Lake Pichola Hotel

This is the real thing: Piplia Haveli, an 18th-century mansion built as the city residence of the Jagirdars of Thikana Piplia, nobility descended from Maharaj Shakti Singh, second son of Udaipur's founder Maharana Udai Singh II and younger brother of Maharana Pratap. The thikana itself was won the hard way. It was awarded to Kalyan Singh, Shakti Singh's grandson, by Maharana Amar Singh I for capturing the outlaw Hathiram Chandrawat, and the haveli came later, granted to Rawat Himmat Singh by Maharana Swaroop Singh as a reward for loyalty. Family legend goes one better: Rawat Gokuldas was granted a boon by the Naag Devta to cure snake bites, a power the eldest male of the family is still believed to hold.

From family haveli to lake hotel

In 1981 Thakur Chandra Bhanu Singh, scion of the family, came home from hotel-management studies in Salzburg and set about restoring the Mardana wing of the haveli. In 1985 it opened as Lake Pichola Hotel, named for the water it sits on. Fair warning from us: it remains a heritage restoration, not a slick modern build. That is exactly the appeal.

The location is the trump card. You are on Brahmpuri, on the western bank of Lake Pichola, out of the old town's crush yet a five-minute walk from its monuments and cafes, and the view goes the right way: across the water to the City Palace and the bathing embankments.

Every room has a balcony; the suites have two.

Every room comes with a balcony and Rajputana-style furnishing. The 19 Lake View Deluxe rooms carry handcrafted furniture and king or twin beds; Standard rooms face the medieval courtyards and gardens instead of the water. The four suites are the set pieces, each with two balconies fitted with a traditional swing and a day mattress, a living room, a pantry and a bathtub, plus specially commissioned Thikri mirror-work by local artists.

Four places to eat and drink without leaving

Upre, the rooftop restaurant and open-air bar with cabanas, faces the lit-up City Palace, Lake Palace, temples and ghats in the evening. Maharana serves breakfast and lunch in the durbar-hall lobby under the chandeliers, indoors or al fresco. The Gallery Cafe hangs on a verandah over the lake for Italian coffee, wine and appetisers through the day, and Asha Bar, glittering with Thikri work, is named after a famous liquor of the Udaipur region. A rooftop pool, a yoga and sunbathing deck and a massage centre fill the slow hours, and the hotel arranges horse safaris, bicycle tours and folk music and dance on call. Arrival still comes with the traditional garlanding and a welcome drink.