The Perfect Weekend Getaway From Delhi: Neemrana Fort Resort
The Neemrana Hotel chain needs no introduction, and years before I booked a stay at the Neemrana Fort Palace in Alwar (2.5 hours drive from Gurgaon), I had already heard a million good things about the place and was one of my dream destinations.
Neemrana Fort Resort
The Neemrana Fort Palace near Delhi
It is true that most heritage hotels in and around Delhi boast of scenic beauty and treasures of history, the Neemrana Fort Resort is much more than that. It is an experience! It is a perfect choice for magical weekend getaways, feasts, celebrations, and conferences for folks in Delhi. This is a 15th century heritage hotel, bursting with beautiful tales from yesteryear and is among the most popular resorts near Delhi.
This is a seven palace wings built over 14 layers tiered into a hill across 2.5 hectares/ 6 acres of garden-palace.
Friends from college would plan dates here, at the Neemrana Fort Resort – drive on a Sunday, have lunch at the resort, soak in the beauty that’s scattered at every corner of this heritage hotel, and come back by 4-ish in the evening. Sounds tedious, I would say to these friends and they would invariably sigh with nostalgia and tell me ‘But it is totally worth it!’ I would roll my eyes, but it made me very curious.
Hanging gardens, two pools to swim out to the horizon, an Ayurvedic spa, and India’s first zip-line is what the world comes to experience!
Then, a couple of years later, I decided to plan a weekend getaway from Delhi with the then-new husband and almost immediately, I decided it was time I stayed at the Neemrana Fort Palace. I found the website, got the number and called happily. I had to book for the 14th Feb weekend that year, which is my birthday – and I was making this call a month in advance. I thought that was enough to get a good room. I was wrong.
“We have only 2 rooms available” I was told. “All others are booked.”
“Already?” I blurted.
“Yes maa’m.” The kind lady said, and informed me that it is pretty much booked 6 months to a year in advance. Damn.
One stay at the Neemrana Fort Resort will get you started on the discovery of the best resorts near Delhi!
Finally, I booked the Cheeni Mahal, which is one of the medium range rooms at the Neemrana Fort Resort. And on 12th Feb, we drove down from Delhi to Neemrana, only to be spellbound for life. The place is so beautiful that no words will do justice to it. And the maintenance is impeccable.
Staying at the Neemrana Fort Palace is like living in an Indian Fairy Tale World, where peacocks dance and the landscape tells tales of a grand heritage that makes you feel inexplicably proud.
Here are a few pictures from my 4 days 3 nights stay at the Neemrana Fort Palace, along with my highlights of the stay:
Weekend Getaway From Delhi: Neemrana Fort Palace
1. We stayed at Cheeni Mahal and loved it to bits! I’d really like to go back and stay in the same room again. Although, I must admit that Chandra Mahal is what I really want to experience too. Fingers crossed!
The Key to Chini Mahal
2. The rooms at Neemrana Fort Resort are luxurious, and done up in pure Desi Royal Swag! No kidding. The rooms live up to the heritage tag the resort has, and everything is grand and vintage and just plain amazing.
Our stunning Room at Neemrana Fort Resort: Cheeni Mahal
The “Jharokha”, or the window to heaven from my room at the Neemrana Fort Resort.
3. You’ll want to take a million pictures of every thing because all things vintage will grab attention. Being an Indian, I took so many of pictures (like below) of things and artefacts, imagine what the resort does to the non-Indian guests. Click – clickety-click, they go all day!
Water Dispenser? Piece of Art? You decide.
4. The outdoors are as beautiful as the rooms. See these bright blue vintage chairs – adding a pop of quirky color to the entire heritage backdrop.
Bright Blue Rustic Chairs, and heavenly view from the top
5. Exploring the resort is great fun. There are gardens that will appear suddenly s you walk down a narrow stairway, there are brilliant view points that spring up on you just as you are finding your way to the dinner/lunch venue – they change it everyday and it makes the walk even more interesting. There are pathways and narrow secret (um, I might have imagined the secret part) routes to all the rooms and it was fun to discover this cute way to our room on Day 2. Leads directly to the first pool.
Beautiful pathway
Pathway to heaven, aka pool
6. The Pool, oh the pool! Actually there are two pools and both are spots that I’d never want to leave without at least throwing a tantrum. I’m serious. Day 1, pool 1 was scheduled for a clean up so this is what we saw, but loved it nonetheless. Day 2, 3 and 4, no one could keep the two of us away from the pools.
The glamorous pool 1.
The tempting pool 2.
The food is yummy, and they generally have a menu of famous Indian cuisine like Laal Maas (a spicy Rajasthani lamb curry), Gatta Curry etc, and also international cuisine that ranges from Chinese to Italian – mainly to cater to the international clientèle, which is in majority here.
The folk dance and cultural program that is scheduled for most weekends, is super fun. I even danced with the troupe for a while and collected many compliments from kind people, haha.
Cultural Program on Weekends is pure fun
Before you decide to go here, know that you will not get room service except for water, and there are no television sets in the room. Also, food is served at new locations every day and the entire agenda in all this is to get you to step out of the rooms and explore the magical property which is totally worth it. Also, book in advance from here: Neemrana Fort Palace Booking.
Did I mention the unmatched night view of the palace? Priceless.
This will not be your average luxury hotel room stay experience, this is much more than that and will leave you wanting to come back for more. God know how much I’m wanting to stay there again!
All in all, Neemrana Fort Palace is a place you should stay at for at least a weekend and experience the royal life.
Author of 2 books. TEDx Speaker. Travel Writer. Blogger. Addicted to Travel & Books. Digital Media Strategist. Social Media Girl. Army Wife. Mom. Curious. Crazy.
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