Why these towns belong together
The merchant families never really left home in their hearts. From roughly the 1830s to the 1930s they sent their fortunes back from Calcutta and Bombay and spent them on havelis, temples, wells and cenotaphs, and they had nearly every surface painted.
The name: Shekhawati comes from Rao Shekha, a fifteenth-century chief of a junior branch of the Kachwaha clan of Amer.
The Shekhawats: his descendants spread slowly across these sandy plains, and in 1730 Thakur Shardul Singh took Jhunjhunu from its Kaimkhani nawabs.
- Named after
- Rao Shekha, 15th-century Kachwaha chief
- Jhunjhunu taken
- 1730, by Thakur Shardul Singh
- Nawalgarh founded
- 1737, by Thakur Nawal Singh
- Mandawa fort
- 1755
- Alsisar taken
- 1757
- Painting era
- Roughly 1830s to 1930s
- Thikanas: his sons divided the land into small estates, each ruled by a thakur from his own fort.
- One family's map: Thakur Nawal Singh founded Nawalgarh in 1737 and raised the fort at Mandawa in 1755, and another branch of the family took Alsisar in 1757.
- The bargain: the thakurs offered merchants protection on the caravan roads and kept taxes low, and the trading families came.
- The families: Podars, Goenkas, Morarkas, Chokhanis, Jhunjhunwalas and dozens more.
- To the ports: when the caravan trade moved to the British ports in the nineteenth century, those families followed it to Calcutta and Bombay and became some of the great business houses of India.
- Nawalgarh: shows you what a restored haveli looks like, and how two families argued about restoring them.
- Mandawa: the densest cluster of painted lanes, and the castle that started the region's heritage hotels.
- Fatehpur: older than both, it shows what one determined French painter saved, and what nobody has saved yet.
- Alsisar: the village these towns grew out of.
- Read in order: seen this way the walls tell a story, and by the fourth day you can read them yourself.
- A journey about time of day: the facades are best in the low light after sunrise and before sunset.
- Avoiding the crowds: day-trippers from Jaipur and Delhi fill the famous havelis between about eleven and three, so we plan early starts, long lunches in cool courtyards and a second walk from four.
- Background: read our Shekhawati region page before you come.
Day by day, at the pace of the painted towns
- Nights
- Four nights, five days
- Pace
- Walks before ten and after four
- Best months
- November to February, March for Holi
- Good for
- Art, architecture and quiet towns
- Starts
- Jaipur
- Ends
- Jaipur, Delhi, or on to Bikaner
Day 1: Jaipur to Nawalgarh, by way of Samode
Leave Jaipur: after an unhurried breakfast, on the road north to Chomu.
Samode: it passes close to Samode, and we stop at its palace in the Aravalli hills for coffee and a look at the painted Durbar Hall and Sheesh Mahal.
A fine introduction: to what wall painting meant to a Rajput court.
- The plain opens: then the hills fall away, all millet stubble, camel carts and village wells. Nawalgarh is about three hours from Jaipur in all.
- Arrival: check in at Roop Niwas Kothi on the edge of town, lunch in the garden and rest through the warm hours.
- At four: your guide walks you into the old lanes for a first look.
- The Aath Haveli: its outer walls carry elephants, motor cars and a steam train with every carriage drawn.
- Bhagton ki Choti Haveli: never cleaned or restored, it shows you what the museums looked like before their makeovers.
- Early to bed: dinner is in the kothi garden, because tomorrow starts with horses.
Day 2: Marwari horses, two museums, then Mandawa
Marwari horses: Roop Niwas is known for them, the old cavalry breed of the Rajputs with ears that curve inwards until the tips nearly touch.
At dawn: experienced riders go out past khejri trees and farm wells. Non-riders follow in a jeep or watch the horses come back steaming in the cold air.
Morarka Haveli Museum at opening: the frescoes were cleaned but never repainted, so you see the original colours and the losses together. Look for the rare paintings of Jesus.
- Podar Haveli Museum: the Dr Ramnath A Podar Haveli, built in 1902, whose paintings were carefully retouched and whose rooms are now galleries of Rajasthani life.
- The best lesson in restoration: comparing the two museums.
- Bala Qila: climb the stair behind a sweet shop to its Sheesh Mahal, whose ceiling carries painted panoramas of Jaipur and Nawalgarh.
- In the bazaar: tea and a piece of rajbhog, the local paneer sweet.
- On to Mandawa: after lunch, only half an hour to Mandawa. Settle into Castle Mandawa.
