Day: July 25, 2024

My husband and I wanted to go somewhere neither of us had ever been for our honeymoon, but not just anywhere we had ever been, somewhere special — out of this world, like visiting another planet. A once-in-a-lifetime trip. We were thinking of this opportunity to take two weeks off work and travel as a chance for an adventure more than to relax: an adventure-moon, if you will.

I’ve already been on safari in Africa, he visited the Middle East right before the pandemic, and we try to get to Europe at least once a year. When we landed on India, the excitement in the room was palpable. By visiting India, we could get a taste of a completely alien culture to our own and experience the hustle and bustle of famous cities and the leisure and wonder of a natural landscape and wildlife we’d never encountered before.

Initial research showed that most first-time tourists to India embark on a three-city route called the Golden Triangle that hits Delhi, Agra (where the Taj Mahal is), and Jaipur, cities in the Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh states in North India. If you think the Golden Triangle could tick off the boxes you’re looking for in a non-traditional (but unforgettable) honeymoon, the next step is deciding where to stay.

Two top-level hotel groups are best known throughout India: The Oberois and Taj Hotels. The Taj Hotels convert historical properties into boutique hotels, like the Lake Palace in Udaipur. They’re not purpose-built; originally, they were palaces, not hotels, so the rooms at many of the properties are different sizes and don’t offer uniform features, like views.

Oberoi takes a different approach, building the best hotels for their location, focusing on luxury, grandeur, and their signature “heartfelt” hospitality. In Agra, for example, The Oberoi Amarvilas were built to give every guest front-row seats to India’s most famous attraction and only have guest rooms that overlook the Taj Mahal, while the other side of the hallway is lined with windows facing the front of the hotel. We planned to stay at several Oberois on our trip, so when the hotel group offered us the chance to stay exclusively with them, it was an easy “yes.” The properties, each unique with some distinctly Oberoi threads, acted as our home bases in the chaotic cities and more serene stops we added onto our Golden Triangle base path.

To help us finalize our route, we enlisted the help of Audley travel agency and, with our agent, Zac, we added onto the triangle with two nights in Udaipur, a more remote and calmer scenic destination, after our third stop on the triangle, Jaipur. Because my husband and I are animal lovers (and this was our adventure-moon, after all), we also decided to make a detour between Agra and Jaipur to Ranthambore National Park to see tigers during a jungle safari. As you devise the perfect customized India honeymoon, you could also enlist the Oberoi itself, as another couple we met along the way had done with their Exotic Vacations program. The service creates personalized itineraries lasting six nights or more and makes traveling throughout India simple, handling everything from room reservations and intercity transfers to destination and hotel experiences.

Because we couldn’t resist extending our trip if we could justify it, we squeezed in one final stop: flying from Udaipur to Mumbai, India’s largest (and most modern) city.

Here’s how it went.

Each property has iconic throughlines that are distinctly Oberoi, emphasizing Indian traditions and warm hospitality. The staff seemed genuinely excited to make our honeymoon special, too, adding romantic personal touches like extra room decorations and preparing thoughtful gestures ahead of our stays.

Guests are welcomed to every property, lavish in its own way, by a staff member who performs a gratitude ritual called Aarti, in which a candle on a tray is waved in a circle around us accompanied by the sentiment, “for your health, well-being, and happiness.” Live music and Rajasthani dance performances were common throughout our trip in the hotel lobbies, restaurants, and special outdoor experiences. Fresh, fragrant flowers are abundant at every Oberoi location, with daily refreshes of bouquets in your room on tables, nightstands, or bathroom counters, walls dripping with vibrant flora, and creative designs throughout the properties, from petals floating in bird feeders to images and messages spelled out (like “Welcome to the jungle” as you wander the Ranthambore grounds and “Goodnight” right outside your room in Jaipur). You can expect personal and thoughtful touches like this at each location within the overarching ethereal, otherworldly atmospheres, a level of attentiveness and warmth that helped buoy the hotel group to the top of one of Travel + Leisure’s recent reader-voted rankings of The 25 Best Hotel Brands in the World.

Pool areas from property to property have the same brightly colored, fringed sun umbrellas with gold designs, and many of the decks are designed with checkered tiles in alternating colors, mostly lighter and dark blues. Lighting is a meticulously curated detail at the Oberois, with each property using a mix of natural lighting — from open-air hallways, al-fresco bars, and huge windows with sunlight pouring in, to candlelit tables, imposing torches with dancing flames, and scattered lanterns glinting across the landscape.

For your convenience, each property also has a butler service you can dial any time of night or day, room service options, gyms with private or shared yoga classes, and spas with various treatments. The Oberois don’t allow gratuities to individual staffers, which takes the stress out of day-to-day travel because you don’t have to constantly think about the conversion rate and keep the right size bills on hand. You can take down the names of people who offer outstanding service and leave a note and tip for the entire staff at the end of your stay. The staff, across the board, from the greeters to the pool servers, were so genuinely helpful and caring — in some instances running over to us before we could lift a finger — that we ended up writing nearly every name down some days, a level of hospitality that aligns with a core pillar of the Oberoi brand’s service: Heart.Felt.

Stop 1: The Oberoi, New Delhi

A luxury business hotel ingrained in the hearts of locals.

Nestled right in the heart of bustling New Delhi, The Oberoi, New Delhi is an urban respite — and one of Travel + Leisure’s recommendations of the best places to stay in New Delhi. While you can’t wholly escape the noise of the bustling city (the hotel is right off a main road), you can see Delhi’s sites from removed bird’s-eye vantage points here that you won’t get on your walking tours.

Owned by the same family since 1965 (and reopened in 2018 after extensive renovations), the five-star luxury business hotel holds a lot of legacy in the city. The communications manager at the property fondly referred to the main all-day restaurant, 360°, as “Delhi’s drawing room,” a label that increasingly made sense the more we dined there. For everything from birthdays to business meetings, groups of well-dressed men and women gathered at large tables and chatted over relaxed lunches daily. The expansive restaurant, with glass walls overlooking the gardens and pool, is where you can see elements of daily life for residents. Included in your stay is the multifaceted breakfast buffet at 360°, with several large tables of global dishes based on region — Asian, Indian, international, etc. — and you can also order dishes off the menu, ranging from traditional Indian cuisine to Western-style eggs.

The other two restaurants, Dhilli and Baoshuan, may not have the same Delhi-specific nostalgia as 360°, but they’re both infused with history. The food at both is impressive, and they’re some of the best-rated restaurants in the entire city. Dhilli, which means “from the heart,” is the newest and offers upscale Indian cuisine covering seven regions (and the chef intends to add more). The chef started with a mission to create food inspired by his childhood memories from visiting his granny — just one example of the property infusing its offerings with sentiment showcasing both general and individual Indian heritage.

The second upscale restaurant, Baoshuan, is named after the big “Chinese treasure ships” from the early 15th century that would sail to India (and as far as East Africa) carrying valuables and provisions. Led by two Michelin-star chef Andrew Wong (of A. Wong in London), Baoshuan celebrates Chinese food throughout history and across many regions. Like the menu, the presentation is wide-ranging, too, with classic soup dumplings in steamer baskets to desserts arriving at your table in bowls overflowing with silky smoke.

There are two bars where you can enjoy pre- or post-meal drinks (or earlier, with The Club Bar first open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.). The stylish rooftop spot, Cirrus 9, is where you go to feel like you’re out on the town (even if all you had to do was hop in an elevator), enjoying specialty cocktails and delicious small plates that you could quickly fill up on (but don’t because you’ll want to save room for the restaurants). The first floor has The Club Bar, a cozy and intimate relaxing spot with a glass of Indri, India’s award-winning single malt whiskey. Attached to The Club Bar, which is right off the lobby, is the Cigar Lounge, full of Cuban cigars in humidor lockers.

If the weather is clear enough, you can see 35-40 monuments from the outdoor section of the rooftop bar, including the UNESCO World Heritage Site Humayun’s Tomb, one of India’s earliest examples of Mughal architecture. The hotel also overlooks a sprawling golf course, offering greenery against the urban density and historic monuments. The adorable, pastel-hued Patisserie offers an atmosphere akin to a European cafe for a mid-day treat or caffeine pick-me-up.

As the first Indian-owned luxury hotel in Delhi, the Oberoi, New Delhi, is as major an attraction as the monuments, courts, and markets it’s in close proximity to. It is embedded in the hearts of the locals as a first-of-its-kind and unrivaled establishment.

Stop 2: The Oberoi Amarvilas, Agra

Jaw-dropping views of the Taj Mahal in a one-of-a-kind setting.

Ranked 27th in the world this year, the 102-roomed Oberoi in Agra is a setting you’d expect only to find in a wanderlust-inducing romantic movie. Immediately upon entering, you come face-to-face with a clear view of the Taj Mahal in the near distance, framed by the big windows of the first-floor lounge. Guided outside the gold-domed lounge to the terrace, we sipped welcome drinks wearing plush marigold necklaces while gazing at not just one of India’s most legendary sites but also one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The environment is so magical that it feels fake, like the hotel’s backdrop must be a green screen — and the richly designed interiors, with marble inlay, jaali screens, and hand-woven tapestries, are just as dreamy. Reality sets in as you wander the opulent nine-acre property and see the incredible Mughal mausoleum from different vantage points. Every room at the hotel features a view of the Taj Mahal, and many have a balcony where you can enjoy the surrounding sights, the terraced lawn and tiled pavilions, and nightly dance performances as the sun sets.

