Mandawa, Shekhawati, Rajasthan
Sethani ki Haveli
Nine rooms around a painted courtyard, in the middle of Mandawa.
से ₹3,400 / रात · 4.8 / 5
The painted wall
Walk the painted hall
Upstairs, the ceiling of the old reception room: Krishna dancing with the gopis, painted around 1890 and never repainted. Vikram will walk you round it; this is the short version.
-
A gopi, mid-step
The cowherd girls dance in a ring with Krishna. Look at her skirt: every fold is outlined in gold.
-
Krishna, blue and crowned
Blue for the god, and a crown and halo laid in real gold leaf, which is why this wall still glows by lamplight.
-
Parakeets in the roses
The painters filled every gap with roses and birds. Count the parakeets; guests usually find six.
-
Where the damp got in
The gold has lifted at the right-hand edge. We have left it, rather than repaint it the way half the town does.
मेज़बान
The house was built in 1878 by my great-great-grandfather, who traded in opium and cotton and wanted the road to know it. The painters took four years over the front, and the family lived behind it for a century before the trade moved to Calcutta and the house was shut up. We reopened it in 2009, room by room, and we have been repairing frescoes ever since — badly at first, then properly, once a conservator in Jaipur showed us what we were destroying with the wrong plaster. It is a 150-year-old house. The rooms are cool in the mornings and hot by four in May, the plumbing is honest rather than modern, and the courtyard is where everybody ends up. If you want a resort, Mandawa has those on the bypass.
मेहमानों का प्यार
-
We came for one night on the way to Bikaner and stayed three. Vikram walked us through the frescoes for two hours and charged nothing for it.
Ananya R. · Delhi -
A real haveli, still being repaired, with the repairs visible. That is the point of it.
Claire M. · Lyon -
Magnificent building, and genuinely hot in the afternoon in April. The AC works but the house is 150 years old.
Rohit S. · Pune -
Breakfast in the courtyard under the paintings. I have stayed in hotels that cost ten times this and remembered none of them.
Tomas H. · Prague
Where you will be
Mandawa
Shekhawati, Rajasthan
Mandawa, Shekhawati, Rajasthan
Mandawa, Shekhawati, Rajasthan के बारे में
Shekhawati is a belt of small towns in north-eastern Rajasthan — Mandawa, Nawalgarh, Fatehpur, Dundlod — where 19th-century Marwari merchants built painted courtyard houses and covered them, inside and out, with frescoes. There are several thousand of them and no museum: the town itself is the exhibit, most of the havelis are still privately owned, and a good number are quietly falling down. It is three to four hours from both Jaipur and Delhi, and almost nobody stays more than a night, which is the mistake.
This browser cannot show the map here. The directions link opens it in your maps app.
यहाँ कैसे पहुँचें 3 ways in
- Nearest airport
- Jaipur (170 km, about three and a half hours).
- Nearest rail
- Jhunjhunu, 28 km, or Churu on the Delhi–Bikaner line.
- By road
- Delhi to Mandawa is around 260 km via Narnaul, and Jaipur to Mandawa about 170 km via Sikar.
We are inside the old town and the last two lanes are genuinely narrow — park at the gate, message us, and somebody will come for the bags.
When to come
- Oct–Mar
- Without qualification: warm days, cold mornings in December and January, and the light on the frescoes at either end of the day is the reason to come.
- Apr–May
- Hot — 44 degrees is an ordinary May afternoon — and while the house handles it better than a modern building does, we tell people plainly rather than let them find out.
- Jul–Sep
- The monsoon, which is brief here and turns the desert green for a few weeks.
Nearby
Mandawa painted havelis
0 kmThe whole town is the museum. Start at the gate and walk; we will draw you a route.
Mandawa chhatris and well
2 kmThe old stepwell with the four towers, best in the last hour of light.
Nawalgarh
30 kmThe densest frescoes in Shekhawati, and the Poddar haveli museum.
एक झलक
घर की झलकियाँ
सुविधाएँ
आपके ठहरने के दौरान उपलब्ध सुविधाएँ
- Hot water
- Wi-Fi
- Parking
- Garden
- Bonfire
- Power backup
खाना-पीना
हमारी रसोई से
Cooked in our own kitchen, from what the market and the garden have.
रेस्टोरेंट
-
Haveli breakfast (included)
शामिल
Kachori, poha, seasonal fruit and chai, in the courtyard before it gets hot.
-
Laal maas
Mutton in mathania chillies, cooked slowly. Hot in the way it is supposed to be, not the way a hotel makes it.
Half ₹380 Full ₹620 -
Dal baati churma
₹320
Baked, not fried, and broken into ghee at the table. Order it at lunch, not dinner.
-
Ker sangri
₹280
Desert berries and beans, dried and cooked with yoghurt. The dish that explains the region.
-
Gatte ki sabzi
₹260
Gram-flour dumplings in a yoghurt gravy, for the days there is no vegetable worth buying.
-
Masala chai
₹40
Made in the kitchen, not a machine, and refilled until you say stop.
-
Chaas
₹60
Salted buttermilk with roasted cumin. The only sensible thing to drink at three in the afternoon in May.
व्यंजन मौसम और बाज़ार में उपलब्ध सामग्री के अनुसार बदलते रहते हैं। बुकिंग के समय हमें अपनी एलर्जी या पसंद बताएं।
-
2 ways to spend your days
पैकेज और अनुभव
-
2 nights / 3 days
The Fresco Walk
₹13,500
Two nights, and a morning walking the town with a conservator who explains what you are looking at.
- All breakfasts
- Guided walk
- Courtyard dinner
-
Per night
Whole Haveli
₹48,000
All nine rooms and the courtyard, for a wedding or a family that has outgrown a hotel.
- Whole house
- All meals
- Courtyard for events
Arranged by us, run by people we know
Things to do
Run by local operators we work with. Ask us and we will arrange it for you — nothing is charged here.
-
Painted havelis, on foot
Heritage Walks
Two hours through the old town with somebody who grew up in it.
If you cancel: Nothing owed if the guest cancels
-
Camel cart to the dunes at dusk
Mandawa Camel Carts
Out of the old town on a cart to the dunes on the Fatehpur road for the sunset, chai on the sand, back by dark.
If you cancel: Nothing owed if the guest cancels
जानने योग्य
What time is check-in?
From 1 pm; the courtyard is yours from mid-morning if the room is ready.
Do you serve meals?
Breakfast is included and dinner is cooked in the house — tell us by four.
Is it family friendly?
Yes, and the Zenana takes four.
How do we reach you?
Inside the old town, so the last stretch is narrow — park at the gate and we will carry the bags.
नियम
- Quiet hours after 10 pm
- Carry a valid photo ID
- Please do not touch the wall paintings
- No smoking indoors — the ceilings are original
Sethani ki Haveli
अपनी बुकिंग करें
अपनी तारीखें भेजें और हम बुकिंग पक्की करने के लिए भुगतान विवरण साझा करेंगे।