Buses to and from Agra run every half-hour from about 5.45am until 6.30pm, and take between forty minutes and one hour. Regular buses also leave for Bharatpur (approx every 30min; 30min); if you're in a rush, consider renting one of the jeeps that wait outside the bus stand for around Rs300-400.
Though it's well worth spending a day or two here, Fatehpur Sikri has a limited choice of places to stay . Unless you've pre-booked a room in the Dak Bungalow (see below), by far the best of the bunch is the Goverdhan Guest House , just east of the bus stand on Buland Gate Road (tel 05619/882222 or 882643; Rs100-300), whose spacious rooms (all en suite) open onto a lawn, and are good value, if a little grubby. This is also a dependable place to eat ; unlike every other restaurant in the village, the food and hot drinks here are all made with filtered or mineral water (Fatehpur Sikri's ground water is extremely salty). Just over 1km further out of town on the Agra Road, the UPTDC Gulistan Tourist Complex (tel 05619/41837; Rs400-900), a slightly impersonal state-run complex with en-suite rooms and a run-of-the-mill restaurant, is the best fallback. Fatehpur Sikri's three budget guesthouses are all grouped immediately below the Buland Darwaza. The Maurya (tel 05619/882348; Rs100-300) makes the most of the prime location with its atmospheric roof terrace, but the rooms are a bit poky and overpriced, and there's no hot water, which can be inconvenient in the middle of winter. It was also closed for while in 2000, reputedly after a Taj-Ganj-style poisoning incident. In a similar mould is the Rang Mahal (tel 0562/882218; Rs100-200), next to the car park below the Buland Darwaza, and the very basic Shree (tel 0562/882276; up to Rs200), down the hill on the lane leading from the bazaar. The dingy lodges immediately beside the bus stand, notably the Ashoka , are best avoided, as their airless, dark rooms suffer from traffic noise and fumes until well into the evening. In this bracket, you won't do better than the Dak Bungalow (up to Rs100), located 2km northeast of the bazaar on a hill overlooking the old road into the palace complex, whose large, comfortably furnished rooms are an unbelievable bargain at Rs10; the one drawback with this place is that you have to book ahead through the Archaeological Survey, at 22 Mall Rd in Agra (although if you arrive late in the day and slip the chowkidar a tip, he may offer a booking on spec).
For food , eat either at the Goverdhan or RTDC Gulistan ; local rumours suggest the Maurya is less than hygienic. Not to be missed, by contrast, are Fatephur Sikri's delicious biscuits , which you can savour hot out of the oven each evening at the bakeries on the lane leading up from the bazaar to the Jami Masjid. Nearby, next to the fork in the lane, is the liquor shop which, aside from the RTDC Gulistan , is this predominantly Muslim village's only source of chilled beers.
