Musken

Rambagh Palace, Jaipur

Stayed 4 nights in a historical suite. Breakfast included.

Pre arrival
I booked the stay directly. It was not possible for them to guarantee a specific room number for me, but everything had been done according to our wishes upon arrival. Quick and helpful answers and recommendations from reservation team and concierge to all my questions.

Arrival
We arrived early afternoon after a smooth 3 hours drive from Aman-i-Khas. Upon arrival we were greeted with flower petals and a cute little ceremony outside the hotel. We were photographed and received the picture when we departed. Inside the impressive reception we were met by a number of senior staff members and received a pink drink and cold towels while the check in paperwork was quickly taken care of. A member of staff showed us the different parts of the enormous palace before taking us to our suite. We had asked for the historical suite number 305 but asked during check in to see one of the alternative suites as well since they are all very different. When seeing no 305, we were very happy immediately as it was beautiful (especially the bed) and very large and had more or less decided to take it anyway. However, we went with them to see the alternative (no 322 if I remember correctly). This suite turned out to be even better (see below), so we decided to take this one. A complimentary bottle of wine was there for us and the Rambagh Palace team put a Sony Playstation in the room for our son as well. Not a lot left to dream of with other words.

Accommodation
At first we thought that we had been upgraded to a larger suite than what we had booked, but I actually think this was not the case. The historical suites are just so large and beautiful that there is no need for a better suite in my view – except if you need separate bedroom and living room. Our suite had a combined living/bedroom. There were two queen beds instead of one king as we would have preferred, in addition to a sitting area with sofa and chairs in front of a fireplace and TV. Behind a curtain there was a huge daybed from which one could look out through beautiful windows to the garden. There was also a small balcony with two chairs and a table plus a fantastic bathroom over two floors (!) including a huge whirlpool in the 2nd floor reached by marble steps with two sinks, separate toilet room and shower room downstairs. A dream bathroom with other words

Very good complimentary Wifi available in suite and everywhere at the resort .

Service
We were taken really well care of during this stay and somehow I got the impression that they considered us to be VIPs based on how they treated us. Maybe Musken is getting famous and they want to ensure that she becomes a Taj-junkie for the future ;-). There were always someone from senior management checking on us after excursions and during meals, we were invited to a GM cocktail reception one evening, got special surprises in room at different moments, got the special hotel taxi for sightseeing and shopping instead of taking a normal taxi (meaning English speaking driver who could act as a guide) etc.
Housekeeping was Aman-like, always immediately there when we left the suite all taken care of by a very sweet man who were just so extremely happy when we tipped him one day. He had found a tip on the bed (3 or 4 euros I think), but – I guess – their policy was that no money was to be taken from the rooms. He therefore waited several hours for us to return to the suite, introduced himself and told us politely that he had found some money at the bed. When my husband said it was for him, he gave us a huge smile and thanked us a lot. This was definitely not normal for him, I think.
Concierge was very helpful during all of our stay as well, always asking us how we had enjoyed excursions and making sure we had everything planned for the next day.
Good service in restaurants as well, though sometimes a bit too formal and at one stage we were told that there was a minimum charge to sit down and have a drink at a terrace, as an employee was thinking we were not hotel guests. However, once the misunderstanding was cleared, the amount of excuses was almost embarrassing.
All in all extremely good service for such a large city hotel. Still – obviously – given the hotel size, the personal Aman service is not possible. Compared, however, to a FS, MO or similar in a city, we were more than happy and will definitely want to stay at at Taj hotel again.

