Movie hotel James Bond “007 Octopussy” – The Lake Palace Hotel / Udaipur / India

House & Hotel Magazine features the Lake Palace Hotel in India.

Its like a floating apparition, on four acres of rock in the middle of Lake Pichola in Udaipur, India’s City of Sunrise.

Built by the Mewar ruler Singh I in 1628 as a private residence, the marble and granite structure was more recently converted to a luxury hotel by Maharana Bhagwat Singh due to financial constraints and a changing political state at the time. Besides necessary structural changes, neither the style nor the atmosphere of the island palace has changed. Its balanced design and the delicacy of its detail are tributes to Mewar architecture. Lake Palace, formerly known as Jag Niwas) has 83 rooms and suites and operates a boat which transports guests to the hotel from a jetty at the City Palace. It coud be most romantic hotel in India.
The Maharana, ruler of Udaipur from 1628 to 1654, was very friendly with Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and encouraged his craftsmen to copy some of the glories of his incomparable buildings at Agra. The palace was constructed facing east, allowing its inhabitants to pray to the Sun god at the crack of dawn. The successive rulers used this cool haven as their summer resort.
During the famous Indian Sepoy Mutiny in 1857 several European families fled from Nimach and used the island as an asylum, offered to them by Maharana Swaroop Singh. In order to protect his guests the Rana destroyed all the town’s boats so that the rebels could not reach the island.

Bhagwat Singh decided to convert the Jag Niwas Palace into Udaipur’s first luxury hotel.

In 1971, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces took over management of the hotel and added another 75 rooms. We are not sure if it is a ecoluxury place, but its just great.

Besides this it was perfect location for James Bond’s rest in Octopussy.

Incredible India.

If you travel further up north in direction Pakistan, you should not miss the border ceremony.