Why Bundi is a haveli town
A guest of ours who had stayed in every great palace hotel in Rajasthan told us Bundi was the first place where he felt he was staying with someone rather than at somewhere. We have never found a better way to describe it.
No room for a big hotel: the old town is a web of narrow lanes between blue and white houses. There is no space inside the walls for lawns, pools and car parks.
- Rulers
- The Hada Chauhan Rajputs, from the fourteenth century
- Haveli
- A courtyard house of a merchant, priest or noble family
- Old town
- Lanes too narrow for cars below the palace
- Garh Palace
- A monument, not a hotel
- No palace to convert: the Garh Palace, built over about two centuries from the early 1600s, is a monument. Bundi's royal family never turned a wing into suites.
- What took its place: old merchants' and priests' houses, converted into small hotels by the families who own them.
- What a haveli is: a townhouse built around one or more courtyards, with rooms opening onto galleries and a flat roof used for sleeping in summer.
- The result: a stay that feels personal. Your host knows the man with the key to the stepwell and the best kachori in the bazaar.
What a haveli stay really means
Thick walls, small windows: built for a large family in a hot town, not for hotel guests. Some rooms are cool and dim, others bright.
Steep stairs: almost no lifts. Expect narrow staircases to rooms and to the roof.
- On foot for the last stretch: cars stop where the lane narrows, and your bags are carried in for you.
- Modern comfort inside: in the havelis we use, expect air conditioning, hot water, good beds and bathrooms added with care.
- Early mornings: temple bells and scooters from about six. The lanes wake before you do.
- No spa, no bar scene: luxury here is a painted room, a roof facing the palace and a family who will tell you about their great-grandfather.
- For the full primer: our page on heritage havelis explains the style across Rajasthan.
Where in town to sleep
Under the palace walls
Why: the havelis here look up at the Garh Palace and Taragarh, and the palace gate and fort path are minutes from your door.
- Trade-off: cars stop at the edge of the lanes, and the houses are full of steep stairs.
- Who: most of our guests. This is the Bundi people come for.
Around Nawal Sagar and the bazaar
- Why: closer to the square lake, the stepwells and easier road access.
- Trade-off: generally simpler guesthouses, with less of the palace view.
On the edge of town
- Why: a handful of newer hotels with car parks and gardens.
- Trade-off: comfortable but plain, and you look at a car park rather than a palace.
In Kota, forty minutes away
Why: the region's real palace hotels, with gardens, pools and space.
- Trade-off: you lose the dawn walk from your door, though our drivers can have you at the palace gate by sunrise.
- More: see our Kota guide.
The havelis we use in Bundi
Bundi Vilas
The house: a restored haveli set against the walls of the Garh Palace, reached on foot through a stone archway from the old town.
The style: only a handful of rooms, finished with a light, contemporary hand: limewashed walls, local stone, good beds and modern bathrooms.
- The roof: a terrace over the blue town and the lake. Dinner up there, with the palace lit above you, is one of the loveliest evenings in Hadoti.
- Who it suits: couples and design-minded travellers who want the most polished rooms in Bundi and don't mind steps.
- Book early: with so few rooms, it fills quickly in the high season.
Haveli Braj Bhushanjee
The house: the most established heritage stay in Bundi, an old family haveli at the foot of the Garh Palace, run by the family who own it.
Inside: old murals, miniature paintings in the Bundi style, carved doors and family furniture, with palace views from the upper floors and the roof.
- The kitchen: vegetarian, cooking proper Hadoti food.
- Who it suits: history lovers, repeat visitors to India and families who appreciate a range of room sizes.
- Choose carefully: rooms vary a great deal in size, light and outlook, so we pick specific rooms for you.
Other family havelis
What they are: several more small heritage guesthouses in old merchants' and priests' houses.
- Honest view: some charming, some tired, and quality changes with the season and the generation running them.
- How we use them: only those we have stayed in recently, and only where they suit the guest.
When you want a palace instead
Umed Bhawan Palace, Kota
The house: built in the early twentieth century for Maharao Umed Singh II of Kota, a large Indo-Saracenic palace in gardens on the edge of the city.
