Boutique hotels
in Uttar Pradesh

Guleria Kothi

A restored 18th-century sandstone kothi on Guleria Ghat, no road to the door, you arrive by boat

Ekaa Agra

A 13-room boutique hotel in Agra's Taj Nagri, built by three friends with deep roots in the city. Rooms borrow from the Taj's arches and inlay work, the kitchen serves family recipes from within 50 km, and the tours go where day-trippers never do.

Mela Kothi, The Chambal Safari Lodge

An hour from the Taj: a family seat traced to 1472, fourteen rooms in regrown forest, and slow boats past wild gharials on a river that bandit legend and an ancient curse kept blissfully undisturbed.

Brijrama Palace

A 200-year-old palace on Darbhanga Ghat, the second-oldest in Varanasi, reached the old way, by boat

WelcomHeritage Badi Kothi

A lantern-lit heritage kothi near the bank of the Ganga, carved balconies, stained-glass courtyards, a rooftop pool above the river and the Triveni Sangam just up the road.

Coral House

An art-filled Agra homestay a short walk from the Taj Mahal's east gate — rooms themed on contemporary Indian artists, a leafy garden loud with birdsong, and hosts who know Agra inside out.

Coral Court

Jaagir Manor

An 80-year-old hunting lodge in the Terai, within the wildlife corridor around Dudhwa: country of grasslands, forest and freshwater ponds that holds tigers, rhinos and sloth bears. Suites and villas, some brick-built, surround an outdoor pool; dinner is at the Jaagir Pavilion, drinks and finger food at the Safari Club. Safaris here are notably uncrowded.

Saraca Hotel Lucknow

A white Art Deco house from 1936 on Lucknow's Mall Avenue, refurbished in 2016 and set in its own lawns. There are 41 rooms and suites, from the compact Awadh Room to the four-poster Heritage and Imperial Suites, most of which open onto the central courtyard the hotel calls the Sehen. Downstairs, Azrak cooks Awadhi food; there is also a pool, a spa and a rooftop lounge.

Mosaic Connect Ayodhya

A contemporary hotel in Ayodhya's Civil Lines, about a kilometre from Ayodhya Cantt railway station and five from the new Maharishi Valmiki International Airport. Rooms come in three categories, Premium, Family and Deluxe Twin, above a pure-vegetarian skyline restaurant, Atithi Mangalam, open 7am to 10.30pm, and a 2,000 sq ft banquet space the hotel calls Summit.

Diwan House

A hand-built, artisan-decorated homestay in Tajganj, about 500 metres from the Taj Mahal near the East Gate Shilpgram parking. The multilingual hosts, fluent in French, German, English and Hindi, draw on over 30 years as professional tourist escorts.

Maqbara 27

A restored heritage bungalow on Maqbara Road, in a quiet, leafy pocket at the heart of Lucknow, overlooking the Sibtainabad Imambara. Two bedrooms only, Parikhana, all Awadhi motifs and handcrafted woodwork, and Firangi Mahal, colonial in mood with vintage European furniture, alongside a living room lined with books on Lucknow, a dining room under vaulted arches, and a thriving garden. The house is taken whole, sleeps four, and comes with breakfast and a house manager on site.

New

The Fort Unchagaon

A late 18th century fort in nineteen acres of mango groves, two and a half hours from Delhi. Twenty one rooms styled on British era colonial living, split between the Fort House and the Collectors Court.

New

The Mud Fort

A mid 18th century fort, seat of a Jat kingdom, in the Ganges basin farmland ninety minutes from Delhi. Bullock cart rides, pottery and bicycle tours run through the villages around it.

New

Grand Imperial

A hotel standing since 1900 on MG Road, by its own account the only British era heritage hotel in Agra, with fifty rooms from Regal to the Chamber of Prince, close to the Taj and the Fort.

New

Camp TigerLily

A lodge at Bhira on the edge of the Kishanpur sanctuary inside Dudhwa tiger reserve, its rooms opening to forest verandas, with safaris, birding and a fireplace lobby for the evenings.