Where to

Udaipur · Lake Pichola

The Leela Palace Udaipur

Purpose-built on the western shore of Pichola, facing the City Palace across the water.

The palace seen from the middle of Lake Pichola at night, its whole ochre front and its domes lit gold above a band of blue light at the waterline, a moon over the Aravallis behind it and the building repeated exactly in the black water.

You can drive in. There is a road, and the palace keeps sedans on it. Almost nobody arrives that way. The last part of the journey is across Pichola in one of the palace's electric boats: a hull with a scalloped printed canopy over it, a hurricane lantern hanging from the frame, orange and green cushions along the bench, and the side curtains tied back so the lake is on both sides of you. The boat is not a transfer; it is the first room of the hotel. From it you get the whole address at once — the City Palace running gold along the far shore, Jag Mandir out on its island, and ahead of you a long ochre front with chhatris on the roofline that turns out to be where you are staying. Then a doorway of rose petals, and past it the courtyard: sandstone walls pierced with hundreds of lit niches, a narrow channel of water running down the centre of a black-and-white marble floor, and palms in the corners. Somewhere in the first minute a butler introduces himself. He is the one name you will use for the whole stay, before it, during it and after it.

A silver sun-face fountain set into a plain sandstone wall, its rays beaten flat around a calm human face, with a single thread of water falling from its mouth.

The whole building faces one way, and the hour to be in the room is the one before dinner. The lake goes from blue to pewter to a flat sheet of orange, the hills on the far side lose their detail, and across the water the City Palace comes up lit and stays lit. From a Lake View room the window frames it plainly, wall to wall, with nothing between you and the water but a strip of lawn. From a room with a balcony you can step out to a blue-and-white chevron screen at knee height and be outside for it. Below, in the courtyard, the evening's folk musicians are setting up, and the palace's own temple is coming round to Sandhya Aarti. The rooms are dark wood and gold silk with a pichwai on the wall and tarkashi brass wire set into the furniture, which in daylight is a lot and at this hour is exactly right. Order the tea. Go down late.

One butler is your single point of contact, and it means one name: the pre-arrival email, the dinner reservation, the car, the packing and the follow-up all go to the same person, before the stay, during it and after it. Around that sit small fixed rituals that cost nothing and are what people remember — the doorway of rose petals on arrival, a pillow menu that runs from goose down to neck-supporting, the turndown, and 45 minutes of Rajasthani folk music and dance in the courtyard every evening, ballads of love, loss, sacrifice and heroism that once belonged to the royal courts. A 165-year-old Omkareshwar temple stands in the grounds, where aarti is offered twice a day and guests are welcome to join. The Palace Art Walk costs nothing either: 30 to 40 minutes with a Palace Service Ambassador through the murals, the tarkashi inlay and the mirrorwork, and it is the best half-hour here that does not involve the lake.

The house

The Sheesh Mahal terrace at dusk: a black-and-white chequerboard marble floor set with laid tables, two red-and-gold Rajasthani parasols open over them, brass hurricane lanterns along the parapet, and the City Palace lit gold the whole way along the far shore.

The lawns at sunset, clipped hedges and a lily pond laid out in panels down to the water, a jetty running out to a domed white chhatri standing in the lake, and a boat crossing under the sun as it drops behind the hills.

The arrival courtyard at blue hour: two walls of carved sandstone pierced with hundreds of lit niches, palms in the corners, and a narrow water channel running down the centre of a black-and-white inlaid marble floor to a lit screen at the far end.

A spa suite with its curtains drawn back: a white freestanding bath standing in a stone room, and past it an arched opening straight onto Lake Pichola with a single boat on the water and the hills beyond.

The mural corridor: both walls painted floor to ceiling with a Mewar procession — caparisoned elephants, horsemen, courtiers under parasols — running away down a polished floor with a figure in white at the far end.

