A house turned inwards
The word: haveli comes from a Persian root for an enclosed space, and that is exactly what it is.
Turned inward: a haveli turns its back on the street and faces a courtyard called a chowk.
Natural air-conditioning: the courtyard pulls cool air down at night, throws shade through the day and lights every room without letting the street see in.
- What it is
- A courtyard townhouse
- Built by
- Merchants, ministers and nobles
- Where
- Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Bundi, Shekhawati
- Good for
- Character, lanes and family welcome
- Usually missing
- Lifts, big pools, large spas
- Nights
- One or two, with a palace or camp
- More courtyards, more wealth: larger havelis have two or more, one opening into the next.
- The men's side: near the gate, with a baithak, the sitting room where the head of the house received visitors and did business.
- The women's side: deeper in, the zenana, where the household cooked, raised children and lived most of its life.
- Jharokhas: screened balconies let the women watch the lane and festival processions unseen.
- The roof: for sleeping on hot summer nights, flying kites in January and watching the city at dusk.
- Regional styles: carved yellow or red sandstone in the desert towns, plastered and painted in Shekhawati, lining the walled-city lanes in Jaipur and Jodhpur.
- Read more: our journal piece on what a haveli is and our guide to reading Rajasthani architecture, which explains the jharokha, the chhatri and the courtyard.
The merchants and nobles who built them
The Marwaris: Rajasthan's merchant communities carried the caravan trade across the Thar for centuries.
Moving east and south: when the caravans gave way to the sea ports in the colonial period, many moved to Calcutta, Bombay and beyond, and became great business houses of modern India.
Money sent home: between the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries, their home-town houses grew ever more splendid, each family outdoing its neighbour.
- Shekhawati: walls painted with gods, epics and hunting scenes, and later trains, motor cars and English gentlemen in top hats.
- Jaisalmer: the Patwa family and the state's ministers commissioned carved facades of astonishing delicacy, including Patwon ki Haveli and Salim Singh ki Haveli.
- Bikaner: the Rampuria family built a whole quarter of red sandstone mansions. Our page on the painted havelis tells the story.
- The nobles' townhouses: every noble family with a country estate needed a house in the capital, near the palace, some with mirrored rooms and painted halls for receiving the ruler.
- Today's hotels: several of the best haveli hotels in Jaipur and Jodhpur are of this noble kind.
- Emptying houses: in the twentieth century families moved to the cities, ownership was split among cousins, and a roof that needed mending became a family dispute.
- Tourism to the rescue: from the 1980s, it gave some houses a reason to survive. Each restored haveli hotel is a small rescue, and staying in one helps pay for the next.
Havelis in and around the pink walls of Jaipur
Temple bells before dawn: sleeping in the old city changes how you see Jaipur.
- Early walks: reach Hawa Mahal while the street is still sweeping itself clean, and come home through the bazaar at dusk.
- Compare: our guide to luxury hotels in Jaipur sets these beside the palaces outside.
Samode Haveli
Whose house: the townhouse of the Rawals of Samode, a noble family of the Jaipur court, in the north-east of the walled city.
Arriving: from a busy lane into a quiet courtyard with a garden and a pool.
- Inside: painted rooms, a dining room covered in murals and a mirrored suite guests describe long after they go home.
- Who it suits: travellers who want to be part of the old city and don't mind a little street noise at the gate.
- Our pairing: two nights here and a night at the family's country seat, Samode Palace.
The Raj Palace
Not royal: despite the name, a noble's townhouse rather than a royal palace.
Its date: 1727, the year Jaipur was founded, built as the city house of the nobles of Chomu, one of the great estates of the Jaipur court.
- A hotel since: the 1990s, restored and opened by the family.
- Inside: richly gilded and mirrored interiors.
- Where: just outside the northern walls of the old city, on the Amer side, which saves time on the way to the fort at dawn.
Smaller family havelis
Where: within and just outside the walls, simpler than the palaces, often with rooftop views of Nahargarh.
