Maharajas' Palace Hotels in India

Udaipur is another stunningly beautiful city with its huge majestic city palace. We stayed at the Shiv Niwas Palace, a beautiful old building which is actually part of the city palace. We had a glorious view over the lake across to another palace from our huge terrace and balcony, and each evening as the sun went down and the air cooled we were treated to a hysterical display in the trees opposite. Mother monkeys brought their offspring for training in this relatively safe location allowing them fifteen minutes of swinging and general naughtiness before heading home. The Shiv Niwas Palace hotel has a pool in one of the courtyards with tables at which lunch, dinner and drinks can be served, which is very pleasant although not as good as the view we had from our room's multiple terraces. We suspect that we were upgraded to a better suite of rooms, because the official room price was about $500 a night and we certainly didn't pay that much.

View from hotel room (above)

Udaipur is a wonderful place just to wander around on foot or by tuc-tuc. There is a museum in the palace and a classic car collection near-by, "The Royal Cars", including some Mercedes, Rolls Royces two jeep/safari Rolls Royce hybrids and various other American and British cars from 1920's to about 1960's. There is also another substandard Zoo. Nothing too exciting, but an enjoyable relaxing place to visit.

Roadworks in Udaipur:

In Agra we stayed in the Taj View Hotel, which only really had one positive attribute, which was that we really could see the Taj Mahal from the bedroom. Just. Through the smog, The Taj Mahal was visible, peaking out from behind some less attractive buildings.


View from The Taj View Hotel:

Imperial Hotel (above)

New Delhi:


Delhi is an interesting city with fascinating history and some wonderful purpose built hotels. While not as historically interesting as some of the Marharajas' palaces, there are some impressive art deco hotels. My two favorite hotels in Delhi are the Imperial, which I stayed at on a holiday and the Oberoi which I used when I was working in Noida.

Delhi:


The Imperial Hotel is a very grand art deco building with luxurious rooms a beautiful interior, a few expensive boutiques an excellent bar and a selection of restaurants, from "continental" style to Asian or Indian. The "1911" restaurant is a good place to step back in time and enjoy beautiful surroundings and good food or just a drink. For dinner, in the "continental" style restaurant, I had the very un-Indian "Foie Gras Lasagne" starter followed by Guinea Fowl and pigs trotter stew, which was extremely good. The Oberoi Hotel is even more luxurious and expensive with a similar selection of restaurants and bars. Claridges Hotel is also worth a visit for a luxurious spot of tiffin or dinner in the excellent Indian restaurant.

Summary: Some of the most interesting hotels in the world


New Delhi:


Delhi: