LMB's Dal Baati Churma Is a Rite of Passage

Community pick

I brought a visiting friend to LMB and she cried — not from spice, but because the food was genuinely that good.

Laxmi Misthan Bhandar on Johari Bazaar has been serving Rajasthani thalis since 1954. The dal baati churma here is unhurried and generous, the churma sweet without being cloying. It is one of those places that makes you feel like Jaipur is home even if you just arrived.

AI for India's cattle

Jaipur-based Verdant Impact uses AI and genetics to help farmers raise healthier indigenous cattle.

The agritech startup raised $3 million in March 2026 to scale its livestock management platform for dairy farmers.

Used cooking oil into biofuel

Ecoil, from Sushil and Kirti Vaishnav, turns waste cooking oil from kitchens into biofuel.

The Jaipur company raised $2.5 million in April 2026 to grow its operations, keeping used oil out of drains and off our plates.

Jaipur Rugs' 40,000 artisans

Nand Kishore Chaudhary started Jaipur Rugs in 1978. Today it works with around 40,000 rural artisans.

Its decentralised model brings looms to villages and fair wages to weavers, and its rugs sell as a global luxury brand.

Crop waste into battery power

Jaipur's Cancrie turns agricultural residue into nanocarbon that makes batteries work better.

Founded in 2020 by Akshay Jain and Mahi Singh, it takes what farmers usually burn and turns it into a material for energy storage.

Autism screening in minutes

Two young Jaipur founders built an AI tool that screens children for autism using just a webcam.

Divyansh Mangal and Raksheet Jain started Aignosis in 2024 to make early screening for developmental delays faster and far more affordable for families.

Farak's folklore streetwear

Bagru block printing and Kantha embroidery remixed into streetwear silhouettes.

Farak's Folklores of India collection takes Rajasthan's craft heritage out of the wardrobe archives and onto the street.

Maison Megh jewellery

An art-first Jaipur jewellery house with an amla-inspired capsule and the playful Kitthh Kitthh collection.

Meghna Ratra's label makes 92.5 sterling silver and 22k gold micron pieces inspired by Indian fruits and traditional games. Jewellery with a story to tell.

The stepwell made for photos

Panna Meena ka Kund near Amer has criss-cross stairs that look like a puzzle from every angle.

This old stepwell is quiet early in the morning and perfect for photos. Pair it with a visit to Amer Fort, just a few minutes away.

A proper Rajasthani thali

Dal baati churma, gatte ki sabzi and ker sangri: a Rajasthani thali is Jaipur on one plate.

Chokhi Dhani turns dinner into an evening out, with village-style seating, folk dance and endless refills. Arrive hungry and say yes to the ghee.

The pyaaz kachori ritual

Rawat Mishthan Bhandar's pyaaz kachori is the breakfast every Jaipur visitor is told to try.

Flaky, spicy onion-filled kachoris straight out of the kadhai, with tangy chutney on the side. Mornings are busy, so go early and grab a mawa kachori for dessert.

70 organ donors and recipients played cricket together

Community pick

I watched something incredible happen in Jaipur on Sunday. 70 athletes who received transplanted organs or donated theirs took the field for Champions of Life Cricket Cup 2026. These weren't pro players, they were people who got a second chance at life and refused to sit on the sidelines. Every team had women captains and at least two women players, proving that resilience knows no limits.

Nahargarh's Walls Hid a Palace Inside a Fort

Community pick

Most people walk Nahargarh's ramparts and never find the maharani suites tucked behind them.

I went back specifically to see Madhavendra Bhawan, the symmetrical palace built for nine queens inside Nahargarh Fort. Each queen had an identical suite so no one felt favoured. Walking those mirrored corridors alone felt stranger than any ghost story.

Jaipur Rugs Connects Weavers Directly to Global Buyers

Jaipur Rugs built a supply chain that links rural Rajasthani weavers to customers in over forty countries without middlemen.

Founded by Nand Kishore Chaudhary, Jaipur Rugs works with a network of artisan weavers across rural Rajasthan and Gujarat, many of them women. The company's model cuts out traditional intermediaries and allows weavers to receive a larger share of the final price. Their Manchaha programme lets weavers create designs of their own choosing, which are then sold under the weavers' names in international markets.