Food
There are four dining venues at the Rambagh Palace. A formal fine dining Indian restaurant, the Rajput room where breakfast was served and where a multi cusine menu was offered for lunch and dinner, an Italian restaurant called Steam and the outside terrace/lawn for tea or drinks/dinner in addition to the Polo bar plus light snacks and the pool and in room dining. No need to leave the hotel with other words. We tried the first three and found the food to be very good, though I must admit that we were getting a bit tired of eating by the time we were there after all the great food we had already enjoyed. The fine dining restaurant is really beautiful and the service quite formal. We did some mistakes when ordering, far too much meat, which they maybe should have made us aware of by the time we ordered, but they suggested to leave out a dish or two later during the meal when we realised the mistake ourselves. Very tasty food all served at “gold” plates etc. The bottle of wine that we were not able to finish was kept for us to be enjoyed another evening. The Rajput restaurant had very good breakfasts (partly buffet, party ala carte) and for lunch/dinner Indian food as well as International, Chinese and Thai food were served. We ordered lunch for there in room a couple of times and enjoyed our last dinner there – all really good. Also the pizzas at Steam were definitely tasty, much better than I would normally expect to get outside Italy and great with some Italian food for a change after all the Indian. Room service very quick and always delicious and an enormous choice. We enjoyed a couple of drinks from the Polo bar but were not allowed to sit there with our son. OK that’s the government rules. Instead we sat at the terrace which was nice as well with live music and traditional dances every evening.

Pool and spa
The Rambagh Palace is huge and the pool is a little walk from the main building. I would have preferred the two to be closer together so that one could enjoy the view of the palace from the pool, but this was not the case. Instead the pool had the view of the spa building, where another huge indoor pool plus a well equipped gym was located as well. Around the pool were comfortable loungers and we were served refreshing drinks by the very friendly pool personnel who were also getting water toys for our son to play with and would take orders for food, help moving umbrellas if we needed more shadow etc. Did not try the spa here.

Activities
The first day we went with the hotel taxi and very friendly driver to see the Palace of the winds, some other central sights and to visit the local bazaars. As we had been to Jaipur before, we did not do a proper sightseeing here, so having a local, English speaking driver was more than appropriate. The driver took us to have tea and a light bite within the bazaars – a great experience and no belly problems afterwards ;-). It was amazing to see how the city had changed from 14 years ago when we last visited, but the old town was still very exotic, though more tourists there now obviously meaning more souvenir shops etc.

On our 2nd day the same driver plus a guide that Harish from Amanbagh had helped us book took us to see Amber fort. We had been there before as well, but we wanted our son to see the fort and of course to let him enjoy the elephant ride up there. Quite a wait for the elephants but worth it. Our guide managed very well to show us only the highlights and he was a great photographer meaning lots of nice and creative pics to take home. After seeing the fort, he took us to visit the home of some elephants which was great for our son.

Last day we went shopping with the hotel taxi again, this time to some of the better shops to avoid the haggling and rather shop almost like home – but with a complete different selection, of course, and prices 10 times lower than home for beautiful beach wear, tunics etc. I also liked the small shops at the Rambagh Palace with friendly shopkeepers, a nice selection and good prices, at least for us.

Departure
Rambagh Palace took care of organising a car for our departure, again in the middle of the night. We had to leave the hotel at 2 am for our 4:45 am flight. Tried to ask for a late check out of a half day rate for this last day, but this was not possible, which is understandable given the hours, so we paid for the last night as well to make sure we could enjoy the full last day. The airport is very close by, but can be very chaotic also in the middle of the night which was the reason why we left the hotel so early. They woke us up with coffee and a beautiful goodbye gift, picked up the suitcases and left. We had been told that there was a lounge at the airport, but I would not really call it a lounge. It was a cafeteria like open area outside security line where we could get coffee and tea and a limited selection of non-familiar soft drinks. No internet or anything else that I would think about when hearing the word lounge. Just so that you know. We ended up leaving it after 10 minutes, rather making sure that we get through security (3 or 4 check points showing passport and boarding passes over and over again), passport departure control etc. and then waiting in the normal waiting area for our Etihad flight back to Abu Dhabi and further to Berlin and back home.

All in all
A beautiful and very impressive palace where we received very good service, food and excellent accommodation. Highly recommended. The Taj chain has a number of such hotels across India and we will most definitely go to more of them next time we decide to return to amazing India.