MacMyDay

That's the man; an absolute legend. He remembered me and gave me a hug on arrival. His job in life appears to be looking after ill members of my family - last time my Dad had food poisoning and this time my fiancee was suffering some awful chest infection.

GeneCMH

Hello travelers,

Wanted to ping the experts here for your thoughts on the following trip I'm trying to piece together. This will be my first trip to India, so i'm trying to maximize my time. Looking for your thoughts, and a reality check if this is doable and what your suggestions might be to better optimize. I possible could extend my trip by 1 night. So here it is:

May 17 - Arrive 11pm into New Delhi
May 17- 19 - Oberoi or Leela New Delhi (2 nights) (maybe ITC Maurya to save a couple hundred $$ and use my Bonvoy bennies?)May 19 - Oberoi Amarvilas (1 night)May 20 - 22 - Oberoi Rajvilas (2 nights) (Is it worth it, or should I try the new JW Marriott which looks pretty nice, and saves about $600 vs Rajvilas)May 22 - Taj Umaid Bhawan (1 night)May 23 - Taj Lake Palace (1 night)
May 24 - Oberoi Udaivilas (1 night) (the semi-private pool room not available on the 23rd, so thought I'd split it, or should i just do 2 nights at the lake palace? Or, is there any strong opinion on the Leela instead?)May 25 - 27 - Taj Mahal Palace (2 nights) (or should I do the St. Regis?)
May 27 - fly home either 2am or 1pm departure, any preference or reason to do the 2am flight?

I appreciate any feedback and suggestions you guys have! Also if you have any recommendation for tour guides and/or drivers for my transfers I'd appreciate it (or should I just let the hotels arrange them?)

Thanks in advance... Gene

chinmoylad

Everyone is different but you're going to be exhausted by the time you get to Jodhpur.

ajca

Woah I was exhausted just thinking about this itinerary. If you have a twin-turbine helicopter at your disposal this could work. Otherwise - keep in mind that getting around India is really exhausting and you have some pretty long drives in there. Delhi to Agra is realistically 4-5 hours with traffic. Agra to Jaipur is about the same. Domestic flights are unreliable and frequently very late. The smaller city airports are really not places you want to hang around while Air India tries to work out where their plane or the required parts for it to fly are.

Even in a really comfortable car with a driver these are really long and tiring trips, especially with the stop / start (think: slam accelerator, slam brakes) nature of the traffic from Delhi to Agra, and then an equally long drive through incredibly remote parts of Rajasthan while your driver navigates their way along a narrow road dodging cows and villagers and searches in vain for a not completely horrifying place to use the restroom... and then to spend one night in each place in between taking tours, crikey, I wouldn't sign up for that for work much less for holiday.

With 10 days, I would focus on one part of India and give yourself more time in each place. Agra annoyingly doesn't have a commercial airport, so if you really want to do Taj Mahal that just practically takes a big chunk out of what you can do. I would suggest Delhi->Agra-> a stopover in Amanbagh -> Jaipur and then depending on whether you can extend for an extra day or two maybe one or mote places.

Also, I'd suggest Oberoi in Delhi, it's awesome. And Amarvilas is an older property but the architecture, location, food, service and pools are incredible. I think it would be a shame to be in that part of India and miss Amanbagh, but that's just me

ps9a

This thread is fantastic, with a ton of info. We're planning our first trip to India for next year-- leaning heavily toward Feb/March instead of the original Apr/May I was planning. We really want to see tigers, but really hot days without a beach are not our bag. I'm sure we'll return, so not looking to kill ourselves traveling/changing hotels. And we don't want to leave our kids for too long, so that kills the 2-3 week trip I'd otherwise take.

So... if we're in India for 9 nights, I had two ideas:

1) All Oberoi. Domestic flight to Udaipur (easy connections from our inbound), 3 nights Udaivilas, 4 nights Vanyavilas, 2 nights Amarvilas. Fly home.
2) Aman then Oberoi-- 3 nights Amanbagh, 4 nights Aman-i-Khas, 2 nights Amarvilas. Fly home.

