The Best Luxury Hotels in India

The Maharaja of Jaipur's former residence, all marble corridors and peacock gardens. Our guide →

A candy-hued royal town palace, reimagined with maximalist wit and colour.

Gardens, courtyards and a restored Shiva temple on the city's quiet edge.

An eighteenth-century palace hotel set in formal Mughal gardens.

A domed modern palace on the Delhi road, framed by the Aravalli hills.

The white marble palace that appears to float on Lake Pichola. Our guide →

Palatial domes and private pools along the lake's quiet western shore.

Lakefront rooms looking across Pichola to the City Palace and hills.

A private-island resort on Udai Sagar, reached only by boat.

An eighteenth-century hilltop fort-palace pared back to clean white lines.

Still a royal home — one of the world's last great Art Deco palaces. Our guide →

A contemporary haveli beneath Mehrangarh's ramparts, in the blue city. Our guide →

A sculpted desert fortress of nine grand suites, out beyond the city. Our guide →

A fortress hotel on the Thar's edge, gateway to little-known desert rituals. Our guide →

A tented royal camp on a private estate among the dunes. Our guide →

Luxury tents with private gardens at the edge of the tiger reserve. Our guide →

1920s safari glamour in canvas, beside Ranthambore's gates.

Ten Mughal-style tents in a wild setting near the park.

A restored fourteenth-century fort turned wellness sanctuary.

Pink-marble Mughal pavilions in a hidden Aravalli valley. Our guide →

A leopard camp of luxury tents among granite hills and shepherd country. Our guide →

Luxury tents on a century-old dam wall above a birdwater lake. Our guide →

A small heritage house below Deogarh's ramparts in the Aravalli hinterland. Our guide →

The last Maharaja of Bikaner's home, styled with maximalist flair. Our guide →

A 1930s grande dame on Janpath, hung with rare Company-era art. Our guide →

A sleek, quietly modern icon over the golf course and Humayun's Tomb.

A palatial address in the Diplomatic Enclave of Chanakyapuri.

Where visiting heads of state stay; home to the legendary Bukhara.

A serene, design-led retreat with private plunge pools near the Lodhi Gardens.

An Art Deco boutique classic on Aurangzeb Road since 1952.

Every room faces the Taj Mahal, six hundred metres away. Our guide →

Mughal-inspired gardens and a vast spa, minutes from the monument.

The 1903 landmark beside the Gateway of India — and the city itself. Our guide →

Sea-facing rooms above Nariman Point and Marine Drive.

A Worli tower crowned by one of the city's great rooftop bars.

High-floor luxury with butler service in Lower Parel.

A Bandra bayfront hotel looking across to the Sea Link.

Gardens along quiet Benaulim beach in the unhurried south. Our guide →

A clifftop resort built around a sixteenth-century Portuguese bastion.

A lagoon-laced resort on Mobor beach, where river meets sea.

A sprawling low-rise of courtyards and waterways at Arossim.

A colonial-era shipyard rebuilt as a harbour-front hotel in Fort Kochi. Our guide →

An island tower with Arabian Sea and backwater views.

Heritage villas with meandering pools on Lake Vembanad's shore. Our guide →

A backwater village of relocated heritage homes, reached only by boat.

A fishing-village-inspired retreat on a quiet Arabian Sea beach. Our guide →

A clifftop resort above the beaches south of Trivandrum.

Thatched luxury villas and a serious spa on the Kovalam cliff.

A modern palace of domes and gardens on the old airport road.

A mature-garden city retreat on MG Road.

Twenty acres of heritage garden in the heart of the city.

A vast Chola-dynasty-inspired palace of a hotel.

A beach resort on an old Dutch fort site near Mahabalipuram.

The city's classic luxury address in Nungambakkam.

The Nizam's hilltop palace, still entered by horse-drawn carriage. Our guide →

A contemporary luxury tower in the HITEC City district.

A soulful heritage retreat of music, wellness and Tamil vegetarian cuisine. Our guide →

A coffee-estate resort of Kodava-style mansions and private pools.

A rainforest sanctuary deep in the Western Ghats.

A tribal-village-inspired lodge on the Kabini backwaters, for wildlife.

Twelve kutiya suites in sal forest by the reserve.

Luxury tents with private pools at the forest's edge.

Hand-crafted artisan villas, deep in Bandhavgarh.

Two tented camps on the Banjaar river outside Kanha.

A quiet forest lodge in a private valley.

Riverside tents with the region's first 'machaan star-bed' dinners. Our guide →

Rooms with private machaan sit-outs above the Pench forest.

A stone-cottage lodge on Panna's rocky landscape.

A Maharaja's palace estate turned wellness sanctuary above the Ganges.

A Ganges-side resort in the forested foothills at Singthali.

A dedicated wellness retreat in a sal forest near Dehradun.

A former viceroy's retreat high in the cedar forests above Shimla.

A restored colonial classic on Shimla's Mall.

A Dogra Maharaja's palace on the shore of Dal Lake.

An alpine luxury lodge below the Gulmarg gondola.

Grand tented luxury below Thiksey Monastery in Ladakh.

A tiny Maharaja's garden palace of ten rooms, set in mango orchards. Our guide →

An eighteenth-century palace on Darbhanga Ghat, directly above the Ganges.

The 'Grande Dame of Chowringhee', a colonial classic in the centre.

An urban resort in the leafy Alipore embassy district.

A colonial planter's bungalow on a working Himalayan tea estate.

A rustic-luxe lodge on the edge of Kaziranga's rhino grasslands.