A village with a palace at the top of the street
Our guests step out of the palace gate in the morning straight into village life. Children walk to school in pressed uniforms, women carry water in brass pots, a buffalo blocks the lane, and the sweet-maker is already frying the morning's jalebis. Nobody here is performing for anyone.
A bowl in the hills: Samode lies in a fold of the Aravallis to the north of Jaipur.
The approach: flat farmland, the busy market town of Chomu, and then the hills close in.
- Where
- Aravalli hills north of Jaipur
- From Jaipur
- About 40 km, an hour
- On the way
- Chomu market town
- Palace colours
- Pale yellow and white
- Good for
- Honeymoons, reunions, a pause
- The village: whitewashed houses, small temples, tea stalls and open-fronted shops.
- The reveal: the street climbs, a great gate appears, and the palace rises behind it in tiers of pale yellow and white.
- On the ridge above: the ruins of an old fort.
- No lawns, no gates apart: the bazaar runs right up to the palace walls, and that closeness is what we love about Samode.
- A working village: one that happens to have one of the most beautiful palaces in Rajasthan at the top of its street.
- The silence: after Jaipur's horns and crowds, the quiet at night is almost startling.
- What you hear: temple bells at dusk, peacocks on the hills, a tractor going home, then nothing at all.
- The real luxury: for a honeymoon, a family reunion or a pause in a long journey, it is that silence.
The Rawals of Samode
A thikana, not a kingdom: a noble estate whose lords served the kings of Amer and Jaipur as soldiers, ministers and counsellors.
Nathawats: the family are a branch of the Kachwaha clan who ruled Amer and later Jaipur.
Held for service: like the other great noble houses, they held the estate from the king in return for loyalty, with the hereditary title of Rawal.
- Family
- Nathawats, a Kachwaha branch
- Title
- Rawal
- First fort
- Sixteenth century
- Treaty signed
- 1818, by Rawal Berisal
- Hotel since
- 1987
- How estates worked: our journal piece on rawlas and thikanas explains the system across Rajasthan.
- The first fort: a Rajput fort built in the sixteenth century to guard the pass through the hills, and for generations a plain stronghold.
- Rawal Berisal: a powerful minister at the Jaipur court who began turning the fort into a palace in the early nineteenth century, blending Rajput and Mughal styles.
- The 1818 treaty: Berisal signed it with the British East India Company on behalf of the Maharaja of Jaipur.
- Rawal Sheo Singh: for years prime minister of Jaipur state in the mid-nineteenth century. He added the Durbar Hall and enlarged the palace into its present form.
- A townhouse too: Sheo Singh also built Samode Haveli inside Jaipur's walled city, near the court.
- A hotel since 1987: the family opened Samode Palace that year, and still own and run it, with Samode Haveli and Samode Bagh.
- Why it matters: the people who care for the painted rooms know who commissioned them, and a member of the family may be at the next table. Read about staying with a royal family.
- City and country: every noble family kept a house near the king. Samode Haveli is a courtyard mansion with painted rooms, garden and pool, now also run by the family.
- Stay in both: the best way to understand a Rajput noble's life, in the city for court and politics, and in the hills for land and peace. See our Samode Haveli guide.
Inside Samode Palace
Every room different: many have painted walls, jharokha windows and old furniture.
- Durbar Hall
- Added by Rawal Sheo Singh
- Older frescoes
- About 250 years old
- Film location
- The Far Pavilions, 1984
- Best rooms
- Upper levels, village views
- On screen: Samode has been a film location for decades, including the 1984 television adaptation of The Far Pavilions and many Hindi films.
- Read more: our full Samode Palace guide, and other palace hotels across the state.
The Durbar Hall
The heart of Samode: the audience hall that Rawal Sheo Singh added.
- Painted everywhere: walls, arches, pillars and ceiling covered in flowers, birds, vines and geometric borders in red, green, blue and gold.
- The gallery: runs round the upper level. The effect is lavish and very Rajasthani.
- Morning light: when sunlight comes through the arches, the whole room seems to glow.
The Sheesh Mahal
The hall of mirrors: on the palace's southern side.
- Like Amber's: surfaces set with small pieces of mirror and coloured glass in floral patterns, so a single lamp fills the room with sparks of light.
- See it by lamplight: if you can, the light it was made for.
The Sultan Mahal and the painted rooms
Older frescoes: the Sultan Mahal and smaller rooms hold paintings said to be around two and a half centuries old.
- Faded beauty: some have faded, and that is part of their charm.
- Living rooms: not museum rooms behind ropes, but spaces used for dinners and celebrations.
Courtyards, terraces and pools
Climbing the hill: a series of courtyards, each smaller and more private than the last, linked by stairs, balconies and passages.