- The famous loop at four: the Murmuria Haveli, with Nehru on horseback and King George V on its walls, and the Gulab Rai Ladia murals.
- The Harlalka well: end there as the rooftops turn gold behind its slender pillars.
- Dinner: in the castle courtyard, with folk musicians if you would like them.
Day 3: Mandawa's quiet lanes and Fatehpur
Sunrise: tea on the castle ramparts.
Before the buses: walk to the Binsidhar Newatia Haveli, whose outer walls show a flying machine usually read as the Wright brothers' first flight.
Double havelis: the Chokhani and Goenka houses, built so that brothers could share one great house or close the doors between them.
- The sandy lanes: beyond them the havelis are locked or lived in by a caretaker's family, and you may not see another visitor all morning.
- The golden room: late morning is the hour for the Jhunjhunwala Haveli, when the sun comes through coloured glass and pools on the floor beneath Krishna and the gopis.
- Midday: lunch at the castle and a long rest.
- Fatehpur at three: a twenty-kilometre drive to Fatehpur, founded by the Kaimkhani nawab Fateh Khan in the fifteenth century, three hundred years before Mandawa's castle.
- Haveli Nadine Le Prince: rescued and restored by a French painter, it shows what patient restoration can achieve.
- Moving and sobering: around it, many havelis stand empty and fading.
- Evening: a sundowner on the dunes at the Desert Resort outside Mandawa, and a last dinner at the castle.
Day 4: Jhunjhunu and the village fort at Alsisar
Jhunjhunu: after breakfast, east to the district town from which Shardul Singh's family spread across the region.
Khetri Mahal: an eighteenth-century palace of open arcaded halls where the air moves freely.
- Rani Sati temple: for those who wish, a quiet and respectful visit. Its story is told today as one of devotion, and we explain the history honestly.
- Alsisar: about twenty-two kilometres on, in time for lunch at Alsisar Mahal, the fort of the thakurs of Alsisar, restored by the family between 2000 and 2006.
- The village at four: with a local guide, the merchant havelis of the Jhunjhunuwala and Kataruka families and the village temples.
- The bazaar by the old gate: it sells seeds and steel trunks rather than souvenirs.
- Dusk: end at the chhatri of Thakur Chhotu Singh as its silhouette darkens against the sky.
- Stars: after dinner in the courtyard, go back up to the roof with a shawl. There are few lights for miles, and the stars come right down to the fields.
Day 5: Sunrise on the roof, then onwards
Tea on the palace roof: as the village wakes below, a tractor, a temple bell, a woman calling her goats.
Back to the cities: Jaipur is about four hours, Delhi five to six.
- Or west to Churu: Churu has tall merchant havelis and the Sethani ka Johara, the reservoir a merchant's widow built to give the town work and water in the famine of 1899.
- Then the desert: continue to Bikaner.
- How the drives connect: our guide to road distances in Rajasthan.
Where you'll stay, and the alternatives
Be honest about the room you want: these are old buildings with thick walls, uneven stairs and rooms that vary a great deal in size and light.
- In return: painted ceilings, family history and dinner on a roof where a thakur once watched the caravans come in.
- We choose the room: not just the category. Our journal explains how heritage hotels differ from palace hotels.
Roop Niwas Kothi, Nawalgarh
What it is: a country house of the Nawalgarh family on the edge of town, in its own gardens.
Its history: Rawal Madan Singh remodelled it in 1928 and made it his home, and the family opened it to guests in 1981, early in Rajasthan's heritage-hotel story.
- The feel: verandas, old photographs and the slightly faded charm of a much-loved house.
- Which room: we ask for one in the original building rather than the newer wing.
- Its real distinction: the stable of Marwari horses.
Castle Mandawa
What it is: the 1755 fort of Thakur Nawal Singh, opened to guests by his descendants around 1980 and still run by the family, whose portraits hang in the darbar hall.
The rooms: spread through towers, courtyards and old apartments, so no two are alike.
- The house: painted rooms, a pool and terraces on the bastions for sunrise and sunset.
- Which room: a tower room or one opening onto the ramparts.
- Two nights: because Mandawa repays a second dawn.
Alsisar Mahal
Its history: taken by Thakur Samarth Singh in 1757, bombarded by the Shekhawati Brigade in 1834 and rebuilt in stages since.
- Restored: by the family over six years and opened in 2006. The eighth generation runs it today.
- The feel: a family fort that has learned to look after guests, not a museum with rooms.