Jaipur Watch Company Puts Miniature Painting Inside Every Dial

A Jaipur-born brand hand-paints each watch dial using the city's centuries-old miniature painting tradition.

Jaipur Watch Company, founded by Gaurav Mehta, produces timepieces with dials hand-painted by local miniature artists trained in the Rajput and Mughal court traditions. Each dial can take an artist several days to complete. The brand has brought one of Rajasthan's oldest art forms into an entirely new object category without removing it from its artisanal roots.

I Finally Understood Leheriya After Buying One Dupatta

Community pick

Leheriya is a diagonal wave-dye technique from Jaipur that only works when the fabric is rolled before dyeing.

I bought a leheriya dupatta from a small shop near Badi Chaupar and asked the owner to explain the process. The fabric is rolled diagonally on a stick and then tied and dyed in sections, which is what creates the continuous wave pattern when it is unrolled. No two pieces come out exactly the same, which I only understood after holding mine up to the light next to another in the shop.

Kalbeliya Dance at Chokhi Dhani Caught Me Off Guard

Community pick

I thought Chokhi Dhani would be a tourist trap, but the Kalbeliya dancer in the courtyard stopped me completely.

Kalbeliya is the UNESCO-listed folk dance of the Kalbeliya community of Rajasthan, and watching it performed live by a practitioner from the community is entirely different from seeing it on a screen. The swirling black skirts and the serpentine movement of the arms are almost impossible to look away from. I went expecting a buffet and came home thinking about the dance for a week.

Jaipur's Maharajas Maintained Their Own Polo Grounds for Decades

The Jaipur polo team, backed by the royal family, was among the most celebrated in the world for much of the twentieth century.

The Maharaja of Jaipur, Sawai Man Singh II, was a polo player of international standing and the Jaipur team competed and won at the highest levels of the sport in England and the United States during the mid-twentieth century. The Rambagh Polo Club in Jaipur still hosts matches and is one of the older polo grounds in India. The sport remains part of the city's identity in a way that is rarely highlighted in its tourism narrative.

Isar Lat Minaret Gave Me the Best View I Never Expected

Community pick

There is a minaret in the walled city you can climb, and almost no one in my friend circle knew it existed.

Isar Lat, also called Swargasuli, stands inside the walled city near Tripolia Bazar and was built by Ishwari Singh in the eighteenth century. I climbed the narrow internal staircase on a quiet Tuesday morning and came out to an unobstructed 360-degree view of the Pink City's rooftops and havelis. The entry fee is minimal and the guard at the base was surprised to see anyone at all.

Jaipur's Blue Pottery Contains No Clay From Jaipur

The iconic blue pottery of Jaipur is made from quartz, not clay, and the craft arrived from Persia via Delhi.

Jaipur blue pottery uses a base of powdered quartz, glass, and fuller's earth rather than conventional clay, which is why finished pieces are semi-translucent. The craft travelled to Rajasthan from Central Asia through the Mughal courts. It was revived in the twentieth century largely through the efforts of artist Kripal Singh Shekhawat, who is credited with saving the tradition from near extinction.

Kulfi at Lassiwala Tastes Like Old Jaipur

Community pick

This corner of MI Road has been scooping kulfi since before Partition, and the queue never shrinks.

I brought my cousins to the original Lassiwala on MI Road on a Sunday afternoon and we waited thirty minutes without complaint. The chilled lassi arrives in clay kulhads and tastes nothing like what you get at a restaurant. Some things in Jaipur just refuse to change, and I am grateful for that.

Kota and Bundi Together Make a Perfect Heritage Weekend

Bundi's step-wells and murals are considered by some art historians to be the finest example of Rajput painting outside a museum.

Bundi is roughly 210 kilometres from Jaipur and is small enough to walk across in a morning. The Chitrashala inside Bundi Palace contains wall paintings with a green pigment that remains vivid after centuries. Paired with Kota's Garh Palace museum nearby, the two towns offer more concentrated heritage than many better-known Rajasthan destinations.

