Incredible India
7 Things to Do in Bundi, Rajasthan's Town of Stepwells and Painted Palaces
A fraction as visited as Jaipur or Udaipur, Bundi packs a hilltop fort, a mural-covered palace and dozens of stepwells into a small town most Rajasthan itineraries still skip.
Sep 24, 2026 · BigTravel.in
Bundi sits in a narrow valley in south-eastern Rajasthan, small enough to see on foot and old enough to have accumulated a genuinely unusual concentration of stepwells, over fifty of them within the town, alongside a hilltop fort and a palace whose murals rank among the finest surviving examples of Rajput painting. It remains far quieter than Jaipur or Udaipur. Here are seven things to do, each with a direct map link.
1. Garh Palace and its murals
Built up the hillside in yellow sandstone from the 17th century onward, Garh Palace holds some of Rajasthan's best-preserved wall paintings, particularly in the Chitrashala gallery, where Bundi-school miniatures cover the walls and ceilings in blues and greens rarely seen elsewhere in the state.
2. Taragarh Fort
Above the palace, Taragarh, the Star Fort, is largely unrestored, its ramparts overgrown and its stepped water tank empty, which is part of the appeal: a genuinely atmospheric ruin with sweeping views back over the town and the surrounding hills, with almost no crowd to share it with.
3. Raniji ki Baori
The Queen's Stepwell, built in 1699, descends more than twenty metres in tiers of carved sandstone arches, one of the largest and most architecturally accomplished of Bundi's stepwells and a good introduction to why the town has earned its reputation for them.
4. A walk through Bundi's other stepwells
Beyond Raniji ki Baori, Bundi holds dozens more stepwells scattered through its lanes, most unmarked and unrestored, in varying states of repair. Seeking out even three or four on foot gives a much better sense of the sheer scale of the town's stepwell-building history than any single site can.
5. Nawal Sagar Lake
A rectangular artificial lake at the foot of the palace, Nawal Sagar reflects Garh Palace and Taragarh Fort in its water on still mornings, one of Bundi's most photographed views and a natural spot to pause on a walk through town.
6. Sukh Mahal
A small lakeside summer palace on the edge of Jait Sagar lake, Sukh Mahal is where Rudyard Kipling is said to have stayed and drawn inspiration for parts of Kim, and it now houses a modest museum with a pleasant, quiet lakeside setting.
7. The blue lanes of Bundi's old town
Below the palace, a tangle of narrow lanes lined with indigo-washed houses recalls Jodhpur's blue city on a much smaller, far less touristed scale, best explored slowly on foot in the early morning before the day's heat sets in.
Traveller tips
- Bundi is roughly a 4 to 5 hour drive or train journey from Jaipur, and works well as a quieter stop between Jaipur and Udaipur or Chittorgarh.
- Many stepwells sit unfenced and can be slippery; visit in daylight and keep a careful distance from unguarded edges.
- October to March offers the most comfortable temperatures for walking the old town and climbing to Taragarh Fort.
- A local guide is worth hiring for the palace murals specifically, since Bundi-school painting details are easy to miss without context.
Where this is
Bundi, Rajasthan