Skip Fatehpur Sikri! If you are on holiday and want to relax, avoid this place like the plague. The guides/touts/beggars will ruin it for you. Yes, you can resist the guide/conman/beggar mafia by shouting/pleading/ignoring, but that resistance is exhausting. Do you want your relaxing holiday to be this stressful?
This is such a shame because the Sikri part is one of the best kept medieval pieces of architecture you can ever come across. It is clean, stunning and beautiful. But I recommend visiting Fatehpur Sikri only if you are a true art/architecture/history enthusiast or an intense devotee. You will have to tolerate/suffer the guide-conman-beggar mafia with all your persuasion/will-power. If you think your love for history/religion can trump the stress of dealing with the bullying/nagging mafia, you should go for Fatehpur Sikri. Otherwise, drop it. Visit Tajmahal instead. You cannot have enough of Tajmahal. And the government has made the arrangements impeccable. There are guides there at Tajmahal as well, but they will respect your 'NO'.
If you are hell-bent on visiting Fatehpur Sikri, I have some suggestions. The place is a gold mine for photography enthusiasts. Plan to reach the place before 6:00 AM. You will have the entire area to yourself. Also, if you are commuting from Agra, you get to skip the hellish Agra-Fatehpur commute in the early hours of the day. If you are not of the religious type, you can skip Buland-Darwaza, Badshahi-Darwaza and Salim-Chishti-mazaar and focus only within the ASI-protected-Sikri-ticketed area. You will be less bothered by the tout-guide-mafia.
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