India's Luxury Experience: An Insider's Look

India in Full Color

Luxury meets lived-in history on a two-week immersion through Rajasthan, where palatial hotels, ancient rituals, and modern contradictions collide.

The writers were guests of Admiral Travel International in Sarasota Fl, in partnership with Amber Tours, a destination management company in India. Both are part of the Virtuoso luxury travel network.

“India is a hard sell to Americans,” the manager of New Delhi’s Imperial, one of the world’s best luxury hotels, told us. Admiring the classical Raj interior, we didn’t understand why. He added, “Travelers from Europe, Asia, and even Latin America have been coming for decades, but Americans are hesitant.” We’re embarrassed to say that his observation, until recently, included us.

India is on the rise. As the world’s 5th largest economy and most populous country, with 1.4 billion people, 52% of whom are under 30 years old, many economists and investors are looking at India as they did China 40 years ago.

First, let’s address a few basic questions you might have before considering a trip to India. It’s a democracy, has a very educated English-speaking workforce, and a cohort of tech-savvy youth. Cell phones and debit cards work perfectly.

That said, this is a land of extremes. Sari-clad women walk miles carrying gathered firewood on their heads while others arrive at luxury hotels by helicopter.

Posh, high-rise developments in Delhi and Mumbai are sprouting up like mushrooms, making NYC’s Hudson Yards look like a Shaker village. Yet, many people are desperately poor. Cows and water buffalo wander freely through urban areas and graze on mounds of garbage. Roads, even those far out of town, are lined with decrepit stores, selling used tires, gas cannisters (for cooking), soft drinks, sugar cane juice extractors, and scooter repair services.

There is endless roadside trash. Outside the gate to our 5-star hotel was a cart selling dried cow dung patties for use as fuel. Unhelmeted families of 4 ride a single scooter. India is not yet Europe.

From early morning until late at night, a purposeful torrent of bodies heads somewhere by camel, foot, bicycle, scooter, tuk-tuk, car, bus, train, or jet. Vehicles signal their intention amid the pandemonium with relentless horn honking.

Instead of bristling against this cacophony, people are gentle and welcoming, possibly because spirituality is woven into every aspect of life, along with respect for family, tradition, and good deeds (to increase one’s karma). For example, each morning, the first chapati (bread) baked is placed outside as an offering to a passing animal. Hinduism was repeatedly described to us as a way of life, not a religion. Small shrines to varying deities are everywhere.

Planning a Trip

It started with Admiral International Travel, an agency based out of Sarasota, Florida. Founder and CEO, Malaka Hilton, has decades of experience arranging tours around India. She told Worth, “We invest the time to truly understand each traveler—their passions, pace, personal style—and then convey these nuances to our trusted partners on the ground, ensuring that every moment feels thoughtfully curated, intuitive, and entirely their own.”

Admiral is a member of Virtuoso, the leading global travel agency network specializing in experiential and luxury travel. The invitation-only organization is comprised of more than 1,200 travel agencies, primarily in the U.S. Travelers receive VIP services, room upgrades, and unique experiences. Virtuoso holds its partners to a high standard. Everything promised must be delivered.

Admiral and Virtuoso work with Shanti Kohli, Managing Director of India’s Amber Tours. Kohli’s company was started by his well-connected father in 1972 when a friend, who happened to be a maharajah (prince), asked if he could arrange a tour for the maharajah’s friends, The Beatles.

Amber met us at the arrival gate in Delhi, escorted us through immigration and customs, and introduced us to Prem, our driver for the next two weeks. Amber reps greeted us in each new city. In other words, we were never adrift or fending for ourselves.

There is no detail too small, from endless hydration to hand towels after touring a temple to bug spray for evening tours, that hasn’t been anticipated. Our SUV was a cocoon, complete with food, drink, and air conditioning. We were on a magic carpet ride, free to experience a 5,000-year-old culture. (If driving isn’t your thing, flights are available between most cities.)

Which Cities Should You Visit?

According to Hilton, 95% of first-time visitors to India go to Rajasthan because of the significance of its sights, so we made it our focus. Here’s a breakdown.

