Little Luxuries by Devanshi Mody
Featured Hotel in India
Ananda in the Himalayas
See all hotels in India >
A boutique hotel is vaguely defined as having anything from one to a hundred rooms and is comprised of converted palaces, castles, villas and heritage homes. Some ultra-luxurious boutique hotels come with their distinguished owners, which add a charming personal touch.
The trend started in India where the maharajas, in order to retain their properties which they could no longer afford to maintain, opened their doors to “paying guests.” Rambagh was the home of Jaipur’s Royalty until 1957 when it was first converted into a luxury hotel run by the royal family.
Now the Taj Group manages three of the world’s most celebrated boutique hotels: Jaipur’s Rambagh Palace, Udaipur’s Lake Palace and Jodhpur’s Umaid Bhavan. Certain wings of the palaces are converted into hotels, whilst the royals still occupy the rest of the palace. These legendary Heritage Palace boutique hotels rekindle the romance and mysticism of a bygone era, presenting a unique experience of rediscovering the grandeur and luxury of Indian royalty.
Sleep à la Maharaja in Rambagh’s presidential Suryavanshi suite, which was part of the personal chambers of the royal family. Or, like Liz Hurley, get married in right royal style at the monumental Umaid Bhavan, perhaps one of the largest and best-preserved showcases of Art Deco style.
At these palace hotels, expect to spend afternoons playing the royal sport of polo, dashing around marble squash courts and being flanked by umbrella-carrying traditional and personalised butlers so that you can enjoy the unhurried lifestyle of Indian royalty.
Lord Mountbatten, Prince Charles, Jacqueline Kennedy, poets, writers, artists and celebrities galore have succumbed to the temptation of reliving India’s opulent past in palaces imbued in history and fantasy. Each room, each corridor, each wall and each garden narrates a story.
The Lake Palace has a particularly amusing one: it was constructed, because Maharana Jagat Singh II took umbrage at his father’s refusal to allow him to have moonlit picnics with the ladies of his Zenama (women’s quarters) on the neighbouring island palace. No wonder James Bond picked the summer palace of the royals, which remains a quintessential pleasure palace.
If reliving the Raj isn’t your thing, head to London.
San Domenico House offers Victorian with a Venetian twist. This secluded town house transports you into an enchanted world of gilded mirrors, ancestral portraits and 17th-century prints. Each of the 16 rooms is adorned with sumptuous fabrics, opulent antique furniture from around the world and rare 19th-century artworks from various European schools.
One of the most charming aspects of boutique hotels is that as in any home, each room is individually decorated so that there is something unique to match every taste and mood. The owner, Mrs Melpignano, who owns, lives in and lavishes luxury on this “house,” adores a split-level suite with a Venetian canopy-style bed centred in the room.
If you have a big entourage and are looking for 60 unique rooms, travel to the Milestone with its gorgeously decorated rooms, including one with a copper bath placed before a plasma TV and beside a champagne bucket. The homely feel makes this hotel repeatedly voted the UK’s best by those who know it.
It’s so discreet that it’s very easy to walk past this 19th-century Victorian showpiece thinking that it’s a private house or club and not realising it’s the best five-star in town, a favourite among luxury-seeking travellers. The restaurant set in the erstwhile chapel of the house is an intriguing space.
If you have a taste for the exotic, wake up to the sound of chirping birds in courtyards abounding with lime trees and fountains in the 17th-century restored Damascene heritage home Beit Al Mamlouka. Tradition marries luxury in themed oriental rooms, including one with 230-year-old Christian frescos and stables converted into a bar.
If the luxury traveller prefers boutique hotels, it’s because they offer privacy and personalised service besides intimacy. The excitement of rooms and suites not only tell a story, but they also have names – generally very fancy ones – and are decorated on a specific theme.
This is best exemplified at L’Hotel. The discreet 18th-century Hotel Particulier, an aristocratic town house overlooking a courtyard and originally constructed to conceal the passions of Queen Margott, was the hotel in which Oscar Wilde died. He famously said of his room, "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to death. One or other of us has got to go." Well, they both did.
Jacques Garcia has transformed Wilde’s room into a magnificent enclave inspired by the Peacock Room at New York’s Metropolitan Museum. Rooms range from gothic (the room called Violett-Le-Duc) to far eastern (Pondicheri), whilst the cellars have been converted into Roman baths under vaulted ceilings.
One of the world’s most unique and interesting boutique hotels must be the Old Parsonage. From the 14th-century medieval hospice and 17th-century guesthouse to lodgings for Oxford University students (including Oscar Wilde) and the present painstakingly restored elegant hotel, the Old Parsonage has witnessed some of the most dramatic movements in Oxford history.
Once run by nuns, the Old Parsonage even has a tunnel connecting the house to St Giles Church as an escape for priests during periods of religious persecution, as well as a fascinating collection of Medieval figurines. The ghost of a nun has been seen in the old part of the house, which adds to the experience.
Indeed, converted convents, monasteries and churches have become the rage of all Europe since Four Seasons decided historical properties offer great locations and a unique experience. They converted a 14th-century Milanese Franciscan convent into a hotel replete with cloisters, vaulted stucco ceilings and fresco fragments on bare walls. The lobby is set in the 15th-century chapel with massive columns, ceiling vaults and arched walls, and bedrooms court the interior garden court as in Medieval times.
Four Seasons captured the world’s imagination when they converted a century-old neo-classical Turkish jail: Istanbul’s Sultanahmet Prison of Midnight Express fame. The fortress-like structure, which was a prison until 1970, once held captive Turkish dissident writers and politicians, including Nazim Hikmet.
It still retains original tiles, eaves, stone and wood works. Cell walls were removed to enlarge rooms, but prison elements like brass rings on the column capitals remain. This glam address is perfect for prisoners of luxury.
Boutique hotels aren’t only about bringing the past to life, but they are also about making life possible in the present, cramped conditions in modern cities. This is why slick and nifty city boutique hotels fascinate by their sheer design and efficient, innovative use of space. A stunning example is The Intercontinental in Mumbai, arguably the world’s most crowded city.
Contained behind the slim facade of the hotel are few but spacious rooms, which make them most expensive. The rooftop infinity pool that blends into the Arabian Sea and Dome Bar were voted amongst the best in the world for their mastery of space and style. Sydney’s swanky Blue is another example of slim sophistication.
Shopping for boutique resorts is a favourite pastime of luxury seekers. A dozen ultra-lavish tents sprawled over 30 acres, like at the Oberoi Vanyavillas besides Ranthambore Wildlife Reserve, is surely extravagance beyond one’s wildest imagination.
With Amaan specialising in themed “boutique resorts” on private islands, it’s perhaps time to be Amaancipated.