How we choose where you sleep
Longer than most hotels: our family has been sending friends to Rajasthan's hotels for longer than most of them have existed.
The room, not the gate: the name on the gate matters less than the room behind the door.
No two alike: historic buildings were made for courts and families, not guests. One room looks over a lake through a carved jharokha. Another, at the same rate, faces a service courtyard.
- Styles
- Palaces, havelis, camps, lodges
- Famous names
- Rambagh, Taj Lake Palace, Umaid Bhawan
- Family-run gems
- Deogarh Mahal, Rohet Garh, Castle Bijaipur
- Best season
- October to March
- Good for
- Two or more nights in each place
- Prices
- Quoted after one conversation
- Seen recently: we know the difference because we have stayed in them, and we only book places we have seen recently.
- For the shape of your journey: a hotel decides how early you reach the fort, how far you drive at the end of a long day, and whether there is a garden for the children or a terrace at sunset.
- Honest about each: we tell you what each place does well and what it doesn't.
- People as much as buildings: many of the best stays are still run by the families who built them, and staying with them is a privilege.
- The great groups too: others are run by India's great hotel groups, with polish we admire. We use both.
- No other motive: we never steer you to a hotel for any reason other than that it suits you.
Four ways to stay in Rajasthan
Palace hotels
What they are: royal and noble residences that became hotels after 1947.
- Examples: Rambagh in Jaipur, a hotel since 1957, and Umaid Bhawan in Jodhpur, where the royal family still lives in one wing.
- What you get: grand rooms, gardens, a sense of occasion and real history.
- The new palaces: hotels built in palace style, such as The Oberoi Udaivilas, give polish rather than history. Our guide explains how to choose.
Heritage havelis
What they are: the courtyard townhouses of merchants and nobles, now small family-run hotels.
- What you get: painted walls, carved balconies and rooftop dinners.
- Where: inside the old cities of Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Bundi, and among the frescoes of Shekhawati.
- The trade: fewer facilities than a palace, far more intimacy.
Luxury desert camps
What they are: large canvas tents with proper beds and bathrooms.
- Where: among the dunes and scrub of the Thar near Jaisalmer, Manvar and Khimsar.
- Evenings: a fire, folk music and more stars than most guests have ever seen.
- Season: most open from about October to March.
Wildlife lodges
- Where: beside Ranthambore's tiger forest, among the leopard hills of Jawai and close to the bird sanctuaries.
- What sets the best apart: their naturalists, and the calm they give you between dawn and dusk drives.
Where to stay, city by city
- Our most-used stays: listed by place below, with links to our full guides.
- The city guides: compare more hotels, explain the neighbourhoods and tell you what to ask for.
Jaipur and the countryside around it
Garden palaces south of the walls: Rambagh Palace and Jai Mahal Palace.
In and around the old city: Samode Haveli inside the walls, and The Raj Palace just outside the northern walls.
- Calm to the east: The Oberoi Rajvilas.
- Forts an hour or two away: Samode Palace and Alila Fort Bishangarh.
- Compare: our guide to luxury hotels in Jaipur.
Udaipur and the Mewar hills
On the island: Taj Lake Palace.
The western shore: The Oberoi Udaivilas and The Leela Palace Udaipur.
- In the City Palace: the palace hotels inside its walls.
- In the hills: RAAS Devigarh, Deogarh Mahal and Rawla Narlai.
- Compare: our guide to luxury hotels in Udaipur.
Jodhpur and the forts of Marwar
On its hill: Umaid Bhawan Palace.
Beneath the fort: RAAS Jodhpur.
- Family houses: Ajit Bhawan and Bal Samand Lake Palace.
- Village forts: Rohet Garh, Mihir Garh, Chandelao Garh and Khimsar Fort.
- Compare: our guide to luxury hotels in Jodhpur.
Jaisalmer and the Thar
A modern fortress: Suryagarh, on the Sam road.
- SUJAN's camp: The Serai.
- Halfway from Jodhpur: Manvar Desert Camp.
- Never inside the fort: our guide to luxury hotels in Jaisalmer explains why we don't book there.
Bikaner and Shekhawati
In Bikaner: Laxmi Niwas Palace, Narendra Bhawan and the merchant mansion Bhanwar Niwas.
- In the painted towns: Castle Mandawa and the haveli hotels of Shekhawati.
- Compare: our guides to Bikaner hotels and Mandawa hotels.
Ranthambore and Jawai
For tigers: Aman-i-Khas, SUJAN Sher Bagh and The Oberoi Vanyavilas.
- For leopards: SUJAN JAWAI.
- Compare: our guides to Ranthambore lodges and Jawai camps.
Bundi, Chittorgarh and the south
- The stays: the heritage havelis of Bundi, Castle Bijaipur near Chittorgarh and Udai Bilas Palace on its lake in Dungarpur.
- Who they suit: repeat visitors, and anyone who loves a quiet palace far from the coaches.
Pushkar, Mount Abu and Kutch
Pushkar: resorts and fair-time camps around the holy lake, in our guide to luxury stays in Pushkar.
- Mount Abu: the princely summer houses in palace stays in Mount Abu.
- Kutch: tents beside the White Rann in luxury stays in Kutch.
Delhi, Agra, Varanasi and central India
Delhi: The Imperial, The Oberoi, New Delhi and The Leela Palace, New Delhi.
Agra: The Oberoi Amarvilas and ITC Mughal.
- On the Ganga: BrijRama Palace and Taj Nadesar Palace.
- Gwalior and Orchha: Taj Usha Kiran Palace.
- Temples and forests beyond: where to stay in Orchha and Khajuraho.