Drink and Dine

2 restaurants and a bar

Indian fine dining, on two levels, over the water
Sheesh Mahal
When
Dinner, 7 to 11
Tables
Worth booking
The Indian kitchen, and the room to book. Downstairs is painted Rajput guards standing either side of a window that looks straight down Pichola, candles burning in wall niches, and low seating heaped with bolsters at tables laid for two. Upstairs is a terrace of black-and-white chequered marble under red-and-gold parasols, brass lanterns along the parapet, and the whole of the lit City Palace as the far wall of the room. The cooking is court cooking, out of royal kitchens, and Dal-e-Sheesh and Raan-e-Sheesh are the two dishes to order. Dinner only, and the terrace is the reason to be early. The kitchen will also lay a table where there is no restaurant at all: Amrut Mahal, the private deck at Arq, or this terrace on a night nobody else has it.
The menu (PDF, opens in a new tab)Full entry →
All day, world cuisine, and a cellar you walk into
The Dining Room
When
Breakfast 7 to 10.30, lunch 12.30 to 3, dinner 7 to 11
Tables
Worth booking
Breakfast from 7, lunch, and dinner until 11 — the room that carries the whole day. It looks out over the outer courtyard on one side and the lake on the other, and its centrepiece is a long chef's table under a chandelier of hanging crystal rods, with a buffet laid out beside it and a blue-tiled floor underfoot. The kitchen cooks internationally and plainly rather than ornately. What makes it worth a whole evening is at the back: a climate-controlled walk-in cellar of rare and vintage bottles that you go into and choose from, rather than being read a list.
The menu (PDF, opens in a new tab)Full entry →
Cognac, and a quiet corner
The Library Bar
When
3 to 11
Tables
Walk in
Panelled in dark wood, with fireplaces, fine art, books and collected objects — the one room in this palace that is not about the lake. The list is a whisky list first: a deep collection of single malts and cognacs, Aberfeldy, Craigellachie, Glenfiddich and Rémy Martin among them, with vintage wines and a proper cocktail list behind it, and kitchen snacks to go with all of it. The bar opens at 3. The inner courtyard is through the door, so from about 6 you can hear the folk musicians from the sofas, which is the best way to hear them if you would rather not sit in the front row.
The menu (PDF, opens in a new tab)Full entry →

What is here

The Arrival Is by Water
Getting here ends with a boat. You are driven from the airport in the palace's sedans and then taken the last stretch across Lake Pichola in one of its electric launches: a scalloped printed canopy, a lantern hanging from the frame, cushions along the bench and the curtains tied back, with the City Palace on one side and Jag Mandir on the other, ending at the palace steps. Both transfers are arranged for you. The boat is not a logistics problem. It is the only way to see this building as it was meant to be seen, which is from the water, all at once.
A Pool Laid Along the Lake
Long, tiled in blue mosaic, temperature-controlled, and set so close to the edge that the water in it and Pichola behind it read as one surface. White parasols and loungers are ranked down both sides, the lawn runs out to the shore and the palace wing stands over the whole thing; the spa's tents are at the far end. Udaipur reaches 43 degrees in summer and drops to 8 in winter, so the temperature control is the difference between a pool you swim in and one you look at.
Folk Music in the Courtyard
Not a floor show, and not an extra. At 7 in summer and a quarter past 6 in winter the courtyard is laid out with lamps and a low patterned platform, and the folk musicians and dancers of Rajasthan do 45 minutes of ballads that once belonged to the royal courts — love, loss, sacrifice, heroism, and the costume that goes with them. It costs nothing, it happens whether or not anybody has asked, and it is the reason the hour before dinner here is not spent in a bar.
A Cellar You Walk Into
The Dining Room's wine cellar is climate-controlled and glazed into the restaurant rather than hidden behind it: bottles racked floor to ceiling down both sides, a tasting table in the middle with brass buckets and decanters on it, and rare and vintage bottles standing in among the working list. It is on the lobby level, and it is the reason The Dining Room is worth an evening rather than only a breakfast.

The Spa Is 5 Tents on the Water. Silk and linen drawn over a frame, thikri mirrorwork set into the inside of the canopy, and Lake Pichola on the other side of the fabric. 5 therapy tents, separate tents for yoga and for meditation, and therapy suites with private pools — one of them with a freestanding bath standing in a stone room whose arched opening gives straight onto the water. Ayurveda and European therapy run alongside each other on the treatment list, and a specialist talks to you before anything is booked. The oils and cleansing muds are the spa's own, made to be used rather than sold.

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The rooms

Same room, 4 different views

Every Grande Heritage room is the same room: same dark wood and gold silk, same tarkashi brass inlay, same pichwai on the wall. Only the window changes, and the window is what you are paying for.

Grande Heritage Garden View Room faces inward over the greenery, behind a carved stone screen.

Grande Heritage Lake View Room has Pichola wall to wall through a plain window, with nothing between.

