Tea on the roof
Masala chai and the first light on the lake. The parakeets arrive when you do.
A paper merchant's house · old city, Udaipur · since 1887
Twelve rooms around a courtyard, eight minutes from the lake.
The family that sold Udaipur its paper for four generations now keeps twelve rooms for guests. Breakfast under the neem tree, tea on the roof, and dinner by lantern light.
The house
Kaagaz means paper.
For four generations this house sold it: account books for the bazaar, wedding cards for the city, and the handmade sheets the palace painters asked for by name. The shop closed in 1994. The family stayed, and in 2017 opened twelve rooms to guests. The paper is still everywhere: in the lampshades, on the walls of the suite, and in the notebook on your pillow, which is made in the back courtyard and is yours to keep.
- Family-run, fourth generation
- Breakfast always included
- Check in from 1 pm
- Check out by 11 am
- Children welcome
“We booked two nights and stayed five. By the third morning the cook knew how I take my tea and nobody had asked.”
“The quietest sleep I have had in a city. You hear the temple bell at six and then nothing until breakfast.”
The rooms
Twelve rooms, no two alike
Every price is for the room for one night with breakfast for two. Friday and Saturday nights cost 15% more; stays of four nights or more cost 10% less.
A day here
From the first chai to the last lantern
Nothing on this list is required. Most guests find the day arranges itself around the tea.
Breakfast in the courtyard
Poha, fruit, eggs any way, and a paratha that changes with the season.
The long table
Block printing, paper-making or letterpress, depending on the day. Watch even if you do not join.
Tea and something fried
Poured at half past four whether or not anyone is there. Someone always is.
Dinner on the roof
One table of twelve, one Mewari menu written that morning after the market.
Things to do
Eleven ways to spend a day
Book any of these at the desk, or add the first two when you check dates below.
- Block printing at the long tableTwo hours with the printer who made your bedspread₹900
- Dinner on the roofFive courses, one table, cooked on the wood fire₹1,800
- The lake at sixA rowing boat from Gangaur Ghat before the motor boats start₹700
- Paper-making afternoonPulp, mould and deckle in the back courtyard₹800
- The old city on footNinety minutes with Hukam, who was born in this lane₹600
- Miniature painting lessonA squirrel-hair brush and a very patient teacher₹1,500
- A morning in the kitchenShop the market, then cook the lunch you will eat₹1,600
- Sunset from SajjangarhWe pack the tea and book the jeep₹1,200
- Letterpress your own notepaperSet in metal type on the 1921 press in the hall₹700
- Cycling the Fateh Sagar roadBicycles are at the gate, flat all the wayFree
- Nothing at allA day bed, the neem tree and a pot of tea on the hourFree
Check dates and price
See what is free, and what it costs
Pick a room, then tap your arrival and the day you leave. Crossed-out nights are taken. The price includes breakfast and every tax.
Tap your arrival date
Your stayTaken2 left rooms left of that kind
Included in every stay
No extras you did not ask for
- Breakfast in the courtyard, until half past ten
- Tea at 6:30 on the roof and 4:30 in the sitting room
- A handmade notebook, yours to keep
- Bicycles at the gate
- Filtered water in glass, refilled twice a day
- Wi-Fi in the rooms, none on the roof
Not here: televisions, a swimming pool, a lift. The Courtyard Rooms are step-free, and we carry the bags up the lane.
From guests
4.9 out of 5, from 1,240 stays
★★★★★
“My father had not sat still for an afternoon in forty years. He sat under that neem tree for three.”
★★★★★
“Dinner on the roof was the best meal of our trip, and we had come from Jaipur and Jodhpur.”
★★★★★
“Our daughter printed her own bedspread at the long table and would not let us pack it.”
Write to us
Weddings, long stays, a room for your parents
- Address
- Kaagaz Gali, near Jagdish Chowk, old city, Udaipur 313001
- stay@kaagazhaveli.example
- Getting here
- 25 km from the airport, 3 km from the station. The lane is too narrow for cars, so we meet you at Jagdish Chowk and carry the bags.