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A splendid room at Taj Lake Palace
 

pleasure palaces
Published in the July-September 2009 issue.

In India, you can stay in the style of a maharaja, soak up some colonial atmosphere or experience urban chic, says Brian Johnston.


In the dining room of the Windamere Hotel, only candles flicker in the gloom. Waiters in white gloves offer trays, from which guests serve themselves with dishes straight out of 1930s Britain: watercress soup followed by chicken in sherry sauce. Soon, everyone is tucking into trifle like characters in an E.M. Foster novel.

High in the hills of Darjeeling in eastern India, the genteel Windamere Hotel has a decaying, somewhat wistful atmosphere. People stay here to experience the nostalgia of an age in which writing desks, claw-foot baths and music rooms featured prominently in every good establishment. It’s the sort of place where, when you return from dinner, you find that someone has tucked a hot-water bottle between the sheets, drawn the curtains and stoked up the coal fire so it blazes merrily.

The lily pond at Taj Lake Palace
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On the walls of your guestroom are photos of sahibs in pith helmets and Queen Victoria in her carriage, as well as old advertisements for Thomas Cook tours of India and Ceylon (now known, of course, as Sri Lanka).

There’s also a quaintly formal notice above the telephone that reads, ‘Dear Honoured Guest, Our telephone intercom service was Windamere’s pride and joy when it was installed in 1950. It gave reliable service for 20 years and then went wrong… We have been keeping this deficiency under review and, meanwhile, crave your indulgence.’

One thing remains constant in India: its hotels are never short of surprises, mostly of the delightful kind. And over the last decade, the accommodation options available have increased exponentially. Nowadays, you can find not just somnolent colonial relics like the Windamere, but everything from outstanding five-star resorts to international-brand hotels and a lavish supply of boutique properties.

The vast Umaid Bhawan in Jodhpur

Head to Rishikesh, for example, and you can unwind in the old-fashioned way: in a basic ashram, with prohibitions on the consumption of meat alcohol and for some reason, onions, and no television.

Or find nirvana the easy way at Ananda in the Himalayas, a stunning former vice-regal’s palace stuffed with Art Deco furnishings, with a luxurious spa centre to pamper guests into states of bliss along with an art and culture program and old-school service.

When it comes to luxurious accommodation in India, two names count and both are local: Taj and Oberoi. The latter group opened its first property in Delhi back in the 1960s. Service at this and any other Oberoi hotel is still second to none – you can expect even the bellhop to recall your name, never mind your personal butler.

Striking decor at Oberoi Vanyavilas
 

Oberoi has also had huge success with its ‘vilas’ properties. Oberoi Rajvilas in Jaipur is one of the subcontinent’s iconic resorts, garnering numerous awards and setting many a trend. Built in the style of a traditional Rajasthan palace, it is renowned for its outstanding craftsmanship and artworks, not to mention its 13 hectares of gardens. Guestrooms here have four-poster beds and sunken marble baths overlooking private, walled gardens; luxury tents are air-conditioned and have embroidered interior canopies, old-fashioned baths and decks.

At Oberoi Amarvilas in Agra, you’re treated to mesmerising views of the Taj Mahal from guestroom balconies. At night, braziers and lamps flicker by the hotel’s pool to the sound of tinkling fountains, like something out of an Indian fairytale.

Oberoi’s main rival is the Taj group; its flagship property, the Taj Mahal in Mumbai, opened in December 1903 and was the first building in the city to have electricity. Today, the Taj group owns prestige properties right around India and operates some of the nation’s most famous hotels – such as Rambagh Palace in Jaipur, the first heritage hotel in India. Vast and elegant, with an opulent swimming pool and beautiful buildings, it’s the kind of place where you might find yourself rubbing shoulders with Rajasthani royalty and Bollywood stars at the elegant Polo Bar.

Oberoi Vanyavilas in the heart of Rajasthan
 

Farther west, in Jodhpur, the Umaid Bhawan Palace is colossal: indeed, part of the building is still occupied by the local royal family. The palace-hotel has some glorious Art Deco furniture, marble staircases, a 1940s indoor swimming pool, a 56-metre-high central dome – even an in-house cinema. If you can afford it, book in to one of the two dozen Historical Suites, stuffed with artworks and period furniture, with sumptuous Art Deco bathrooms that are a wonder to behold.

The most famous of all Indian properties, however, is surely the Taj Lake Palace, built as a summer retreat in the middle of Lake Pichola in Udaipur. The air of romance and adventure starts from the moment you’re ferried across to the island to find a marvellous palace with courtyards, lily-ponds and flowerbeds, where the swimming pool is shaded by mango trees and the views across the lake to Udaipur’s old town are nothing short of splendid.