The pool at Amarvilas has a bright blue floor that pops from above, and it extends from the outside deck to a covered area with high-columned archways, cozy couches, and a giant gold painting of the Indian god Ganesha. There’s a swanky bar right off the lobby with silk sofas, decorated with unobstructed views of the Taj Mahal, as well as two indoor restaurants downstairs, the all-day dining option Bellevue and Esphahan, which offers Indian specialty cuisine at two seating times accompanied by live santoor music.

In the evening, as a deep red sun set over the outside village rooftops, lights glimmered like lanterns, speckling the property in twinkling gold. Guests enjoyed the music and dance performance on a rooftop in front of the Taj Mahal from the pool deck and their room balconies as if we were all at a show in our own private boxes. After this, we headed down to Esphahan for dinner in an intimate space with traditional regional cuisine, including our first Rajasthani laal maas, a soft and juicy lamb dish that was perfectly crispy and smoked on the edges.

When we returned to our room, a white chocolate replica of the Taj Mahal awaited us — a deliciously sweet touch to cue us up for our visit to the renowned site the next day. A special activity you can add is having a private breakfast on one of the suite’s balconies overlooking the Taj Mahal, where we had our own buffet in a beautiful luxury suite surrounded by Indian art, hand-knotted rugs, and handcrafted furniture, as well as a santoor musician creating the perfect atmosphere. If you have a premier room with a balcony, you can also enjoy al fresco dining from your own space.

Stop 3: The Oberoi Vanyavilas Wildlife Resort, Ranthambhore

Where luxury meets ruggedness for an exciting introduction to elusive tigers.

If you’ve ever wondered what an old-fashioned British hunting lodge feels like, The Oberoi, Vanyavilas — India’s first luxury jungle resort — will let you play make-believe (in a much more animal-loving time of conservation and appreciation). Dotted with luxury tents lined on the inside with shimmery embroidered tigers, the Oberoi on the edge of Ranthambore National Park, also called Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, feels both untamed and expertly curated to give you the best experience possible. Although the staff at all Oberoi properties were extremely attentive, knowledgeable, and genuinely kind, Ranthambhore felt more like a community than a typical guest-employee dynamic. Everyone is as invested in your safari experience as you are, excitedly recounting different guests’ sightings that day and wanting to see your photos and videos. They know the tigers by name and leave you handwritten notes on photographs of the most famous big cats as if penned by the animals themselves, the night before a drive.

Unlike the other places we visited, Ranthambore doesn’t have city attractions to draw you off the property, but the on-site offerings are plentiful. Being there feels like attending an adult summer camp you’ve dreamt up, with expert guides who can lead you on nature walks, personal cooking classes, and educational talks at night on topics like biodiversity and the hidden lives of tigers. Nearly every day, Lakshmi — an elephant the property rescued from a circus — walks over with her caretaker to eat breakfast on site. She is very friendly, letting guests feed and hug her. I took an afternoon yoga session in the private garden, except for the gaggle of peacocks hovering next to me when I opened my eyes after savasana.

A highlight of the property is the Observation tower, which offers panoramic views of the surrounding area. You can book special experiences here, like a private dinner or stargazing, but it’s not the only option for such special moments. On our final morning, my husband and I had a private breakfast full of whimsy by the pond, with colorful metal figurines decorating the table, surrounded by floral displays on the lawn, and accompanied by our own musical performance.

The night before, we enjoyed a special dinner showcasing the best cuisine of the region called a “Royal Rajasthan Thali,” presented lovingly by the chef. The dinner featured nine dishes — including dishes we already knew, like laal maas and curries, as well as lesser-known local dishes like flour dumplings called masala baati and a vegetable rice dish called mangodi pulao — along with Indian breads followed by two different desserts.

Stop 4: The Oberoi Rajvilas, Jaipur

A folkloric estate that transports honeymooners to a bygone era.

You may recognize Jaipur from the film “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” or for its famous aesthetic cohesiveness, with most buildings made of light pink stone. Outside the formerly walled section of the city, same-size shop stalls line the streets. One of the most famous sights breaks up the uniformity: the eye-catching Hawa Mahal (also called the Palace of Winds), an ornate facade with 953 windows where women from the emperor’s harem would watch as he made his entrance into town.

