Jaipur & Ranthambore — Forts, then Tigers

Met at Jaipur airport or station and into the grid laid out in 1727 and painted pink in 1876. The afternoon takes the City Palace, part of which the royal family still occupies, and the Jantar Mantar beside it — nineteen masonry instruments of the 1730s, the great sundial still keeping time to a couple of seconds. Both close at five, so a flight landing after two leaves them for the last morning. Hawa Mahal's screen of 953 windows is a short walk on. The evening is the bazaars of the grid as the lamps come on.

Amber at its eight o'clock opening — the Kachhwaha capital before Jaipur, begun in 1592, climbing its hillside in courtyards of sandstone and marble with the Sheesh Mahal's mirror work at the top, and quiet for the first hour only. Jaigarh above it holds the Jaivana cannon of 1720. Down past Jal Mahal in the Man Sagar lake and the royal cenotaphs at Gaitore. The afternoon is Hawa Mahal from inside, the bazaars by trade, and an early night: tomorrow's road leaves after breakfast and the day after starts before dawn.

About three hours south-east to Sawai Madhopur, the town at the park gate, arriving by lunch — the train is the alternative, two hours from Jaipur, and we book it on request. The first safari is the afternoon drive, which leaves the lodges from around two in winter and half past two in summer for three hours in the zone the permit names: dry deciduous forest, the three lakes below the fort, and the banyan at Jogi Mahal. Sambar, chital, langur and marsh crocodile are near certain; the cats are not, and the naturalist will say so. Dinner at the lodge, and an early night for the dawn drive.

The morning drive leaves at first light — six in winter, earlier in summer — for the best three hours of the day, when the forest is cool and the animals are moving and the light on the lakes is worth the alarm. Back for breakfast, then the fort: Ranthambore Fort stands on a cliff inside the park, tenth century, reached by a stepped path from the main gate, free to enter and no permit needed — the Trinetra Ganesh temple inside draws pilgrims, and the ramparts give the whole reserve from above. Start the climb by three at the latest, because the afternoon drive is the third and last safari, in a different zone if the permits allow, and the evening is the lodge again.

A slow breakfast — or, for anyone who wants a fourth drive, a dawn safari arranged on request before it — then the three hours back to Jaipur, arriving by early afternoon, which makes a flight after about four o'clock comfortable. The train from Sawai Madhopur is the alternative, reaching Jaipur in two hours and Delhi in about four, and for travellers heading on to Agra or Delhi it is the better exit; we route it that way when asked.