jaipur occupies another historic royal residence in the city. Beyond the centre, The Oberoi Rajvilas is set in walled gardens on the eastern outskirts, Fairmont Jaipur looks towards the Aravalli hills near Amber, and Raffles Jaipur is one of the city’s newest grand houses.

LVXVRY books Raffles Jaipur and Fairmont Jaipur through Accor Preferred — at the official hotel rate, with the privileges the programme attaches to the stay. For Rambagh Palace, The Oberoi Rajvilas and Rajmahal Palace, LVXVRY advises on and arranges the stay directly, often as part of a longer journey through Rajasthan.