Jaipur India 5 Day Itinerary (Day Trip Base)
This 5-day plan adds Agra and the Taj Mahal to the Pushkar/Ajmer, Abhaneri/Bhangarh and Ranthambore trips from our shorter versions: day five gets you to Agra in time for sunset at the Taj. Five days buys the journey and one sunset, not the sunrise return our 6-day version adds.
Book these before you go
- A Pushkar and Ajmer day tour : skip negotiating a private car yourself
- A Ranthambore tiger safari : zones and seats sell out fast in the Oct-Mar high season
- An Agra and Taj Mahal overnight tour : the Taj closes every Friday, plan the date around it
- A Pink City or C-Scheme hotel : dual pricing applies to monument tickets, not room rates
| Day | Focus | Distance from Jaipur | Travel time (one way) | Overnight? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pushkar and Ajmer | ~135-140km (Ajmer), +15km to Pushkar | ~2.5-3h by road | No, back in Jaipur |
| 2 | Abhaneri stepwell and Bhangarh Fort | ~85-95km (Abhaneri), +15km to Bhangarh | ~2-2.5h by road | No, back in Jaipur |
| 3 | Travel to Ranthambore, evening safari | ~180-200km | ~3.5-4h by road | Yes, at Ranthambore |
| 4 | Morning safari, return to Jaipur | ~180-200km (return) | ~3.5-4h by road | No, back in Jaipur |
| 5 | Travel to Agra, Taj Mahal at sunset | ~240km | ~4-5h by road | Yes, in Agra |
Day 1: Pushkar and Ajmer
Ajmer sits about 135km from Jaipur via NH48, roughly 2.5 to 3 hours by car, and Pushkar is another 15km past it, closer to 3 hours total door to door. Treat them as two different trips stitched into one day, not one destination: Ajmer is urban and devotional, built around the Ajmer Sharif Dargah, one of the subcontinent’s most important Sufi shrines, while Pushkar is lakeside and unhurried, wrapped around a holy lake with one of India’s only Brahma temples. Rajasthan Tourism’s Pushkar page has current festival dates and ghat etiquette notes worth reading before you go. A sedan for the whole day runs roughly INR 3500 to 4500 split between passengers, noticeably cheaper per person than a solo guided booking. Buses run this route too, but at 2 to 4 hours depending on service and with none of the flexibility, they’re a false economy for a single day trip. If your visit lines up with October or November, confirm the current-year dates for the Pushkar Camel Fair before you go, it reshapes the whole town for the week it runs.
Day 2: Abhaneri’s stepwell and Bhangarh’s ruins
Chand Baori, the stepwell at Abhaneri, is about 85 to 95km out, 2 to 2.5 hours by road, and it’s the single best cheap detour on this whole list: a dizzying geometric staircase descending several stories, built roughly in the 9th century and expanded later. It’s also directly on the Jaipur-Agra road, worth remembering since day five of this itinerary retraces that same route. Bhangarh Fort sits another 15km on, marketed everywhere as “India’s most haunted place,” a claim with no evidence behind it and every incentive for local guides to keep repeating. What is real: the Archaeological Survey of India bars entry between sunset and sunrise by official order, not superstition, so build your day to leave before dusk rather than lingering for the atmosphere. Neither site has practical public transport, a private car or a combined day tour is the only realistic way to see both without wasting most of the day on logistics.
Day 3: Travel to Ranthambore, evening safari
Ranthambore National Park sits roughly 180 to 200km from Jaipur, 3.5 to 4 hours by road; a train to Sawai Madhopur station is an option too, but confirm the current timetable rather than assume a specific duration. Rajasthan Tourism’s Ranthambore page has the official park overview. Book your safari well before you arrive; the park runs morning and evening Gypsy (open 6-seat jeep) or Canter (open-top 20-seat truck) sessions across zones 1 through 10, and a foreigner Gypsy seat runs roughly INR 3500 to 4200 per session, canter seats somewhat less, figures the park reportedly revised upward around 1 April 2026, so treat those numbers as a starting point and confirm before booking. Take the evening safari on arrival, and don’t expect a tiger on this one alone, sightings are never guaranteed on any single drive, that’s exactly why the next day matters.
Day 4: A second safari, then back to Jaipur
Take the morning safari in a different zone from the evening before if the booking allows it, varying zones is the single best thing you can do to improve your actual odds of a sighting, since tigers hold territories and different zones favor different individuals. Two safaris across one overnight is a meaningfully better bet than one rushed session on a day trip. Note that the park’s core zones 1 through 5 close for the full monsoon, July through September, reopening around 1 October, plan around that window if you have flexibility. Head back to Jaipur after the safari, another 3.5 to 4 hours by road, with a short evening free before an early start the next day.
Day 5: Travel to Agra, the Taj Mahal at sunset
Agra is about 240km from Jaipur, 4 to 5 hours by road, and no confirmed fast Jaipur-Agra express train shortens that meaningfully, the quickest conventional trains on this route still run roughly 3 hours 40 minutes to 4 hours 30 minutes. That’s a long push either way, which is exactly why this itinerary treats Agra as an overnight rather than a there-and-back day trip. Foreigner entry to the Taj complex runs INR 1100, plus a separate INR 200 to enter the mausoleum itself, INR 1300 total, and the monument is closed every Friday, don’t schedule around that day; see the official ticketing page or the UNESCO World Heritage listing for the inscription details. Arrive in time for the late-afternoon light on the marble, it’s the single best reason to do this leg as an overnight instead of a dawn-to-dusk scramble.
Five days ends in Agra at sunset, a genuinely good place to be, but the trip technically isn’t finished: you haven’t seen the Taj at sunrise yet, and you’re still 4 to 5 hours from Jaipur. The 6-day version closes that loop properly.
For the city itself, Amber Fort, City Palace and Hawa Mahal, see our Jaipur guide or the Jaipur 5-day itinerary . For the full rundown of what Jaipur can reach as a base, see our Jaipur India guide .