Choose three cards.” The fortune teller was slumped by a folding table at the back of the party in the Indian city of Jaipur, a bash put on by small-group travel company G Adventures. I was fresh from a whirlwind tour spanning Delhi and the Taj Mahal; the mild, autumn night was coming to a close. A waning crescent moon looked down at stragglers sipping pink cocktails, or dancing to the sounds of traditional Rajasthani instruments. His turbaned head seemed to droop sleepily as he flipped over the first card I’d picked from the deck. There was just one word on the card, and I could read that word upside down: Death.

Interior Balconies At Raffles Jaipur
Photos Courtesy Of Raffles Jaipur
That really doesn’t seem good, I thought, my mind racing with images of overturned rickshaws, rogue cobras and stampeding elephants. Maybe I should have bought the optional travel insurance. But instead of delivering news of my imminent demise, he straightened in his chair, looking me up and down. “Your life,” he said. “It is the life of a queen.”
It was a fittingly regal welcome to the capital of Rajasthan, the vast region of northwestern India whose Sanskrit name translates to “land of kings.” Monarchy may have officially been abolished in India in 1971, but there are still plenty of kings to go around. Dozens of grandiose palaces and forts dot Rajasthan’s thirsty valleys and forested mountains, and no fewer than 18 royal families maintain proudly ancient bloodlines between polo matches and political intrigue.
Above the City Palace, the royal abode in downtown Jaipur, a pair of flags flies each time the local king — or maharaja — is in residence. With his Bollywood-idol looks, a world-class polo game and a passion for Rajasthan’s indigenous Marwari horses, the 26-year-old Maharaja Sawai Padmanabh Singh uses the 18th‑century landmark as his resplendent home base. But in the days following that party, as I explored Jaipur’s royal sites with the fortune teller’s words in mind, I found it wasn’t Rajasthan’s limpid-eyed maharaja that gripped my imagination. I was enthralled by Jaipur’s quieter, queenly heritage instead.
It didn’t hurt that I had a coveted room at the new Raffles Jaipur, a confection in shades of ivory and burnished gold that opened last summer. “Jaipur is full of palaces, but this is a palace for a maharani, or queen,” explained the hotel’s dapper general manager, Binny Sebastian, when I arrived.
Many Indian luxury hotels are sprawling affairs, with room to spare for days-long wedding ceremonies where everyone is invited; their domes and high walls trumpet haughty, imperial elegance. The 50-room Raffles Jaipur is smaller and more intimate, cocooning travelers from the nearby city’s persistent buzz.

The Hotel's Central Atrium
As we strolled a soaring, central atrium lined with palm trees, Sebastian explained that the property is an ode to the traditional zenana, or women’s quarters, where royal ladies once lived in cloistered luxury. The floors were adorned with designs wrought from hand-inlaid marble and the scent of orange blossoms — long associated with royal women — wafted through gently lit hallways. Sebastian pointed to alabaster-white interior balconies and filigreed screens lining the atrium’s high walls. “That’s where a queen would stand and watch everything that takes place in the palace,” he said.
After glimpsing those elegant screens at my hotel, I began to spot them everywhere. Jaipur is known as the “pink city” for the distinctive hue that cloaks buildings from ancient landmarks to souvenir shops.
The city’s most iconic pink place may be the 18th-century Hawa Mahal — or “Palace of the Winds” — a salmon-tinted edifice whose honeycombed windows and balconies once let residents of the royal zenana peek into the tangle of streets below. Standing among honking taxis, hawkers and selfie-taking crowds at the base of the facade, I tried to channel its breezy interior quiet.
Screens also marked the women’s quarters at the hilltop Amber Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site sitting high above Maota Lake with the Kalikho Hills as their tawny backdrop. Walking alongside the group of travelers I’d arrived with, G Adventures’ guide and Jaipur local Raghu Rathore pointed to the lacy grille of warm sandstone overlooking the fort’s public audience halls. Beyond the latticework was the 16th-century zenana, the innermost courtyard of the palace, once home to hundreds of concubines and a single queen. That grille was a window on the wider world, a space where royal women sought to exert their power.
“The queen would sit right there, listening, and weigh in on politics in secret,” Rathore said. A whispered word to a servant could bring the queen’s verdict to her maharaja, he explained. Yet royal women didn’t leave the grounds, their lives unspooling within these walls.
“Picture it: the lamps twinkle, the carpets on the ground, curtains hanging everywhere,” Rathore said. As he spoke, my mind’s eye saw the oil lamps kindled, flickering across the entwined erotic figures still visible on the flaking stucco wall, and felt the subtle give of silk carpets underfoot. It must have been sumptuous, because the city of Jaipur has been renowned for such art and artisanship for centuries — its founding kings competed to bring creative minds and hands from across the continent, ancestors of the skilled weavers, fabric printers and jewelers still keeping ancient traditions alive.
The city’s royals left the zenana many years ago, for good. And as I explored, it began to seem that Jaipur women of all backgrounds were straining toward a better future. During my time with G Adventures, I’d visited several projects supported by its nonprofit partner Planeterra, including Anoothi India, which trains impoverished women to make handicrafts — such as handcrafted woodblock prints, traditional kantha needlework and organic dyes — that can bring their households extra income. “It’s a chance for them to take control of their lives, to earn income for their children’s schooling,” said Manju Kanwar, its project director of women’s empowerment.