- The upper terraces: views over the village roofs to the plain.
- The pool: set into the terraces, with the hills rising right behind it.
The old fort on the ridge
The first stronghold: for centuries the fort watched the pass through the hills.
A ruin now: walls broken, rooms open to the sky, yet the climb is one of the great pleasures of a stay.
- Steps
- About 300
- Climb
- About 20 minutes, easy pace
- Best time
- First light
- Bring
- Water and good shoes
- The path: stone-paved and steep in places, with stops to look back over the palace roofs.
- From the top: the palace below, the village spreading from its gates, the fields beyond and the long blue line of the Aravallis.
- Through the year: in winter the plain is green and yellow with wheat and mustard. After the monsoon the hills themselves turn green.
- The secret tunnel: local stories say one ran from the fort to the palace for use in a siege. Nobody we know has found it, and every child in Samode has looked.
- Go early: before the sun is high.
- Monkeys: they live on the ridge, so carry nothing that looks like food.
Samode Bagh, a camp in a Mughal garden
A Mughal-style garden: enclosed by tall walls and laid out along a long central water channel with fountains, terraces and a pavilion.
A summer retreat: gardens like this were where Rajput nobility escaped the heat, cooler than a palace, scented with flowers and full of running water.
- From the palace
- About 4 km
- Size
- Around 20 acres
- Style
- Mughal garden, walled
- Stay
- Large air-conditioned tents
- Restored by the family: it now holds a camp of large, air-conditioned tents among the trees.
- Not the palace: instead of painted halls, you get lawns, old trees, birdsong and fountains at night.
- Who it suits: families with children, couples who want space and anyone who loves canvas without giving up a good bed and a hot bath.
- Do both: many guests spend a night in the palace for its rooms and a night in the Bagh for its garden.
- Evenings we plan: our page on a private dinner in a palace describes them.
Village life and crafts
A practical bazaar: vegetables, steel pots, cloth, sweets and the things a farming village needs.
Bangles: stacks of lac and glass in every colour. You may find a maker heating lac over a small fire and pressing in stones and glitter while it is soft.
In the lanes: potters, tailors and cobblers. This is not a craft market for visitors, which is exactly why it is worth seeing.
- Farming year: wheat, barley and mustard in winter, and millet and pulses after the monsoon.
- Houses: built around a courtyard, often with a neem or khejri tree in the middle and cattle tethered by the door.
- Dress: women wear bright odhnis and wide ghaghras. Older men wear white and a turban, and gather in the afternoon on platforms outside the temple.
- Temples: small shrines to Hanuman, Shiva and the folk gods, and shrines under trees marked with red paint and marigolds.
- Evening aarti: at dusk the bells ring and the conch sounds for the offering of light, as families drift in from the fields.
- Joining in: stand quietly at the back, leave shoes at the door, cover your head if the women around you do, and take prasad with your right hand.
- Local guides only: we arrange village walks with people from Samode, and ask guests to treat them as visits to homes, not sights.
- Courtesies: ask before photographing anyone, especially women, buy something from the shops you pass, and take your shoes off if invited inside.
- Read more: our rural homestays page explains how we work with village families, and our etiquette guide covers the small courtesies.
The Aravalli countryside around Samode
Noble country: Samode is one of many estates north of Jaipur, each with its fort or palace, temple and village. Many still stand.
Chomu: a busy market town on the road, grown around another noble family's fort-palace.
Bishangarh: to the north-east, an old warrior fort on a granite hill is now Alila Fort Bishangarh, one of the state's most striking hotels.
- Hills
- Among the oldest mountains on earth
- Forest
- Dhok, babool, khejri
- Nearby hotel
- Alila Fort Bishangarh
- Sambhar Lake
- South-west, flamingos in winter
- Shekhawati
- A few hours north
- A barrier against sand: the Aravallis run for hundreds of kilometres, standing between the Thar and the fertile east and catching the monsoon rain.
- Wildlife: dry thorn forest of dhok, babool and khejri, home to nilgai, jackals, hyenas and many birds. Leopards survive in pockets, even at Jhalana on Jaipur's edge.
- On an early walk: peafowl in the fields, a mongoose crossing the path or vultures circling over the ridge.
- Morning countryside: mist over the fields and woodsmoke from village hearths.
- Along the way: shepherds moving goats and sheep along the ridges, farmers drawing water from wells and shrines on every hilltop.
- Johads: many villages have a pond built to catch the monsoon rain, and some still have old stepwells.
- Our drives: unhurried, with stops for chai, a temple or a walk across the fields.
- Further out: Sambhar Lake, India's largest inland salt lake, fills with flamingos in winter.
- First stop north: Samode is the natural start for the painted towns of Shekhawati.
