Jaiwana Haveli

Udaipur Hotels : Jaiwana Haveli

Lonely Planet has listed tons of Udaipur hotels. But out of the lot, we zeroed in on Jaiwana Haveli immediately ‘coz they had an internet sign posted next to their listing. And when we called them, they said that they actually had wireless as well. Lotus Hotel in Junagadh had also claimed to have wireless but we had found no connection there. So I was a little wary of Jaiwana’s claims. However, theirs truly worked!

Jaiwana Haveli is a newly built structure on land owned by a royal family. Their original haveli is behind the hotel. Jaiwana is a four-storied hotel with the requisite rooftop restaurant and a nicely decorated lobby on the ground floor. Unlike most other hotels in the vicinity, Jaiwana has enough land to park a couple of cars within their compound walls. The exterior and interiors are both painted in Udaipur’s traditional color, white, which gives the place a clean and neat look. In our 6 nights of stay there, we changed 3 rooms ‘coz we kept extending our stay by one night and by then our room would already have been allocated to someone else. All 3 of them were double-rooms with a wall-mounted LCD TV, modern plumbing and simple decor – they were extremely comfortable and cozy. Out of the 3, the 1st and last rooms were similar in layout. They were smaller rooms with not much shelf space and no mirror except for the one in the bathroom above the sink, which was a bit of a pain. The 2nd room was bigger and had shelves built into one wall and had a long mirror as well – this was the best room of the lot.

The hotel is run quite professionally by two young chaps who were friendly and warm just like all other Mewaris in Udaipur. Although we didn’t avail of any of their services, the hotel can arrange for taxi tours or drop-offs to anywhere. They even had a 3-day ‘suggested itinerary’ for Udaipur pasted on a wall in the lobby, which was quite helpful.

The rooftop restaurant, though good with excellent views out to Lake Pichola and the palaces floating on it, was a tad bit expensive. Moreover room service was not allowed, which was a pain ‘coz it’s always more comfortable to have breakfast brought in, in the morning. Laundry service was 3 times more expensive than what was being offered outside so it’s not really meant for extended-stay travelers like us.

Overall, this is a fantastic stay! I doubt we would have stayed 6 nights in Udaipur if Jaiwana hadn’t been this comfortable. We saw many authentic havelis as well but they may not have the same modern facilities that Jaiwana offered. Moreover, its location is the best; one can explore any part of the old city on foot from here.
Rating: 8 out of 10