Heritage or modern, an honest comparison
What money can't build: a historic palace, fort or haveli gives you rooms where history happened, a family that may still live upstairs, and craft that took generations.
What you accept: uneven floors, steep stairs, rooms that vary in size and light, and bathrooms fitted into walls a metre thick.
- Heritage gives
- Real history, family hosts, old craft
- Heritage asks
- Stairs, uneven floors, varied rooms
- Modern gives
- Lifts, big bathrooms, purpose-built spas
- Modern suits
- Small children, limited mobility, light sleepers
- Our advice
- Mix the two
- Family service: personal and warm rather than polished. The cook may ask what you would like tomorrow.
- The modern palace: such as The Oberoi Rajvilas or The Leela Palace Udaipur, with level floors, lifts, large bathrooms, quiet air-conditioning and purpose-built spas.
- Borrowed history, real comfort: for families with small children, travellers with limited mobility and light sleepers, often the wiser choice.
- Mix them: two nights in a new palace and two in an old one, with a haveli or a camp between, and you understand the country far better.
- Go further: our journal piece on heritage hotels explained.
Which style suits which traveller
Couples: a boat to the Taj Lake Palace, a tent with its own pool at The Serai, or the quiet of Aman-i-Khas.
Families: space, a pool and something to explore, which the new palaces, Suryagarh and the orchards of Bal Samand all give.
- Couples
- Lake palaces, The Serai, Aman-i-Khas
- Families
- New palaces, Suryagarh, Bal Samand
- History lovers
- Umaid Bhawan, Samode, Deogarh
- Repeat visitors
- Noble houses and village forts
- Wildlife lovers
- SUJAN Sher Bagh, SUJAN JAWAI
- History lovers: houses where the family still lives and the past is on the walls.
- Repeat visitors: the noble houses, where Rajasthan still feels like a set of small kingdoms.
- Wildlife lovers: the lodges with the strongest naturalists, and three nights rather than two.
Mixing stays across a journey
All four styles: that route includes them, and none of the drives is too long.
The fullest version: our Royal Rajputana, and our journeys pages show many more.
- Two nights minimum: one night means arriving tired and leaving after breakfast, missing the slow afternoon and quiet morning that make a great hotel worth it.
- Rhythm: after two busy city days, a quiet stay. After a cold desert night, a hotel with a deep bath.
- Before the flight home: somewhere calm near the airport.
- Effortless: these small decisions are what make a journey feel that way.
A first journey of about two weeks
Jaipur: two or three nights in a palace, with one night in a haveli inside the walls so you hear the city wake.
Marwar: west to a village fort, where the family cooks dinner and you ride out at dawn.
- Jodhpur: two nights beneath the fort.
- The desert: a night in a camp on the way to Jaisalmer.
- South through the Aravallis: to Udaipur, with a hill palace on the way, and two or three nights on the lake.
- Big cats: add a lodge at Ranthambore or Jawai if you want them.
What luxury means in a Rajasthani hotel
Not marble: in Rajasthan, luxury is rarely about marble or thread counts.
Time: tea on a palace terrace at the hour the light turns gold, or a lodge that has you in the forest before the other jeeps.
- Access: a family who opens the old rooms for you, dinner in a courtyard or by a stepwell, a private evening with musicians.
- Calm: a room away from the wedding lawn, a garden for the children, a haveli roof where you hear the city settle at dusk.
- Knowledge buys the rest: money buys some of this. The best room in a modest heritage hotel can beat the cheapest room in a famous one.
- Our honest preference: a lake-facing room in a smaller palace over a courtyard room in a grand one, and we will tell you when we think so.
- Cost: our page on what a luxury Rajasthan journey costs explains what drives it, and why we quote only after one conversation.
Rooms, requests and the small things we arrange
What matters to you: a lake or fort view, a bath, level access, a quiet side away from the wedding gardens, or two rooms close together for a family.
Not small requests: in historic buildings these take knowing which hotels can meet them.
- A rooftop dinner: a private dinner on a palace roof.
- Breakfast for two: on your own terrace.
- The family story: a walk through the public rooms with someone who knows it.
- In the kitchen: a cooking lesson in a haveli.
- On the sand: a sunset drink on a dune.
- Read more: our pages on a private palace dinner and spas and Ayurveda.
Seasons and when to book
October to March: the main season, with warm days and cool nights.
Peak weeks: the most famous palaces and lodges can be full six to nine months ahead for December and January.
- Main season
- October to March
- Book ahead
- Six to nine months for December and January
- Easier
- February and early March
- Hot months
- Camps close, palaces stay open
- Monsoon
- Udaipur and Mewar at their greenest
- Small places fill fast: camps and havelis with only a handful of rooms.
- February and early March: lovely, and a little easier to book.
- The hot months: desert camps and most tented wildlife camps close. Palaces stay open, quieter and gentler in rate.
- The monsoon: Udaipur and the Mewar hills turn green and the lake palaces are at their most romantic.
- Every month: our guide to the best time to visit Rajasthan.
- Weddings: the palaces are India's favourite venues, on auspicious dates in the cool months. We check each hotel's calendar and steer you away from the big nights.
Staying well, and staying kindly
Guests keep them alive: the money pays for roofs, plaster and the wages of cooks, gardeners and guides, many from families who served the same houses for generations.
We choose carefully: places that respect their buildings, staff and neighbours, and we avoid those that don't.
- Water: use it carefully in the desert, where every litre is pumped from deep underground.
- Dress: modestly in villages and temple towns.
- One greeting: khamma ghani, the respectful Rajasthani hello, and you will be treated as family.
- Read more: our note on travelling responsibly and our page on meeting Rajasthan's royal families.