For as long as we can remember Instagram, Jaipur has been seen through well-curated photos of bold, colour-infused murals and custom-printed banquettes at boutique hotels that carry a flamboyance fit for royalty. After an era of palatial stays with cascading stairwells came a string of boutique hotels set within erstwhile havelis—first, the Samode Haveli in Gangapole, then The Johri, a trendsetting space that launched in 2020, and then Rajan House, an ancestral home which opened doors for guests last year. The newest haveli hotel is Padmaa, a three-storey space located in the bustling Chaura Rasta, just a 30-minute ride from the airport, housed in a building almost as old as Jaipur itself.
As someone who lives in a 200-year-old haveli passed down from my great-grandfather, the appeal of a storied family home is not lost on me. Like those who came before me, I’ve spent my childhood running around its mammoth verandahs overlooking the chowk, playing sitolia (stack of stones) and badminton at home, cooking big-pot meals for our family of 11, looting kites, and snacking on the kachori-samosas from the nearby shops. In that sense, Padmaa, an 18th-century haveli lovingly restored as a hotel, feels like a home away from home.
Bought by the Shah family in 1705, the space was initially designed for a ‘gaddi’, or a jewellery workspace. It later expanded into more floors and rooms to simultaneously house the family, whose seventh generation lived there until 2015.
With the restoration led by Jaipur-based architect Gagan Sharma—known for heritage conservation and contextual design—and interiors by Vaishnavi Bazaz of Studio Navée, the space has got just about enough of a facelift that still calls to mind the havelis I live around. Padmaa retains its signature features, such as the undulating arches, called ‘mehraabs’; two chabutras, or platforms on the outside for a wary walker to rest in the heat; fading frescoes on the facade; araish, or lime plaster, walls in the rooms; and terrazzo flooring here and there.
As you make it through the front door, there’s some serious history teeming in every corner. On the right is a collection of vintage bajubandh ghunghroos, paandan (beetle case), gangajal sprinkler, jewellery box, and a dhuni diya that belonged to Padmaa Devi Shah, after whom the haveli is named. Right across is an ancient piece from a lotus motif that inspired the boutique haveli’s current logo. Inside, there’s more to gawk: an open-to-sky chowk complete with lattice-work railings in the overhead galleries, arches as gateways into the rooms, tiny jharokhas, and satisfying geometric lines if you look closely. It teleports you to another time.
Guests are offered a chilled glass of aam panna upon arrival. The restaurant, built within a chowk, was once a lapidary where gemstones were polished. Now, the all-day dining space, drenched in sage green with an almost-hypnotic floor featuring Moroccan tiles, is where you can order vegetarian meals, with some egg dishes available for breakfast.
The haveli has 15 rooms in all—nine luxury and six heritage—painted in calming shades of green, blue, pink and white, with the former ever-so-slightly bigger. As I head to my suite on the first floor, I am made aware that this was once occupied by Padmaa Ji herself. I’m instantly drawn to the reading nook—a bolster in the quiet corner complete with cushions—mimicking the one in my grandmother’s haveli, on which we played cards and carrom well into the night. The room is outfitted in soothing blue tones featuring vintage accents—a sleek gallery running along two sides, a wooden almirah like my amma’s daraaj, where she neatly lined her saris, stained glass over crescent-shaped windows, a swing by the bed (!), and grooves we call aalas bearing the family’s brass utensils. The Nespresso kit is the only sign from the modern world.
The crowning jewel of Padmaa, though, is the hotel’s all-weather rooftop pool with an immaculate view of the old city. Post-plunge, a spa session in the adjoining room is a must—I felt every ounce of my muscles relax. Downstairs, the open-air courtyard offers a relaxing nook for a lovely sit-out under the stars. “This is called a chandni since the space gleams in moonlight every night. The Shah family used to have dinner here every evening,” Padmaa’s operations manager, Yudhister Singh, tells me.
Besides the lapidary turned restaurant, dining options also include the Courtyard Bar—a slick, scarlet-dipped space with gold accents, tall lights and a dimly lit bar counter (ready to roll; license awaiting). The menu is vegetarian, and Rajasthani specials like gatta curry, kair sangri, bharwa tinda, and chakki ki sabzi as well as pan-Asian and Italian offerings are available at the restaurant. However, it’s the north-Indian specials that deserves your attention— the melt-in-mouth beetroot galouti kebabs, the paneer tikka (charred and spiced expertly), the seasonal subz handi, the dal tadka just like my mom’s (chef’s kiss), and crispy, almost biscuit-y garlic naan to polish it all off. I finished strong with a malai kulfi.
