Exploring India's Grand Heritage In the Lap of Luxury
In India, you can stay in affordable splendour while visiting the sumptuous creations of Mughals and Maharajas...
Ed Grenby - 19 March 2024
Tigers, temples, tombs and palaces. India is famous for dazzling visitors with all these, and more – but only one of the four will also put you up overnight! The subcontinent’s grand, gilded hotels are an unmissable travel experience in their own right: some date back to the Raj era, and are as much a part of India’s history and culture as the Amber Fort or the Taj Mahal. Others remain home, even today, to a Maharajah and his family, while still accommodating holiday-makers in unrivalled luxury among His Highness’s Rolls Royce collection and peacock-speckled lawns.
That, perhaps, is why Channel 4’s new travelogue, Grand Indian Hotel, focuses on four of the country’s most splendid properties – all belonging to venerable Indian hospitality group Oberoi – taking viewers behind the rich silk drapes to see how these holiday fantasies really function.
Even better than watching, though, is using the hotels – some of which are surprisingly affordable – as a springboard for your own trip. India, despite being home to almost one and a half billion souls and covering an area one third the size of Europe, is doable in a single trip if you stick to the classic “Golden Triangle” (and even more so if you’re staying at an Oberoi or two).
Begin in Delhi, the best “point” of the triangle to fly into, then hit Agra and Jaipur: the three are linked by great roads and reliable trains, and take in not just the Taj Mahal and Amber Fort but also the exquisite Palace of the Winds and Chandni Chowk, the bustling market that out-bustles perhaps any other on the planet.
Plenty of tour operators can package up such a trip, tailoring it to your interests and budget; for starters try Greaves India (greavesindia.co.uk) or Cox & Kings (coxandkings.co.uk). Meanwhile, here’s the bare bones of a classic first-timer’s itinerary, complete with an elegant Oberoi hotel (oberoihotels.com) for each stop.
DAYS 1—3: DELHI
Starting in the country’s capital is to some extent to dive in at the deep end, with all the heat, dust, noise, smells and visible poverty that implies. So, dip your toe in on day one by sticking to the elegant colonial surroundings of Lutyens-designed New Delhi. There’s nothing wrong, in fact, with parking yourself amid the pools and gardens of The Oberoi itself. Next day, however, venture out into teeming Old Delhi – by rickshaw if you’re still not used to the heat (early morning is better). The main attraction is the labyrinthine, dream-like Red Fort, once the chief citadel of the Mughal emperors; but Chandni Chowk, just beside it, is a similar cat’s-cradle collection of lanes where you can buy anything from a hand-built laptop to blisteringly spiced street food. Take an afternoon rest at the hotel, then at dusk taxi out to Humayun’s Tomb, the “original” that inspired the Taj Mahal. It’s more evocative from the outside – sunset in its exotically perfumed gardens is unforgettable – so you can skip the inside and get an early night. That way you’re ready for the Jama Masjid mosque next morning. Dating back to the 17th century, it’s a glorious island of serenity from which you can happily watch city life whizz by around you.
DAYS 4—5: AGRA
Chauffeur-driven cars are cheap in India, so stretch out in the back while your driver eases you four hours southeast to Agra. The city is just as intensely in-your-face as Delhi, but it’s worth it for that monument to a deceased love. The Taj Mahal is best seen in late afternoon, once all the coach parties and backpackers have left. And don’t worry about a guide. It’s not about the history here, just the serene, sigh-inducing beauty.
Stay the night at The Oberoi Amarvilas – the rooms, service and Taj views are the best in the area – but don’t loll in bed come morning. Get up before daybreak and take the drive across the Yamuna river, beyond Mehtab Bagh, the monument’s pleasure gardens, and out to the village of Kachpura. If you’re lucky, you’ll see the Taj painted all the colours of the sunrise while mist sits above green fields and egrets take flight.
DAYS 6—7: JAIPUR
Sleep off that early start on the five-hour drive west (take it easy when you get there, too: the fountains, pools and tented rooms of The Oberoi Rajvilas were made for it). Jaipur, the “Pink City”, is another assault on the senses, as busy but as beautiful as a Bollywood production number. The key sites are: the Palace of the Winds (pink, of course, and just as decorous as you’d expect from the place built so the Maharajah’s harem could see the city life without being seen themselves); the galleries and gardens of the beautiful City Palace; the Jantar Mantar observatory, with its mindwarpingly big astronomical devices; and Amber Fort, so Arabian Nights-fantastical it looks like CGI. The rest of India you’ll have to save for your second trip.
