Coral Court

# Coral Court Home Stay, Agra

The golf buggies that carry visitors to the Taj Mahal's East Gate load up at Shilpgram parking, and Coral Court sits barely two minutes' walk from the barrier. Tickets are sold at the same spot, so you can be queueing at the gate while the coach parties are still crossing town. The monument itself is a ten to fifteen minute walk from the front door.

A traveller's house, opened up

Coral Court is the work of its owner, Beena, who travelled across most of Europe and India before turning her own house in Amar Lok Colony, Tajganj, into a boutique homestay in 2016. The photographs on her site tell you what kind of house it is: a sitting room in teal and yellow, an arched marble corridor, a plant-filled courtyard, and a crenellated second-floor terrace with seating. Breakfast is included, rooms come with a coffee maker, satellite television, a work desk and free Wi-Fi, and there is a concierge service for onward plans. The hosts were born and raised in Agra and make a point of helping with everything from ordering food to route-planning for the city.

Two minutes from the Taj ticket queue, five hundred metres from a nine-kilometre forest trail.

The green side of Agra

The surprise in this corner of Tajganj is how leafy it is. Taj Nature Walk, a 70-hectare forest reserve, begins about 500 metres from the house; its nine-kilometre trail has grass mounds and watch towers with clear views of the Taj Mahal, and the reserve lists 46 varieties of flowers along with jackals, blue bulls, hares, parakeets, kingfishers and hoopoes. It makes a fine first evening: watch the dome change colour from a watch tower, then walk back for dinner.

Coral Court suits couples, families, groups and solo travellers, and the owners note it works well for single women travelling alone. In our view it is the sensible way to do Agra: sleep close, walk in early, and let everyone else fight the traffic.