The Century Times

Last month there was much media hype when Taj Mahal at Agra was announced to be at the top rung among the New 7 Wonders of the World during the official declaration ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal on July7,2007. This was solely decided by more than 100 million voters who took part in the voting. Though, I am not convinced by the polling process as any one could have participated in it irrespective of whether she has seen the place herself or not. How many of the voters do you think must had even heard of all the places which were being polled, leave aside the question of visiting them all? How can one vote in favour of a place or monument without comparing it with others? and how can one compare them without even visiting them to name them as wonders! It was all about the number game and commercial interests. From that aspect we, the Indians, the second most populated nation have lost the battle to some extent by making only one of our beautiful monuments to that list! Thus we have underperformed at the international platform to earn more foreign tourists.

Now this month, one of the leading international travel magazine of America “Travel + Leisure” has announced Udaipur as the 7th best city in the World. Udaipur has beaten Istanbul (8th), San Francisco (9th) and Cape Town (10th) to reach at the seventh spot of the best city of the world and became the only Indian city to get this honour. Its around a month ago, this result was made public in the US overnight, yet there is no mention of it on the Indian government’s tourism portal “Incredible India“.

Udaipur being my home town, I often bragged about its beauty. Now my words will be more credible than before. For many years, my office table-top always had a picture of Lake Palace - a Taj group Hotel seeming to be floating in the Lake Pichhola. The picture itself was so romantic that I always preferred it over the Taj Mahal. Though beauty is a subjective term and as the cliche goes, it lies in the eyes of the beholder, I would have voted this property above the Taj Mahal, if both of them were nominated for the polling!

Hotel Lake Palace, Udaipur

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But unfortunately, this property has been ranked at 82nd among the World’s Top 100 Hotels. Whereas Oberoi Group’s Hotel Udaivilas (ironically this faces Hotel lake Palace, and from here you can comfortably see its beauty!) has been rated as the Best Hotel of the World.

World’s Best Hotel

Hotel Udaivilas of Oberoi Group

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Its important to notice that there are only 4 Indian properties in the list of World’s best 100 hotels and among them 3 are from Rajasthan (2 at Udaipur and 1 at Jaipur) and 1 at Agra. So though Udaipur falls way apart from the busiest Indian tourist circuit of Delhi-Jaipur-Agra, it prides itself with the maximum number of World’s Best Hotels in India. This underlines the fancy and charm of Udaipur. So when are you planning to visit?

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