A couple of years ago, Karamvir Singh gave up his corporate job in an airline and moved with his wife from the city of Vadodara to the village of Jambughoda where his father was running their ancestral property as A Home for Nature Lovers. Today, he does not regret his decision. The heritage homestay facility has grown in two years from six rooms to a 19-room property, and in addition to the guests who stay here, it receives a regular flow of tourists for lunch, including the passengers of the Maharaja Express, a luxury train.
“At Jambughoda, we have the advantage of beautiful forests all around the palace because Rajiv Gandhi, with whom my father Vikram Singh studied at the Doon School, helped us get the area notified as Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary, ensuring the preservation of the flora and fauna. My father has a green thumb and has successfully greened the palace grounds and is doing well in agriculture,” explains Karamvir, “making the natural surroundings our USP.
Our family started a decade ago by selling the concept of hot lunches under the sprawling trees and time with family members understanding the history and folklore of the area, and two rooms for those who wanted to stay.
The concept caught on with mainly foreign tourists travelling from Rajasthan or Gujarat to the attractions of Malwa, because our property falls on the highway from the World Heritage Site of Champaner and the fort of Mandu.” From here, they did not look back, and kept adding rooms.
“The property is simple. The rooms are comfortable but not luxurious or elaborate, the prices are value-for-money, and the main* focus is on a tranquil nature break,” Vikram Singh says, adding, “history and culture is the cachet.
When tourists from the luxury train come to the palace, they are received with traditional fanfare and tribal dances, served a silver platter lunch of about 22 items, and they get to interact with my parents about the history of our family and culture of the region. They enjoy hearing anecdotes about the Raj.” Other properties in the area are also doing well.
About an hour away from Jambughoda, Kali Niketan, an elegant palatial property in the tribal-dominated Chhota Udepur areas, has been running six rooms for some time and the owner is now building an annex of cottage-like rooms. Jambugodha is one of about 20 heritage hotels in Gujarat.
They range from small villas and historic houses to grand palaces and forts.
Even the method of management is not uniform. The House of Mangaldas Girdhardas, the Indo-European style mansion built in 1924 by a textile industrialist in Ahmedabad, is run by his descendants as a hotel with wide-ranging modern facilities like a swimming pool, cafe, rooftop restaurant, and rooms with LCD, phone and contemporary baths.
Just a few minutes away, a colonial-period house in the narrow alleys of the walled city of Ahmedabad has been taken over and converted by art consultant, Anupa Mehta, into the Arts Reverie, a guesthouse for creative professionals who want to stay among the havelis of Ahmedabad. What they have in common is that all the buildings are more than 60 years old and much of the inherent character of the property is maintained.
“In the 1970s, a few families realised the importance of commercialising their properties. The erstwhile rulers of Wankaner started taking tourists as paying house guests who stayed in art deco rooms and saw collections of princely memorabilia while the former rulers of Rajpipla opened their palace as a hotel for film units who wanted locations that included heritage buildings, interiors, the Karjan and Narmada rivers near Rajpipla, and the nearby wooded hills,” says Gopal Singh, coordinator of the Heritage Hotels Association of Gujarat and the owner of Darbargadh Poshina, a heritage hotel. “The heritage tourism movement got an impetus in the 1990s when the success of heritage hotels in Rajasthan inspired many of our present members to start restoring and renovating their properties. A good example is my own heritage hotel at Poshina which offered just 5-6 rooms in the mid-1990s and is now a 30-room heritage hotel,” he adds.
Each family has built on its own inherent strengths. Poshina in North Gujarat is located in an area with colourfully dressed tribal people and attracts culture tourists.
The Bhavani Villa at Danta, about 70km away, is scenically located on a hill and is near historic monuments of Taranga, Patan, Sidhpur, Vadnagar, Modhera and Ambaji.
The owners, Mahipendra Singh and his wife Chandra Kumari, run a sprawling estate with indigenous breeds of horses, farms and woodlands, and their daughter-in-law is actively involved in promoting the handwork of the region.
About an hour away from Danta, the Balaram Palace, the summer palace of the erstwhile Nawab of Palanpur, has been taken over by a hotelier and converted into a resort.
At Balasinor, about 86 km from Ahmedabad, Farhat Sultana of the Garden Palace serves guests with kebabs, pasindas, Mughlai curries, biryanis and halwas made according to the original recipes of the Nawabs of Palanpur, Balasinor and Junagadh, while her son and daughter run a camp for visitors to the nearby dinosaur site.
