Jaipur, India

28 Kothi

Price per night from$98.97

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (INR8,250.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Jaipur gemstone

Setting

Leafy Civil Lines

Gemstone-inspired guesthouse 28 Kothi bucks Jaipur’s traditionalist trend with its mid-century furniture, Rousseau-esque murals and urbane, in-the-know staff. Knowing that a stay in a stiff-collared palace isn’t for everyone, the hotel’s owners – a jeweller and seasoned restaurateur – enlisted their design-savvy contacts to create a modern, minimalist hotel that chimes with the 21st-century traveller. Having spent the day wandering the Pink City’s best boutiques, art shops and fabric dealers (all recommended by the cosmopolitan staff), hit the Ayurvedic-influenced spa before settling into a dinner of fragrant thali in the lush, lantern-lit garden.

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A high-tea platter at Cafe Kothi

Facilities

Photos 28 Kothi facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Five, including two suites.

Check–Out

11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £92.49 (INR9,735), including tax at 18 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional room tax of 10% per booking prior to arrival.

More details

Rates include an à la carte breakfast with western and Indian options. There’s fresh fruit, toasted millet muesli, eggs (they do everything from classic sunny-side-up to masala omelets) and Rajasthani dishes like split-pea pancakes.

Also

All five rooms have a colour scheme that matches their name; pick from Moonstone, Sapphire, Topaz, Peridot and Spinel (which looks like a fiery pink ruby).

At the hotel

Gardens with lounge and alfresco dining areas; library; free WiFi throughout; laundry. In rooms: Bluetooth speaker; air-conditioning; free bottled water; Kama bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Try the Moonstone suite for size, a bright, calming room with the hotel’s only freestanding bath tub. When the sun’s out, the lattice windows throw patterned shadows across the floor, making for an inspired soak. Another winner is Sapphire, the only room on the top floor, which is full of furniture swirled with deep blue patterns.

Spa

The one-room Kothi Spa is a collaboration with organic beauty brand Pahadi Local, who make their oils from plants and fruits native to the Himalayas. Their signature product is the skin-softening gutti ka tel, or pure apricot kernel oil. The therapists are also dab hands at Ayurvedic-influenced reflexology and neck, shoulder and foot massages.

Packing tips

t’s not so much about what to bring as what to leave, to save space in your case: the design-conscious staff are all too happy to share insider tips on where to buy the best fabrics, clothes and Rajhastani art, so don't overpack.

Also

All of the common areas are wheelchair accessible, but there are no specially adapted rooms.

Children

All ages are welcome. Children will love the garden and the library, which is where the staff set up games and puzzles.

Food and Drink

Photos 28 Kothi food and drink

Top Table

Unless its raining, the staff will set up a table in the fragrant garden.

Dress Code

An outfit from nearby block printers Anokhi.

Hotel restaurant

One of the hotel’s co-owners is veteran restaurateur Abhishek Honawar, who’s already shaken up New York and Mumbai’s Indian dining scenes. At 28 Kothi, his expertise makes itself known at laid-back Cafe Kothi, which serves a vegetarian menu with an Indo-Mediterranean lean. Quality, seasonality and provenance are all championed here, with all the ingredients coming from tried-and-trusted suppliers, most of whom grow things the old-fashioned way. Breakfast and an all-day menu are served daily, while dinner is on request: guests choose from a delectable three-course supper (which changes regularly depending on the chef’s finds at the local markets) or thali, sharing platters loaded with curries, rice, flatbreads and homemade dips.

Hotel bar

There’s no bar as such, just two house wines and beer. If you’re after cocktails, many of the city’s best watering holes are a short rickshaw ride away.

Last orders

Breakfast is served from 8am to 10.30am; Cafe Kothi is open all day from 9am to 9pm. You’ll need to request dinner in advance, which is served from 7.30pm.

Room service

The full menu can be served in-room while the restaurant is open.