- Which room: one in the older part of the palace with a jharokha, a projecting window, over the village.
If you prefer a different style
A merchant house: the Piramal Haveli at Bagar is calm and beautifully kept.
Inside the restoration: a night at the Haveli Nadine Le Prince in Fatehpur.
- Space and silence: Desert Resort Mandawa, run by the castle family, is a village of mud-plastered cottages on the dunes.
- More polish near Jaipur: Samode Palace and Alila Fort Bishangarh.
- From Delhi: Neemrana Fort Palace breaks the drive.
- Compare them all: our guide to haveli hotels in Shekhawati and luxury hotels in Mandawa.
When to go, and the festivals on the road
November to February: sunny, warm days, and soft winter light that is kind to faded paint.
Cold nights: in December and January they are properly cold, sometimes near freezing, with frost on the fields at dawn. Bring a warm layer for courtyard dinners.
- Best
- November to February
- Our favourite
- February, mustard in flower
- Coldest
- December and January, near freezing
- March
- Pleasant, and Holi
- Avoid
- April to June, often above 40°C
- February: the mustard flowers turn the fields yellow, and the women working in them wear odhnis of orange and red.
- March: still pleasant, and it brings Holi.
- April to June: the towns are among the hottest places in India, often well above 40°C. We bring guests then only if they are happy to see the havelis at dawn and dusk.
- The short monsoon: greens the fields but brings humidity.
The Shekhawati Festival, late winter
What happens: folk music, camel and horse events, village sports, craft fairs and haveli walks in Nawalgarh and nearby towns.
- Dates: it has moved between February and March in recent years, so we confirm them each year before fixing your nights.
- The feel: low-key compared with the big desert festivals, and all the better for it.
The chang nights before Holi
When: for weeks before Holi, which falls in February or March on the full moon of Phalgun.
- What happens: the men of the painted towns gather in the squares after dark to beat the chang, a big frame drum, and dance gindad, a circle dance with sticks.
- How we watch: from a respectful distance, after dinner.
- On Holi itself: we stay inside the castle walls in the morning and walk out in the afternoon, when the town has washed and calmed down.
Diwali, Gangaur and the pilgrim fairs
Diwali: in October or November, some haveli owners come home from the cities, lamps are lit along the old facades and doors that are usually locked are opened.
- Gangaur: in March or April, girls fill the lanes carrying clay images of the goddess Gauri.
- Pilgrim fairs: the great fairs at Khatu Shyam ji near Sikar and Salasar Balaji in Churu district fill the roads with walking pilgrims, beautiful to see but slow to drive through, so we plan around them.
- Lunar dates: festivals shift by a few weeks each year, and we check the calendar when you enquire.
What our guides will teach you to see
True frescoes: the finest early paintings were made on wet lime plaster in earth colours: red and yellow ochre, lamp black, white lime and precious indigo.
Polished to shine: painters burnished the finished wall with smooth stones, and those walls have lasted remarkably well.
Later work: from the late nineteenth century much was painted on dry plaster with bright imported chemical colours, which fade much faster.
- Early work
- True fresco on wet lime
- Early colours
- Ochres, lamp black, lime, indigo
- Later work
- Dry plaster, chemical colours
- Modern subjects
- From about 1900
- Painters
- Chejaras, the masons' community
- Craft ended
- Within a generation of the 1930s
- Dating a wall: once you know the difference, a wall tells you roughly when it was made.
- Ganesh over the gate: he blesses every doorway.
- Elephants and horses: they parade across the facade, the merchant's claim to the standing of a Rajput.
- Krishna everywhere: and the folk lovers Dhola and Maru ride their camel across many walls.
- The modern world arrives: from about 1900, steam trains, motor cars, gramophones, bicycles, telephones and Englishmen in top hats.
- Painted from postcards: by men who had never left Shekhawati and worked from postcards and labels the sons sent home.
- The chejaras: the painters were mostly from the masons' community, who built the havelis and decorated them too. Few signed their work.
- Why every wall matters: when the merchant families stopped commissioning in the 1930s, the craft died within a generation.
- Go deeper: our guide to Shekhawati frescoes, our page on painted havelis and our journal piece what is a haveli, which explains the courtyard plan you walk through each day.
Make it yours
Shorter, in three nights
- The shape: drop Alsisar and spend the last night at Castle Mandawa, visiting Nawalgarh as a long morning from there.
- What changes: you lose the village and the dark sky, but keep the museums, the famous loop and Fatehpur.
