Rajasthan, India really has an awful lot of very good hotels. You can choose a new one such as Jaipur’s Oberoi Rajvilas or one of the classics such as the Taj Lake Palace Hotel, in Lake Pichola, Udaipur.

Taj Lake Palace Hotel

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Taj Lake Palace is the hotel in the lake a short gondola ride from the centre of town. Although original this hotel as all the mod cons: complete with a swimming pool in the central courtyard. Although most guests rave about it, remember this is still India: you wouldn’t want to swim in Lake Pochola, and the lake center location can mean that mosquitoes are a problem. The opposite problems occurs too: during the dry season the lake sometimes drys up which means the gondola ride is replaced with a much more prosaic jeep trip!

Shiv Niwas within the City Palace, in the center of town, although still an operating royal residence, the City Palace also features a museum, well worth a look, and not one but two luxurious hotel. The Shiv Niwas has hosted such as Queen Elizabeth and the Kennedys but these days the standards have slipped a bit and you will find better options in town.

Saving the best to last is the Oberoi Udaivilas. A similar level of luxury to its sister hotel, Oberoi’s Rajvilas in Jaipur this new hotel is on the site of the maharajah’s former hunting grounds and therefore enjoys an expansive 12ha estate. Although a new property the Oberoi Udaivilas are constructed in traditional style featuring shiny white marble complete with domes and colonnades. All rooms drip more white marble and gold embellishments. In the style of a golden-domed Rajasthani palaces many rooms give uninterrupted views over the Lake Pichola to the dramatic City Palace. A number of the suites also include a private dining pavilion and a semi-private infinity edge swimming pool. The landscaped gardens include two large swimming pools or you can enjoy soothing aromatherapies at the spa overlooking the lake.

Udaipur is definitely one of the most charming cities in the whole of India. Make sure you make the effort to check out the town’s colorful bazaar and the 300-year-old Jagdish Temple, the largest Hindu temple in India. Not to mention the Palaces that you aren’t staying at!

Rajasthan’s history is all about class, great wealth and deep poverty. Rajasthan, India has never got with the communist agenda: or even the modern welfare state as practiced in Western Europe. No Rajasthan was always a princely state and the Princes in some cases still live in the Palaces or more often part of them and rent out the rest as luxury hotels

Now the next generation of princes have moved in: in the form off top-notch hotel companies and now new destinations are being added to the old ones. You see somewhere like the new Oberoi Rajvilas just outside Jaipur, isn’t a hotel it’s a destination in itself. You are not going to Jaipur, you are going to the Oberoi Rajvilas. Just like Hotel California: you can never leave - well that’s what management hopes for anyway! On arrival guests are greeted with trumpets, elephants and dancers. Then they are escorted by a liveried manservant past the water garden and sculpted elephants at the hotel entrance to the cool reception hall and are garlanded with necklaces of marigold blossom and offered watermelon juice. Just like being a guest of the old-style Marajarah’s! But with of course all the mod-cons of a international standard 5 star hotel.

Now I have nothing against a fantastically comfortable and luxurious hotel, which is what the Oberoi Rajvilas is. But don’t miss the opportunity to actually go to Jaipur, while you are in the neighbourhood. The hotel will arrange a driver for the 15km trip into town. Jaipur is a fantastic living, breathing Indian town. It is therefore not five star: its grubby, its dusty, its full of beggars and crazy drivers. Check out Nahargarh Palace on top of the hill with awesome views of the town. It was the palace of one Jai Singh II who planned and built the town of Jaipur in the 18th century.

Also get out to the monkey temple, as Galta temple is known as. Not because the temple is sacred to the monkey god Hanuman, but because the monkeys run wild. Just make sure you keep tight hold on to all your belongings the thieves are very quick: that’s the monkeys of course: they will steal your glasses off your face if you are not careful! Be warned though you might be the only tourist there and only find local devotees. Make sure you leave a donation too.

After all the heat, and dust and drama which is India and Jaipur though: returning to the Oberoi would be delightful. Especially if you have booked the best room in the house which in their own words is:

The jewel in the Udaipur crown is the Kohinoor Suite, 2,650sq ft of palatial comfort. With its fountained courtyards, massive private pool, sitting room with real fireplaces, and master suite with its own wooden sauna, this suite if fit for Royalty.
It offers breath taking views of the City Palace and the Aravali Hills overlooking Lake Pichola. It features a spacious living room and dining area, a luxurious 20 meter private pool, garden terraces and two bedrooms. The suite also has a small pantry and an additional bedroom.