Hotel Index
Luxury Hotels Across India
Every real luxury hotel we book, across every region — pick a destination below or see the full spread.
Pahalgam, Kashmir
Welcomhotel by ITC Hotels, Pine N Peak, Pahalgam
★★★★★
Pine N Peak stands on a wooded ridge above Pahalgam, among tall pines, looking down the Lidder valley. It is run by ITC's Welcomhotel brand. The rooms are large and well finished, most with a balcony toward the valley or the golf course. There is a restaurant, a bar, indoor games, bicycle hire and long grounds to walk. The eighteen-hole Pahalgam golf course is next door. It sits a short drive above the town, so it is quiet, but Betaab Valley, Aru Valley and the Lidder riverbank are all easy to reach with a car and guide. It is the luxury choice in Pahalgam, and the base for two or three nights in the pine valley on a fuller Kashmir trip.
Srinagar, Kashmir
The LaLiT Grand Palace Srinagar
★★★★★
The LaLiT Grand Palace was built around 1910 as the summer palace of the Dogra kings of Kashmir. It is also known as Gulab Bhavan. It stands on a low rise on Gupkar Road, on the eastern edge of the city. Wide lawns run down toward Dal Lake, with the Zabarwan mountains behind. The old state rooms are still in use, hung with Kashmiri carpets and papier-mache work, and a chinar tree in the courtyard once shaded a meeting between Gandhi and Maharaja Hari Singh. There are over a hundred rooms and suites, plus garden cottages. The grounds hold a nine-hole golf course, a spa with an indoor pool, and long walking paths. It is the grandest address in Srinagar, and the natural base for a lake-and-gardens stay in the city.
Srinagar, Kashmir
Butt's Clermont Houseboats
★★★★☆
Butt's Clermont is a small group of heritage houseboats, run by the same family since the 1940s. They are moored on the quiet western shore of Dal Lake, at Naseem Bagh, beside a Mughal-era garden of old chinar trees. This is the calm side of the lake, away from the busy boulevard, reached by the hotel's own boat. Each houseboat is panelled in carved cedar, with a drawing room, a dining room, a sundeck, and a handful of bedrooms. Meals are cooked on board and served by the family's staff. A lawn on the bank looks across the water to the mountains. George Harrison and Ravi Shankar stayed here in 1966, and the guest book runs through ambassadors, writers and photographers since. It is the classic way to sleep on Dal Lake, and the quietest.
Kochi, Kerala
Taj Malabar Resort & Spa, Cochin
★★★★★
Taj Malabar sits at the tip of Willingdon Island, right where the Kochi backwaters meet the Arabian Sea. The original wing opened in 1935. It was designed for passengers arriving by ship, and the building still faces the water as though expecting them. The location is the reason to stay. Cargo ships and Chinese fishing nets pass in the same frame. Fort Kochi is a short ferry ride across the harbour. Ernakulam and the mainland city are about the same distance in the other direction. Heritage rooms occupy the 1935 wing and keep their teak floors and colonial proportions. The newer tower rooms trade that character for wider harbour views and larger bathrooms. Both look at water from almost every angle. Rice Boat is the signature restaurant, built to resemble a Kerala houseboat, and it serves seafood chosen from the day's catch. There is also an all-day dining room and a bar on the waterfront lawn. Sunset from that lawn is the property's best hour. Jiva Spa runs Ayurvedic treatments with resident therapists, and the pool sits at the water's edge. Staff arrange harbour cruises, Kathakali performances and guided walks through the spice markets of Mattancherry.
Kovalam, Kerala
Taj Green Cove Resort & Spa, Kovalam
★★★★★
Taj Green Cove Resort & Spa sits above Samudra Beach in Kovalam, a short walk from the town's famous lighthouse. The resort takes its design cues from Bali. Wooden furniture, heritage motifs, and French windows appear throughout the property. Fifty-nine rooms and suites are set among tropical gardens that slope toward the Arabian Sea. Some suites open onto a private plunge pool. Wellness sits at the heart of a stay here. The resort runs an Ayurveda and wellness centre, led by a naturopathy doctor. Guests can book personalised spa therapies or simply unwind by the infinity pool. A fully equipped fitness centre and daily yoga sessions round out the health offering. Three restaurants serve local Keralan dishes alongside international menus, with 24-hour in-room dining also available. Families are well looked after too, with a supervised kids' club and outdoor play areas. For couples and families exploring Kovalam's beaches, Taj Green Cove Resort & Spa offers a genuinely restful base. The garden, library, and hair salon add quiet comfort between excursions. It remains one of Kovalam's most established luxury addresses, prized for its Balinese-style architecture and sea-facing gardens.
