The Oberoi Amarvilas

Amarvilas is built six hundred metres from the Taj Mahal, inside the protected zone where no polluting traffic is permitted, and its single organising idea is the view. Every one of the hundred-odd rooms and suites faces the monument, which changes colour through the day from pale rose at dawn to gold at sunset.

The architecture borrows from Moorish and Mughal traditions: terraced water gardens, colonnaded pavilions, reflecting pools, fountains and flaming torches lit at dusk. A large terraced swimming pool steps down towards the Taj, and the Oberoi spa offers Ayurvedic and Mughal-inspired treatments.

Guests are taken to the monument by electric cart or horse carriage, which is a genuine advantage for the dawn opening when the light is best and the crowds thinnest. Agra Fort and the abandoned Mughal capital at Fatehpur Sikri make up the rest of a two- or three-night stay, and Delhi is around three hours by expressway.