HotelsHRH Group of HotelsUdaipur, India
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No other hotel in Udaipur can put you inside the City Palace compound itself, with a private balcony hanging over Lake Pichola. When you get one of the palace rooms past the second gate, guests describe sunset views and marble-pool mornings that justify the whole trip. Staff like LaluRam, who’s worked the property for 37 years, and Sohanlal at the restaurant get named specifically for remembering orders and making the whole operation feel steadier when they’re on shift.
The catch is that not every room here is that room. Several guests describe being shown tired, worn accommodation outside the second gate and having to fight for hours to get moved, and one couple ended up in rooms they called barely three-star despite palace pricing. Food is expensive for what it is (around Rs. 2,200 a head at dinner), the restaurant can be slow to seat you or take your order, and a few guests noted the gift shops inside the complex charge triple what you’d pay a few blocks away. The breakfast buffet is consistently the strongest meal of the day, which says something about where the kitchen’s attention goes.
Book it for the location and push hard at booking for a lake-facing palace room by name, not just a category. If you land outside the second gate, you’re paying heritage prices for a room that wouldn’t clear three stars elsewhere in Udaipur, and some guests who have stayed at both found the Taj’s nearby properties handle the five-star basics more consistently. For the view and the sense of actually sleeping inside a working palace, though, nothing else in the city gets you there.
Lifts the score
You feel like royalty the second you’re inside the City Palace compound walls.
Dr. Himanshu Kumar Srivastava Jan 2026
This is one of the best heritage properties in Udaipur, run directly by the royal family, and every moment inside the compound feels special. The pricing runs high, but given the setting I understood why.
Red flag
We were ignored at the restaurant even though the setting itself was lovely.
Nachappa K A Dec 2025
Three different staff members walked past our table without taking our order. The ambiance of the place was genuinely nice, but nobody seemed to notice we were there.
Strong endorsement
This was a genuinely regal stay from start to finish, food included.
Nazam Dec 2025
The staff were gracious and attentive in a way that made me feel properly looked after, and the food was some of the best I’ve had on a trip like this, beautifully plated and full of flavor. Comfortable, sophisticated, and memorable throughout.
Drags the score
The entrance is glorious, but that’s about where the good part ends.
Erik van Veen Nov 2025
Climbing the hill to the gates is a genuinely grand moment, but the room itself needed a serious revamp. Things were broken or simply didn’t work, and the staff did what they could to make up for it, but it couldn’t fully compensate for how tired the room felt.
Mixed read
Great vibe and views, but the house rules around food got frustrating.
Maturu Tulasi Sep 2025
Being right next to the City Palace gives this place a real sense of occasion, and the room views were amazing. The pool here is marble and lovely to swim in. My one frustration was the dining rules: no outside food allowed, and specific regional dishes I wanted weren’t available even though they were served at the palace next door.
Lifts the score
Beautiful hotel inside the palace complex with genuinely good service.
Neeraj Bhople Apr 2026
Nice views, part of the city palace grounds, and the staff were great throughout our stay.
Lifts the score
Staying on the ground level kept things quiet and peaceful during our visit.
Trip.com Member Feb 2026
A genuinely amazing place to stay, and the lower-level rooms meant we avoided a lot of noise from elsewhere in the building.
Strong endorsement
This felt like everything a heritage stay should be, from the courtyard to the lake views at breakfast.
Arjun Rajaraman Aug 2026
We came as a family and the kids were in the pool every morning before we could stop them. The whole place is immaculately kept, our lake-view room made getting up early feel like a reward rather than a chore, and the chef made sure every meal was a highlight. I’d call it an unforgettable stay.
Strong endorsement
No other hotel here gives you a private balcony hanging right over Lake Pichola.
Z. Narain Jul 2026
The setting alone, inside the old palace walls with the lake below, makes this different from anywhere else I looked at in Udaipur. Sohanlal at the restaurant remembered what I’d ordered the day before without being told, and the whole floor seemed to run smoother whenever he was working.
“He makes the effort to remember guests’ orders & preferences” in their words
Strong endorsement
LaluRam made this stay, and he’s been working here for 37 years.
Barkha Thakur Feb 2026
The view was lovely but what stayed with me was talking to LaluRam, who’s been with the hotel for decades and still moves faster and more energetically than staff half his age. He spoke with real pride about the family that owns the property, and watching him work was genuinely moving. The senior staff here carry themselves with a warmth that felt completely unforced.
“his dedication, enthusiasm, and sincerity felt as fresh as someone on their very first day” in their words
Lifts the score
The rooms look dated in photos online, but in person they were comfortable and lovely.
