Jaipur

Travel Advice for Seniors: Jaipur

Our main driver/guide on our travels through Northern India was from Jaipur, which meant a great deal of insider information for us, which really adds to enjoyment of a visit. After an awe-inspiring stop at Varanasi and with a base of information from the guide there, we were ready to move on to the beautiful city of Jaipur.

Jaipur is the capital of India’s Rajasthan state and is known at the “pink city”. There is so much to see and the city is clean and pretty easy to get around.

We traveled by car and driver between Ranthambore (yes, we did see tigers…but that’s another post!) and Jaipur. We stopped at the Monkey Temple, along the way as it was only about 10 km outside of Jaipur. The Monkey Temple had oversized representations of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman, and Shiva, another Hindu god. The monkeys were plentiful and very cute, however, be sure to be armed with plenty of “monkey cookies” as they are hungry and used to tourists. And remember as with any holiday, be careful that you don’t get bit by wild or domestic animals, which rarely are vaccinated.

Also close by was Galtaji, an ancient Hindu pilgrimage site featuring pools of clear water, one of which was never dry. It was also fascinating as it was built into a steep side of a mountain. A word about this temple…there were plenty of well-fed cows at the entry and of course a man selling grass fronds to feed them, which is part of a Hindu ritual.  We purchased several to make our offering, but the cattle were wise to tourists and crowded around us, it was a little uncomfortable.

Finally arriving in Jaipur, first stop was the White Temple of Lakshmi or formally the Birla Mandir, dedicated to the goddess Lakshmi and Vishnu, her god husband. This was a lovely architecturally beautiful white marble temple.

On our tour of Jaipur, we also happened upon a club that was holding a polo match. Since we had never seen one, we asked to stop for a few minutes. Unbelievably enough, there was a broadcast news truck there and they were interviewing one of the players, who just happened to be the young Maharaja of Jaipur. Interestingly, there were very few people watching and virtually no security, we were probably standing about ten feet away from the Maharaja. You just never know what is going to come up when you are out traveling!

Another very pleasant surprise was Lassiwalla. It was a shop that served Lassis. They are a wonderful yogurt and spice concoction, also made with fruit. They are served from a small shop in earthen cups.  We stopped every day for one! Another perk of having a guide from the city you are visiting.

We were only at Jaipur for a total of about two and a half days, but there was so much to see and that we had little downtime.

First major sight was of course the imposing Amber Fort. The fort consists of four courtyards, palaces, halls, and gardens made from sandstone and marble. It is an amalgam of style from Hindi, Mughal and Persian design. Raja Man Singh

Built the fort in 1592 to house the Rajput Maharajas, the rulers of the state and many Maharajas after him occupied the Fort and the adjoining palace through history, though the current Jaipur royal family lives at the City Palace.

You do need to walk up a hill a bit to get to the fun part…the elephant rides! There is quite a hill up to the Fort, so an elephant ride is a very fun and necessary way to get there. The elephants have a little basket-type carrier that is strapped onto them and usually two people can sit in it. It is a bit like being on a sailing boat.  The elephants apparently do three round trips a day. One note: The elephant drivers will aggressively ask for tips and if you give them a tip, they will say it is not enough. Don’t get pulled into this discussion, by tipping right before you dismount the elephant.

The fort itself was huge and took a while to absorb the beautiful view from the top and also the many rooms.

Next stop was the Hawa Mahal or garden of the winds. It is only one room deep and was built in close proximity to the City Palace for the Shah’s harem to look out into the world and not be seen by commoners. It was built in 1799 of red and white sandstone and is truly an architectural marvel.

Next up was Jantar Mantar, collection of astronomical instruments built by the Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh, the founder of Jaipur, Rajasthan. It is an observatory with the world’s largest sundial.

We also planned a visit to the City Palace, the white part of which royalty still live today. We toured through the palace and viewed some exquisite tile and ceramic work, including the remarkable Peacock door. Do take time to walk down the corridor of Maharajas so you can get an idea of the rich history of Jaipur and Rajasthan.

We topped off our evening with a visit to the highly popular theater, the Raj Mandir Cinema. While watching a movie in the US is not a big deal, here it is a special dress-up occasion and a very big deal. The Indian movie that we watched (part of) featured lots of singing and dancing and was the story of a young man and woman from different castes falling in love. The theater itself was architecturally interesting and is a storied destination in Jaipur. We watched for about a half hour or so, which was enough to get the gist of what was going on.

Our final stop was the Jaigarh and Nahargarh Forts. The view alone is exceptional from Jaigarh Fort as you can look down on Amber Fort. It was built as a victory fort by Maha Raja Jai Singh II in the early 1700’s to protect the Amber Fort. Don’t miss the 20-ton cannon. Nahargarh Fort is also part of the ring of forts built to protect the Rajasthan royalty. Both forts have incredible views of Jaipur.

We also stayed at a very nice hotel in Jaipur, Jas Vilas. They had nice rooms and a lovely garden and pool area. As with most of the hotels we stayed in India, WIFI was available in the lobby that was strong enough to send email, but not in the rooms.

Jaipur was one of our favorite stops in India. Maybe it was because our guide was from there and was able to show us insider sights or maybe because it seemed to be cleaner and more taken care of than some of the other cities we visited. Regardless, we very much enjoyed our stay there and highly recommend it, with a stop at Lassiwala!

Where we stayed: Jas Vilas, breakfast included.

How we got there: Four hour drive from Ranthambore to Jaipur.This was part of a three week private tour through Nepal and India.

General Accessibility Information: India is not known for accessibility, though they are making progress by introducing ramps at some major sights. Call in advance to verify and make specialty arrangements.See our sections on specialty apps and accessible travel for more on accessibility assistance.