Stay at the Luxurious and Lavish Hotel Lake Palace at Udaipur in India

The city of Udaipur in India is famous it's gardens and palaces in the State of Rajasthan. Udaipur is one of the chief attractions for most of the foreign tourists because of the beautiful lakes, palaces and luxury hotels. I had a unique opportunity to visit Udaipur and stay at the famous and luxurious Hotel Lake Palace for couple of days. Hotel Lake Palace is one of the most fabulous hotels, which is decorated in the royal style of Rajput kingdom. Most of the foreign tourists prefer to stay at Hotel Lake Palace. I am going to write about my experience staying at this luxury hotel.

Hotel Lake palace was originally the palace of the Rajput kings of Udaipur in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Subsequently, this palace was converted to a five star luxury hotel since around last 25 years. It is really a life time experience to stay at this hotel at least for a day or so. This hotel is situated in the middle of the famous Pichola Lake. The to and fro travel to Udaipur city from this hotel is to be done through the lavish shikaras, arranged by the hotel management. All the hotel guests are provided free, unlimited transports through such shikaras. There are three types of rooms/suits available at this hotel. The first is luxury room, second is deluxe, and the third is deluxe suites. I and my husband stayed at the deluxe double room. The room was furnished lavishly with wall to wall Rajasthani rugs, circular king size double bed, the artistic sofa set that can accommodate four people, the paintings of Rajput times, 48 inch size colored TV set with the cable connection, refrigerator with the mini bar inside, telephone, and the lovely, breathtaking view of the Pichola Lake from the windows of most of the deluxe rooms. The bathroom is also most decent and furnished in most luxurious way. It has a large circular bath tub, hot and cold water showers of various types, wash basins in artistic designs, telephone, and the music system. The scented Indian traditional soaps with the perfumes and lotions are provided in each bathroom.

There are in all three restaurants in the hotel and one full fledged bar. The morning buffet breakfast is simply out of the world, consisting of around 80 items, both in veg and non veg varieties. This breakfast is served complementary for all the hotel guests. The bar opens at 11.30 am and closes at 2 am in the morning. It is having the readymade stock of all types of alcoholic drinks like beer, wine, cocktails, rum, vodka, scotch whiskeys, and various types of designed cocktails. Though, the rates of the drinks are very expensive at this bar. One small peg of deluxe Scotch whisky costs around Rs.200 ($5). The light munching is provided free of cost with each drink you purchase. The hotel guests can enjoy their lunch/dinner at any of the three restaurants of the hotel. All types of Indian, Rajasthani, continental, Mughalai, and Chinese food delicacies are served in large varieties. The estimated cost for standard dinner with couple of drinks can be around Rs.1200 ($30) per head. Twenty four hours room service is also available. The local guided tours can be booked from the hotel only. Such tours can be by taxi, and air conditioned luxury coaches. The tourists can hire decorative shikaras and sail in the lovely lake of Pichola. The rates for this hotel are really expensive. The rent of deluxe double room is around Rs.10000 ($250) plus luxury taxes for one day. The luxury suits, consisting of separate living room, bed room and the family room has rent of around Rs.20000 ($500) per day. In spite of such high tariffs, it is really worth spending this money at least once during the life time to see and feel the life of royal Rajput king staying in his luxurious palace. We had stayed here for two days and still feel that it was the most enjoyable period of our life. One must make advance booking for this hotel as the hotel remains full for months together, particularly during winter months of October to March.

I am sure that many American tourists as well as my Indian and Asian friends would like to stay at this luxury hotel during their visit to India. This article would help them to enjoy their stay at this hotel, which is commonly known as the heaven on earth.