Hotel Index
Premium Hotels Across India
Every real premium hotel we book, across every region — pick a destination below or see the full spread.
Sasan Gir, Gujarat
Asiatic Lion Lodge
★★★★☆
This is a small eco-lodge on the edge of the Gir forest. It sits between two wooded hills. There are 16 cottages. Each is a Deluxe AC Cottage of 350 square feet. A king bed and a couch fill the room. A veranda with safari chairs faces the lawn. Walls are warm and wood-toned. Bathrooms are modern and en suite. The lodge has a swimming pool. Flavours of Forest serves the meals. Cafe Forest sits by the jungle with a small library. Nights end round a campfire. Days start with a jeep safari. Walks, birdwatching and tribal village visits fill the gaps. The lodge is certified by IATO and the Ecotourism Society of India. Choose it for a quieter, greener stay.
Vadodara, Gujarat
Grand Mercure Vadodara Surya Palace
★★★★★
This is Vadodara's five-star address in Sayajigunj. The hotel has 146 rooms and suites. The railway station is 1.5 km away. Laxmi Vilas Palace is a five-minute drive. The airport is ten minutes off. Rooms are calm and modern. Beds are king-sized with crisp white linen. Executive rooms add space and a work desk. Views open over the city. Swim in the pool on the sun-lit terrace. Work out in the fitness centre. Dine at Azure, the all-day restaurant. Champaner and Pavagadh, a UNESCO site, lie 50 km away. The Statue of Unity is 90 minutes by road. Your guide will fold the palace, the old bazaars and Champaner into one easy stay. A reliable base for a first night on the Gujarat circuit.
Dalhousie, Himachal Pradesh
Grand View Hotel, Dalhousie
★★★☆☆
The Grand View has stood above the Dalhousie bus stand since 1906, and it is the town's heritage hotel. It is a long white building on the edge of the ridge, and the name is earned: the terrace and the front rooms look straight down the Chamba valley to the Dhauladhar and Pir Panjal snows. The rooms are large and old-fashioned, in wood, with sitting areas and heaters. There is a restaurant, a bar, a lawn and a small pool. It is a short walk to the Mall, the churches and the walking circuits, and Khajjiar is a half-hour drive. It is the comfortable, characterful base for a night or two in Dalhousie.
Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh
Fortune Park Moksha, McLeodganj
★★★★☆
Fortune Park Moksha is a modern hotel in McLeodganj, upper Dharamshala, run by the Fortune group of ITC. The rooms are comfortable and well kept, and the better ones face the Dhauladhar range across the valley. There is an outdoor pool, a small spa, a sauna and a restaurant with Tibetan and Indian menus. Being in McLeodganj is the point. The Dalai Lama's temple, the monasteries, the Tibetan market and the cafes are a short walk, and the Bhagsu waterfall and the Triund trailhead are close. It is the premium option for a stay in the middle of Little Lhasa itself, rather than down the hill.
Manali, Himachal Pradesh
Span Resort & Spa, Manali
★★★★☆
Span Resort sits on the bank of the Beas, on the road between Manali and Naggar, about fifteen kilometres from the town. The cottages are set in lawns and orchards along the river, and the sound of the water carries into the rooms. It has been run by the same family for decades, and it shows in the gardening and the service. There is a spa, an indoor pool, a fishing beat on the river, and a bonfire most evenings. It is a little way out of Manali, which trades the town's bustle for quiet and river frontage. The resort arranges the drives to Solang, the Atal Tunnel and Naggar. It is the premium choice for a Manali stay that puts the river and the calm first.
Shimla, Himachal Pradesh
The Oberoi Cecil, Shimla
★★★★★
The Cecil is a heritage hotel at the quiet end of the Mall in Shimla, a few minutes' walk from the Ridge. It opened in the 1880s and kept its Raj-era bones: a tall glass-roofed atrium with a fire, wood floors, old photographs. The rooms are warm and traditional, and the valley-side ones look across the pines to the hills. There is a heated indoor pool, a spa, and a good restaurant. Being in the town is the point here, as against Wildflower Hall's forest. Christ Church, the Gaiety Theatre and the shops are a short walk, and the toy train station is close. It is the premium choice for a Shimla stay built around the colonial town itself.
