A contemporary retreat shaped by nature, architecture and timeless Indian hospitality.
Exterior
Arrival, from the western road. Hover a marker to look closer.
Verdant House is an intimate retreat where contemporary architecture meets the textures, colours and craftsmanship of Rajasthan.
Forty-two rooms on four hundred metres of private shoreline. The house was drawn around the trees that were already here, and built by people who live within an hour of it. Nothing about it is loud.
The water court, looking north toward the lake
The reading room, four o’clock
“We did not want a hotelthat announced itself.”
Ishaan Mehrotra · Founding Architect
Two long wings, set apart by a water court that cools the air between them. Deep verandas keep the sun off the walls; the walls keep the heat out of the rooms. It is the way Mewar has built for six hundred years, drawn again.
Long section · West to east
1 : 400
01
Kota and Jaisalmer, cut within the state.
02
Reclaimed teak and sheesham, oiled not lacquered.
03
Four courts, fed and cooled by one system.
04
Hand-burnished araish plaster on every wall.
42
Luxury Suites
Across four house types
3
Signature Restaurants
One with eight seats
1
Private Lakefront
Four hundred metres
24/7
Personalised Service
One host per six guests
Each room was drawn around what it looks at — a tree, a stretch of water, a wall of old stone. Rates are for two guests and include breakfast, the morning boat, and everything from the minibar.
A ground-floor room opening onto a walled garden of frangipani and old neem. Lime-plaster walls, a low teak bed, and shutters that fold back until the room and the garden are the same room.
₹28,000
Per night · incl. breakfast
A private retreat overlooking the still waters of Lake Pichola, with handcrafted interiors and a private terrace designed for slow mornings. The light arrives at six and stays until the hills take it back.
₹42,000
Per night · incl. breakfast
A contemporary interpretation of Rajasthan's architectural heritage, combining traditional textures with modern comfort. Hand-carved jharokha windows frame the old city; inside, everything is quiet, low and warm.
₹58,000
Per night · incl. breakfast
The house within the house. Two bedrooms around a private water court, a plunge pool cut into the stone terrace, and a kitchen where the chef will cook for you alone. Reached by its own path through the trees.
₹95,000
Per night · incl. breakfast
The Lake View Suite, drawn to scale. Drag to turn it, and look into the four rooms it is made of — bedroom, bath, living and terrace.
Natural light.
The Courtyard · Modern Indian
Twenty-eight seats under a hand-plastered vault, open to the water court on two sides. Chef Ananya Rathore cooks the food of Mewar as it is actually eaten here — over wood, with restraint, and a great deal of chilli.
Nothing on the menu travels further than the state line, and most of it does not leave the valley.
01 — The Land
Millet, mustard and chilli from farms within forty kilometres.
02 — The Market
Spices bought by the handful, ground the same day.
03 — The Kitchen
Wood, coal and iron. Nothing cooks faster than it should.
04 — The Chef
Ananya Rathore, who grew up two valleys from here.
05 — The Plate
Composed in silence, carried out warm.
06 — The Table
Twenty-eight seats under a hand-plastered vault.
“Cook what grew this week. Nothing else is interesting.”
Ananya Rathore · Executive Chef
A wellness house cut into the stone below the podium, where the temperature does not change and neither does the light.
Six therapists, two of them fourth-generation Ayurvedic practitioners from Kerala. Oils are blended in our own dispensary each week and never kept longer.
Abhyanga and shirodhara with oils blended in our own dispensary.
Slow, weighted pressure for bodies that have travelled a long way.
Himalayan bowls in a stone chamber built for its own resonance.
On the east terrace at first light. Hatha, and slower than you expect.
Guided, at the water court, before the birds have finished.
A cold plunge cut from single-piece Kota stone, and a eucalyptus steam room.
Two suites with their own courtyard, therapist and menu.
The steam room opens at six. Most guests find it before they find the wifi password.
The Terrace · 24 metres
The edge is cut level with the lake, so from the water you cannot tell where one ends and the other begins. Best at six in the morning, when it belongs to nobody.
Arranged by the house, led by people who live here. Every one of them can be moved, extended or quietly cancelled if the morning turns out to be better spent in bed.
All experiences are arranged through your host. Speak to us the evening before.
Udaipur is not a set. It is a working city of half a million people that happens to have been built around water, in a desert, by people with very good taste.
We work with fourteen families and workshops within the district — for the stone, the plaster, the textiles, the music and most of the food. It is the least interesting thing about the house and the reason it works.
The old city from the west shore, twenty minutes before the lamps are lit
Mewar built for heat and for water — thick walls, deep shade, courtyards that pull air through a house without a single machine.
The families who cut our stone screens have cut them for six generations. We commissioned; we did not design.
Bagru block-print and Kota doria, dyed with indigo and madder root in the same tanks their grandfathers used.
The Manganiyar play here on Thursdays. They have played at weddings in these hills for four hundred years.
Craft partners
14 workshops
Sourcing radius
40 km
Staff from Mewar
86%
Music
Thursdays, 20:00
Taken across one year by a single photographer, in available light. Nothing has been staged and nothing has been added.
“The kind of place where you forget to check the time.”
Elena MarchettiItaly · Lake View Suite · 6 nights“I have stayed in grander hotels. I have not stayed in a kinder one.”
Daniel OkonjoUnited Kingdom · Heritage Suite · 4 nights“On the third morning I stopped taking photographs and simply sat.”
Mira HalvorsenNorway · Garden Room · 8 nights“They remembered how I take my tea. Nobody wrote it down.”
Kenji WatanabeJapan · Royal Villa · 5 nightsTravel + Leisure
World's Best New Hotels
2025
Condé Nast Traveler
Readers' Choice
2025
Michelin Key
One Key
2024
Wallpaper* Design
Best New Retreat
2024
Architectural Digest
Hotel of the Year, India
2023
Verdant House is a fictional property created to demonstrate frontend design and engineering. The recognitions shown above are illustrative and do not represent actual awards or accreditation.
Udaipur changes completely four times a year, and the house was built to be good in all of them. Choose a season and you have chosen a different stay.
November — February
Mist sits on the lake until nine. Fires are lit in the reading room at four. This is when Udaipur is at its best and everybody knows it.
Verdant House sits on the quiet west shore of Lake Pichola, twelve minutes from the City Palace and far enough from it to hear nothing at all. A car meets every arrival.
Illustrative map, not to scale.
