Formerly the estate of the Nizam of Hyderabad (once the world’s richest man), the Taj Falaknuma Palace is now a 60-room hotel overlooking one of India’s most storied cities. And if the Tablet seal of approval isn’t enough, perhaps it is of some comfort to know that a previous era’s guests included King George V and Queen Mary, the Prince of Wales and Tsar Nicholas of Russia. So please, let’s give this singular hotel a royal welcome.
When you see the Taj group talking about palace hotels, it’s best to sit up and take notice. It’s taking nothing away from their more contemporary business-oriented hotels to say that over-the-top fantasy hotels like the Taj Falaknuma Palace are where their comparative advantage lies. For one thing, they’ve got impeccable taste in palaces; this one, with its English architecture, French tapestries and Venetian chandeliers, still belongs to what remains of Hyderabad’s royal family, and is among India’s most opulent residences.
It’s divided into just sixty rooms and suites, leaving each one with plenty of square footage. Here the Taj approach pays dividends as well, the company’s somewhat conservative house style tempering the extravagance of the palace’s common spaces, leaving the guest quarters extremely elegant yet eminently livable. The standard rooms are far from poky, but it’s the grand suites that really spread their wings, with their cavernous spaces, their top-shelf luxuries and their panoramic views of the city (these last thanks to the palace’s privileged location, on a hilltop on Hyderabad’s fringes).
However sedate the room interiors may be, in the palace’s public spaces, all bets are off. The dining rooms are nothing short of majestic, as is the Jade Room, the venue for the afternoon tea service. The endless ballrooms lend an air of glamour to any bit of business, and the spa, often somewhat neglected in Indian luxury hotels, is here given the attention it deserves.
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