Tigers, temples, tombs and palaces. India is famous for dazzling visitors with all these, and more – but only one of the four will also put you up overnight! The subcontinent’s grand, gilded hotels are an unmissable travel experience in their own right: some date back to the Raj era, and are as much a part of India’s history and culture as the Amber Fort or the Taj Mahal. Others remain home, even today, to a Maharajah and his family, while still accommodating holiday-makers in unrivalled luxury among His Highness’s Rolls Royce collection and peacock-speckled lawns.
That, perhaps, is why Channel 4’s new travelogue, Grand Indian Hotel, focuses on four of the country’s most splendid properties – all belonging to venerable Indian hospitality group Oberoi – taking viewers behind the rich silk drapes to see how these holiday fantasies really function.
Even better than watching, though, is using the hotels – some of which are surprisingly affordable – as a springboard for your own trip. India, despite being home to almost one and a half billion souls and covering an area one third the size of Europe, is doable in a single trip if you stick to the classic “Golden Triangle” (and even more so if you’re staying at an Oberoi or two).
Begin in Delhi, the best “point” of the triangle to fly into, then hit Agra and Jaipur: the three are linked by great roads and reliable trains, and take in not just the Taj Mahal and Amber Fort but also the exquisite Palace of the Winds and Chandni Chowk, the bustling market that out-bustles perhaps any other on the planet.
Plenty of tour operators can package up such a trip, tailoring it to your interests and budget; for starters try Greaves India (greavesindia.co.uk) or Cox & Kings (coxandkings.co.uk). Meanwhile, here’s the bare bones of a classic first-timer’s itinerary, complete with an elegant Oberoi hotel (oberoihotels.com) for each stop.
DAYS 1—3: DELHI
Starting in the country’s capital is to some extent to dive in at the deep end, with all the heat, dust, noise, smells and visible poverty that implies. So, dip your toe in on day one by sticking to the elegant colonial surroundings of Lutyens-designed New Delhi. There’s nothing wrong, in fact, with parking yourself amid the pools and gardens of The Oberoi itself. Next day, however, venture out into teeming Old Delhi – by rickshaw if you’re still not used to the heat (early morning is better). The main attraction is the labyrinthine, dream-like Red Fort, once the chief citadel of the Mughal emperors; but Chandni Chowk, just beside it, is a similar cat’s-cradle collection of lanes where you can buy anything from a hand-built laptop to blisteringly spiced street food. Take an afternoon rest at the hotel, then at dusk taxi out to Humayun’s Tomb, the “original” that inspired the Taj Mahal. It’s more evocative from the outside – sunset in its exotically perfumed gardens is unforgettable – so you can skip the inside and get an early night. That way you’re ready for the Jama Masjid mosque next morning. Dating back to the 17th century, it’s a glorious island of serenity from which you can happily watch city life whizz by around you.
DAYS 4—5: AGRA
Chauffeur-driven cars are cheap in India, so stretch out in the back while your driver eases you four hours southeast to Agra. The city is just as intensely in-your-face as Delhi, but it’s worth it for that monument to a deceased love. The Taj Mahal is best seen in late afternoon, once all the coach parties and backpackers have left. And don’t worry about a guide. It’s not about the history here, just the serene, sigh-inducing beauty.
Stay the night at The Oberoi Amarvilas – the rooms, service and Taj views are the best in the area – but don’t loll in bed come morning. Get up before daybreak and take the drive across the Yamuna river, beyond Mehtab Bagh, the monument’s pleasure gardens, and out to the village of Kachpura. If you’re lucky, you’ll see the Taj painted all the colours of the sunrise while mist sits above green fields and egrets take flight.
DAYS 6—7: JAIPUR
Sleep off that early start on the five-hour drive west (take it easy when you get there, too: the fountains, pools and tented rooms of The Oberoi Rajvilas were made for it). Jaipur, the “Pink City”, is another assault on the senses, as busy but as beautiful as a Bollywood production number. The key sites are: the Palace of the Winds (pink, of course, and just as decorous as you’d expect from the place built so the Maharajah’s harem could see the city life without being seen themselves); the galleries and gardens of the beautiful City Palace; the Jantar Mantar observatory, with its mindwarpingly big astronomical devices; and Amber Fort, so Arabian Nights-fantastical it looks like CGI. The rest of India you’ll have to save for your second trip.