- Today: part still belongs to the royal family and part is run as a heritage hotel.
- Who it suits: families, travellers who want space and lawns, and anyone who would rather not climb haveli stairs.
Brijraj Bhawan Palace, Kota
- The house: a smaller heritage hotel in an old family residence on the bank of the Chambal.
- Who it suits: couples who like a house-guest feel with a little more room than the Bundi havelis.
Castle Bijaipur, towards Chittorgarh
- Why: a night in an old castle near Chittorgarh bridges Hadoti and Mewar on the way to Udaipur.
- On the drive: stop at the temples of Menal and Bijolia.
The Ranthambore lodges
- Why: about three hours from Bundi, with some of the finest wildlife lodges in Asia, such as Aman-i-Khas.
- Our favourite pairing: two nights of lodge polish, then two of haveli character.
A night in a Bundi haveli, hour by hour
Late afternoon, arrival
- The walk in: your car stops where the lane narrows, and you follow your bags on foot past a temple, a sweet shop and a cow who moves for nobody.
- The welcome: no reception desk. A family member, a glass of lemon water and the question every Rajasthani host asks first: have you eaten?
Sunset, the roof
- The view: the Garh Palace gold in the last light, Taragarh lined against the sky, the blue town lighting its lamps.
- The sound: pigeons coming in to roost and the temple bells starting.
Evening, dinner
- The meal: a thali from the family kitchen, with dal, two or three vegetables, rotis straight from the fire and a sweet.
- Then quiet: Bundi goes to bed early, and by ten the lanes are still.
Before dawn, the climb
- Out of the door: your guide knocks with tea, and you walk up the lane and onto the palace ramp.
- By sunrise: on the walls of Taragarh Fort, with the valley in mist below. No hotel in Kota can give you this.
Midday, the rest
- Inside: the haveli is cool and quiet. Read in a window seat, or ask about the paintings on your walls.
- Late afternoon: walk to Raniji ki Baori and Nawal Sagar, then one more evening on the roof.
Which rooms to ask for
Face the palace: waking to the Garh Palace and Taragarh in the first light is the whole point of staying under the walls.
Light sleepers: ask for a room away from the lane and the kitchen.
- Stairs: upper floors have the best views and light but more steps. If climbing is hard, take a lower room and use the roof for dinner.
- Painted rooms: beautiful but often darker. If you read in bed, ask for murals and a window.
- In winter: a smaller room is warmer. Thick stone and high ceilings make big rooms cold in December and January.
- In summer: a lower floor with good air conditioning. Roofs absorb heat all day.
Eating in a family kitchen
The thali: dal, seasonal vegetables and rotis, with dishes such as gatte ki sabzi, gram-flour dumplings in a yoghurt curry, if you ask the cook ahead.
Winter: maize rotis with white butter and jaggery.
- Style
- Home-style Hadoti cooking
- Mostly
- Vegetarian, often alcohol-free
- Breakfast
- Poha, parathas or hot kachori from the bazaar
- In February
- Coriander fields in flower around Bundi and Kota
- Monsoon: ghevar, the honeycomb sweet, in the shops around Teej.
- Coriander country: Hadoti grows coriander, and you will taste it fresh in chutneys and roasted in spice blends.
- Meat and wine: some family havelis are strictly vegetarian and alcohol-free, others are relaxed. Tell us before you book.
- A bazaar breakfast: with our guide, a kachori crawl through the old town is one of the small pleasures of Bundi.
Bundi from your door
The Chitrashala
- What it is: the picture gallery built for Rao Umed Singh in the mid-eighteenth century, its walls covered in Bundi-style murals.
- When: as the palace opens, before the heat and the day visitors.
Taragarh, the star fort
- What it is: the fort on the ridge above the palace, credited by tradition to Rao Bar Singh in 1354.
- How: a steep climb of twenty to thirty minutes from the palace. Carry no food, because the macaques are bold.
Raniji ki Baori
- What it is: the queen's stepwell, built in 1699 by Rani Nathavati, dropping about 46 metres through carved arches.
- More stepwells: our page on stepwells puts it in context.