Kumarakom, Kerala
Kumarakom Lake Resort
★★★★★
Kumarakom Lake Resort spreads over twenty-five acres on the shore of Lake Vembanad. It is built as a Kerala village. Tiled roofs, carved wood, open courtyards, a canal running through the grounds. The signature accommodation is the meandering-pool villa, where a single shared pool winds past the back door of each villa in a row. The heritage villas are reassembled from old Kerala houses and each has its own courtyard and private plunge pool. The resort has won the World Travel Award as India's leading resort several times over. Ayurmana, its Ayurveda centre, is housed in a separate heritage building and runs full treatment courses as well as single sessions. Meals lean hard into Kerala cooking, including a toddy-shop menu and a seafood grill by the water. The lake sunset, seen from the resort's own jetty or from a sunset cruise, is the fixed point of the day here.
Munnar, Kerala
Scenic, Munnar - IHCL SeleQtions
★★★★★
Scenic sits above Chithirapuram, on a slope of the Munnar tea country. It belongs to IHCL's SeleQtions collection, which is the Taj group's label for hotels with a distinct character of their own. Here that character comes almost entirely from the landscape. The hotel is built in tiers down the hillside. Nearly every room opens onto a balcony, and nearly every balcony looks over tea gardens falling away towards the valley. Cloud moves through at this altitude, so the same view changes several times before breakfast. Room categories climb from Superior through Deluxe and Premium, and the top villas add private plunge pools. Interiors keep to warm wood and clean lines rather than competing with what is outside the window. The Pawcations rooms are set aside for guests travelling with a dog. Food leans on the region. Cardamom, pepper and local produce come from the plantations nearby, and the kitchen will also cook a straightforward Kerala meal on request. Meals can be served on the terrace when the weather holds. Munnar's tea museum, Eravikulam National Park and the Mattupetty and Kundala lakes are all within easy reach. The hotel arranges plantation walks, and staff know which viewpoints are worth the early start.
Varkala, Kerala
Gateway Varkala – IHCL SeleQtions
★★★★★
Gateway Varkala stands on the cliff at the north end of the beach, an IHCL property with about thirty rooms. Every room and suite has a balcony, and the best of them look straight down the Arabian Sea. The grounds are small but well planted, built around a swimming pool with a sunken bar. The clifftop path, with its cafes and shops, starts at the gate, and the stairs to the beach are a few minutes' walk. The Ayurveda centre is Green Leaf certified, the Kerala government's mark for a serious treatment facility. Coastal Kitchen, the main restaurant, has run since 1995 and leans on Malabar seafood. It is a ten-minute drive from Varkala railway station and about an hour from Thiruvananthapuram airport.
Wayanad, Kerala
Taj Wayanad Resort & Spa, Kerala
★★★★★
Taj Wayanad opened in 2023 on a small rise above Banasura Lake, near Padinjarathara. It has 270-degree views of the Banasura hills and the water, and it was built to sit lightly on ten acres of hillside. There are sixty-one keys. Forty-three are waterfront cottages stepped down the slope; five are pool villas with plunge pools. The materials and the roof lines borrow from the building tradition of northern Kerala. Wellness is the running theme. The J Wellness Circle spa leads with Ayurveda, and the layout keeps quiet corners and forest edges close to every room. Dining is two restaurants and two bars, with a south-Indian room and a poolside grill. The resort is a two-hour drive from Kozhikode and its airport.
Leh, Ladakh
Ladakh Sarai
★★★★★
Ladakh Sarai is a small tented lodge in the hills above Saboo, a village on the edge of Leh, away from the town. The accommodation is a handful of stone cottages and yurts, furnished with Ladakhi rugs and textiles, each with a wood stove and a proper bathroom. The camp is set among barley fields and looks across the Indus valley to the Stok range. It is run by an established Himalayan operator and is built for slow days. Meals are shared, the food is local, and guided walks leave straight from the camp. It is the choice for travellers who want the Leh sights but not a hotel in the town, and it works well as a base for the first, acclimatising days.
Leh, Ladakh
The Grand Dragon Ladakh
★★★★★
The Grand Dragon is the only certified five-star hotel in Ladakh. It stands on a rise on the edge of Leh, at about 3,500 metres, with the Stok range filling the windows. The building is run for the altitude. Rooms have a fresh-air system that raises the oxygen level, which helps guests sleep on the first nights. The heating is central and the water is hot, neither of which can be taken for granted this high up. There are 76 rooms and suites, all with mountain views, warm Ladakhi textiles and large bathrooms. The hotel has a spa, a library, a coffee shop and two restaurants, one of them serving Ladakhi food. The family that owns it has traded and hosted in Leh for generations. It is open all year, including deep winter, when most of Leh closes.
Nubra Valley, Ladakh
Lchang Nang Retreat — The House of Trees
★★★★★
Lchang Nang means the House of Trees. It is a small retreat on the bank of the Nubra river, near Sumur, set in a garden of poplar and willow. There are 17 cottages, built by local masons from mud, stone and poplar wood, in the Ladakhi way. They are warm, simple and quiet, with wide windows onto the river and the dunes. The retreat runs on solar power for most of the year. Food comes largely from its own garden and from Nubra farms. There is no bar and no pool. The point is the setting. It is a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World and is owned by a Nubra family. It is the natural luxury base for the Nubra leg of a Ladakh trip, and the reason to give Nubra two nights rather than one.
Kashmir to Kanyakumari
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