On leaving and getting back to decent internet I had to go online immediately to identify if we had indeed been booked into the correct place. The hotel website shows a lovely building surrounded by lush greenery and a lake. It mentions fine dining. Ahem…….. if there were a trade descriptions act in India………..?
In fairness we had come from the magnificent Lake Palace so it was sublime to ridiculous. In our defence we were expecting this. The only thing we wanted / expected was to feel welcome and at home with a bit of warmth and charm. I’m afraid it did not deliver.
There are some plus points – huge room with pleasant en-suite bathroom and lovely hot shower which - if everything else had been good - would have been more than we expected. The genius of the superb pool area has probably pulled in and kept some guests happy – it is very pretty and if you want to stay more than one night essential. It also had ample supply of the ubiquitous parrots and chipmunks which cannot fail to delight. For these reasons I took my initial one star to two.
Then you look at the obvious benefit it must be to the family and the surrounding village. This business must succeed. It has the potential. My impression is that boredom and complacency have caused its downfall. That and a desperate lack of even basic hospitality. But it has the infrastructure and with a semi decent manager and chef (even the same person) this could be lifted fairly easily. Mostly however because of the income I feel it must supply to the community I mentally added another star raising it to three.
The worse thing however was the food. Truly dire. We arrived mid afternoon having had no lunch and asked for a snack. We were duly delivered a cheese and tomato sandwich (no choice) on stale brown bread. Hungry we both ate a quarter but couldn’t bring ourselves to eat more. Something warned us not to.
Therefore we headed for dinner with some enthusiasm. The waiter greeted us with a jug which looked like it contained a mojito. Good start? Nope this was lime and coriander soup – that is water, lime juice and coriander heated up I think. If by some chance this is a local delicacy then apologies but it tasted like sharp dishwasher. Then the main……. a load of unappetising veggie dishes, plenty of carbs – rice, thin naan / chapati, runny tasteless dahl and one meat dish of luke warm and tired chicken tikka on the bone. Universally poor. No idea what the dessert was (nobody told us) but looked and tasted like apple crumble been put into a blender then a ton of sugar added. Vile. Oh and don’t ask about the wine!
We retired to bed starving and waited for breakfast. Pouring my OJ from the carton (yes!) after extracting the ants from the glass and the sugar bowl we had a coffee and ate a small portion of scrambled eggs. Sure sign that somebody doesn’t care is that the milk (for cereal) was on the table before we arrived and on testing was above warm.
The bad news? We had booked and paid for two nights. Didn’t care. We left.
There is no way of being certain of these things but in four trips to India I’ve never had any stomach issues. A day after we left here (and seven days on) I have the squits. Thankfully nothing terribly horrid just some basic bowel issues. On that note back down to 2 stars.

Shahpura Bagh was a lovely quiet retreat in the country in Shahpura. The room in the small one-storey building was very spacious. The pool was very lovely. The restaurant served a fixed menu dinner and the owner and his wife circulated and chatted with guests, which was nice. The rate included a tour of a farm (owned by the same owners) and a nearby village. Unfortunately, on the day we were there, the regular guide was unavailable, and the substitute was unable to speak English, so our tour was sub-optimal, to say the least.

The last 45 minutes spent driving down a very bumpy road on our way from Jaipur and we wondered where on earth we were going ....then we arrived at the Shahpura Bagh...a very special place. Words can't really describe it. It is so different to anywhere else I have ever stayed and a lovely refreshing change from chain hotels. A very calm, quiet place surrounded by nature. It was several hours before I noticed we didn't have a TV in our room!

In summary the highlights:-

The huge room
The beautiful swimming pool
The delicious food
The free internet/wifi (even though there are power cuts - it is India!)
The discreet Staff and excellent service

The only small criticisms/suggestions are:-
Having chilled bottled water on offer at dinner
Maybe some background music at dinner so we don't have to listen to the conversation of the people on the next table.

I wish we could have stayed longer.

Spent 3 awesome days. Very nice 45 acre property run by the erstwhile royal family. Very attentive but discreet service. Large comfortable rooms with high ceilings. Bathrooms are nice enough to spend your day in. Picturesque pool with peacocks and parrots flitting around. Loved it. Very memorable. Will definitely visit again.