Grande Heritage Lake View Room with Balcony adds a chevron-railed balcony you can stand on; there are 40 of them, and it is the room most guests take.

Grande Heritage Garden View Room with Plunge Pool opens onto private water in a walled terrace, and there are 2 of those in the building.

Each suite step adds a room, not just space

Luxury Suite is 960 to 1,250 square feet, all one long room: a living area, a work desk, dining for 2, a bedroom through a wide opening, and a bath that looks at the lake.

Duplex Suite is 1,270 square feet over 2 levels, with a spiral staircase in the middle of the living room, an open-air plunge pool off it, and a master bedroom facing the City Palace.

Royal Suite is 1,800 square feet on the third floor, under a hand-painted gold-leaf dome, with a four-poster bed, a dining room, a kitchenette for in-suite service, and a marble bathroom with a jacuzzi.

The Sunset Alcove: a semi-circular carved balcony built out over the lake, one table laid for two under a red-and-gold parasol, and a butler in a crimson sherwani standing at the rail with the water flat to the hills behind him.

The whole property from above at blue hour: the long lit pool and the white tented cabanas along the lake edge, the palace wings behind them, and the City Palace and Jag Mandir burning gold on the far side of the water.

The boat is not a transfer; it is the first room of the hotel.

The particulars

Arrive: From 2 PM
Depart: By noon

Where it is

The Leela Palace Udaipur
Lake Pichola, PO Box No. 125
Udaipur, Rajasthan 313001
India

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The small print

A child is 12 or under.

Extra bed

Up to 6: Free
7 to 12: On request
13 and over: On request

A child of 6 or under shares the existing bedding. One child of 7 to 12 may take an extra bed, charged nightly with breakfast and one main meal included. From 13 a guest is charged as an adult.

Where it is, and how you get to it: Lake Pichola, PO Box No. 125, Udaipur 313 001 — the western shore, with the City Palace and Jag Mandir directly across the water and Sajjangarh on the ridge behind. Maharana Pratap Airport is 28 kilometres away, about 45 minutes; the city centre is 4 kilometres; the railway station is about 20 minutes. Transfers are arranged by the property in its own sedans and, for the last stretch, in its own electric boats. There is road access and there is a car park. The boat is a choice, and it is the right one.

Room	Size	Sleeps	View	Floor	Private pool
Grande Heritage Garden View Room	46 m²	2 + 1 child	The palace gardens	Lake wing or Palace wing	No
Grande Heritage Lake View Room	46 m²	2 + 1 child	Lake Pichola	Lake wing or Palace wing	No
Grande Heritage Lake View Room with Balcony	46 m²	2 + 1 child	Lake Pichola and the Aravallis	Lake wing or Palace wing	No
Grande Heritage Garden View Room with Plunge Pool	46 m²	2 + 1 child	Its own walled terrace	Lake wing or Palace wing	Yes
Luxury Suite	89 m²	2 + 1 child	Lake Pichola	The palace	No
Duplex Suite	118 m²	2 + 1 child	The City Palace	The palace	Yes
Royal Suite	167 m²	2 + 1 child	Lake Pichola on two sides	Third floor	No
Maharaja Suite	333 m²	2 + 1 child	Lake Pichola	The palace	Yes
Varija — Lake Villa	360 m²	2 + 1 child	Uninterrupted Lake Pichola	On the shore, at Arq	Yes
Utpala — Lake Villa with Private Deck	480 m²	2 + 1 child	Uninterrupted Lake Pichola	On the shore, at Arq	Yes
Kumuda — Family Villa	803 m²	4 + 2 children	Its own courtyard and the lake	On the shore, at Arq	Yes

The Leela Palace Udaipur

The house

Drink and Dine

Sheesh Mahal

The Dining Room

The Library Bar

What is here

The Arrival Is by Water

A Pool Laid Along the Lake

Folk Music in the Courtyard

A Cellar You Walk Into

The rooms

The particulars

Where it is

The small print

Extra bed

Side by side

The rooms themselves

Grande Heritage Garden View Room

Grande Heritage Lake View Room

Grande Heritage Lake View Room with Balcony

Grande Heritage Garden View Room with Plunge Pool

Luxury Suite

Duplex Suite

Royal Suite

Maharaja Suite

Varija — Lake Villa

Utpala — Lake Villa with Private Deck

Kumuda — Family Villa

The Leela Palace Udaipur