Café Palladio Sits Inside an Indo-Italian Garden Nobody Expects

Community pick

Behind a plain gate off Narain Singh Road is a cobalt-blue Mughal garden restaurant that looks like it belongs in Milan.

I took a friend there who had lived in Jaipur for three years and had never heard of it, which is exactly the reaction the place deserves. The interior uses Jaipur's blue pottery palette across every surface, the arches, the tableware, the planters. It is Italian food in a Rajput setting and somehow both things feel completely sincere.

Samode Palace Predates the Jaipur City It Now Neighbour

Samode Palace, around 45 kilometres from Jaipur, is older than Jaipur itself and was once a diplomatic retreat for Mughal envoys.

The palace was the seat of the Rawals of Samode and the Diwan-i-Khas inside features mirror and fresco work considered among the finest surviving examples of Rajput interior decoration. It has operated as a heritage hotel for decades while keeping its original structure intact. The village of Samode around it is largely unchanged and worth walking through.

Galta Ji Temple Is a Monkey Temple With a Hidden Kund

Community pick

Galta Ji sits inside a gorge in the Aravalli hills and most people who visit never find the highest water tank.

I had walked past the main temple complex a dozen times before a local priest pointed me up the hillside path to the upper kund. The view from the top looks across the entire pink city in a way that no rooftop restaurant can match. The temple was built in the eighteenth century and the natural spring that feeds the tanks has reportedly never dried up.

Bagru Is Jaipur's Oldest Natural Dye Printing Village

Bagru, about 30 kilometres from Jaipur, has practised resist-block printing with natural dyes for several centuries.

The Chhipa community of Bagru uses fermented iron and tannin solutions called dabu to create the distinctive dark outlines seen in Bagru print textiles. The style is distinct from Sanganer printing in that it traditionally uses black and earthy red rather than the lighter floral patterns of Sanganer. Several workshops in the village accept walk-in visitors.

Hawa Mahal Has 953 Windows and No Staircase

Hawa Mahal's five storeys are connected entirely by ramps, not a single interior staircase exists in the structure.

Built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh, the palace was designed so women of the royal household could observe street festivals without being seen. The latticed sandstone screen across its facade creates a natural cooling system that drops the interior temperature noticeably. The building is only one room deep at most points.

Kripal Kumbh Showed Me Blue Pottery Is Actually Persian

Community pick

Jaipur's famous blue pottery has no clay in it at all and traces its roots to fourteenth-century Persia via Mughal Delhi.

I visited Kripal Kumbh on Bhawani Singh Road expecting a typical craft shop and ended up getting a short history lesson from the potter himself. The technique uses quartz stone powder and multani mitti instead of clay, which is why the pieces are fragile and semi-translucent. Watching a piece get fired changed how I see every blue pottery tile in the city.

City Palace Has Been Continuously Inhabited Since 1732

Unlike most royal palaces in India, the City Palace in Jaipur is still the official residence of the royal family.

Construction began under Sawai Jai Singh II when he moved the capital from Amber to Jaipur. Parts of the palace are open to the public as a museum, while the descendants of the Kachwaha dynasty continue to live in private quarters within the same complex. The blend of Rajput and Mughal architecture was deliberate.

Masala Chowk Changed How I Eat Street Food

Community pick

Every classic Jaipur street dish is gathered in one open-air food court right next to Ram Niwas Garden.

I used to wander across the old city hunting for different snacks, but Masala Chowk brought them all under one roof. You can move from pyaz kachori to laal maas to kulfi without crossing a single road. Evening light there feels genuinely festive even on a regular Tuesday.

Jantar Mantar Has the World's Largest Stone Sundial

The Samrat Yantra at Jantar Mantar is the largest sundial on Earth, standing about 27 metres tall.

Built by Sawai Jai Singh II in the early eighteenth century, the instrument could tell time accurate to two seconds. Jantar Mantar in Jaipur is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and contains nineteen major astronomical instruments. It was designed not just for observation but for calculating the Hindu calendar.

The Fort That Guarded Jaipur's Water Supply

Community pick

Jal Mahal sits in the middle of Man Sagar Lake and most locals have never walked inside it.

