To maximize our limited time in Jaipur, we decided to do a full-day Airbnb Experience tour of the city by car. Our guide, Ajay, was an incredibly knowledgeable, professional, and suave man in his late 40s from Jaipur. He retired from his career traveling around India representing a hand block printing workshop in town (which we would later visit as part of the experience) due to the physical toll traveling took on his body and transitioned into leading tours of his home city. Ajay greeted us with a necklace made of Marigolds for good luck and we embarked on one of our most memorable and jam-packed days of sightseeing on our travels so far. Ajay’s ability to bring the city and its history to life made us fall in love with Jaipur. The highlights of the tour included:

• The Old City: The tour began by driving through the old section of the city (“Old City”) which is a planned city painted pink, giving it a cohesive and beautiful look (also where Jaipur gets its well known moniker the “Pink City”). Founded in 1727 by Amer ruler Jai Singh II, Jaipur is one of the earliest planned cities in India. It was an amazing introduction to the city and unlike any of the other architecture we had seen in India thus far

   

• Hawa Mahal (“Wind Palace”): Our only stop inside the Old City was the famous Wind Palace, a spectacular and imposing pink facade in the shape of a church organ overlooking the street. It was originally constructed to provide royal ladies with a place to observe everyday life and festivals without being seen, as was tradition for married Hindu women at the time (the facade is really just a series of lattice windows). Today no one can enter the facade, but we enjoyed craning our heads and taking in the unique architecture of this beautiful pink, white, and green facade from the busy street
  
  
• Panna Mena ka Kund Stepwell: We left the Old City and drove to nearby Amer, the original home to the Amer kingdom before Jai Singh II moved the capital to newly planned Jaipur due to population and water constraints. Our first stop in Amer was the Panna Mena ka Kund, a 16th century amber-colored stepwell that was beautiful but not as grand as what we had seen at Chand Baori (see below)
  
  
• Amber Palace: The Amber Palace is an epic, beautiful, and well-maintained palace in Amer overlooking the city (its condition may be due in part to the fact that, according to Ajay, the Amer kingdom never had to fight a war and had seemingly great relations with the British when they arrived). We really enjoyed exploring the palace with Ajay who brought it to life with facts and stories we would have never found without him. The palace included a set of four supremely positioned adjoining rooms overlooking the valley where the King’s income tax men counted the money and a saffron garden surrounded by water the King built to create the cooler climate conditions necessary to grow saffron (ironically, it didn’t work but left a beautiful garden without the saffron nonetheless). The real highlight of the Amber Palace is the Palace of Mirrors, a white marble section (once the King’s bedroom) that is covered with mirror inlays similar to the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles
  
  
• Jal Mahal (“Water Palace”) + Bonus Magic Show: On the way back to Jaipur we stopped at the Water Palace, a beautiful and grand palace situated in the middle of the Man Sagar lake. It is currently under restoration, so we weren’t allowed in. On the way back to the car, Ajay paid a young boy to perform his magic routine  – it was a great routine and we appreciated that Ajay liked to support the boy who was making money on behalf of his family
  
  
• Janter-Manter: A UNESCO World Heritage site along with the Old City, Janatar Mantar is a collection of 19 groundbreaking astronomical instruments developed by Jai Singh II in 1734. We found it all interesting (with the help of Ajay’s explanations), but the highlight for us was seeing the world’s largest sundial
  
  
• City Palace: Situated next to Jantar Mantar, the City Palace is the current residence of the 24 year old King of Jaipur. In addition to the King’s residence, the palace also includes a series of museums and a posh cafe and bar open to the public. One museum housed old outfits and artifacts from previous kings – including nighttime polo gear for women (who weren’t allowed to play during the day) and the pajamas of a previous king who weighed 700+ lbs (we couldn’t take pictures, but you can imagine these were some crazy looking clothes). Another museum functioned as a workshop for miniature paintings – finely detailed paintings completed using a single chipmunk hair. We saw a demonstration by a nice man famous for it who had completed paintings for many famous figures like King Charles – he even made us a special one on the spot for our honeymoon
  
  
• Hand Block Printing Workshop: Ajay took us to the hand block print workshop he used to represent in his past life. We got to learn about the hand block printing process, see a man who had been doing it for generations working on a newly commissioned piece, and even try our own hand at the art (which we quickly learned was not a natural fit for our skill sets). As we toured the space and saw the products, we learned that the workshop did white label work for two of the clothing stores we shopped at for our Indian wedding clothes – Anokhi and FabIndia. Seeing the boxes of printed garments with these tags was full circle for us and really neat to see!
  
  
• Gaitor Cenotaphs: Our favorite stop of the tour, the Cenotaphs act as the crematorium sites for the male royal family members and kings. It was not particularly crowded when we were there, incredibly peaceful, and beautiful. Not surprisingly, Jaipur founder Jai Singh II had the most magnificent crematorium site. We enjoyed slowly making our way around the sites of the different family members, all slightly different in architecture, and taking a few photos in the afternoon light
  
  
• Albert Hall: Albert Hall was named after the Prince of Wales during his visit to the city when the foundation for the building was laid (talk about a generous welcome gift!). It is a grand British Indian building that currently functions a government museum – we did not go in and instead admired the architecture from afar
  
  
• Patrika Gate: Our final stop on the tour, Patrika Gate is a newly completed memorial (only as of 2016) of Jaipur and Rajasthan cultural heritage and architecture situated in a more modern part of the city near the airport. It was neat for us to see all of the sights we had spent the day exploring beautifully painted on the walls of the gate – the perfect book-end to a fantastic and comprehensive tour of the Pink City

Chand Baori: On our way into Jaipur from Agra we made a quick stop at Chand Baori, a grand stepwell from the 8th century (one of the oldest things we saw in India!). Of all the stepwells we saw in India, this was by far the most impressive. We were in awe of the network of 3,500 steps intertwining across 13 deep stories. Our driver took an off-the-beaten path route through farm roads and mustard fields to get there from the highway (there were points we were unsure we would make it in his small sedan), but it was worth it