Jaipur

Day 1

City Palace

The royal complex at the centre of the walled city, begun by Sawai Jai Singh II when he founded Jaipur and added to by his successors ever since. Chandra Mahal, the seven-storey palace at its heart, is still partly a private residence, which is why parts of the complex are closed and the rest is unusually well kept. What most people come for is Pritam Niwas Chowk, the inner courtyard with four painted doorways, one for each season — the Peacock Gate is the one that ends up on everybody's camera roll. Give it longer than you think: the armoury and the textile rooms are quieter than the courtyards and better than they sound.

Day 1

Hawa Mahal

Built in 1799 by Sawai Pratap Singh in red and pink sandstone, on the edge of the City Palace and joined to the zenana, the women's quarters. Its nine hundred and fifty-three lattice windows — jharokhas — let the women of the household watch processions in the street below without being seen, and the honeycomb of openings pulls air through the building, which is what keeps it bearable in a Jaipur summer. The famous view is from outside, facing east: go before nine, while the sun is on the front. Inside it is narrow ramps and small chambers, and much less than the facade promises.

Day 1

Johari Bazaar

The old city's street of gem and jewellery dealers, known for silver work, hand-crafted kundan settings and tie-dye textiles.

Day 2

Amber Fort (Amer Fort)

Begun in 1592 on the hill above Maota lake, in pale sandstone and marble, and the Sheesh Mahal is what the queue is for. The fort stands over the town of Amer, eleven kilometres from Jaipur, and Maota is not scenery — it was the palace's water supply. Ramparts, a sequence of gates and cobbled ramps carry you up through the courtyards, with the mirror hall off the third. Walk up rather than taking an elephant: the animals here have drawn repeated welfare complaints, and the climb takes about ten minutes. First hour or last hour is when the sandstone turns orange and the courtyards empty.

Day 2

Jaigarh Fort

Day 2

Nahargarh Fort

Day 3

The Jantar Mantar, Jaipur

Day 3

Albert Hall Museum

The oldest museum in Rajasthan, standing on its own in the Ram Niwas Garden just south of the walled city. The building is the reason to come as much as the collection: Indo-Saracenic, with Rajput and Mughal detail worked carefully into a European plan, and open colonnades that make sense in this heat. Inside are Rajasthani textiles, metalwork, carpets and arms, and an Egyptian mummy that generations of Jaipur schoolchildren have been brought to see. Go late in the day, when the pigeons come up off the forecourt in clouds, or after dark, when the whole facade is floodlit and reflected in the pool.

Day 4

Chand Baori

A stepwell at Abhaneri, east of Jaipur on the road towards Agra, and one of the deepest and most geometrically startling in India. Three walls descend in a criss-cross of narrow flights to the water at the bottom; the fourth carries a colonnaded pavilion and the remains of carved panels. It was built as infrastructure rather than as architecture — a way of reaching groundwater through a Rajasthani summer, and of keeping the water cool and shaded once you got there — which is what makes the precision of it so disproportionate and so worth the detour. It is usually paired with Bhandarej or Abhaneri's Harshat Mata temple next door, and it takes far less time than the drive out, so most people fold it into a longer day between Jaipur and Agra rather than making it the whole trip.

Day 4

Pushkar

Pushkar wraps around its lake — a natural one, and sacred — in the rugged Aravalli hills near Ajmer. It is one of the oldest living cities in India and one of the most important places in Hindu worship, largely because of the Jagatpita Brahma Mandir, a 14th-century temple to Brahma the Creator and one of very few anywhere. Fifty-two stone ghats step down into the clear water, and pilgrims bathe from them to a more or less constant sound of chanting. In late autumn the quiet goes: the desert fields outside town fill for the Pushkar Camel Fair, which draws visitors from around the world.

Day 5

Patrika Gate

A modern gateway on Jawahar Circle, built in the Rajasthani idiom and painted top to bottom, inside and out, with frescoes drawn from the different regions of the state. It is not old and does not pretend to be — it was made to be walked through and photographed, and it does that job better than almost anything else in the city. Nine arches, each painted differently, so the view changes as you move along it. Come early. By mid-morning the arches are full of people waiting their turn for the same photograph, and the light is flatter than it is at dawn.