I grew up seeing Jal Mahal from the road and assuming it was just a pretty backdrop. It was built by Maharaja Madho Singh I in the eighteenth century and four of its five floors sit completely underwater. The top floor is the only one visible, which makes the whole thing feel like a magic trick.

Jaipur lifters crushed it at state bench press

Community pick

I just heard about the 31st Rajasthan State Equipped Bench Press Championship and our Jaipur lifters absolutely dominated, bagging 6 gold medals. Watching local athletes represent our city at the state level is inspiring. This is the kind of fitness energy we need more of in Jaipur.

Rambagh Palace Tea Is Worth Every Rupee Once in Your Life

Community pick

The former residence of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II now serves afternoon tea in its garden and anyone can book.

I saved up and went for tea in the Rambagh garden on my birthday and it genuinely felt like stepping into a different era. The lawns are immaculate, the crockery is formal, and sitting where royalty once lived makes the price feel almost reasonable. You do not need to be a hotel guest to experience it, which most people do not realise.

Abhaneri Stepwell Is One of the Deepest in All of India

Chand Baori at Abhaneri descends thirteen storeys and contains roughly three thousand steps arranged in perfect symmetry.

Located about ninety kilometres from Jaipur near Dausa, Chand Baori was built around the eighth or ninth century and remains one of the largest and most geometrically precise stepwells on the subcontinent. The site also includes the Harshat Mata temple nearby. It is a manageable day trip from Jaipur and sees far fewer visitors than the city monuments.

Amber Fort at Dawn Has Almost No One In It

Community pick

The gates open early and if you arrive before the tour buses the entire fort is practically yours.

I went to Amber at seven in the morning on a whim and walked through the Sheesh Mahal with only a handful of other people around. The mirrored walls catch the early light in a way that photographs cannot capture and the air still carries some of the night's coolness. By nine the crowds arrive and the feeling is completely gone.

Frontier Markets Put Rural Women at the Centre of Commerce

Jaipur-founded Frontier Markets has built a network connecting rural women entrepreneurs to essential goods and services across India.

Founded in Jaipur, Frontier Markets trains women called Saral Jeevan Sahelis to act as last-mile sales agents bringing products and financial services to underserved villages. The company has been recognised internationally for its model linking rural demand to formal markets. It is one of the more quietly significant businesses to emerge from Rajasthan in recent years.

Sanganer Taught Me Where My Printed Dupatta Comes From

Community pick

The town just outside Jaipur has been a block-printing hub for centuries and it shows in every doorway.

I went to Sanganer expecting a quick look around and stayed most of the afternoon watching printers pull carved wooden blocks across fabric with a single confident press. The streets themselves are stained faint indigo and red from years of dye runoff. Seeing the process made me look at every printed textile I own completely differently.

Anokhi Turned Block Printing Into a Global Movement

Founded in Jaipur in 1970, Anokhi helped revive hand block printing when it was nearly dying out.

Anokhi began as a small craft enterprise working directly with block printers from the Bagru and Sanganer traditions of Rajasthan. Today it operates stores across India and exports internationally while still rooting its designs in those same centuries-old techniques. Its museum in Amber documents the full history of the craft.

Bapu Bazaar Sells Mojris I Cannot Stop Buying

Community pick

Hand-stitched leather mojris here cost a fraction of what boutiques charge anywhere else.

Every time I walk down Bapu Bazaar I end up carrying home at least one pair of mojris I did not plan to buy. The craftsmen stitch each pair by hand using techniques passed through generations, and the range of embroidery goes from simple gold thread to full mirror work. I have lost count of how many pairs I own now.

Gajak Season Means Winter Has Actually Arrived

Community pick

The moment gajak appears in the old city shops, I know the cold has finally come to Jaipur for real.

Gajak is a hard, brittle sweet made from sesame seeds or peanuts and jaggery or sugar, pressed into thin sheets. It is a Rajasthani winter speciality and the shops in Johari Bazaar and Tripolia Bazaar start stacking it around November. It is crunchy, sweet and gone by February.

Elephants Were Weighed in Gold at City Palace

The City Palace complex contains a pair of enormous silver vessels that are listed in the Guinness World Records as the largest silver objects ever made.

Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh II had the two silver urns, known as Gangajalis, crafted to carry Ganges water to England for his 1901 trip, unwilling to drink any other water abroad. Each urn holds around 4,000 litres and the pair weighed a combined 340 kilograms of silver. They remain on display in the Diwan-i-Khas.

Anokhi Started in Jaipur and Went Global

Community pick

I grew up thinking Anokhi was just a local block-print shop, then I found out it exports hand-block textiles worldwide.

Anokhi was founded in Jaipur in 1970 and built its reputation on traditional hand-block printing techniques from the region. The brand works with artisans across Rajasthan and has stores across India and internationally. Its museum in Amber, the Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing, is a proper deep-dive into the craft.

Jaipur's Walled City Is a UNESCO Site Since 2019

The walled city of Jaipur was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019, recognising its exceptional urban planning.

UNESCO recognised Jaipur's grid layout, its division into nine rectangular sectors based on Vedic architecture principles, and its consistent street hierarchy as outstanding universal value. The city was designed by Vidyadhar Bhattacharya under the direction of Sawai Jai Singh II. It remains one of very few entire cities to receive the inscription.

I Found a Stepwell Nobody Talks About

Community pick

Panna Meena ka Kund in Amer is one of the most geometrically beautiful stepwells I have ever stood inside.

Most visitors rush to Amber Fort and walk straight past this sixteenth-century stepwell a few minutes away. The criss-crossing staircases on all four sides create a hypnotic diamond pattern when you stand at the top and look down. I went on a quiet Tuesday morning and had the whole thing almost to myself.

Jaipur Has a Textile Museum Inside a Palace

The Albert Hall Museum, opened in 1887, houses one of Rajasthan's oldest and richest collections of decorative arts.

Built in the Indo-Saracenic style, the Albert Hall in Ram Niwas Garden was designed by Sir Swinton Jacob and is Rajasthan's oldest museum. Its collection spans carpets, metalwork, pottery, natural history specimens and an Egyptian mummy. The building itself is as much the attraction as anything inside it.

Teej Turned My Whole Neighbourhood Green

Community pick

Every monsoon, Jaipur women dress in green and the streets smell of wet earth and fresh marigold garlands during Teej.

Teej celebrates the reunion of Parvati and Shiva and falls in the month of Shravan, right when the rains arrive. Women swing on jhulas hung from trees, sing folk songs and fast through the day. I spent one Teej at my aunt's house in Bani Park and the procession that passed outside was genuinely spectacular.

Amber Fort Took Over a Century to Complete

Construction on Amber Fort began in 1592 and continued across multiple rulers for more than a century.

Raja Man Singh I started the fort in 1592, but successive Kachhwaha rulers kept adding palaces, halls and gardens over the following hundred-plus years. The result is a layered complex of Rajput and Mughal styles sitting above Maota Lake. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Hill Forts of Rajasthan in 2013.

Mirchi Bada Hit Different After Midnight

Community pick

I never knew a stuffed chilli fritter could feel like a full meal until I tried one at Johari Bazaar at midnight.

Mirchi bada, a Jaipur street staple, is a large green chilli stuffed with spiced potato, dipped in gram flour batter and deep fried. The stalls near Johari Bazaar keep going late and the crowd only gets livelier after eleven. I dragged my visiting friends here and nobody complained.

The Jaipur Watch Company Revives Miniature Painting on Dials

Jaipur Watch Company incorporates hand-painted Rajasthani miniature art directly onto watch dials made in the city.

Founded by Gaurav Mehta, Jaipur Watch Company is among the few Indian watch brands to source and integrate traditional local craftsmanship into contemporary timepieces. Each painted dial is produced by artisans trained in the Rajasthani miniature tradition, making every watch a wearable piece of the city's artistic heritage.

Panna Meena Ka Kund Hid in Plain Sight for Years

Community pick

One of Jaipur's most photogenic stepwells sits just a five-minute walk from Amer Fort and almost nobody visits it.

I must have driven past the turn-off for Panna Meena Ka Kund dozens of times before I finally stopped. The crisscrossing staircases drop in geometric symmetry down to the water, and on a weekday morning it is nearly empty. It is one of those places that feels genuinely unchanged from the day it was built.