New Delhi

The governmental center of India holds numerous elegant, broad, tree-lined streets, along with many gardens, mosques, and Mughal tombs (the Mughals were a Muslim dynasty of Turkic-Mongol origin that ruled most of northern India from the 15-1700s). And just as there is no “one India,” there is no “one Delhi.”

Still jet-lagged, we were immediately overwhelmed by the architectural grandeur and beauty of the Jama Masjid, one of the largest, most striking, and historic mosques in India. But beyond its sweeping domes and red sandstone minarets, the mosque also drips with fraught political history. In 1919, it became a key site of resistance when Mahatma Gandhi addressed crowds protesting the Rowlatt Act—a British law that allowed civilian imprisonment without trial. Gandhi later returned to the mosque to fast in solidarity with the movement, and decades later, he would be assassinated here in Delhi. The site of his death is now a museum.

Leaving the mosque, our guide led us down a winding alley where we saw a working relic of the city’s infrastructure, a centuries-old, fully functioning outdoor laundry, complete with a statue to the god of cleanliness.

Sikhs, a thread in the fabric of India’s population, have an enormous temple in Delhi where thousands of people are served a free meal. Our insider tour of the vast kitchen reinforced our burgeoning understanding of the scale of this country.

The neighborhood of Old Delhi is what our cinema-driven imaginations thought India would be. Chaotic to the outsider, orderly to the participants who calmly navigate ancient, narrow, goods-packed streets with hand-pulled carts, bicycle rickshaws, and heavy loads on bent backs. Endless displays of brightly colored saris, foods (including milk being condensed in a charcoal-fired cauldron), spices, household goods, wedding iconography, handmade shoes, bangles, and gold-embroidered wedding dresses line the streets. Dogs sleep amongst the chaos. Everyone, except the dogs, was hard at work in 105-degree heat. Even as New Yorkers, used to the Lexington Ave subway at rush hour, we were impressed by this sea of humanity.

On the outskirts of the city is Noida, filled with an impressive number of glass-tower high rises and shopping malls. Since this is the future, Old Delhi may not be around in a decade or two.

Varanasi

Varanasi is a short flight from Delhi but, as the spiritual capital of India, it’s another world on so many levels. Hindu pilgrims visit the holy Ganges to bathe, make offerings, take samples home, and daily cremate hundreds on the riverbank. Witnessing these ceremonies from a boat was cause for reflection. Our guide, sensitive to the varying responses westerners have to this ritual, allowed us to absorb it within our comfort zone.

Every evening, local priests “put the lady Ganges to sleep” in an elaborate multi-hour sight and sound extravaganza with chanting, fire, and offerings to the river. Thousands attend. Through Virtuoso, we were given a coveted privilege. Not only did we have chairs while others sat on the ground but we were also invited to participate in the ceremony by ”feeding” the Ganges with an offering of milk and rose petals, while chanting and swirling incense.

As mentioned, crowds don’t faze us, but Varanasi at night makes Old Delhi seem sedate. Multitudes move—on foot, rickshaws, bicycles, scooters—many honking, all traveling in different directions without an inch of space between them. Amid this, vendors display their wares, and people somehow shop.

The next day, we visited a workshop Shanti sponsors, where abused women are offered a fresh start through the ancient art of hand-painting wooden objects.

Agra

In the late 18th century, Goethe wrote, “See Naples and die.” We doubt he’d been to the Taj Mahal, or he might have substituted this wonder of the world. We’re moderately jaded travelers, but the Taj Mahal is the Taj Mahal. The architectural perfection is mesmerizing at dawn.

Serendipity had it that we were in Agra the night of a Hindu Amber employee’s wedding. We were invited to join and watched the groom arrive with great pomp in a neon-lit, horse-drawn carriage.

Alwar

In selecting the itinerary, we put ourselves in the hands of Admiral and Amber, but were unsure when they chose this valley, in the middle of nowhere, between Agra and Jaipur.

