PRICE:
Frommer's Exceptional

If you're hell-bent on experiencing the blue blood of heritage properties, Rambagh Palace is both the largest (19 hectares/47 acres) and most elegant option in Jaipur; its origins date back to 1835. Converted into a hotel in 1957, it is today a favorite of Bollywood stars and worth visiting for a drink or dinner even if you're not staying here. Of the three room categories, the standards (which the Taj calls \"superior\") are disappointing -- particularly those located in the new wing, where badly lit carpeted corridors run past an endless number of rooms with low ceilings and tacky hotel furniture. Then again, you probably won't spend a great deal of time in your room; you'll be too busy luxuriating in the gracious, beautiful palace buildings (which, incidentally, house one of Rajasthan's classiest bars, the Polo); or you'll be strolling the sweeping lawns. To feel as if you're actually living in a palace apartment, however, opt for a luxury room (no. 317 is just fabulous) -- old-fashioned in a colonial rather than Rajasthani sense, elegant and spacious, they really are worth the extra $80. Dining at the swish Suvarna Mahal is a grand affair. Certainly the hotel has every amenity you could wish for (except an outdoor pool), but you sense that a certain complacency has crept in -- even the best heritage hotel in Jaipur can't rest on its laurels forever.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's India, 3rd Edition, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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