Experience the best of Gwalior

Gwalior's hill fort rises from a sandstone ridge above the city, enclosed by high walls and holding palaces, temples and reservoirs. The Man Singh Palace, built in the fifteenth century, is decorated with blue tilework, and the Teli ka Mandir is a tall temple of the eighth or ninth century. Jain figures cut into the cliff walls include huge standing sculptures from the fifteenth century. A Sikh gurdwara marks the place where Guru Hargobind was held.

Below, the Jai Vilas Palace, built in 1874 for the Scindia rulers, holds a museum with enormous chandeliers in its grand halls. Tansen, the great court musician of the Mughal emperor Akbar, is buried in Gwalior, and the city holds a music festival in his memory each winter. Orchha and Datia, with their palaces, lie to the south-east, and Agra is some 120 kilometres north by road.

Bedai, a puffed fried bread served with potato curry, and jalebi, a syrupy sweet, make the local breakfast, and gajak, a sesame brittle, comes from nearby Morena. Heat builds fast after March, so the climb up to the fort is best made on a clear winter morning.