To me it was more than enough that I was visiting the home of Saif Ali Khan my favorite actor. However it was the Pataudi Palace the royal palace which is now run by the Neemrana hotels. I went to enjoy my weekend in a royal style with my friends. It is a perfect weekend destination from Delhi. Only 60 kms from Gurgaon the palace was amazingly beautiful in all white. Pataudi palace belongs to the Indian cricketing legend and royal scion, Nawab Mansur Ali Khan. He is nicknamed as “Tiger” amongst his cricket fans. But he is a true Nawab in every way. This palace was built by Nawab Ibrahim Ali Khan, his father and the ruler of the princely state of Pataudi in Haryana, India. This palace was designed by Heinz in 1935.
It has so many gardens along with the beautiful carved marble water fountains everywhere. It was the true nature walk one would love to have. The white pillars all around were reminding me about the British buildings in Delhi. It is a heritage hotel in pure white with beautiful gardens covering up the entire surroundings. After seeing the exteriors I was keener to view the interiors of the palace. It was very pretty and looked like the old days. The lobby was full of images of Pataudi’s cricket days and his marriage with the famous actress Sharmila Tagore including there children Saif and Soha. The ceiling was high and it was all decorated with beautiful candle chandeliers, curtains and many pictures of the family. There was also the Saif Mahal which had the pictures of Saif from his childhood and it was pretty nice. They accommodate only 10 people at a time that to informed prior to check in date. So we were given 2 rooms Sajida and Silvat Mahal, it also has suites name as Mansur, Saif, Mumtaz Mahal. The rooms were pretty big and had all the modern facilities available. The bathrooms were occupied by the old days marble tub and taking a bath in them, I felt as I was one of the princess from history.
The meal was amazingly good as they offered us the Avadhi cuisine. The meal rate is nominal for all only Rs 300 per head. After having the delicious meal we went for little walk in the garden. There were so many of them with beautiful water fountains in different shapes and sizes all around the palace. We were so amazed to hear the voice of the peacock from near by and then in a tree nearby we could see 2 of them with so many other species of bird whose name I m not aware of. It was a naturist walk. After relaxing in the garden we went to play billiards in the billiards room and half of my friends went for swimming.
The entire stay was so royal that the next day we were not in the mood to leave the palace and asked the manager to extend our stay for one more day, but our bad luck the palace was already booked for a conference so we have to check out at 2 pm which is the check out time here. But the experience was totally fantastic and breath taking, experience once in a lifetime. In further future would definitely visit it again hopefully with my family.
Find driving directions from Delhi.
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