A Luxury Guide to India

01Mumbai

Colaba · Maharashtra

The Taj Mahal Palace — Bombay's living room

Opened in 1903 and overlooking the Gateway of India, the Taj Mahal Palace is the city's grand dame and the one address that has hosted maharajas, presidents and most of the modern century in between. The Palace Wing — distinct from the adjoining Tower — is where you want to be: high ceilings, vintage corridors and harbour-facing suites that catch the morning light off the Arabian Sea.

Take afternoon tea at the Sea Lounge for the harbour view, dinner at Wasabi by Morimoto for the city's finest sushi, and a late cocktail at the Harbour Bar — India's oldest licensed bar.

Insider Tip Request a heritage palace suite with a Gateway view. The concierge can arrange a private after-hours tour of the hotel's art and photography collection — one of the finest privately held archives in India.

Apollo Bunder, Colaba, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400001

02Udaipur

Lake Pichola · Rajasthan

The Oberoi Udaivilas — palace on the water's edge

Built across thirty acres on the western bank of Lake Pichola, Udaivilas is less a hotel than a private estate that happens to receive guests. Domed pavilions, fountained courtyards and slow walks along the lake at sunset have made it, for two decades running, one of the most decorated hotels in the world.

The premier rooms with semi-private pool overlook the lake and the City Palace on the far shore. Dine at Suryamahal for slow Rajasthani thali, or at Udaimahal for the lighter Italian menu.

Insider Tip Arrive by boat from the City Palace jetty rather than the road. The first sight of the white domes rising from the water is the single most memorable arrival in Indian hospitality.

Haridasji ki Magri, Udaipur, Rajasthan 313001

03Jodhpur

Umaid Hill · Rajasthan

Umaid Bhawan Palace — the last great palace of India

Completed in 1943 and still partly the residence of the Jodhpur royal family, Umaid Bhawan is the last of the great Indian palaces to be built — a vast Art Deco confection of golden sandstone and rose-pink marble crowning the city's highest hill. The Taj group operates a third of the palace as a hotel; the rest remains the family's private home and a small museum.

The royal suites in the original wing carry the original furnishings, but the standard heritage rooms are arguably the better stay: more light, more air, more of the architecture's geometry. Dine at Risala for the slow Marwari menu, and reserve the underground Trophy Bar for a single quiet whisky after dinner.

Insider Tip Ask about the morning vintage car procession — the royal family's collection includes a 1947 Cadillac and a Buick once gifted by the Nizam of Hyderabad, both still driven.

Umaid Bhawan Palace Road, Jodhpur, Rajasthan 342006

04Jaipur

Bhawani Singh Road · Rajasthan

Rambagh Palace — high tea among the peacocks

Once the principal residence of the Maharajas of Jaipur and now the city's grandest hotel, Rambagh is set in forty-seven acres of gardens that still belong, in spirit, to the peacocks. Afternoon tea on the Verandah Café, with the birds wandering nearby on the lawn, is the city's most quietly theatrical hour.

The Suvarna Mahal restaurant — the original royal banquet hall — serves the old recipes of the Jaipur kitchen. The Polo Bar, two rooms across, is panelled in trophies and the soft brown light of a century of regimental dinners.

Insider Tip For jewellery clients in Jaipur to visit our atelier, Rambagh sits ten minutes from us. We are happy to coordinate your private viewing around your tea or dinner reservation.

Bhawani Singh Road, Jaipur, Rajasthan 302005

05Agra

Taj Ganj · Uttar Pradesh

The Oberoi Amarvilas — the only address with a view

Six hundred metres from the Taj Mahal and the only hotel in Agra from which every room sees it, Amarvilas has — in the twenty-five years since it opened — become the de facto residence for travellers who want the monument as the first and last thing they look at each day. The architecture is Moorish, the pools terraced, and the staff trained to a precision that recalls the great European houses.

Take breakfast on the room balcony rather than the restaurant; the mist over the Taj burns off only once.