From what I've gathered above, Aman is more luxurious in Ranthambore, but Oberoi is better for tiger spotting. We really. really want to see tigers and would be very disappointed to come home without some good sightings. We'd happily go to other parks in India, too, but my understanding is that visiting the other tiger parks is much more time-consuming and harder to combine with other sights/cities? I'm really a novice here, so would love any and all advice... especially pertaining to India

MacMyDay

Oberoi is closer to the park than Aman-i-Khas, but you'll still ultimately be in exactly the same park regardless of where you stay. No one camp is going to guarantee you better sightings than anyone else, as it's all public anyway. You're just as likely to see a tiger at Aman as you are in one of those 50 seater trucks that drive around. So yes, definitely go with Aman-i-Khas. I've stayed twice and almost made the mistake of going to Vanyavilas, due to not wanting to go to the same place twice. We went there for a show around, along with Sujan Sher Bagh (which is right next door to Aman-i-Khas), and were very grateful for sticking with Aman-i-Khas. It may lack in some facilities that the others have, such as a bar, gym and even a viewing tower, but the serenity, service and tents are infinitely better.

uclabruin82

+1 for Aman-i-khas.
I do not think you need 4 nights though. We did something very similar except we did 3/3 and spent that extra night in Jaipur which worked out well since we spent about 30 hours there which was enough to see the fort palace and some other sights.

ps9a

Thanks, uclabruin82 and MacMyDay. Sounds like I'm going to Aman-i-khas and Oberoi Amarvilas.

If I only have time to visit Oberoi Udaivilas or Amanbagh in addition to the addition to the aforementioned two, which would you pick?

RichardInSF

You have that completely backwards. Oberoi is like a 30-45 minute drive to the park entrance while Aman-i-khas is maybe 15 minutes.

uclabruin82

That is tough. In terms of location, Udaipur is a city and Amanbagh is the countryside. Because you are spending time at aman-i-khas, I would lean to the city. That being said, given the logistics of travelling within India I would do Amanbagh.

MacMyDay

Fraid not, ol' bean - Oberoi is closer, if only just, but it is definitely not a 30 minute drive away, unless you meant to one of the far gates, in which case the same would apply to Aman-i-Khas. They are different sides of the park, so from the Oberoi you have the observation tower looking directly into it from one side, and then from Aman-i-Khas you can also directly see the park, just from different sides.

Newman55

I thought it depended on which zone your vehicle/guides are assigned to. I did three days of park visits when staying at the Oberoi and we entered via different park gates throughout the stay. Some of the gates were closer; some were further away.

Either way, you are going to spend a lot of time in a bouncy jeep.

Jermyn

I just returned from an amazing trip to India, it was my first but will certainly not be the last.

I booked the Oberoi hotels on the Luxury Escapes rate, which was unbelievable value at $250 per night.
It doesn't combine with Virtuoso benefits but I was happy to pay the cash rates to upgrade at Udavilas ($300 per night extra to Semi-private pool) and Amarvilas ($200 per night extra for premier balcony room)

My complete itinerary
2 nights Oberoi New Delhi
2 nights Oberoi Amarvilas
4 nights Amanbagh
3 nights Alila Fort Bishangarh
3 nights Umaid Bhawan
2 nights Oberoi Udaivilas
1 night Leela Palace


I initially had a bit of trouble with Oberoi.

1. They tried to cancel my Amarvilas reservation 4 weeks out (ostensibly due to issues with the aircon - in reality half the rooms are currently closed for a refurb)
2. They were unable to honour my reservation for 3 nights at Udaivilas as they were bought out for a wedding on our last night - which meant we needed to be re-accommodated for the final night of our entire trip.

I pushed back on both and settled on the following:

1. Amarvilas upgraded us to the Robert Burns Suite and honoured our reservation in full
2. Udaivilas upgraded us to one of their 4 private pool suites and offered to accommodate us in a Duplex Suite at the Leela palace for the final night (with us still paying the original price at Udaivilas of $550x3)

I've gone into some depth on instagram (@theluxurytraveller) reveiwing these properties (including suite walkthrough videos on IGTV).