Gulmarg, Kashmir
Kolahoi Green Heights, Gulmarg
★★★★☆
Kolahoi Green Heights is a modern four-star hotel in the middle of Gulmarg, about two hundred metres from the Gondola base station. It opened in 2017. The rooms are large and simply done, with wood floors, warm colours and big windows onto the meadow or the pines. There is a restaurant, room service and heating throughout. The location is the strength. The Gondola, the meadow, the church and the golf course are all a short walk, which matters in winter when the snow is deep and cars struggle. It is the premium option in Gulmarg for travellers who want a comfortable, central room rather than a full resort, and it works well for one or two nights in the mountains.
Pahalgam, Kashmir
Pahalgam Hotel
★★★★☆
The Pahalgam Hotel opened in 1931, and it is a Pahalgam institution. It sits in the heart of the main market, on about two acres of lawns and chinar trees, with the Lidder river a short walk away. The rooms are spread across a few blocks, and many look toward the river or the snow line. The style is old-fashioned in a good way: warm, well kept, family-managed. There is a restaurant known for its Kashmiri food, a bar, a garden and a spa. The taxi stand for Betaab, Aru and Chandanwari is close, and so is the riverbank path. It is the premium choice in the centre of Pahalgam, for travellers who want to walk out of the door into the town and the valley.
Srinagar, Kashmir
Taj Dal View, Srinagar
★★★★★
Taj Dal View sits on Kralsangri hill, above the Brein shore of Dal Lake. It opened in 2011 and was refurbished and reflagged as a Taj hotel. The setting is the point. The hotel is built along a clifftop across about six acres, and most rooms and the pool deck look straight down over the lake to the old city, with the Zabarwan range on the far side. Inside there is careful Kashmiri metalwork and woodwork, an outdoor pool, a spa, and three restaurants, including a Pan-Asian room. The airport is about half an hour away, and the Tulip Garden is a five-minute drive. It is the premium choice for a Srinagar stay with a big view, and an easy first or last night around a flight.
Alleppey, Kerala
Punnamada Resort
★★★★☆
Punnamada Resort sits on the edge of Punnamada Lake, which is the stretch of water the Nehru Trophy Boat Race is rowed on every August. For most of the year it is quiet. Fishing canoes cross it in the morning and houseboats drift out in the afternoon. The resort is laid out low and wide across the waterfront. Accommodation is in Kerala-style blocks and cottages with tiled roofs and wooden detail, set among coconut palms and lawns that run down to the water. Rooms face either the lake or the gardens. The lake-facing ones are worth asking for. Interiors keep to local materials — wood, stone, woven cane — without tipping into theme. There is a pool, an ayurvedic treatment centre and a restaurant that leans on Kerala backwater cooking: karimeen from the lake, coconut, curry leaf, kokum. The practical advantage is the jetty. Houseboat cruises leave from the water in front of the resort, so a backwater day does not begin with a transfer. Alleppey town, the beach and the canal network are all close by.
Kochi, Kerala
Eighth Bastion
★★★★☆
Eighth Bastion takes its name from the old Portuguese fort that once ringed this shoreline. Fort Immanuel had bastions along its wall, and the eighth of them stood near this spot. The hotel is built on that history rather than around it. The property belongs to CGH Earth, a Kerala group that has spent decades running small, place-specific hotels instead of large ones. It shows in the scale here. This is a compact hotel on a Fort Kochi street, not a resort behind a gate. The architecture reads Dutch and Portuguese from outside — tiled roofs, deep verandas, shuttered windows. Inside, the rooms are calm and contemporary, with dark wood against white walls. The two periods are allowed to sit next to each other. There is a pool in the courtyard and a restaurant that cooks Kerala coastal food, including the day's catch from the harbour a few streets away. Fort Kochi is a walking neighbourhood, and that is the real reason to stay here. The Chinese fishing nets, St Francis Church, the Dutch Cemetery, Jew Town and the Mattancherry spice godowns are all reachable on foot or by a short auto ride.
Kumarakom, Kerala
Taj Kumarakom Resort & Spa, Kerala
★★★★☆
Taj Kumarakom is built around a bungalow put up in 1881 by an English missionary, Henry Baker. The estate he planted has grown into a small resort next to the Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary, on the edge of Lake Vembanad. There are twenty-eight rooms, cottages and villas, set among old rain trees and a lotus lagoon. The original bungalow is now a suite and a restaurant. Some villas have a private plunge pool. Because the resort shares a boundary with the bird sanctuary, the dawn chorus here is loud and genuine. The J Wellness Circle spa runs Ayurveda alongside the usual treatments. This is the value tier for Kumarakom against the heritage resorts nearby, and it is still a full Taj property on a rare piece of ground.
Kashmir to Kanyakumari
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