Udaipur · Delwara
An 18th-century fort above Delwara village, emptied out and rebuilt in white marble — 39 suites, no rooms.
The drive takes 45 minutes and it is the wrong 45 minutes to hurry. You leave Udaipur on the Nathdwara road, run north with the Aravallis on both sides, pass Eklingji — a Shiva complex 1,000 years old with 108 shrines in it, where the Maharana still comes — and then turn off onto a lane. You come up through a village of 1,000 temples and a stepwell, and then the road runs out at a gate in a wall, and the wall turns out to be the hotel. There is no forecourt and no portico. Past the gate there is a sequence of courtyards climbing the hill, each giving onto the next through an arch, and by the third of them the village noise has gone and you are standing on white marble looking down at the whole valley. It takes about 90 seconds, and nobody has said anything clever to you in that time.
The suites that face out — the Palace and Aravali suites — take the end of the day full in the window, and it is worth being in the room for it. The windows here are the building's own — deep reveals in a metre of masonry, wooden shutters that fold back flat, and a cushioned seat built into the sill because that is what these openings were always for. At 6 the hills go from grey-green to a flat gold and the light comes across the marble floor as one long bar. There is almost nothing in the room to interrupt it: a low bed on a stone plinth, a carved plaster panel behind it, a lamp set into the wall, and that is the inventory. Then the temple bells start down in Delwara, several of them and not together, and the parakeets that live along the parapet come back in noisily for the night. The lights go on in the village and there are not many of them. That is the whole evening.
Small and unhurried, which is what 39 suites and a hill allow. There is no lobby to be greeted in and no queue to join; things get arranged in the courtyard you happen to be standing in. What the concierge is really for here is the geography — everything worth seeing lies between 15 minutes and a long day away up the same road — and it comes back as an itinerary rather than a list of names. The one to take is the shortest, and it starts at the gate: a guided walk through Delwara itself, ending at a fair-trade workshop where you can sit down at a block-printing table. It is the only excursion here that is about the village the hotel is in.
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Ayurveda, With a Doctor Attached. Not a spa menu with Sanskrit on it. There is a resident Ayurvedic doctor, a consultation before anything is booked, and retreats built around your own prakriti and dosha — relaxation, detox, de-stress, weight loss or yoga — each with its own therapy sequence, its own daily rituals and a dosha-based menu in the restaurant to match. The therapy rooms are carved sandstone lit by candles in wall niches. The aromatherapy line is Ma Earth's, made from pure essential oils and unrefined butters with nothing synthetic in it.
Yoga, With the Texts Behind It. Kriyas, asana, pranayama and meditation, on the lawn between the trees or in one of the fort's own pavilions. It draws on the Kathopanishad and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika without apology, and the sessions are led rather than supervised. In a building with this much silence in it, an hour of that is the best thing on offer here that is not a view.
Delwara is called the town of gods and has nearly 1,000 temples in it, most of them Jain. The walk is led by local boys through Seva Mandir, past the carved Indra Kund stepwell and up to the hunting tower for the view back at the fort. It ends at Sadhna, a fair-trade workshop that has put more than 600 women into paid work, where you can sit down at a block-printing table or a stitching frame and then buy what the workshop makes. It is the only thing on the programme that is about the village rather than about Rajasthan.
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RAAS Devigarh has 39 suites and nothing below them.
The Garden Suite is the smallest at 500 to 590 square feet, and the one guests come back for, because of the private tented sit-out — a timber daybed under a canopy walled in split cane, opening onto the palace garden. No suite above it has one. If you are here for 3 quiet nights, it may be the best room in the building.
Garden Suite looks inward, onto the palace's own garden.
Palace Suite looks out at Delwara village, with a piece of the Aravallis behind it.
Aravali Suite looks both ways — hills on one side, the fort's own courtyards on the other: the black marble Kamal Courtyard with its lotus, the Darbar Courtyard and the Janana Courtyard. None of these is a bad aspect. What you pay more for is the outlook rather than the space — Aravali Suite runs 670 to 810 square feet and Palace Suite 650 to 721.
Devigarh Complex (Set of 2 Suites) is 4,585 square feet, 2 suites joined into one. It has a golden bedroom opening onto a private sun deck and jacuzzi, and a private black granite pool with an arcade and a chhatri reflected in it. The theme is Shiva, Shakti and Nandi.
You come up through a village of 1,000 temples and a stepwell, and then the road runs out at a gate in a wall, and the wall turns out to be the hotel.
RAAS Devigarh
Delwara, NH8, near Eklingji
Rajsamand, Rajasthan 313202
India
A child is 12 or under.
≈ $53 for the stay, returned after the stay.
Taken before check-in and returned at departure unless something is owed against it.
Rates are quoted for your dates.
The Road North, in 4 Directions. Eklingji and Nagda are 15 minutes away — a Shiva complex 1,000 years old with 108 shrines and a 4-faced black marble idol, and beside it the ruined 7th- to 10th-century temples on a lotus-covered lake. Nathdwara's Shrinathji temple is an hour, and needs a hotel guide to be legible; take the Rajbhog darshan. Haldighati is an hour the other way, turmeric hills and a museum for children. Kumbhalgarh's 84-kilometre wall and Ranakpur's Chaumukha Mandir — 29 halls and 1,444 carved pillars — are a morning together, and non-Jains may only enter Ranakpur after noon. Udaipur's City Palace, Jagdish temple and a boat on Pichola are a day; Chittorgarh is a long one.
The Rest of It, Plainly. Free wi-fi in every suite. Room service around the clock. A minibar, a Nespresso machine and a tea and coffee maker in every suite, with an electronic safe and a laptop safe. The pool and the hot tub, a fitness centre, the gardens, and the birds — the parapets here are worth a pair of binoculars. Airport and station transfers are arranged by the property on 48 hours' notice. Indian citizens register with a government photo identity card and everyone else with a passport and a visa.
It sleeps 4 adults and 2 children, the only grade here that takes more than 2, and one of its halves is an Aravali Suite, which is why it is a complex rather than a suite. The rate covers the whole house, and there is only 1 of it, so the date is the hard part.
Every suite has free wi-fi, a minibar, a Nespresso machine, a tea and coffee maker, an electronic safe, a laptop safe, satellite television, adapters, its own range of toiletries, air-conditioning and a savoury platter waiting on arrival. Every bathroom has a walk-in shower; bathtubs start at Aravali Suite. What changes as you climb is the outlook, the courtyards you can walk out into and, at the top, water of your own.
Suite
46 m² · Sleeps 2
The palace garden, from a tented sit-out
The entry suite, 500 to 590 square feet off the palace garden: marble inlay in green and white, a king bed on a stone plinth, and a private tented sit-out that no suite above it has. There are 17.
Suite
60 m² · Sleeps 2
Delwara village, with the Aravallis behind
Suites of 650 to 721 square feet, no two designed the same, with marble set with semi-precious stones and a courtyard attached to each. There are 6, looking down at Delwara village with the Aravallis behind it.
Suite
62 m² · Sleeps 2
The Aravallis one way, courtyards the other
Suites of 670 to 810 square feet with traditional motifs carved into the walls and the floors, a private garden and an outdoor seating area. The only ones that look two ways: the hills on one side, the fort's own courtyards on the other.
Suite
426 m² · Sleeps 4 + 2 children
The Aravallis, from the sun deck and pool
Two suites joined into 4,585 square feet, with a golden bedroom opening onto a private sun deck and jacuzzi, and a private black granite pool with an arcade and a chhatri standing in it. There is one of it, and it is the only one here that takes a family.
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