Umaid Bhawan Palace

Completed in 1943 after a fifteen-year build that employed thousands during famine years, Umaid Bhawan is among the largest private residences ever constructed, a golden-sandstone mass of domes and colonnades crowning its own hill above Jodhpur. The Maharaja's family still occupies one wing, a museum fills another, and Taj operates the third as a hotel — meaning guests sleep inside a living palace rather than a converted one. The 32-metre-high central cupola and the sweep of the entrance rotunda are among the great interior spaces of India.

Rooms and suites channel the palace's remarkable art-deco commission: streamlined furniture, murals and original detailing from the 1940s, with the grandest historical suites among the most theatrical hotel accommodation anywhere. Twenty-six acres of gardens roam around the building, patrolled by strutting peacocks, and the subterranean zodiac-themed pool is a period marvel in its own right.

Dining ranges from Rajasthani royal recipes on the terrace, with the floodlit Mehrangarh Fort on the horizon, to Continental fine dining beneath the dome, while the Jiva spa translates palace pampering into serious treatments. The old city's indigo lanes and the fort deserve full days. The only real caveats are cost and distance: this is destination sleeping at destination prices, a short drive removed from the bazaar bustle below.