Most people pick the vehicle after the trip is already planned. When your parents are coming along, we’d do it the other way round. A 9 seater Urbania Maharaja seat in Jaipur changes how much you can fit into a day, mostly because nobody is wrecked by 3 pm. So instead of another list of features, here is a two day plan for a family of seven or eight, written with the van in mind.
Treat the timings as rough. Opening hours change, and Jaipur traffic does what it wants.
Day 1: Amer, the old city, and a sunset
8:30 am, leave the hotel. Amer Fort is crowded by ten and hot by eleven, so go early. This is where having your own driver pays off. He knows where to drop the elders close to the entrance, so they aren’t walking a long way before the visit has even started. The wide seats help on the way up too. Your mother can lean back for the twenty minutes from the city instead of sitting stiff.
12:30 pm, Jal Mahal. It’s a photo stop on the way back, ten minutes, no more. You can’t go inside.
1:30 pm, lunch in the old city. Let the van wait for you. Don’t try to park near Johari Bazaar yourself, you’ll lose half an hour and your patience.
3 pm, City Palace and Jantar Mantar. They’re close together. Hawa Mahal is a short drive away, and honestly most families only need five minutes with it, for the photo from the street.
6 pm, Nahargarh for sunset. The road up is narrow in places, so ask your driver if he’s comfortable with it in the evening. If he isn’t, Patrika Gate or a quiet dinner is a fine plan B.
Day 2: Ajmer and Pushkar
7 am start. The road to Ajmer goes through Dudu, and it’s about two and a half hours with a tea stop. This is the stretch where the 9 seater earns its money. The usual complaints on a long road trip are the same everywhere: a bad back, a stiff neck, and grumpy kids. In a Maharaja seat you can lean back and sleep, and the older ones really do.
Spend the late morning at Ajmer Sharif, then drive on to Pushkar for the lake and the Brahma temple. Lunch there, a slow walk by the ghats, and you’re back in Jaipur by eight or nine in the evening.
If you want something different for day two, Ranthambore works as a weekend trip, and Delhi and Agra are around five hours each way depending on traffic. Udaipur is the long one at six to seven hours.
What the van actually adds
The Urbania is a Force Motors van, and the Maharaja seat is simply the roomier, more reclining seat you get in the 9 seater layout. On a trip like this one, that means fewer breaks asked for by tired parents and fewer arguments about who gets the front. You can read about the basic van on our Urbania Tempo Traveller page, and the seat style is covered on the Maharaja seat Tempo Traveller page. For the wider range, see luxury Urbania in Jaipur and our luxury Urbania Tempo Traveller in Jaipur page.
If you’re not exactly nine
Be careful with the number. Nine people plus bags in a 9 seater is tight. If you’re ten or eleven, the 12 seater Urbania is the safer choice. For a joint family or a wedding party, look at the 16 seater Urbania.
If the budget matters more than the seat, a regular van is fine for a trip like this. Our 9 seater Tempo Traveller and 12 seater Tempo Traveller hire in Jaipur pages cover that, and the luxury Tempo Traveller sits in the middle. For city-only days with hourly use, see Tempo Traveller on rent.
The price, and three mistakes we see
We won’t print a number, because anyone who gives you a fixed price without your dates and route is guessing. Wedding season and long weekends cost more.
The three mistakes are always the same. People book a van that will be exactly full, so the bags go on laps. They don’t ask whether tolls, parking and the driver’s night charge are in the quote, and then argue about it at the end. And they book late in wedding season, when the good vehicles are gone weeks ahead. Ask for photos of the exact van, get the quote in writing (WhatsApp is fine), and read the cancellation terms before you pay the advance.
One last thing
If you’re planning something like this, send us your dates, the number of people and how many bags you’re carrying. We’ll tell you if the 9 seater Urbania Maharaja seat fits, or if something else suits you better.
