What's a good 3-day itinerary for Jaipur?

Jaipur's walled city sits inside a 6-km ring of salmon-pink walls built in 1727 under Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II. Day 1 stays inside the Pink City. Start at Hawa Mahal by 8 AM, before the tour buses pile up around 9:30. The 953-window facade catches morning light on east-facing sandstone, and the interior feels cooler than the dusty street below. Walk 400 metres south to City Palace, founded in 1732. The Mubarak Mahal courtyard tends to smell of fresh jasmine garlands left at the entrance shrine. Jantar Mantar sits next door, a 2-minute walk. The 27-metre Samrat Yantra sundial reads solar time to within 2 seconds, but by noon the stone instruments radiate heat you can feel a hand's width away. Lunch at LMB on Johari Bazaar, about 200 metres north. The dal baati churma runs 280 INR ($2.95) and their kachori counter has had a queue since 1954. Spend the afternoon in Johari Bazaar for lac bangles and Kundan jewellery, or walk 300 metres south to Bapu Bazaar for block-printed textiles sold by the metre.

Day 2 moves 11 km north to Amber Fort, founded in 1592 by Raja Man Singh I. Book a car or take a shared jeep from the Hawa Mahal stand for about 100-150 INR per seat. Arrive by 8:30 AM. The Sheesh Mahal on the upper level is the room that stops people mid-sentence. Thousands of convex mirrors set into plaster walls catch a single flame and scatter it into constellations. You'll likely spend 2.5 to 3 hours in the full complex. On the drive back, stop at Jal Mahal on Man Sagar Lake. You can't enter the 1799 palace (closed to visitors since restoration began), but the view from the eastern causeway takes 15 minutes and photographs well in flat midday light. Afternoon goes to Nahargarh Fort on the Aravalli ridge. Padao Restaurant near the fort entrance serves cold Kingfisher and passable rajma chawal for about 350 INR. Stay for sunset, which currently falls around 6:15 PM in September. The temperature drops 3-4 degrees Celsius up here, and the city below turns amber.

Day 3 stays in south-central Jaipur at a slower pace. Albert Hall Museum, designed by Samuel Swinton Jacob and opened in 1887, takes visitors from 9 AM. Entry costs 300 INR for foreign passport holders. The Egyptian mummy on the first floor surprises everyone. It shouldn't be in a Rajasthani museum, and yet it is, a colonial-era donation nobody moved. The ground-floor pottery gallery holds 8th-century Gupta-period pieces you might walk past without noticing their age. Ram Niwas Garden surrounds the museum. Grab 15-rupee chai from the vendors near the south gate. By 11 AM, head about 4 km south to Jawahar Kala Kendra, the arts centre Charles Correa designed in 1986 around a nine-square Vastu Purusha mandala. Admission is free. Lunch at Anokhi Cafe on Prithviraj Road, about 3 km west. Their salads use organic produce from the Anokhi farm near Amber, and a meal with iced tea runs 450-600 INR ($4.75-6.30). That said, portions at Anokhi lean small, so order two dishes if you've been walking since 9 AM.

September in Jaipur is still monsoon. Temperatures currently sit around 25-33°C with humidity near 76%. Rain tends to arrive in sharp afternoon bursts of 20-40 minutes rather than all-day grey. The wet sandstone of Amber Fort gets slippery, so closed-toe shoes with grip matter more than sandals here. Auto-rickshaws run between sites for 80-350 INR depending on distance. Ola and Uber work in Jaipur too, often 30-40% cheaper, and they skip the haggling. Mind you, most monuments close by 5 or 5:30 PM, which compresses the indoor sightseeing window. Dinner on any of the three nights works at Handi Restaurant near Hawa Mahal for laal maas, a Rajasthani lamb curry fiery with dried mathania chillies, at about 450 INR. Niros on MI Road has been open since 1949 and serves butter chicken for 380 INR.