“Nowhere” turns out to have magic at every turn. The main sights include a “cow dust tour” and a largely intact, abandoned 16th-century town. Cow Dust, an early evening jeep tour in an adjacent valley, allowed us to watch the cows, sheep, and goats come home from grazing. Women in colorful saris sorted newly harvested wheat. The valley transported us back in time a thousand years. This was a highlight of our 2-week trip.

Bhangarth Fort was another Alwar essential sight. It felt like a mini-Angkor Wat or Machu Picchu. There were once 9,000 homes there, but it was abandoned for reasons that remain unknown…. unless you accept our guide’s story of a beautiful princess, a sorcerer living on a hill, and an angry god who took the shape of a wrecking ball.

Jaipur

An hour and a half away is Jaipur, the “pink city,” which is the capital of Rajasthan.

We were privileged to tour some of the private spaces in the City Palace, where the current Maharajah lives. Being on the Silk Route created immense wealth, which supported jewelry, rug weaving, and textile artisans (including hand block printing). These crafts remain in worldwide demand.

Amber’s connection allowed us to visit the factory of a 4th-generation jewelry maker so renowned that he wasn’t willing to share the names of the world-famous brands he fabricates for. We also got to tour the private Gyan Museum, housed on the top floor of this jewelry workshop. Worth a visit, it contains an eclectic but stunning amalgam of historical textiles, hookahs, miniature paintings, jewelry, and carpets.

Jodhpur

Jodhpur, the second largest city in Rajasthan, is a five-hour drive on a truck route west of Jaipur. It’s not a pretty journey. From the Moghul era, Jodhpur has been known as “the blue city” because Brahmans painted their homes this color as a sign to attackers they were the protected, religious class.

The extraordinarily imposing and ornate Mehrangarh Fort is the reason to visit. Perched on a summit, seemingly sprouting from the rock below, this sandstone former home of the local Maharajah is in excellent condition. Very smart curators have filled it with howdahs (royal elephant saddles), furniture, royal baby cradles, old doors, rugs, and miniature paintings. The royal meeting room echoes Versailles with its gold leaf, frescoes, and coffered ceilings.

Ranakpur Temple/Udaipur

As mentioned, drives can be long and not particularly scenic, but the five hours from Jodhpur to Udaipur are remarkable. Midway is the spiritually transfixing Ranakpur Temple, with its 1444 intricately carved marble pillars. A major Jain religious site, we were guided through the temple by the son of the head priest (an Amber perk), who encouraged us to remain for a few quiet minutes in meditation. The post-Ranakpur road to Udaipur is hilly and fertile. We glimpsed rural India, including a tribal wedding procession and oxen-powered water wheels.

Udaipur is the “gem” of Rajasthan. With five 16th-century lakes, flowering trees, and clean streets, it’s home to the sprawling City Palace (another UNESCO World Heritage site, hotel, and current home of the monarch). Rajasthan is peppered with palaces. What makes Udaipur special are the lakes and islands.

Mumbai

Unless you’ve experienced other sprawling Asian cities, Mumbai’s scale doesn’t seem possible. Enormous luxury skyscrapers go on forever. Given Britain’s long influence, the city center has many imposing Victorian, Indo-Saracenic (Indian, Islamic, and Western blend), and Art Deco (the 2nd largest collection in the world) buildings. It’s a walking city, much like any sophisticated European one, just with more traffic. Full of dichotomies, at dawn, beneath the luxury towers, men sit on the street collating newspapers for bicycle delivery, while the flower, produce, and outdoor fish markets are beehives of activity.

Where to Stay

Delhi

Delhi’s grand hotels, like the Imperial, Oberoi, and Leela are very different, but could each hold their own anywhere in the world.

We stayed at the Imperial, a classic Raj-style building from 1936, filled with period photos, antique furniture, and Indian art. It’s justifiably legendary Asian restaurant, Spice Route, was imagined by one of India’s leading designers.

The Oberoi, on the other hand, is sleek and modern. Refurbished in 2018, they’re proud of having purified air in every room. Here you can sample an upscale interpretation of Delhi street food at Dhilli.

The Leela has Megu, one of Delhi’s best Japanese restaurants.