- Mixed quality: some are lovely and some are tired, and quality changes with each generation.
- Our rule: we only suggest the ones we have stayed in recently, and we tell you what they lack as well as what they offer.
Red stone in Jodhpur and Bikaner
RAAS Jodhpur
Old and new: red sandstone haveli buildings beside crisp new wings around a courtyard and pool, directly beneath the walls of Mehrangarh.
The design: modern and restrained, with carved stone screens and clean lines.
- The view: many rooms look straight at the fort.
- On foot: Toorji ka Jhalra and the clock tower are a few minutes away.
- Who it suits: travellers who want the old city without giving up comfort.
Pal Haveli and the noble townhouses of Jodhpur
Where: near the clock tower, where several noble families have turned townhouses into small heritage hotels.
- Pal Haveli: the townhouse of the Pal family, one of the best known, with courtyard rooms, painted walls and a rooftop restaurant facing the fort.
- The trade-off: simpler than the palaces, with steep stairs and fewer facilities, but the owners are often at home.
- Compare: our guide to luxury hotels in Jodhpur explains.
Bhanwar Niwas, Bikaner
Whose house: one of the mansions of the Rampuria family, Jain merchants whose fortune was made in textiles and property in Calcutta, in the heart of Bikaner's old city.
Built: completed in 1927 for Seth Bhanwarlal Rampuria in rose-coloured sandstone.
- Inside: Rajasthani carving and gold-leaf painting mixed with 1920s European taste: marble staircases, tiled floors and Calcutta-made furniture.
- A hotel since: the 1990s, opened by the family.
- Who it suits: couples, solo travellers and anyone curious about the desert's merchant history. Less so those who want a pool or gardens.
Jaisalmer, and why we sleep below the fort
The golden town: below the fort, full of havelis, a few of the best now small hotels.
Nachana Haveli: a centuries-old courtyard house of a branch of the Bhati family, the one we use most, a short walk from the fort with a rooftop over the old town.
- Its feel: intimate rather than grand, without a pool or spa. It suits couples and solo travellers who want to walk everywhere.
- Compare: our guide to luxury hotels in Jaisalmer sets out the alternatives.
- Never inside the fort: we don't book rooms in Jaisalmer Fort, even in its lovely haveli guesthouses.
- Why: it is a living town of a few thousand people built on soft rock. Water used by hotels and restaurants seeps into the hill and weakens it, and parts of the walls have collapsed over the years.
- Our way: guests sleep outside and spend their days inside, with a guide whose family knows the lanes, so the money goes to the families who live there.
- For space too: combine a town haveli with a night at Suryagarh on the Sam road or a desert camp. Our page on luxury desert camps explains those.
Shekhawati, where the walls are the reason to come
Hundreds of frescoed havelis: in the painted towns north of Jaipur, most still private and many closed.
- Why you must stay: the light on the walls is best early and late, and that means sleeping there.
- Go deeper: our page on haveli hotels of Shekhawati covers each one, and our Shekhawati region guide explains the painting.
Castle Mandawa
Not a haveli: the fort at the heart of Mandawa, built in 1755 by Thakur Nawal Singh.
- A pioneer: open to guests around 1980, one of the first heritage hotels in Rajasthan.
- Why stay: the most comfortable base in town, with the painted lanes outside the gate. We often pair it with a night in a true haveli.
Hotel Mandawa Haveli
What it is: a merchant's house of 1890 inside the town, restored as a small hotel.
- The paintings: across two floors around the courtyard, with a rooftop restaurant over the lanes.
- The trade-off: simpler rooms than the castle, but sleeping in a painted mansion is the real thing.
- Ask for: a room facing the courtyard.
Vivaana, Churi Ajitgarh
Where: a short drive from Mandawa, in the village of Churi Ajitgarh.
- What it is: a nineteenth-century haveli restored as a culture hotel, with painted rooms, a pool and a spa.