Insider Tip Schedule your Taj visit at sunrise, return for a long late breakfast, and use the afternoon for the lesser-visited tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah — often called the Baby Taj — across the river. Most tour itineraries miss it.

Taj East Gate Road, Taj Nagari, Agra, Uttar Pradesh 282001

06New Delhi

Janpath · Delhi

The Imperial — Lutyens' Delhi, preserved

Opened in 1936 on what was then the edge of the newly built imperial capital, the Imperial remains the most intact piece of pre-Independence hotel architecture in India. The Victorian Wing's heritage rooms keep their original cornices and almost five thousand pieces of period art line the corridors and public rooms — easily one of the finest privately held collections of the Raj-era visual record.

Dine at Daniell's Tavern, named for the two English painters whose aquatints hang on its walls, or at the older 1911 Restaurant for the slow Indian menu. The Patiala Peg bar is the appropriate final stop.

Insider Tip Ask the concierge for the printed art walk through the hotel's collection. It is unhurried, free and the closest you will come to a quiet museum visit in central Delhi.

Janpath Lane, Connaught Place, New Delhi, Delhi 110001

07Varanasi

Darbhanga Ghat · Uttar Pradesh

Brij Rama Palace — the ghats from inside

Built in 1812 and converted only a decade ago into India's first riverfront heritage hotel, Brij Rama is the rare address in Varanasi that sits directly on the Ganga at one of the four principal ghats. The terraces look down on the morning ablutions and the evening Ganga Aarti — a vantage no boat or street will offer.

The rooms are small, the service unflashy, and the rooftop dinner at Darbhanga Restaurant offers the calmest view of the city you will find.

Insider Tip Take the hotel's private boat for the dawn ride along the ghats. Have your driver wait outside the old city; the lanes are too narrow for cars, and the walk in is part of the arrival.

Darbhanga Ghat, Brahma Ghat, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh 221001

08Bengaluru

HAL Airport Road · Karnataka

The Leela Palace — the modern court

Built in 2001 in the manner of the great Mysore palaces but to thoroughly modern standards, the Leela has become Bengaluru's preferred address for the technology and old-money set in equal measure. The pool, sunk between domes and gardens, is the city's most pleasant lunchtime hour.

Jamavar serves the most considered north Indian menu in the south; Library Bar is where the city's slow conversations still happen, on long sofas and with no music.

Insider Tip Bengaluru is the right pause between northern itineraries and onward travel to Kerala or Tamil Nadu. Two unhurried nights at the Leela reset the journey.

23 Old Airport Road, Kodihalli, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560008

09Delhi

Sardar Patel Marg · Delhi

Bukhara — the dish is the room

For more than forty-five years the restaurant at the ITC Maurya has served a menu that has barely changed and arguably defined how the world eats north Indian food. The dal Bukhara — black lentils, finished in butter and cream, slow-simmered for eighteen hours — is the single dish that the kitchen will not adapt for anyone, including visiting heads of state. The tradition is to eat with hands; the cutlery exists only because guests once asked.

Booking is essential, and the kitchen recommends arriving hungry. The bread is the size of the table.

Insider Tip Reserve the chef's counter — eight seats, looking directly into the open tandoors. It is the best meal in the city and not significantly more expensive than the main floor.

ITC Maurya, Diplomatic Enclave, Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi, Delhi 110021

10Shimla

Mashobra · Himachal Pradesh

The Oberoi Wildflower Hall — the Himalayan retreat

Set at eight thousand feet on the wooded ridge once home to Lord Kitchener's mountain retreat, Wildflower Hall is the right addition to the end of any northern itinerary: a long drive up from the plains, a week of pine-scented mornings and clear mountain light, and the option of walking the deodar trails that begin at the hotel's gate.

The cedar-panelled rooms with mountain-facing balconies are the only ones to book; the spa, with its outdoor heated pool, is the best in the Himalayas.

Insider Tip Three nights minimum. The drive is six hours from Delhi; one day is required to acclimatise; the second is for walking; the third is for not leaving the room.

Charabra, Mashobra, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh 171012