Guests will feel like a maharajah for the night staying in the same quarters where Maharana Bhupal Singh of Udaipur held court in the 1930s, amid the golden chandeliers and sculpted marble.

Over a traditional Gujarati thali in a marquee on the lawn, we learnt how Maharana Vikramsinhji had seen off developers to preserve his estate as one of the few green lungs in the state of Gujarat.