Arkaa, The Hotel's Flagship Restaurant
When my tour concluded, I was eager to explore more of Jaipur’s royal and artistic traditions, so I booked an afternoon trip from another Planeterra project, Pink City Rickshaw Company, a not-for-profit organization whose Barbie-pink electric rickshaws are operated by local women from poor neighborhoods — a bold enterprise, given that female drivers are still relatively rare in India.
Zipping between blaring taxis and the occasional cow, my driver steered me past a lineup of city landmarks and toward The PDKF Store, a downtown shop operated by the Princess Diya Kumari Foundation.
Founded by the eponymous princess — and current queen mother — more than a decade ago, it promotes traditional crafts while helping female artisans gain financial independence. Along the shop’s white walls were bright, block-printed cottons that flounced across sundresses and rippled into caftans. Saris tempted in brilliant hues of blush, flamingo and fuchsia. I imagined that goldfish-shaped cotton handbags would be de rigeur accessories for a royal Rajasthani beach day.
What would Diya buy? I tried to channel regal taste while scanning the racks, but I was suddenly tired. The day had started early, with a private yoga class on my hotel’s rooftop deck, where I’d watched morning light spill across the infinity pool then gild the surrounding Aravalli Range. Since I’d neglected to pack even a single set of workout clothes, I flowed through each sun salutation, absurdly, in a pair of pajama shorts printed with ripe peaches and garish lemons.
Outside the shop, a liveried driver waited to whisk me back to the property, where I planned to spend the afternoon beside my room’s private plunge pool, preferably with a Jaipur Sling cocktail in hand. I should really stay and shop, I thought, so I’d have more dignified garb for the next sunrise yoga class.
But doesn’t royal prerogative mean setting your own style? I was ready for the quiet palace, that strong drink, the cooling sigh of my very own pool. I walked out of the store, empty-handed. It’s good to be queen.

Hawa Mahal
Where To Stay
Newly opened in July 2024, the 50-room Raffles Jaipur is a trove of artisan crafts fit for a queen, from bone-inlaid furniture to leather-bound books and lush Jaipur-woven carpets. Elegant teatimes in the soaring atrium go from Ceylon tea to Champagne; in the hotel’s signature restaurant, Arkaa, vegetable-forward north Indian cuisine pays tribute to historical menus served in palace zenanas. Book in advance for appointments at the Raffles Spa, including the signature Maharani Retreat combining traditional, ayurveda-informed herbal treatments with head-to-toe massage.
Getting There
Nonstop flights to the Jaipur International Airport (JAI) link the city to major national hubs, including Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Travelers on G Adventures’ 15-day, small-group Northern India tour — part of the company’s next-level Geluxe collection — visit the city’s most important royal sites, but also meet the women of Anoothi India for hands-on block-printing lessons.