Grand Royal Suite

It is at lake level, and on this island that is the better address rather than the lesser one. The water is a step away instead of a storey, you can hear it against the marble all night, and the boats come past close enough that you notice the oars.

The living room opens on 3 sides through cusped arches, so at any hour one side of it is doing something the others are not: the City Palace in the morning, the hills at 4, the whole lake lit and moving at 9. The bedroom is the quieter half — gold-threaded Mewar miniatures, a swing seat in the window bay, a mural running wall to wall — and the door between them is a real door, which after a week matters more than the floor area.

The terrace is what the suite is for. It steps down almost to the waterline, it takes a table for two, and nothing overlooks it. By the second morning breakfast arrives there without being asked for. There are 4 of these suites in a palace of 83 rooms.