Rajasthan palace hotels worth the splurge

Rajasthan has more palace hotels than anywhere else in India, and a journey through it can be built entirely around them. Not all are worth the highest rates. The ones that are offer something you cannot find elsewhere: a building that was a royal home, a setting such as an island or a hilltop, and rooms with the scale and furniture of that history. The ones that are not tend to charge for the name while placing guests in small rooms facing an inner courtyard.

Our view is simple. Spend on one or two palace nights in each main city, and spend on the room rather than on the hotel name alone. A historical suite at a great palace can be the most memorable room of a trip; the cheapest room in the same building can disappoint. Below we go through the hotels we use most often, what each is worth paying for and the room types we ask for when we book.

The Taj Lake Palace is the one we would never cut from a first Rajasthan journey. Built between 1743 and 1746 as Jag Niwas, a pleasure palace for Maharana Jagat Singh II, it covers its own island in Lake Pichola and is reached only by boat from a jetty below the City Palace. The arrival alone justifies a night. Rooms differ widely in size and outlook, and that difference is the whole experience.

Ask for a lake-facing room or a historical suite. A room looking onto an inner courtyard is comfortable, but it is not why you came. Two nights is right for most guests; the island is small, and many couples pair it with two nights at The Oberoi Udaivilas across the water. Lake levels drop in dry years, which can change the view, so check current status before you travel. Lake-facing rooms for October to March book out months ahead.

Umaid Bhawan is the grandest building among Rajasthan's palace hotels. Commissioned by Maharaja Umaid Singh in 1929 and completed in 1943, it was built from local Chittar sandstone over around 14 years, and the Art Deco rotunda under its central dome is one of the most striking interiors in India. The royal family of Marwar still lives in one wing, a museum occupies another, and the rest is run by Taj as a hotel.

This is the hotel where the choice of room matters most. We book historical suites for guests who want the full palace, with their own sitting rooms and period furniture, and Palace rooms for most other stays. Rooms face either the gardens or the city, with Mehrangarh in the distance. The palace sits on a hill outside the old city, so plan a car for the bazaars, and keep one evening free for dinner on the terrace.

Rambagh began in 1835 as a garden house, became a royal hunting lodge and was rebuilt in the 1920s as the residence of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II. It became a hotel in 1957, one of the first palaces in India to do so, and it sits in large gardens about 15 minutes from the old city. Long verandas, marble corridors and peacocks on the lawns at dusk make it the obvious choice for a first visit to Jaipur.

Ask for a Palace room or a historical suite; the entry category does not show the building at its best. For a short stay of one or two nights, the Premium rooms are a sensible middle ground. Book one formal dinner at Suvarna Mahal, the former banquet hall, with a drink at the Polo Bar beforehand. Amber Fort is about 40 minutes away, so a slow morning in the gardens before the drive is worth protecting.

The Oberoi Rajvilas in Jaipur and The Oberoi Udaivilas in Udaipur are not historic palaces. They are resorts built in the palace style, Rajvilas in the late 1990s as a fort-village of courtyards, tents and villas, Udaivilas in 2002 on the eastern shore of Lake Pichola. Their rooms are consistent, their service is outstanding, and for many guests they are the more restful choice. Here the splurge buys space and privacy rather than history.

At Udaivilas, the rooms with semi-private pools and the suites with private pools are the reason to stay, and lake-view categories look across the water to the City Palace. At Rajvilas, the luxury tents and the villas, several with their own pools, are worth the step up from the entry rooms. Both hotels are a drive from the old city, about 25 minutes at Rajvilas and 15 at Udaivilas, which suits guests who want calm after a day of sightseeing.

Room names change between hotels and over the years, so describe what you want when you book: the view, the floor, a pool, a separate sitting room. We book by these features rather than by the name on the rate card, and we tell you honestly when an upgrade is not worth the money. The table shows what we usually ask for and how many nights we suggest.

Two other questions are worth asking before you pay for an upgrade. First, which part of the building the room is in: in the older palaces, rooms in the original wings have more character than those in later additions, while newer wings can be quieter and more consistent. Second, what the rate includes beyond breakfast, such as airport transfers, a dinner or spa time. We check both for every booking and tell you what you are paying for.

A palace journey does not need a grand palace every night. Smaller family palaces such as Samode, an hour from Jaipur, and Deogarh Mahal in Mewar give a night of real character, often with the owners present. Boutique hotels such as RAAS, in the old city of Jodhpur below Mehrangarh, trade size for location. And two or three nights at a tented camp such as SUJÁN Jawai change the rhythm of the journey completely.

The pattern we suggest is one grand palace in each main city, a smaller or more personal stay between them, and the best rooms where they matter most. Our Palaces of Rajasthan journey follows this shape over 11 nights, at Samode, Rambagh, Umaid Bhawan, the Taj Lake Palace and Udaivilas, from INR 6,50,000 per person. Rates are highest over Christmas, New Year and Diwali; the monsoon offers better value, especially in Udaipur.

• Book six to nine months ahead for October to March at the Lake Palace, Rambagh and Umaid Bhawan.
• Check for weddings: large private events can close parts of a palace on some dates.
• Tell the hotel about a honeymoon or anniversary; small touches often follow, though never guaranteed.