Taj recently joined forces with CC Africa – recently re-branded as &Beyond – to open a series of luxury safari-style resorts. The first was the exquisitely pretty Mahua Kothi, at the tiger reserve of Bandavgarh National Park in the Indian state of Madya Pradesh. Their latest, Pashan Garh in Panna National Park, near Khajuraho, incorporates just 12 luxurious stone cottages, each with magnificent views over the forest and a large nearby waterhole that plays host to numerous tiger and antelope. The intimate guest experience is enhanced by butler service and interpretive game drives with trained naturalists on which guests may spot tigers, leopards, wolves and sloth bears, wild boar and Indian crocodile.

Stylish living at Rambagh Palace
 

In Ranthambhore National Park, famed for its tigers. Aman-i-Khás offers tent-style accommodation with cool white interiors. Aman’s most famous property in India, though, is Amanbagh in Ajabgarh, arguably the finest resort in the country. Built of pale-pink marble and sandstone, it shimmers in the desert of Rajasthan. Guests stay in well-appointed private villas on the edge of palm-fringed canals full of songbirds.

Such smaller, boutique hotels are becoming increasingly common in India. In Darjeeling, for example, The Burra Bungalow on Glenburn Tea Estate has just four superb rooms, set in the middle of a tea plantation, with views over the Himalaya and lofty cuisine to match. Visitors can partake of picnics among the tea bushes – carried by bearers in livery and laid out complete with tablecloth, crockery, even vases of flowers.

Meanwhile, in Cochin Fort in Kerala province, Old Harbour Hotel also lures nostalgia buffs with fine décor and an elegant atmosphere. The early-nineteenth-century bungalow, once the residence of a family involved in the tea trade, has a charming sense of history.

Colonial charm at Old Harbour Hotel in Cochin
 

Boutique hotels don’t rely simply on their Indian or colonial heritage. In Goa, Nilaya Hermitage has made a name for itself with 12 themed guest suites designed by former Parisian fashion-stylist and co-owner Claudia Derain. And Devi Garh in Udaipur might be housed in a Rajasthan fort, but has a minimalist and very modern interior whose chic layout celebrates the best of contemporary Indian interior design.

Modernity has also come to India in the form of international hotel brands that were once a rarity here. Westin is set to open its first two properties in India in September this year (The Westin Hyderabad Mindspace and The Westin Pune Koregaon Park). A third is scheduled to open in Mumbai in December, with more to follow in New Delhi in 2010 and in Bangalore and Kolkata (Calcutta) in 2011. Parent company Starwood Hotels aims to operate 50 hotels across India by next year, under brand names such as St Regis, W Hotels and Le Méridien, and all this high-end hospitality is bound to make stays in urban India more streamlined and pleasurable.

Hyatt hotels are also making quite a mark. Hyatt Regency Delhi epitomises the wave of modern hotels engulfing India: from the minute you step into the cream-coloured lobby, flooded with light, this hugely popular hotel makes the most of its contemporary feel, and its public spaces are buzzing: the Polo Bar is a favoured evening venue with guests and aspiring locals. True, there isn’t much of a flavour of India here, but the divine European cakes in the on-site pastry shop may be just what you need after a week of gulab jamun. The Hyatt Regency in Kolkata is another of the new design-conscious breed of hotels. A trendy cigar lounge that seems to float in mid-air and guestrooms with teak floors and sunken baths set the stylish edge, though the hotel’s location, near the airport, favours business rather than leisure travellers.
This is all a long way from the Windamere Hotel in Darjeeling, shabby but delightful. Such heritage hotels are generally individually operated; hence, can be hard for visitors to track down. The best way to find them is via websites such as Heritage Hotels of India, Indian Heritage Hotels and Neemrana Hotels. Independently-run establishments also suffer from the fact that the Indian government rates hotels by size and amenities – meaning that many heritage hotels get ill-deserved low star ratings. In fact, some of these establishments are simply outstanding. Among the best are a wonderful property in Jaipur known as the Samode Palace – popular as a backdrop for Bollywood movies – and Deogarh Mahal between Jaipur and Udaipur, an elaborate 17th-century fort and one of the most authentic heritage experiences in the land.

Wherever you choose to lay your head, India bristles with marvellous accommodation experiences – including the Windamere Hotel, with its eccentric staff and dodgy plumbing. An establishment like this may seem like little more than a relic of crusty old England – but in the mornings, you wake to the sounds of bells and Buddhist chants, as mist swirls through the pine trees; the valley plunges away in tiers of tea plantations and monkeys squabble beyond your window. Meanwhile, in the dining room, chintz curtains are thrown back to reveal an extraordinary Himalayan landscape, and there are porridge and kippers for breakfast.

Where else in the world could you find all this in one place?

Photography courtesy hotels and resorts.


TRAVEL FACTS

getting there
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India Tourism, phone 02 9221 9555 or go to www.incredibleindia.org
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