Udai Vilas Palace Reviews, Bharatpur

The experience was terrible, which ruined much of my vacation. There were flies all over the hotel, even in the restaurant. The minibar in the room was missing! The TV in the room had only 5-6 channels; the TV itself was very old and dinghy - remote control was not working properly. Room service menu was missing from the room - when I asked the waiter for the menu, he mocked me saying that how could I possibly order something now since he had just delivered my breakfast. The spa was closed during working hours. There was no gym or businesscentre. I actually used the internet for an emergency sitting at the reception desk - where another customer thought I was the hotel staff and started asking me for assistance. The hotel itself was in a desolate area with no auto/ other transportation to the sightseeing areas - hotel had no transportation of its own. Food was good, but very overpriced.

Very well kept pool and good food, but ugly curtains and sofas in the room. Helpful staff. Expensive beer, mostly groups, at the national highway.

The buffet breakfast is too predictable. They should keep variety on every alternate day since we stayed 3 days each day was same routine without any change.

On the whole, the hotel provided value for money-ambience was good. May be they can provide coffee/tea arrangements in the room, rather than room service.

Udai Vilas Palace is a great place to relax in close vicinity of Bird Sanctuary. Food, table tennis, pool, spa, puppet show and bon fire make the place memorable in a setting resembling a Rajasthan palace. The politeness of the staff stands out. However, there is no guarantee on the bird and animal variety that is dependent largely on the seasonal rain fall filling up the swamps of the national park. Even if you miss the variety at the national park, the pleasant stays at Udai Vilas Palace can still liger.

Restaurant service and room service need to be improved. Electronic gadgets in the room is not upto the mark.

Excellent location like an oasis in the desert. Nice surroundings, peaceful, food could be improved.

The hotel is approximately three kilometers from the Keoladeo Bird Life Sanctuary. At first the hotel gives a look of just any road side motel but when one walks inside past the reception area, the hotel opens up to a well maintained lawn, and pool. On the exterior the hotel looks good and the walls are well painted. The food is quite good and the spices are less to cater the foreign tourists. The room that I stayed in was also clean, the sheets and the towels were very clean; however, some of the fixtures were either broken or not working. Bathroom was clean; here again some stains in the corners could have been properly cleaned. I stayed there for two nights and the first night the hot water was just luke warm and taking the shower in the early winter morning was to say the least uncomfortable, the second night the water however was nice and warm. To me it appears that the number of tourists may have something to do with the temperature of the water since the first night I was there a large group of foreign tourists had checked-in in the hotel.

Udai Villas Palace is easily reached on the Fatehpur Sikri road and it lies next to the Indian Oil petrol pump. Continue straight towards Agra from the Saras intersection and the hotel is on right hand side. Saras is the name of the Rajasthan Tourism Department’s hotel and the circle is now known as Saras. The bird sanctuary is on the Jaipur highway and is at right angles to the hotel, not on the same road. However, the distance from hotel to the main gate of the bird sanctuary is hardly 1 k.m. The hotel is peaceful as it is away from all the hustle bustle (for how long is a question, with the amount of development activity ongoing in that area). The check-in was smooth and fast with my reservation having been pre-confirmed by MakeMyTrip. The bell boy was prompt and efficient. There was sufficient space to park my car. The plus point is the petrol pump just next door! The room was well maintained and neat. The Rajasthani puppet show area with its owner and his son all dressed up in colourful local dress added to the atmosphere. The swimming pool, the deck chairs around it and the garden were all clean and well maintained. The table tennis equipment was a bonus! The pictures of birds, all nicely framed and put up on every single wall, were interesting to look at. The food was always tasty. The only area of improvement lay in the menu at the restaurant. Many of the food mentioned in the menu card was just not available, especially the continental food (I am overlooking the glaring spelling mistakes in the menu card, since they added to brighten my mood when the waiter kept on saying “not available”). Another point, though it may look minor, that irritated me was the fact that we had a lot of tourists from overseas at the same time and the restaurant waiters were more busy trying to serve and hover around them ignoring the local tourists. One of them even told me that a bowl of minestrone soup and a plate of vegetable pakora will take 45 minutes because the kitchen was busy with the “foreigners’ dinner”. However, upon brining it to notice of the manager, it was promptly sorted out and we were served in less than 15 minutes. The pakodas were excellent but the minestrone soup was, I believe, curry taken out from one of the dinner dishes and not minestrone soup as ordered by me. Again when brought to notice of the manager, he apologised and deducted the amount from the bill without any argument. He was also keen to replace the same with some other soup. So, overall they were able to keep me happy. All in all, I do recommend the hotel to all and sundry. Have a nice stay.