- String it together: our journey Village Rajasthan links rawlas, forts and farms like these.
Eating at Samode
Two menus: the palace cooks the food of the Rajput nobility alongside lighter international dishes. Ask for the Rajasthani ones.
Laal maas: mutton in a fiery red sauce, from the hunting camps and courts of families like this one.
Safed maas: the gentle white version, made with cream and nuts.
- For vegetarians: gatte ki sabzi, gram-flour dumplings in spiced yoghurt sauce.
- Ker sangri: dried desert berries and beans, cooked a little differently by every Rajasthani grandmother.
- Winter food: bajre ki roti, the heavy millet bread with white butter and jaggery, and methi and mustard greens from the village fields.
- Breakfast: as simple as poha or as grand as stuffed parathas with fresh curd.
- Private meals: in the painted rooms, on the upper terraces or in the garden at Samode Bagh, sometimes with folk musicians.
- Cook with the kitchen: ask for a hands-on cooking session.
- Every dish explained: our Rajasthani food guide.
When to come to Samode
October to March: warm, dry days. Nights in December and January turn properly cold, so bring layers.
February and March: especially lovely, with golden fields and soft light.
April to June: intense heat. The palace becomes a place for long siestas and late swims.
- Best season
- October to March
- Loveliest
- February and March
- Hot months
- April to June
- Holi
- February or March
- Diwali
- October or November
- Monsoon, July to September: green hills, cloud over the ridge and very few visitors.
- Holi: the street fills with colour and drums.
- Teej: in the monsoon, swings hang from the trees and women dress in green leheriya.
- Diwali: the palace and the houses below are lit with lamps, and the view from the terraces is unforgettable.
- Festival pages: read about Holi and Teej.
- Wedding season: Samode is one of the most sought-after wedding palaces near Jaipur in winter. Book early and ask us whether a celebration is planned.
- Marrying here: our page on destination weddings is the place to start.
Getting there, and two days at Samode
- From Jaipur
- About 40 km, roughly an hour
- Route
- North through Chomu
- To Mandawa
- About three hours
- To Delhi
- An easy day's drive
- Allow longer at rush hour: the drive from Jaipur stretches if you leave in the morning traffic.
- Our usual routing: Jaipur to Samode to Shekhawati, or Samode as a quiet first night after flying into Jaipur.
Day one, arrive for lunch
Mid-morning: leave Jaipur, after a sunrise visit to Amer if you like.
- Lunch: arrive in time, then rest in the heat of the day.
- Late afternoon: explore the palace with a guide, from the Durbar Hall to the Sheesh Mahal and the terraces.
- Dinner: on a terrace or in a painted room, with folk musicians.
Day two, fort, village and garden
First light: climb to the fort, with chai on the way down.
- After breakfast: walk the village with a local guide and visit the bazaar.
- Afternoon: a slow lunch at Samode Bagh.
- Evening: drive through the villages as the cattle come home, then a quiet dinner.
With a third night
- Options: explore the Aravalli countryside, see Sambhar Lake's flamingos in winter, or stay by the pool with a book.
- Honeymoons: Samode pairs well with our Rajasthan for Two journey.
How long to stay, and what day-trippers miss
The Sheesh Mahal by lamplight: day visitors see the mirrors at noon. After dark, a single lamp fills the room with sparks.
The fort at first light: you will have the ridge and the view over the Aravallis to yourself.
- Lunch visit
- Durbar Hall and terraces
- One night
- Fort at dawn, village walk
- Two nights
- Palace and Samode Bagh
- Three nights
- Countryside and Sambhar Lake
- The evening aarti: bells and conch in the village temples as families come home from the fields.
- The quiet: temple bells, peacocks, a tractor going home, and then nothing at all.
- Dinner at the Bagh: lamps along the water channel and the fountains running at night.
- The older frescoes: the faded paintings of the Sultan Mahal, often skipped on a hurried tour.
Who will love Samode, and what we tell them
Stay overnight: day-trippers see the Durbar Hall at noon. Overnight guests see it at dawn and by candlelight, and have the village to themselves.
Ask for an upper-floor suite: with a village or hill view. The palace climbs the slope, and the higher rooms have the best light.
- Comfortable shoes: there are many stairs and uneven levels, and the fort climb is steep in places.
- Limited mobility: tell us before booking.
- Respect the village: ask before photographs, dress modestly outside the palace and buy from local shops rather than haggling hard.
- Combine the palace and the Bagh: one night in each gives you two very different Samodes.
- Add Samode Haveli: in Jaipur's walled city, owned by the same family, with its own painted rooms.
- Not for nightlife or shopping: keep the busy bazaars for Jaipur, an hour away.