Sukh Mahal and Jait Sagar
- What it is: the small summer palace on the lake where Kipling stayed in 1887.
- When: sunset, with egrets in the shallows and lotus after the monsoon.
A painter's studio
- Why: Bundi gave its name to a school of Rajput miniature painting, and a few artists still paint in the tradition.
- How: as a conversation, not a sales pitch. See our page on miniature painting.
What money buys in Bundi
A guide who grew up here: someone who has walked Taragarh since childhood and can read every panel in the Chitrashala.
A car on standby: your driver waits at the edge of the lanes all day, so the heat never catches you on foot.
- Porters: you never carry a bag up a haveli staircase.
- The best room: palace-facing rooms book out first, and we often reserve them months ahead.
- Small occasions: a local musician for an evening on the roof, a lamp-lit dinner by the water, or a picnic at Sukh Mahal.
- What it cannot buy: a spa, fine dining or a bar scene. We never pretend otherwise, and our guide to what a luxury journey costs explains how we balance the budget across a trip.
Who will love it, and who won't
Couples and design lovers: Bundi Vilas, for its polished rooms and its roof against the palace walls.
History lovers and repeat visitors: Haveli Braj Bhushanjee, for its paintings, its family and the sense of living inside old Bundi.
- Families with young children: Umed Bhawan Palace in Kota for space and gardens, with day trips into Bundi, or one night in a larger haveli room.
- Limited mobility: we usually suggest Kota as a base, with a step-light day in Bundi. See our accessible travel advice.
- Those who need a spa every night: stay in Kota, or see Bundi between two lodges. Better still, try one night. The doubters often ask to stay longer.
How Bundi's havelis fit our journeys
Between Jaipur and Udaipur: Bundi is a natural stop on the long road, a far better break than a highway hotel.
With the tigers: palace hotels in Jaipur, lodges in Ranthambore, two nights in a Bundi haveli, then a castle in Mewar.
- Offbeat Rajasthan: our offbeat Rajasthan journey pairs Bundi with Chittorgarh and Dungarpur.
- Two weeks: our two-week Rajasthan journey shows how we fit it in.
- The wider region: our page on Hadoti introduces the old kingdoms of Bundi and Kota.
When to stay
October to March: warm days, cool nights, perfect for Taragarh and the lanes. Bring a shawl for December mornings.
The monsoon: the hills turn green and Nawal Sagar reflects the palace. Lovely, if humid.
- Best months
- October to March
- Monsoon
- July to September, green hills and full lakes
- Hottest
- April to June, often above 40°C
- Festivals
- Kajli Teej in Bhadrapad, Bundi Utsav in Kartik
- Book ahead
- Three to six months for winter
- Kajli Teej: usually in August, with the goddess carried through town and swings in the trees.
- The Bundi Utsav: a few days in Kartik, around October or November, with processions and folk music. See Bundi Utsav. We confirm the dates each year.
- April to June: very hot, with the stepwells running low. Not our choice for a haveli stay.
- Month by month: our best time to visit Bundi guide has the detail.
Getting there
By road: most guests arrive by car from Jaipur, Ranthambore or Chittorgarh. We time the drive to arrive in good light.
- From Jaipur
- About four hours by road
- Nearest junction
- Kota, about forty minutes
- To Ranthambore
- About three hours
- To Chittorgarh
- About three hours
- By train: Kota Junction is on the main Delhi to Mumbai line, about forty minutes away.
- By air: we usually fly guests into Jaipur and drive.
- The last stretch: your driver drops you at the nearest point, and porters carry your bags into the lanes.
What we tell friends before they stay
Book early: rooms are few, and the best palace-facing ones go first.
Wear proper shoes: palace ramps, the fort path and stepwell steps are steep and polished smooth.
- Bring small notes: the old town still runs on cash.
- Expect patchy Wi-Fi: thick walls block signals. See our guide to SIM cards and internet.
- Ask before photographing people: especially women at the kunds.
- Don't expect nightlife: the best evening in Bundi is a rooftop, a lamp and the town settling down.
- Two nights: one night gives you a sunset and a dawn. Two let you slow to Bundi's pace.