To summarise:

• Oberoi Delhi was a big surprise. Incredibly sleek and modern in both the public spaces and rooms. Best city hotel service I've experienced (better than Tokyo)
  • we visited the Lodhi to dine at Indian Accent and it was much larger, greyer and more devoid of atmosphere than I had expected
• Oberoi Amarvilas was spectacular in almost every way: the breakfast buffet isn't great, the balcony doors didn't seal well and the bar had no Campari. Otherwise everything was pretty much perfect. Best pool I've ever seen. Best housekeeping ever and direct views of the Taj from the bedroom, living room, balcony and sun terrace.
• Amanbagh was a big disappointment.
  • only property not to offer any upgrade despite running at 10% occupancy.
  • constant attempts to upsell us to 'speciality dinners' during every staff interaction
  • no coffee machine in room and kettle only available on-request
  • doors didn't seal properly, allowing mosquitoes and hornets in
  • broken electrical sockets
  • air con speed and temp controls have no effect and it blows directly onto your face when in bed.
  • No proper spa. Just a courtyard room crudely repurposed as a treatment room.
  • non-functioning aircon in the gym.
  • Food and pool are both excellent though. Food was the best on the entire trip.
• Alila Fort Bishangarh is a stunning property. GHA Platinum status recognised and one-category upgrade given to grand suite. Many former Amanbagh staff here, they were for the most part better in conversational English and better at delivering personalised service than the colleagues they left behind.
  • breathtaking views from our room.
  • fort conversion lends a real air of magic to the property, dinner in the ramparts under a starlit sky with bats flying overhead and musicians serenading us every night.
    • food excellent, one or two dishes at Michelin* level but not consistently great like Amanbagh
• Umaid Bhawan is unlike any hotel I've ever experienced in my life
  • heralded by trumpets on arrival as we ascended a red-carpeted staircase and guards held a tapestry over our heads.
  • second largest dome in India after the Taj Mahal
  • hand feed peacocks during breakfast whilst eating a truffle and caviar souffle omelette
  • upgraded to Royal Suite thanks to Virtuoso and Taj status
  • in addition to daily turndown we also received a daily local dessert in the mid-afternoon
  • complimentary afternoon tea for all guests: complete waste of time
  • pool and spa both very weak compared to other hotels
  • concierge managed to book us into the Taj Lake Palace for dinner despite it being ostensibly closed to non-guests
• Taj Lake Palace is drab and dreary, glad we weren't staying there. Service was excellent but overall the property was devoid of atmosphere.
• Oberoi Udaivilas was physically the most beautiful property and the service was outstanding. Our butler really went above and beyond, asking if there were particular seasonal fruits he could replenish for us etc. Best cocktails of our trip, on a level we'd expect in London.
  • great atmosphere in the outdoor restaurant by the water.
  • very extensive breakfast buffet with decent a la carte options.
  • very extensive spa facilites
• Leela Palace Udaipur
  • weakest property on F&B.
  • outrageous upgrade to royal suite. Best room I've ever experienced in my life. Ceiling dome must have been at least 30ft high and covered in gold and silver. Game of Thrones style dining room with silver plated chairs and lake views.
  • phenomenal butler service
  • impressive public spaces and offers a truly wonderful daily performance for guests

SojournsOf

Thanks for this. We're finally doing India next year. Some of your comments are making me question what I thought we're pretty sure things (Amanbagh, Oberoi vs Lodhi, Lake Palace)

Is Amanbagh really going downhill that it would be wise to consider skipping? Seems like more negative sentiment than positive lately.

Jermyn

Honestly I came away quite surprised by some of my findings.
I thought Amanbagh would be the standout for sure (and stayed there longer than any other property as a result).

It was only my third Aman stay but after Noi and SS this seemed like a considerable step down. The hardware is showing its age and the pushy, timeshare style service was in stark contrast to the superlative service we received elsewhere in India.

If you want a countryside stay in Rajasthan I would recommend Alila without hesitation, particularly given the considerable difference in pricing. They also offer a lot of similar cultural experiences and trips if that's your reason for otherwise selecting Aman.

Taj Lake Palace may just be a matter of personal preference but to me it seemed like a cross between grandma's house and a cellar, albeit one that is surrounded by water. Once the novelty wears off you're left with considerably smaller rooms, limited public spaces and worse F&B than Udaivilas (or Leela).

Oberoi New Delhi had the best room tech, a club lounge serving cocktails and champagne, a rooftop bar and better service than Amarvilas. F&B was also very strong but more than anything the atmosphere was what made the place. The people watching is fantastic. It is a local hot spot and you really felt as if you were part of the fabric of the upper echelons of Delhi society, rather than living in a tourist enclave as we did in Agra or Jodhpur. In comparison the Lodhi feels like a brutalist ghost town, as soon as we finished our meal at Indian Accent we left the property - on a Saturday night there were no people around and the bars were being wiped down already.