Few days in a Heritage hotel is one of the most unique luxury travel experiences in India. What is a Heritage Hotel…? Well it all started in the early 1970s when a few royal families realized that their beautiful and massive palaces can be used for more than private residences.
This realization sparked the ‘Heritage Hotel’ revolution and what were once opulently decorated and ‘only for royalty’ palaces and forts, opened their gates as world class 5* super luxury hotels.
Not just Luxury
A stay at a heritage hotel is not only unique for the luxury and opulence, but you stay in an anywhere between 800 to 200 year old royal residences with centuries of family history & treasures, beautiful architecture and traditional Indian arts & crafts.
- These hotels are museums in their own right.
The royal descendants of these magnificent properties are usually living in some part of the property itself and if you are lucky you just might be sipping your evening tea or taking your dinner with your highness the King or the Queen.
World class regal hospitality
The state of Rajasthan in India is most popular for such hotels and fittingly so, as the meaning of Rajasthan is ‘land of the kings’ and had the most royal estates in pre-independence India. Rajasthan is home to some of the most famous and luxurious heritage hotels in India and the likes of Taj Lake Palace in Udaipur, the Taj Umaid Bhavan Palace in Jodhpur and Devigarh Lebua are ranked among some of the best hotels in the world. Besides being heritage hotels, these properties are run by some of the leading chain of hotels in India and the world like the Taj group and Oberois and you can be sure of world class service and hospitality as well.
Young in age, but big on luxury
Due to the popularity of the concept, some luxury hotel chains have also built ‘new’ heritage hotels, which means new buildings built like palaces and forts with the same grandeur and regal elegance of their older cousins.
These might not have a long standing history, but what they lack in history, they more than compensate in luxury and hospitality.
Some examples of new Heritage properties are Oberoi Udailvias ranked among the top 10 luxury hotels in the world since it opened its gates and Leela Kempinski in Udaipur, Oberoi Rajvilas in Jaipur and Suryagarh in Jaisalmer among many others.
A stay in the royal suit of one of these hotels - old or new, is nothing short of living life king size with private butlers and an army of staff ready to fulfill your every wish.
Copyright © 2014 by Luxury Travel Butler. This article was written by Filip Muyllaert and originally published on LuxuryTravelButler.com