- Who it suits: guests who want a more polished stay and more calm than the town offers.
Koolwal Kothi and Roop Niwas Kothi, Nawalgarh
A kothi: a later, often European-influenced mansion.
- Koolwal Kothi: built in the 1930s and still owned by the family, in the middle of Nawalgarh's painted lanes.
- Roop Niwas Kothi: a country house in its own gardens just outside town, known for its Marwari horses.
- Why stay: both make a good base for the town's two great haveli museums. Read about Nawalgarh.
Haveli Nadine Le Prince, Fatehpur
Its story: in Fatehpur, the French artist Nadine Le Prince restored one of the region's most beautifully painted havelis.
- Staying: a few simple guest rooms, but waking inside the frescoes is rare.
- Book: well ahead.
Malji ka Kamra, Churu
- What it is: a merchant's pleasure house of the 1920s in Churu, a fantasy of stucco, columns and frescoes, now a small heritage hotel.
- How we use it: for guests going on to the blackbuck of Tal Chhapar or into the desert.
Bundi, the haveli town
The haveli is the luxury: the old town climbs the hill below the Garh Palace in lanes too narrow for a car.
The best stays: family houses with a handful of rooms, painted walls and a roof terrace.
- Arriving: you walk in and your luggage is carried.
- Dinner: on the roof, with the palace lit above you.
- Go deeper: our page on heritage havelis of Bundi and our Bundi guide.
Bundi Vilas
Where: right against the walls of the Garh Palace.
- Its style: a light, contemporary hand, with limewashed walls, local stone and good modern bathrooms.
- Small: only a handful of rooms, and it fills quickly.
- Who it suits: couples and design lovers who don't mind steps.
Haveli Braj Bhushanjee
What it is: the most established heritage stay in Bundi, a family haveli of around two centuries just below the palace.
- Inside: old murals, miniature paintings and carved doors.
- The kitchen: vegetarian, cooking proper Hadoti food.
- Rooms: differ a great deal, so ask us for one with a palace view.
On the ghats of Udaipur, Pushkar and Varanasi
Udaipur: around Lal Ghat and Gangaur Ghat, and across the water at Hanuman Ghat and Ambrai, old havelis have become small hotels with jharokhas over Lake Pichola.
Pushkar: merchants' and priests' houses around the holy lake take guests too.
- Huge variety: from carefully restored family homes to guest houses with a view and little else.
- Who we send: travellers who love character and understand the trade-off. Our guides to luxury hotels in Udaipur and Pushkar explain the choices.
- Varanasi: just beyond our usual country, with the grandest riverside mansions of all.
- BrijRama Palace: BrijRama Palace was completed in 1812 by a minister of the Maratha state of Nagpur and passed to the royal family of Darbhanga in 1915. After a long restoration it is the most polished stay on the river.
- Smaller houses: such as Suryauday Haveli on Shivala Ghat, simpler and quieter.
- Every ghat hotel: steps, lanes and arrival by boat or on foot. Our guide to luxury hotels in Varanasi has more.
The haveli's country cousins
- Garh
- A fort
- Rawla
- A nobleman's residence, less formal than a fort
- Kothi
- A later, often European-style mansion
- Shared with havelis
- The courtyard plan and family warmth
- Not havelis: but they share the haveli's courtyard plan and warmth, and for many guests they are the most memorable nights of the journey.
- The old estates: our journal piece on rawlas and thikanas explains them.
Rohet Garh
Its grant: in 1622 the ruler of Jodhpur gave Rohet to Thakur Dalpat Singh, and his descendants still live in the fort beside the lake.
- A hotel since: 1990, one of the earliest family-run heritage hotels in Rajasthan.
- Known for: Marwari horses, village drives in Bishnoi country and home cooking. Read about Rohet.
Chandelao Garh
What it is: a small village fort north-east of Jodhpur, simpler than the others and closer to everyday life.
- What you do: walk with the family through the village, meet craftspeople and eat Marwari home cooking.