Longer, in six nights
A slow village day: add a second night at Alsisar.
- Churu and the blackbuck: then a night in Churu at Malji ka Kamra, leaving before dawn for the grassland of Tal Chhapar.
- Or into the desert: continue to Bikaner. Our Heritage Havelis Trail carries the haveli story on to Bikaner and beyond.
For families
An hour at a time: keep haveli walks short and turn them into a game. Who can find a steam train, a man on a bicycle or a god with an elephant's head?
- Children love: the castle towers, a camel cart into the fields and rolling bajra rotis on a stone with a family cook.
- A longer holiday: our family journeys show how Shekhawati fits in.
For couples
The room: a rampart room at Castle Mandawa.
- Dinner: a private one on the bastions rather than the courtyard.
- At dawn: walk Mandawa's outer lanes hand in hand.
- To finish: two nights at Alsisar for the roof and the stars. Our Rajasthan for Two journey can include Shekhawati in the same spirit.
For repeat visitors and art lovers
Mahansar: the Sone Chandi ki Haveli, painted in gold and silver.
Ramgarh: the Podar family's painted chhatris.
- Lakshmangarh: a hilltop fort above a grid of havelis.
- Small forts: Dundlod and Mukundgarh.
- Slower still: an afternoon with a farming family through our rural homestays, or a longer ride with the Nawalgarh horses.
As part of a longer journey
- Between city and desert: Shekhawati sits naturally between Delhi or Jaipur and the Thar.
- One way to do it: begin with Jaipur in three nights, add these four nights, then continue west on our desert triangle of Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur.
How we look after you
Your chauffeur: a private car for the whole journey, waiting outside each haveli and in the hotel courtyards.
On foot, or by cart: in the narrow lanes you walk, and for the sandier outer lanes we arrange a camel cart or a tuk-tuk.
Local guides: licensed, in each town, who know which caretakers hold the keys, which families welcome visitors and which old buildings are unsafe.
- Jaipur to Nawalgarh
- About 3 hours
- Nawalgarh to Mandawa
- About half an hour
- Mandawa to Fatehpur
- About 20 km
- Alsisar to Jaipur
- About 4 hours
- Alsisar to Delhi
- 5 to 6 hours
- No commission shops: our guides never take you to them.
- Meeting you: at Jaipur or Delhi airport, at your hotel, or on the platform if you arrive by train.
- Small notes, discreetly: for caretakers and temple priests, so doors open without awkwardness. Their small tips often keep a haveli open.
- In the car: a torch and a pair of binoculars, because the finest details are high under the eaves and deep in dark gateway ceilings.
- Your planner on WhatsApp: throughout, for a changed lunch, a late start or a question about the mural in front of you.
- No published prices: we quote after one conversation. Our page on what a luxury Rajasthan journey costs explains how we think about value.
Who will love it, and who should choose another journey
Some people find the decay sad. We think it is part of the truth of the place, and we never lecture the families whose shared properties are hard to restore.
Art, architecture and stories: you will love these four nights if you enjoy them, and like walking slowly and looking up.
- A village fort at sunset: if that sounds better than a grand hotel lobby.
- Photographers: find the morning light on painted walls endlessly rewarding.
- Second and third visits: travellers often tell us it was the surprise of their trip, and many come back.
- Harder if: you want grand palace hotels, fine dining, nightlife or a full programme of famous monuments.
- Honestly: the towns are dusty working places, many havelis are locked or crumbling, and the evenings are for dinner, conversation and stars.
- Palaces over paintings: choose The Royal Rajputana or the Golden Triangle and Udaipur, and visit Shekhawati on a future trip.
- Desert and dunes: Under the Thar Sky is the better choice.
What we tell friends before Shekhawati
Always ask first: before stepping into a haveli courtyard, even if the gate is open. A caretaker's family or a grandmother may be inside.
Never touch the paintings: the oil from fingers does more damage than a century of sun.
- Don't buy antique doors: or brackets or painted panels. Many are stripped from neglected havelis, and each sale encourages the next theft. Buy new work from living carpenters instead.
- Dress modestly: in the old towns, and cover your head lightly if you are invited into a family temple.
- Learn khamma ghani: the Rajasthani hello. The old men on the haveli platforms will light up when you use it.
- Vegetarian country: eat the millet rotis, ker sangri and kadhi. If you want laal maas, ask the kitchen a day ahead so it can be cooked slowly. Our Rajasthani food guide explains every dish.
