Landing at Jaipur International Airport

What JAI is like

Jaipur is a fixture on the Golden Triangle circuit, and plenty of people fly in for two or three days of forts and palaces. The airport is much smaller than India's major hubs and the arrivals process is correspondingly short. The upside is that you reach your hotel quickly; the downside is that you have very little time inside the building to sort anything out. That makes having everything installed before you travel more important here than at a big airport, not less.

On arrival

Switch the line on when the aircraft stops and follow a route much shorter than at the big hubs, with no long walk or tunnel to worry about. The international queue is usually lighter than Delhi, though it slows when two flights land together because the number of desks is limited. After reclaim the exit puts you straight onto the forecourt, so arrange your ride before you step out, and if a hotel car is meeting you, confirm the name on the board in advance. Many old city hotels sit in lanes that a large vehicle cannot enter, which is something to learn before you arrive rather than when the car has already stopped.

How far the airport Wi-Fi gets you

There is airport Wi-Fi, but the building is small and people move through quickly, so you rarely sit in range long. The more common problem is needing to confirm a booking or reach the hotel once you are out on the forecourt, which is beyond the coverage. If you arrive in the afternoon glare, standing in the car park troubleshooting a connection is a poor way to spend ten minutes. With a line already live, the whole sequence takes less than one.

Getting into town

The airport is close to town by Indian standards, so the ride into the old city does not take long. The usual options are the airport taxi rank, a car sent by your hotel, or a booking through an app. Once you pass inside the walled old city the streets narrow into mixed traffic of cars, auto-rickshaws and people on foot. The map will get you down to lane level, but the last hundred metres is often on foot or in something smaller. Walking with the map open while you hunt for a hotel doorway is what actually consumes data here, more than the drive itself, and a first arrival rarely goes past 200MB.

What people ask about this airport

• Ask if a car can reach the door — Plenty of old city hotels are down narrow lanes, so ask in advance where the drop-off point actually is.
• Short walk, so be ready — Arrivals here move fast, and if the profile is not already installed you will be outside the building before you are online.
• The hill forts are outside town — Trips to the forts outside town run over hill roads where signal thins in places, so save the route before you go.