Gayatri Devi Was Voted One of the World's Most Beautiful Women

Vogue magazine named the Maharani of Jaipur one of the ten most beautiful women on the planet in 1962.

Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur was not only celebrated for her elegance but also entered the Guinness Book of Records in 1962 for winning a parliamentary seat by one of the largest victory margins in democratic history. She founded the Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls' Public School in Jaipur, which continues to operate today.

Johari Bazaar Taught Me to Bargain for Real Gems

Community pick

Jaipur is one of the world's largest centres for gemstone cutting and trading, and the bazaar is its public face.

I grew up walking through Johari Bazaar with my mother, watching her hold emeralds up to the light before she would even ask a price. The lanes are packed with shops dealing in kundan, meenakari, and polki jewellery, crafts that Jaipur has been known for since the Mughal era. Learning to look closely before buying is half the education.

LMB Has Served Sweets in the Old City Since 1727

Laxmi Misthan Bhandar in Johari Bazaar is one of India's oldest continuously operating sweet shops.

LMB, as it is universally called, sits in the heart of Johari Bazaar and is famous for ghewar, daal baati churma, and an extensive vegetarian thali. The shop has been a fixture of the walled city for nearly three centuries and remains a landmark for both locals and visitors seeking authentic Rajasthani flavours.

Jaipur's Pink Was a Diplomatic Colour, Not an Aesthetic Choice

The entire walled city was painted pink in 1876 specifically to welcome the Prince of Wales, Albert Edward, on a royal visit.

Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh II ordered buildings across the walled city painted in terracotta pink, a colour traditionally associated with hospitality in Rajputana. A municipal law still requires building owners in the old city to maintain the pink facade. The colour that defines Jaipur's identity began as a single royal gesture.

Ghewar Season Is Real and It Lasts Three Weeks

Community pick

I wait all year for Teej just so I can eat ghewar from Laxmi Misthan Bhandar without being judged for eating two.

Ghewar is a Rajasthani disc-shaped sweet made from flour, ghee, and sugar syrup, traditionally prepared during Sawan, Teej, and Gangaur. The honeycomb texture soaks up rabdi and kesar in a way no other Indian sweet quite does. Once Teej is over, most shops stop making it fresh, so the window is narrow and precious.

Jaipur Rugs Taught Me Where My Carpet Came From

Community pick

I visited the Jaipur Rugs showroom and met a weaver who had hand-knotted for forty years and could finish a knot faster than I could blink.

Founded in 1978 by Nand Kishore Chaudhary, Jaipur Rugs works directly with artisan weavers across rural Rajasthan, cutting out middlemen. Their Manchaha line lets weavers design entirely without a pattern. Seeing that connection between the person who wove the rug and the finished piece on the floor is something I think about every time I step on mine.

Rawat's Pyaz Kachori Has a Queue Before 8 AM

Community pick

I once arrived at 7:45 in the morning and still had to wait behind twenty people for a fresh kachori.

Rawat Mishthan Bhandar on Station Road is one of Jaipur's most beloved addresses for pyaz kachori, a flaky pastry stuffed with a spiced onion filling and eaten with tangy chutney. I bring every out-of-town guest here on their first morning. The mawa kachori for dessert is non-negotiable.

Abhaneri Stepwell Has More Steps Than Any in Rajasthan

Chand Baori at Abhaneri has 3,500 steps across 13 storeys, descending 20 metres into the earth.

Built between the 8th and 9th centuries CE during the reign of King Chanda of the Nikumbha dynasty, Abhaneri is roughly 95 kilometres from Jaipur near Dausa. The geometric precision of the steps creates an optical illusion that draws photographers and architects from around the world. The Harshat Mata temple stands adjacent.

The Observatory That Predicted Monsoons Before Satellites

Jantar Mantar's Samrat Yantra sundial can calculate local time accurate to two seconds, built entirely from stone in 1734.

Sawai Jai Singh II constructed the Jantar Mantar in Jaipur as a working astronomical observatory, not a monument. The 19 instruments tracked planetary positions and solar events used for calendar and agricultural planning across Rajputana. UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site in 2010.