India

View other editions of India.

Excellent Travel Planner - Rated
My family & I live in India and run a Travel Consultancy business for visitors to India and Bhutan. We have sent our guests to many parts of the country, visiting hotels we have discovered ourselves and also those run by our relatives & friends.
After having bought this guide book we were pleased to discover that many of our most favored places are listed beautifully.
I can highly recommend this book to anyone planning on traveling extensively in India & looking for just the right place to stay.

How to find something different - Rated
We have used the AS books before while living in France so I was interested to see what the Indian version would have. We live in Mumbai but are always looking for interesting places to stay when we get a chance to travel. So far have only stayed in two properties but have booked another two and have bookmarked at least a half dozen more.
The places we have stayed were exactly as described and we have been very impressed so far.
The Verandah in the Forest in Matheran, Maharashtra was very special and we had a fabulous weekend.
The Kayaloram in Kerala was basic but good and in such a fantastic setting.
Here's to Udaipur and Pondicherry!

SPECIAL PLACES TO STAY - INDIA - Rated
I used this as the basis of a 14 day tour of Rajasthan which was very efficiently arranged through Western & Oriental Travel as recomended in the book. I tried a wide range of accommodation including a very frendly eco-lodge [solar water heating etc] for only £10/night, Castle Pachar, where one gets 'a courteous, old fashioned welcome' to a lovely home in a remote village and Fort Kesroli, a typial 'feudal' fort overlooking timeless country scenes, only three hours from Delhi Airport. Having also used the equivlaent volume to find very memorabe places to stay in Italy, I recomend the series unreservedly for the very varied character and price of the accommodation recommended.

Monkeys watching me bath - Rated
As with other Sawday books one expects out of the ordinary places but even more so in India with its wide variety of cultures and exotic nature of the country. The places that I have sampled I have no hesitation in endorsing and all have had genuine hosts who have not seeing a white skin decided to double the price.

Two little incidents of character worth mentioning concering a place in Shimla which on the drinks card in the bedroom offers 'Captain Haddock's Tonic Water'; quite expensive for a bottle of Tonic Water so I guessed to be avoided and I stuck to good Indian beer with dinner. When at the end of my stay the account was produced against each meal was the item Captain Haddock's Tonic Water. This was the description of beer as a way round licencing difficulties in India. The second incident was in an over large bathroom when I was wearing just the swimminh costume that the Almighty provided and there was a tap at the window. Hastily grabbing a towel I found an monkey clearly interested in a 'distant cousin'.

At a funky place in Rajesthan owned and run by a Maharaj I was invited to a family wedding.

Sawday has found eccentric and interesting places in India which get one off the tourist track.

Many interesting places, even palaces - Rated
Sawday's collection of places to stay will provide you with many unusual and I would guess often fascinating places to stay (not having had the opportunity to sample them all). Many feature smaller upmarket guest houses (or something in that tradition). In such cases you may well be living with the local family (in what looks like great luxury). This will of course be an advantage or not as you see it. There are also hotels, eco-resorts and other style places though.