Modeled after Mr. Oberoi’s private fort and in the same picturesque vein as its hometown, the Oberoi in Jaipur features much of the same grandeur as the city’s notable destinations, City Palace and Amber Fort, including high scalloped doorways, lattice-lined staircases, flaming mashaal torches, old armor mounted on the walls, miniature and gold-leaf paintings, and, of course, robust fortress walls in the same light pink color. The regal 18th-century styled property is like a portal to a make-believe world, letting you imagine what living in the Mughal era might have been like (for royalty and the very wealthy), especially as you learn more of the city’s history on tours. At Amer Fort, for example, our guide showed us the channels built through the Hall of Pleasure, opposite the much-photographed Hall of Mirrors, where staff would infuse water with natural scents that would then flow to giant curtains that would waft the floral notes throughout the palace. With bountiful flowers everywhere, the Oberoi is naturally fragrant in the same old-fashioned and elegant way.

At Rajvilas, we enjoyed a lot of privacy with a premier room with a private pool and canopied patio area, but the main pool deck is beautiful and fun as well, with stone statues, domed structures, colorful tiles, and friendly peacocks that walk up to your chairs to socialize and share your poolside snacks. In the room bathrooms, the recessed bathtubs are unique and luxurious, and we returned to our room to flower-filled drawn baths and personalized notes written with petals, like “Congratulations” when we arrived and “Goodnight” outside our door as we headed to sleep.

While you’ll likely spend time outside exploring Jaipur, the Oberoi Rajvilas has a lot to offer on its 32 acres, like tennis courts, an eight-hole golf course, expansive gardens, evening puppet shows, a slew of special experiences (like private meals, wine tastings, cooking classes, and high tea at Mr. Oberoi’s Naila fort) and two restaurants, Surya Mahal and Raj Mahal, and Rajwada Library Bar. We ate outside at the Indian specialty restaurant Raj Mahal, a popular dining spot for guests and outsiders alike (so be sure to make a reservation) in a courtyard with tree-lined edges glowing from firelight. This outdoor space operates from October to March. Like at the other Oberois, traditional music was performed by a small group of local musicians in the center of the space, adding even more texture to the cinematic dining experience.

In the 300-year-old restored Shiva temple at the center of the property across a short stone bridge, my husband and I had a brief but memorable Aarti blessing ceremony performed by a Hindu priest, with birds chirping outside as he sang, that ended with him applying a Bindi to our foreheads and tying yellow and red string bracelets onto our wrists that I’ve insisted we keep on until the fall off naturally (which they have not done as I write this a long way from Jaipur in Westchester, New York) because I love the sentimentalism.

In another restored historic building on the property, a 280-year-old haveli (or mansion) that’s now the on-site spa, we did an extensive treatment called the Rajput Romance of Rajvilas. This three-hour couples session featured Ayurvedic techniques and started with a foot cleansing ritual followed by a body scrub, massage, and facial in a large tranquil room with hand-painted murals.

Stop 5: The Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur

A colorful, fairytale oasis nestled in a tranquil lakeside landscape with impressive mountain views.

Probably the most famous Oberoi properties in India, The Oberoi Udaivilas lived up to the hype. It’s an ethereal Mewar-inspired property in the City of Lakes, with a striking gold-leaf domed ceiling and chandelier over a marble fountain in the lobby as your first welcome point. To get to the guest quarters, you pass through a magical room covered in mosaic mirrors akin to the Hall of Mirrors in Jaipur’s Amber Fort. At night, a cluster of varied pillar candles flicker off the walls, dancing around the room as the only light in the space. Outside this is a dreamy expanse of landscaping, with a bronze sundial as the front centerpiece and stairs lined with carved-stone column torches extending behind and flanking either side of the checkered water channel. The entire property feels vibrant, overflowing with water and flowers with the blue checkered tiles — an Oberoi throughline — playing off the natural verdancy.

The hotel exterior is breathtaking and surreal, with sandy-hued domes of different sizes and castle-style turrets dotting the bright blue sky. Built on a hill, the dreamy property offers several sweeping views from different vantage points, and the sound of trickling water throughout adds to the soothing, relaxed atmosphere as you explore the 30 acres and discover hidden seating nooks from cozy corners inside with oversized chairs and benches scattered throughout the lush gardens. I felt like I was in “Aladdin” wandering the stately grounds, with romantic stone-columned archways lining the outdoor corridors and bowls with floating flowers around so many corners and walls dripping in flowers, covered in fluffy bushels of fuschia.