Location

Photos 28 Kothi location
Address
28 Kothi
28 Civil Lines Road Shivaji Nagar Madrampur Civil Lines
Jaipur
302006
India

28 Kothi is in the Civil Lines neighbourhood, going toe to toe with the Governor’s House.

Planes

Jaipur International Airport is the one to aim for; you can fly direct from Delhi and Mumbai, or from other Rajhastani cities like Jaisalmer and Udaipur. It takes 25 minutes to drive from the airport to the hotel; transfers are available from INR1000.

Trains

Jaipur Junction Railway Station is a 10-minute drive from the hotel. If you’ve got a taste for the track and don’t mind the longer journey, you can catch services from Delhi (a six-hour trip), Jodhpur (five hours) and Agra (four-and-a-half hours).

Automobiles

Famously chaotic to westerners, India’s roads aren’t for the faint of heart. Driving is best left to someone who grew up with the gung-ho approach that dominates the roads.

Worth getting out of bed for

It would be all too easy to while away your days at the hotel, switching between a day-bed beneath the stirring trees, sampling Ayurvedic treatments in the spa and getting lost in a book in the peaceful library. But even if you have seen the Jaipur’s main sights before, be sure to take advantage of the connections that the owners and staff have fostered with the city’s artists, designers and boutiques. Do so and you’ll bypass all the tourist traps, cutting right to the glittering heart of the city’s craft and design scene. One favourite is traditional block printers Anokhi, who've been in business for more than 40 years, perfecting the colourful patterns and designs that they use on dresses, jumpsuits, trousers, scarves and more. Another insider spot is Teatro Dhora, a hip concept store (probably the city’s first) full of local artwork, Indian fashion, leathergoods and homeware. Set your eyes heavenward at Unesco-protected Jantar Mantar, a collection of 20 enormous astrological instruments built in the early 18th century, then check out the Panna Meena ka Kund, a 16th-century stepwell that served (and still does) as a place to swim, collect water and socialise. The zigzagging staircases make a striking background for capturing a diver mid flight, so don’t forget your camera…

Local restaurants

For a regal experience, book a table in the impressive dining room at the Samode Haveli, an Indo-Saracenic mansion owned by the descendants of the rulers of Samode. The menu spans classic Rajasthani, Asian and European cuisine; try the marinated lamb (which you’ll have to order in advance), a grilled fish dish or a classic Haveli curry. If you’re looking for a break from the national cuisine, try Bar Palladio, where Venetian opulence brushes up against the romantic and dreamlike designs of the Mughal empire. Start a long lunch with their signature drink, the Marina Rossa, and a few plates of bruschetta, arancini and parma ham; follow with classics like penne al’ arrabiata and gnocchi.

Local bars

Stop in for a cocktail or two at the Polo Bar in the Sujån Rajmahal Palace, the ancestral home of the Maharajah of Jaipur. The walls of the bar are decked with trophies won by the Jaipur royal family on the polo field, setting an atmosphere best described as princely leisure.

Reviews

Photos 28 Kothi reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this boutique guesthouse in Jaipur and unpacked their clothes bought from local boutique Teatro Dhora, a full account of their (pink) city break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside 28 Kothi in India…

If there’s one thing that India does well, it’s palatial hotels. Not palatial as in plain fancy, palatial in the sense that they’re quite literally fit for the maharajahs that used to call them home. The thing is, these places can be a bit stiff – they’re all starched bib-fronts, hushed voices and the chink of fine bone china, and that sort of standing on ceremony isn’t everyone’s cup of chai. Clearly, that’s exactly what the owners of 28 Kothi thought when they created a modern, five-room hotel that turns that tradition on its head. Lebanese designer Nur Kaoukji’s interiors are more modern and minimalist than many of the city’s hotels, and are full of unique touches like cut-out metal parrots (it sounds kitsch, but it’s not) and hand-painted palms on the walls. So if you’re into highly ‘grammable interiors and the kind of place where the manager sits down with you to discuss the best sights, stores and what you’d like for dinner, then 28 Kothi is just the place for your Jaipur jaunt.

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Price per night from $98.97