Says Vijayraj Singh, owner of the Nilambag Palace in Bhavnagar: “My mother, the late Brijraj Nandini Devi, renovated the property in a manner that would retain its facilities as a business hotel in this port city but at the same time have the necessary heritage look and feel, which has made the palace popular with tourists who visit the Bhavnagar district to see the Palitana Jain temples, the Velavadar National Park and the modern coastal industries’.’
At Palitana, Vijay Vilas was built in 1906 as the country house of the Prince of Palitana and is now run as a six-room heritage homestay for tourists by his grandson. At heritage hotels, like the Orchard Palace in Gondal and the Royal Oasis at Wankaner, guests get an insight into the grandeur of these princely states through the collections of princely relics on display in the palaces.
Digvijay Singh of Wankaner, who heads the Heritage Hotels Association of Gujarat, says heritage hotels are a win-win for all—the owners who earn revenue to maintain their properties and the tourists who get to experience hidden treasures. “Gujarat had more princely states than Rajasthan, and Baroda was the premier 21-gun salute states in India along with Hyderabad and Mysore.
There were more Rajput princes in Gujarat than in Rajasthan. In addition to Rajput clans, Gujarat had Muslim, Maratha, Kathi and Patidar princely states which ensures that tourists get a variety of cuisine and cultural experiences,’’ he says. “Unfortunately, Gujarat has not realised its tourism potential.
Incentives like soft finance, promotion of heritage tourism and availability of liquor in properties that have a largely international and cosmopolitan clientele are among the factors that would ensure that the state’s tourism industry flourishes.’’
Despite the fact that Gujarat is lagging behind its neighbouring states like Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, and even adjacent Union territories like Diu, Daman and Dadra & Nagar Haveli, in tourist flow, an increasing number of owners of heritage properties are upbeat about the concept of heritage hotels in the state.
Sidharth Singh has recently opened three rooms at Rajmahal Wadhwan, a palace in Surendranagar district.
He says, “This palace was badly damaged during the earthquake and was termite-infested. A few years ago we restored it, and it paid off. Vogue did a shoot with a super model here. We realise that the palace, which has beautiful tapestries, chandeliers and mirrors imported by my ancestors, can be a big tourist attraction and are opening it in phases’’.
Says Vipul Mittra, Secretary, Tourism, “We are working towards a policy to promote, assist, develop and market the heritage of Gujarat. We will advertise heritage sites and hotels with the help of our brand ambassador, Amitabh Bachchan.”
Agrees Sanjay Kaul, Managing Director of the Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd, “As tourist flow into Gujarat is on the rise, we realise the importance of creating accommodation infrastructure in the state. We are looking at heritage hotels as part of our tourism development programme.”
Top resorts
House of Mangaldas
Girdhardas, Ahmedabad:
Modernised heritage property
with contemporary facilities
(www.houseofmg.com)
Balaram Palace Resort,
Palanpur: Modernised palace with wide-ranging facilities, popular for conferences and film shoots
(www.balarampalace.com)
Nilambag Palace Hotel,
Bhavnagar: Garden palace with beautiful interiors and modern amenities, Romanesque swimming pool
(www.nilambagpalace.com)
Riverside Palace/Orchard
Palace, Gondal: Original 1930s furnished interiors, museum collections of vintage and classic cars, princely memorabilia and horse carriages.
(www.gondalpalaces.com)
Royal Oasis, Wankaner: Art deco interiors, tour of the private collections of princely relics at the flamboyant Ranjit Vilas Palace
(www.gujarattourism.com)
Khirasara Palace, Rajkot:
Majestic property with good views
and modern amenities
(www.khirasarapalace.in)
Darbargadh Palace, Morvi:
Majestic riverside palace
(neemranahotels.com/darbargadh-palace)
Darbargadh Poshina,
Sabarkantha: Home-cooked
Rajasthani and Gujarati cuisine with the owners, tribal village tours
(www.poshina.com)
A Home for Nature Lovers,
Jambughoda Palace: Home-cooked meals with the owners in the palace garden, jungle walks and tribal trails
(www.jambughoda.com)
Rajwant Palace Resort, Rajpipla: Heirloom museum, swimming pool, restaurant, geared up to handle film shootings, conferences and weddings.
(www.rajvantpalace.com)