Umaid Bhawan Palace

Umaid Bhawan was built between 1929 and 1943 from golden Chittar sandstone, largely as a famine relief project that employed thousands of people for over a decade. The result is one of the last great palaces raised anywhere in the world, and an unusual one: the styling is art deco as much as Rajput, with a 105-foot central dome and interiors finished by a Polish artist stranded in India by the war.

The building is split three ways. The Jodhpur royal family still occupies one wing, a museum takes another, and the Taj runs seventy rooms and suites in the rest. Guests get twenty-six acres of gardens, an underground art deco pool tiled in zodiac motifs, and a spa in the palace basement.

From the hilltop terrace you look out over the blue houses of the old city and the sheer walls of Mehrangarh Fort, which is a fifteen-minute drive and worth most of a day. Peacocks, vintage cars and a certain amount of ceremony come with the territory.