A five star inn in Jaipur City Centre

It was the boxing-day and we could see that Christmas mood was still there at the Holiday Inn Jaipur. There was a 10 foot Christmas tree at the main door itself announcing proudly that it was still Christmas season. On entering we found an atrium as high as the building itself, all of seven storeys and from the top was a bunch of green string-lights arranged in a conical form giving a feeling of a 100-foot Christmas tree and below were several reindeer pulling their cart containing one of the biggest gingerbread house we had seen.

Located around 5km from both railway station and the old Jaipur city, Holiday inn
certainly knows how to celebrate festivals!

ROOMS: After spending a few minutes chatting with reception folks, we were escorted to our room. Again, a suite! Wow! This is becoming quite a habit, hehe. Being located in the new city centre, the view from the room was that of the huge main road.

There are 172 rooms, from even the smallest room of 320 square feet to the largest, the King Executive suites, 6 in number, spread over a living room and a King size bed room. The bath room area itself was quite big, with an adequate shower room, a separate glass-door toilet and a large bath tub, in addition to a large walk-in wardrobe.

On one side was the in-room small pantry with tea, coffee and a fridge full of goodies in the living room and I was pleasantly surprised to find an iPhone dock at the work station. In the bedroom, there was a large comfortable circular sofa-bed where a couple can put their foot up while watching TV. This was the first place where I crashed after checking in and was my favourite place in the room when I was not sleeping. 🙂

DINING: There are in all four options for libations and gastronomy. Our own favourite was the Monarch where we had all our breakfasts and a couple of meals too. Saurabh, the Manager, made sure we got to taste the whole fare, whether we had place in our respective tummies or not, was not his lookout. I recently said a lot about Rajasthani hospitality. 🙂 🙂

From the staple Dal, bati churma to ker-sangri to gatte-ki-sabzi to Laal Maas (which I did not try) to…so on and so forth. Of course, there were so many other stuff like special tikkis, pooris and paranthas. Courses after courses, Meals after meals, what a finger licking experience.

Chao Chinese Bistro, is more like a Pan Asian, predominantly serving Chinese and related cuisine. For dinner, we chose a low-lit area, with ceiling high glass walls with a view outside. There was an option of a la carte and buffet and we chose a bit of both :). The starter with eight different kinds of momos set our tummies rumbling for more. After couple of more starters like crispy vegetables and chicken we were served some of their innovations such as Chilli Lemongrass Paneer, which was just marvellous and so was the spicy Green Thai curry to go with noodles, rice or bread. I had two helpings of the extra tasty flat noodles.

There is also the classy looking lounge bar, Ten Kings, where the salient feature is that there is no music and one can have a peaceful drink or conversation or pick up a book from the collection on the shelf and retire with a drink. There is also an American style resto-bar, playing music in full blast, called the Road House Restaurant. You can take your pick!

WELLNESS: The roof top open-to-sky swimming pool is large enough and private enough from prying eyes and I am almost sure that one can order drinks and food here but I am not too sure. The Gym on the seventh floor is a bit small for a hotel of this size but the few times I went, I had it to myself so that’s not too bad.

GENERAL: For IHG members, wired internet and Wi-Fi is free. We found, being completely net-connected, that the performance was quite satisfactory throughout the property.

On the second level, there is large lounge which has been specially created for all the guests and avoid the crowds at the main lounge in the lobby that also serves as a meet up place for groups before they embark on executing their day’s plans.

Gagandeep is the GM under whom this hotel thrives and one can see his passion for hospitality is contagious and runs through the vein of the staff members. He mentioned that, it was also possible to order food and beverages here, away from the hustle and bustle. He also mentioned that this has been certified as an IHG Green Engage hotel, meaning that it is part of world environment sustainability effort.

He mentioned another unique concept called “Kids stay and eat free” that is, Kids sharing parents’ room and who are under the age of 12 eat free at any time of the day! This is a feature at all Holiday Inn Hotels around the world. Oh! How I wish I was under 12 again. 😉 🙂