- Who it suits: travellers who care more about people than polish.
Rawla Narlai
What it was: a seventeenth-century hunting lodge of the Jodhpur royal family in the village of Narlai.
- A hotel since: the mid-1990s, restored by the family behind Ajit Bhawan.
- Its setting: beneath a granite hill crowned by a white stone elephant.
- The evening guests remember: dinner by a lamplit stepwell.
Castle Bijaipur
What it is: a sixteenth-century castle near Chittorgarh, opened to guests by its Mewar noble family in 1991.
- Its feel: a courtyard garden, low hills behind, simple, colourful and very calm.
- Compare: our page on palace hotels sets it beside the grander houses.
What a haveli gives you, and what it doesn't
We are honest about havelis because a disappointed guest is usually one who expected a palace. A haveli was built for a family, not a hotel. Some rooms have painted ceilings and a jharokha over the lane. Others are small, dim and cool, which is exactly what they were built to be in May.
No corridors: rooms open off courtyards and staircases, and no two are alike.
- Steep stairs: narrow, and there is rarely a lift. If anyone is unsteady, tell us and we choose a ground-floor room or a different kind of stay.
- On foot at the end: cars often can't reach the door in an old city. Your luggage is carried, and the last few minutes are on foot.
- Rooms vary hugely: in size, light and outlook. We never book a haveli room blind.
- Pools are rare: most havelis have no large pool or spa, and any pool is small and shaded by the courtyard walls.
- Lively lanes: temple bells, wedding bands and the call to prayer. Most guests come to love it.
- Home cooking: from a family kitchen, and often the best food of the whole journey. Some, especially near temples, are vegetarian.
- Personal service: rather than polished. The owner may sit with you at dinner, and the cook may ask what you would like tomorrow.
Who will love a haveli, and who won't
Wanderers: couples who like to explore the lanes.
Talkers: solo travellers who enjoy conversation.
Photographers: who want the lane at dawn.
- After the palaces: anyone who wants to see how most of Rajasthan actually lived.
- Curious families: with older children, who love the roofs and staircases.
- Art lovers: some of the best wall painting in India is in havelis rather than palaces.
- Less suited: those who need space and quiet above all, families with very young children, guests with limited mobility, and anyone who wants a pool every afternoon.
- For them: one haveli night only, or none, with a palace or modern hotel close by. Our page on accessible travel explains how we plan for limited mobility.
- Most guests: two nights in a palace, one in a haveli and one in a desert camp. Afterwards they tell us the haveli was where they felt most at home.
Rooms, roofs and small requests
What we ask about: each room's view, stairs, bathroom and noise.
Light and view: upper-floor corner rooms usually have the best of both.
- Painting: rooms off the main courtyard usually have the most. We ask for both where we can and explain the difference before you arrive.
- The roof: dinner there on at least one night, and breakfast too if the weather is kind.
- The house tour: many owners will walk you through the old rooms, the family shrine and the photographs. That hour is often the best of the stay.
- A cooking lesson: in the family kitchen. Our page on the haveli cooking class explains how we arrange it.
- Winter nights: thick walls that keep out summer heat also hold the chill. Good houses provide heaters and the heavy Jaipur razai, or quilt.
- Packing: bring a warm layer for the roof. Our packing guide has more.
Havelis on our journeys
Built around havelis: our heritage havelis trail runs from Jaipur's walled city through Shekhawati to Bikaner and the desert.
Fresco country: painted towns of Shekhawati spends longer there.
- Country cousins: village Rajasthan strings together the garhs and rawlas of Marwar and Mewar.
- Four Rajasthans in a week: two nights at a Jaipur palace, one in a Bikaner haveli, one in a camp near Jaisalmer and two in a Marwar fort.
- The other styles: our pages on palace hotels, luxury desert camps and wildlife lodges, with the stays hub bringing them together.
- No published prices: after one conversation we draw a route and choose each room for you.