Gujarat, with its wealth of history and art, has for long remained one of India’s best-kept tourism secrets. This looks set to change as a number of historical Properties, worth visiting for their own architecture, interiors, memorabilia, or historical importance, are steadily being converted into Heritage Hotels, opening up romantically remote but richly rewarding destinations for visitors. Today, the 20-odd heritage hotels of Gujarat range from converted forts, palaces, and colonial-period villas, and country estates where maharajas and nawabs once entertained European guests, to rural heritage properties owned by the scions of feudal lords and the early 20th-century residences of Ahmedabad’s mercantile families. However, what each of them offers is the historical character of the period when they were built, coupled with the modern conveniences required by the contemporary traveller. Surrounded by orchards, gardens, forests, coastal landscapes, hills, or the rural countryside, these properties have a rich legacy. Walk through halls and corridors filled with rich furnishings, teakwood furniture, European chandeliers, ancestral portraits, historical photographs, and plenty of memorabilia; sleep in rooms that were once reserved for the owners or their important guests. On the grounds you are bound to admire beautiful European marble sculptures, even as you run into a fleet of vintage cars or carriages, beautifully finished royal rail saloons, and most definitely, a stable of horses. Most of the properties are still owned and often even partially occupied by the original owners, who offer you a glimpse of the opulent life of maharajas, nawabs, and feudal families of the Raj, a period described so evocatively by writers like Kipling who once wrote that providence created the maharajas to provide mankind with a spectacle. In this booklet, we have included the entire range of properties from family-owned and -run heritage hotels to a few that have been taken over and modernised by entrepreneurs. Whether you want to taste traditional Gujarati vegetarian food in a haveli in Ahmedabad or meat dishes at a nawab’s palatial house, or look at vintage cars, or ride Marwari and Kathiawadi horses, or retreat to colonial bungalows on hilltops, you will find it here.


Located on the west coast of India, with a long coastline open to the Arabian Sea, Gujarat has been a centre for overseas trade for several millennia. The Harappan Civilisation, the mature phase of the Indus Valley Civilisation, established its southern outposts along the Gujarat coastline at sites like Lothal between 2400 and 1900 BC. The prosperity resulting from its port attracted invaders, conquerors, colonisers, and traders from different parts of the world. Each of the settlers brought with them their architectural style and cultural influences. Many warrior communities came into Gujarat and established their kingdoms. The Kathi Darbars came from the north-west and are believed to have Scythian ancestary. In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Solanki Rajputs brought in what is widely considered to be the golden period of architecture in Gujarat. Great patrons of art, the Solanki Rajputs built impressive forts with finely carved gateways at Dabhoi, Jhinjawada, Vadnagar, and other sites, the exquisitely carved temples of Modhera and Sidhapur, and a number of superbly sculpted Jain temples. A unique feature of the Solanki Rajput reign was the creation of water-retaining structures like stepwells and stepped tanks with ostentatiously carved walls. Between the 12th and the 16th century, many Rajput clans came to Gujarat from neighbouring lands, like Sindh and Rajasthan. The Jhala Rajputs came to Gujarat from Sindh in the 12th century and established their rule at Patdi, later moving their seat of power to Halwad in the 15th century. At the time of India’s independence, the Jhalas ruled gun-salute states like Dhrangadhra, Wankaner, Wadhwan, and Limbdi, and non-salute states like Sayla. The Gohil Rajputs came to Gujarat from Rajasthan in the 13th century and settled along the coast of south-eastern Saurashtra. They went on to found the princely states of Bhavnagar and Palitana, and one of the family’s branches also got established at Rajpipla. The Chauhan Rajput dynasty, after the fall of Champaner to the Gujarat Sultanate, moved into the eastern hills of Gujarat and established princely states like Chhota Udepur and Devgadh Baria. The Jadeja Rajputs migrated to Gujarat from Sindh and became the rulers of Kutch and Jamnagar. At the time of independence, they were rulers of Kutch