Bundelkhand Riverside

The old house still standing on the site was used as a hunting lodge and guest house by the erstwhile royal family of Orchha, and the present hotel is an addition to construction that dates back to 1895. It occupies 55 acres on the bank of the Betwa, with monuments 400 years old in various states of ruin scattered through the grounds. The furniture is Indian and British colonial, handcrafted on site by carpenters and craftsmen who worked here for seven years.

There are 26 bedrooms, 17 of them river facing with sit out verandahs, and 13 river facing cottages set among the function lawns. Rooms run to 21 square metres, and the poolside and riverside deluxe rooms add an open balcony and a fireplace. The restaurant is the Turquoise Diner, tiled in blue after the Jahangir Mahal, cooking Murg Bundelkhand and Kothi Ghat fish curry. Dinner also goes outside, under a bonfire with Bundelkhandi musicians in one of the four Mughal gardens.

The hotel keeps its own boats and canoes on the Betwa. A morning walk in the Orchha sanctuary next door can turn up 200 bird species.