India - Hotels & More

Group Tour Accommodation

When it comes to places to stay, India offers an irresistible array of hotels, forts, palaces and havelis. We take into account a range of criteria in selecting our group tour hotels. Having inspected countless hotels, we offer a carefully selected range of 3-star hotels and heritage-listed properties. The emphasis is on accommodating you in well-managed centrally located properties that factor in comfort, cleanliness and a modest range of guest facilities. With the exception of some havelis, all guest rooms offer en suite bathroom, a television and sometimes a fridge.

Most of our hotels also offer a range of guest facilities such as a restaurant or somewhere to eat and sometimes additional facilities such as bars, shops or a swimming pool. In smaller towns, the choice of accommodation may be limited but based on our group tour standards, we will always book the best accommodation available for our groups.

Central & Convenient

In some locations, for example, Agra (home of the Taj Mahal), Varanasi and Delhi we’ll stay in conventional, purpose-built 3-star hotels. All of these hotels are close to where it’s all at, offering you the convenience of exploring these cities easily during your free time while on tour.

In Delhi, in particular, location is everything. All the main attractions of Old and New Delhi are on tap, yet it is traffic build-up that often adds unwanted delays to the day’s touring. As such, location was a big factor in deciding upon our hotel choice in Delhi. Located in Karol Bagh, our hotel is just minutes from Connaught Place, a stone’s throw from the city’s many street markets and offers comfortable, modestly appointed rooms.

With hotel accommodation in Delhi now being amongst the most expensive in the world, we have chosen a basic 3-star hotel for our group tours. However if you would like to experience a little luxury, we also offer a 5-star hotel upgrade in Delhi, please contact our reservations department for further details.

Heritage Properties - Old World Charm

India and Rajasthan in particular, is famous for it’s forts, castles, havelis (courtyard mansions) and colonial homes. In recent years, many of these buildings have been artfully converted into wonderfully ambient or chic hotels. The concept of the ‘heritage property’ originated in Rajasthan where owners (often the ancestors of royalty and local cognescenti) struggling with these great ancestoral piles, many of which were slowly being abandoned or left to decay, decided instead to resurrect these historically important buildings and throw open their doors to paying guests. It is a gamble that has paid off in Rajasthan and across India. Many of these buildings have been meticulously restored to their former glory combining original furnishings and traditional local style, sometimes with a modern twist. The results are stunning and have to be seen to be believed.

Due to the quirky nature of these buildings, room sizes and amenities vary from property to property, so every heritage stay is a unique stay. Even your room will unlikely to be the same as your neighbour’s! Some rooms may be smaller but afford a giant bathroom or bath, whilst other rooms may offer a small bathroom but an industrial sized living space. The beds in many of our heritage style hotels may be four-poster in style and invariably large! Some palaces and forts are a destination in themselves.

Our property of choice in Bikaner, the Lalgarh Palace, is one half of an entire palace still owned and operated by the family of the Maharaja of Bikaner. Indeed, many of these properties are still owned and managed by the original owners, who act as your hosts and are fascinating to chat to during your stay.

Meanwhile, in the historic town of Bharatpur we stay at Laxmi Vilas Palace - a beautiful Heritage hotel, built in 1887 for the younger brother of the ruler of Bhatpur. In 1994 this family home was converted into a hotel, allowing guests to soak up it's incredible history. The palace is a fascinating mix of Rajput and Mughal architecture set in 50 sprawling acres of secluded land, with exquisite period decor and antique furniture.

Look out for heritage properties on all our group tours. And, when you get home, you really can take coffee table conversation to the next level when you tell your friends, family and envious colleagues that you stayed at a fort, palace, haveli or former colonial home!

Tailor-made India - A Place to Stay

Luring travellers to its shores for centuries, India is certainly not a destination new to tourism and hospitality. Neither is India a destination that will promise you the world and deliver you an island. Incredible India will surprise and delight even the frequent traveller or second time visitor, with the awesome, almost overwhelming choice of accommodation available. Be it a glorious historical palace, a fabulous five star resort, a holistic retreat, a family-run haveli or rambling fort, a colonial tea estate, small boutique-style hotel or modern all amenities hotel, India offers a vast array of differing styles of hotels.

As you will see from the description of accommodation on our group tours, we favour a balanced combination of modern and heritage style hotels. On your tailor-made holiday, enjoy the best of both worlds with a bespoke mix of hotels - perhaps a fort one night, a grand palace the next night, a deluxe hotel with all those lavish therapies, room service and restaurants just waiting to be sampled and then a night or two in a haveli or small family-run guest house.

We can advise upon choices available at all locations to be featured on your touring itinerary and can offer further information on any choice of accommodation.

As for official ratings and gradings on all tailor-made quotations, we will offer applicable gradings to all hotels featured be it a three, four, five star or five star deluxe rating. Whilst it is difficult to catagorise heritage style hotels, we’ll normally provide a standard three or four star or five star deluxe rating in accordance with the style and type of facilities and amenities on offer. An example of a deluxe heritage hotel is the Samode Palace in Jaipur, whilst an example of a standard heritage property would be the Shahpura House in Jaipur.

Remember, tailor-made is exactly that. Our dedicated team can create a hotel portfolio exactly to your specification and individual requirements.