A regal heritage building, The Laxmi Niwas Palace holds a commanding posture among its large green property set in the hot desert of Rajasthan. Thanks to a massive gate entrance, guests pass through the palace wall which still envelopes the entire property. The main receiving portico is reached after a short drive past lush, green gardens and a small army of laborers maintaining the grounds. In true 5 star Rajasthani form, my travel partner and I were greeted immediately upon arrival by the door man.

Our experience was proceeding well until the check-in. The front desk clerks spoke broken English at best, a rather surprising find given the type of property. Our driver’s translating skills were needed to complete the formal check-in process. Working around this minor ordeal kept me from appreciating how grand the lobby was until subsequent passes allowed more time to investigate properly.

Our room sat opposite the lobby right off the main, square shaped courtyard the hotel encircles. Large floor to ceiling doors, locked via an oversized padlock, opened into a very high ceiling, spacious room. In fact, the room was so large, the over-sized furniture didn’t seem on scale within its surroundings. Large windows overlook the courtyard covered my beautifully draped fabrics. Tiled floors allow for easy clean up from desert sand tracked in by shoes. Everything about the room was clean and oozed luxury. Each room has attached screen doors allowing guests an option of keeping their main doors open to allow for fresh breezes. Unfortunately, our room was next to the gift shop. One by one other hotel guests and outside tourists took pleasure at peeking through our screen door while some even walked right in.

With so much space devoted to one room, of course the bathroom was generous in size. Between the main sleeping area and the bathroom was a storage area complete with full length panel door closets and luggage racks. This was a nice touch allowing my travel partner and I to keep our junk out of each others’ way.

Breakfast was included with the room, served on the other side of the courtyard near the rear lobby entrance. It was just, bad, just…wrong. Service was provided by more broken English waiters making any special ordering too much of a hassle to muddle through. The food offerings were sparse. From the lack of traffic in the dining area, it appeared there were few other guests the night before. Certainly I can understand this poses challenges for the staff to properly gauge food consumption. If they were trying to keep us from eating much they succeeded brilliantly.

Completing the laundry request required our driver’s help once again. Retrieving it also required his help. I’m not sure how other guest communicate with the various staff members with such obvious language barriers deterring even the simplest chat.

Skip the breakfast here and head over to the rooftop restaurant at Hotel Harasar Haveli. Pass on the laundry services and seek out a local merchant in the market. Do take time to pass through the gift shop, as well as, reading the various framed photographs explaining the palace history hung throughout the courtyard walls. My plans wouldn’t have me staying here again but you’d be a fool not to at least check out the magnificent architecture and details of this well maintained property.

Below is a short history of The Laxmi Niwas Palace as noted on their website:

In view of the wishes expressed by Maharaja Ganga Singhji during his minority, the regency council in the last year of its regime in 1897 AD took in hand construction of a new palace. The Maharaja Choose Sir Swinton Jacob the then Chief Engineer of Jaipur State, who was considered one of the foremost exponents of the architectural style known as “Indo – Saracenic”. based on Rajput and Mughal architecture.

Sir Swinton has designed the Laxmi Niwas Palace which was constructed in a period of four years and completed in 1902 A.D. It’s marble courtyards, magnificent halls, anterooms, Colonnaded corridors, canopied balconies adorned with intricate filigree and lattice work in stone and wood with aesthetically designed interior decoration of frescoes and mural paintings in gold and exquisite lacquers were all executed by the hereditary craftsmen of Bikaner under the watchful eye of the young Maharaja who took keen interest in the finalisation of motifs and designs as well as execution of work at all stages of construction. For its artistic excellence of ornately elegant splendour, this palace was also viewed by the architects “Lutyens and Baker” in 1914 when they were touring India to seek designs for building Delhi, the new capital of India.

Built of pink sandstone, brought from the stone quarries of Dulmera, some 45 kms. north of Bikaner city and set amidst acres of landscaped gardens dotted with lily pools and fountains, this monumental palace in all its grandeur and beauty was the principal residence of the Maharaja of Bikaner, exclusively for the use of Royal family and their guests.

The Palace, when completed was named after the goddess of wealth & prosperity – “LAXMI”, consort of Lord “LAXMI NARAINJI” (another name of The Creator Vishnu) one of the Tutelary Deities of the House of Bikaner.
Maharaja Ganga Singhji’s outstanding gift was his flair for hospitality. Those whom he had the privilege of playing host in this palace included king George V & Queen Mary (as Prince & Princess of Wales in 1905), the king of Greece, the Prince of Wales (later king Edward viii in 1921) viceroys, Maharajas and renowned statesmen including his old friend, the great French radical leader M. Clemenceau whose political antagonisms had earned him the formidable title of “TIGER” and who, as prime minister of France presided over the deliberations of the first world war Peace treaty at Versailles in 1919.

The list of the honoured guests runs like a who’s who. It includes the honourable Dr Rajendra Prasad, First president of our republic; the venerable veteran nationalist leader and founder of the Benaras Hindu University, Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya Ji ,Dr (Mrs)Sarojini Naidu , Sir Tejbahadur Sapru, Sir Akbar Haidri etc. The Laxmi Niwas Palace opened its doors as a luxury heritage hotel at the turn of the Twenty first century has 42 palatial rooms fitted with all modern amenities.