There are two public pool areas here, one at the center of the hotel with a perimeter of black and white squares and another outside the spa, in front of a view of the nearby Aravalli Hills and Lake Pichola. While this pool has a simpler design, the reflections of the buildings and poolside cabana structures make it as photogenic as the Oberoi’s other pool decks. We were lucky to have a room with access to the semi-private mote-like pool that overlooks the front of the property, with views down to the waterfront restaurant and bar and, more importantly, Lake Piccola. This pool isn’t temperature-controlled, so it was a bit too cold to swim in, but we enjoyed morning coffees and sunsets from the private deck.

A highlight of our stay was the private dinner we enjoyed at the secluded Lakeside Pavilion at the banks of Lake Pichola, which was draped in lightweight tapestries that billowed in the evening wind and was lit up by a perimeter of tealights integrated into floral designs featuring bright orange and yellow and deep pink flowers, warmed by fiery heat lamps. The experience was one-of-a-kind, made even more special by the attentive staff, who were quick to bring over champagne when we sat, and our private performance of traditional wooden flute music. Another evening, we did a private sunset boat ride on Lake Piccola, a special experience I highly recommend, with an expert guide who steered us to the best spots with the clearest views of the dwindling sun, and we were greeted upon return with two glasses of champagne to enjoy lakeside.

For other dining options, the all-day Suryamahal has indoor space and a large deck section called Chandni, where you can sit under canopies if the sun is intense or for the ambiance it provides at nighttime. During dinner service, Chandni presents live music alongside sweeping views of City Palace on the other side of Lake Pichola. There’s also Udaimahal, the fine-dining restaurant, and The Bar off the lobby, which is open until midnight daily.

Stop 6: The Oberoi, Mumbai

A classic high-end hotel for a dose of contemporary comfort.

Located on Marine Drive, The Oberoi in Mumbai is in a prime spot for exploring the city on foot. Walking into the hotel after our nearly two-week journey through Rajasthan, we were immediately struck by the modern and sophisticated urban feel that contrasted with the previous properties’ more rural and traditional styles, which infused history and local culture into the architecture and design. This hotel is more what a Westerner is likely accustomed to, with plenty of versatile dining options (also because it’s attached to the adjoining Trident Hotel through a passageway of shops).

The chic Eau bar, with indoor and outdoor bars and seating, is one of the best spots in the city to grab happy hour and watch the sunset over the bay that leads into the Arabian Sea, which you’ll also have a front-row seat to if your room faces the oceanfront thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows. The bar’s live band performs contemporary music in the evenings, including songs you’ll recognize.

In the Oberoi, there are three restaurants — all-day Fenix with a comprehensive menu across cuisines; Vetro, an Italian restaurant that operates in tandem with the wine library Enoteca; and Ziya  — as well as a lobby bar with drinks and light bites. Ziya is fantastic, with modern Indian menus by Vineet Bhatia, the first Indian chef to be awarded a Michelin star. The food is exceptional, the plating and presentation are artistic, and the view of the glass-enclosed show kitchen allows you to watch in real-time as your Indian bread bakes on charcoal tandoors. This is a dining experience not to be missed, whether you’re staying on-site or not, and was an excellent way to end our romantically adventurous, luxurious-yet-wild honeymoon.

Visitors to one of the most popular national parks in the United States may need to adjust their plans. 

Yellowstone National Park’s ‘Biscuit Basin’ area is closed due to a recent hydrothermal explosion that occurred on Tuesday morning, according to a news release. The closure affects parking lots, trails, and boardwalks near the Basin, which is located just north of the still-open Old Faithful geysers.

The explosion was described as “localized” and occurred near the Sapphire Pool in Biscuit Basin.  Videos of the incident, taken by tourists and then shared on social media, show large plumes of liquid and debris bursting in the air and then raining down on outdoor enthusiasts.

Fortunately, no injuries have been reported at this time, according to the NPS.

The park did not provide a timeline of when the area will reopen.

Biscuit Basin is located 30 miles west of Yellowstone Lake, and is known for several geyers and colorful pools. The Biscuit Basin hike is a popular .6 mile excursion that leads past many hydrothermal features. 

“Hydrothermal explosions are violent and dramatic events resulting in the rapid ejection of boiling water, steam, mud, and rock fragmentsm,” the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory shared in a October 2018 blog post. 

The incident comes as visits to Yellowstone National Park are on the rise for 2024. The park recently shared that over 1.6 million recreational visitors have explored the park so far in 2024, which is nine percent higher than the same time period last year. 

Yellowstone National Park was recently named the number one national park in Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards. The 2.2 million square foot park, which is popular for hiking and camping, has earned the honor for the last three years.