Nicole Waites Dec 2025
I almost didn’t book because the online photos made the rooms look tired, but we were pleasantly surprised. Our lake-view room at sunset was something else, the location can’t be beaten for exploring the city, and service was solid the whole stay.
“our lakeview room at sunset was to die for” in their words
Drags the score
The common areas are stunning, but the room I booked wasn’t worth what I paid.
Vaishali Yadav Dec 2025
The pool, restaurant, and terrace are genuinely beautiful, breakfast was strong, and the spa massage I booked was well priced and good. The problem was my actual room: the palace double I paid for was basic with zero view and loud street noise, since the hotel sits right in the busiest, loudest part of the old city. Great for sightseeing access, bad for anyone wanting quiet.
Drags the score
Staff were great, but this didn’t feel like the five-star stay the price implied.
Yogish Chandra Tulasi Sep 2025
My room had an overpowering smell of cheap air freshener that triggered my allergies, and the hotel’s online photos make it look much bigger than it actually is. They moved us to an unsprayed room when I complained, which helped, but dinner ran about Rs. 2,200 a person at a restaurant that’s genuinely small. The included breakfast, at least, was very good.
Strong endorsement
This was nothing short of perfect, and the service made the whole stay.
Matteo Marro Aug 2025
From arrival I felt transported into something regal, with history in every wall and breathtaking views of Lake Pichola. Sohan, Phinda, and Pratap went out of their way to anticipate what I needed, and their warmth never felt performed. The room, courtyards, and meals were all handled with real care.
Lifts the score
The room service alone made this trip feel special.
Neha D Jan 2025
We stayed in the Terrace Suite with two balconies and plenty of space, and the room service menu delivered on everything we ordered. Housekeeping left little chocolate treats daily, and the breakfast spread covered both Indian and continental options with special requests happily accommodated by the kitchen. The one letdown was the on-site shops, which charge roughly three times what you’d pay just outside the palace walls.
Drags the score
The welcome was warm, but this didn’t hold up as a five-star stay next to other Udaipur properties.
shail jalan Dec 2024
Khush gave us a genuinely pleasant welcome, but having stayed at nicer places in the city before, this one fell short. We weren’t given a menu at breakfast, got told not to reserve a dinner table and then found our requested table was already booked, and I noticed certain guests clearly got better treatment than others. The bar was lovely, at least, though the rooms felt average for the price.
Red flag
Only the rooms past the second gate are actually five-star here, and we learned that the hard way.
Irene Reijs Nov 2023
My friend and I were put in rooms 34 and 36 outside the second gate, and they were worn and dirty with nothing royal about them. It took over three hours and an unhelpful manager to get moved to rooms 30 and 33, which were decent but still only three-star quality. Food was good though service was slow, and the pool area felt uninviting with male staff stationed all around it.
“Beware that only the rooms within the second gate are really 5 star” in their words
Shiv Niwas Palace is a heritage hotel inside the City Palace complex in Udaipur, Rajasthan, overlooking Lake Pichola. The property, managed by the royal family’s hospitality arm, has fewer than 40 rooms and suites, with a tier of rooms and suites positioned past a second internal gate offering private balconies and terraces directly above the lake. Public spaces include courtyards, a marble swimming pool, and a terrace bar, set within the walls of the historic palace compound.
On property dining includes a main restaurant serving Indian and continental breakfast alongside a la carte Indian cuisine, plus in-room dining. A spa offers massage treatments. The hotel sits adjacent to the City Palace museum and within walking distance of Jagdish Temple and the ghats of Lake Pichola, with boat access available to Jag Mandir Island palace.
It depends heavily on which room you book. The lake-facing palace rooms and suites past the second gate deliver a genuinely royal experience that justifies the price, but the cheaper rooms outside that gate have been described as dated and overpriced for what they are.
Cooler months (October through March) suit the open courtyards and pool best, and sunset is repeatedly the standout moment from the lake-facing rooms.
Guests who’ve also stayed at Taj’s Udaipur properties generally say those hotels are more consistent on five-star basics like restaurant service and room condition, though none match Shiv Niwas’s position inside the City Palace itself.
Travelers who specifically want to sleep inside a working royal palace and will pay for a lake-facing room by name, rather than those simply seeking the most reliable five-star stay in Udaipur.
Directly with the hotel. The Reserve button on this page takes you there, and the reservation is made with the hotel, in your name.
Directly with the hotel is the simplest: the reservation is then the hotel’s own, so a change of dates or a request for a particular room goes straight to the people who run it.
Not something anyone can promise: it depends on what’s still unsold the day you arrive. Telling the hotel in advance that you’re celebrating something is worth doing.
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