The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai Review

The address explains much of the hotel's appeal. The Taj Mahal Palace stands on the waterfront of Apollo Bunder in Colaba, at the southern tip of Mumbai, with the harbour before it and the Gateway of India a few steps along the promenade. The arch, built to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911 and unveiled in 1924, arrived two decades after the hotel, and today the two read as a single composition: the basalt arch on the quay and, behind it, the long grey and white facade of the Palace beneath its red domes. The view is the hotel's great privilege. From the harbour-facing rooms of the Palace, launches and ferries cross the water below, the arch turns gold in the late light, and the old districts of south Mumbai are on the doorstep. That extraordinary location comes with one notable trade-off: the Gateway of India is among Mumbai's busiest attractions, and the crowds begin almost immediately outside the hotel's doors. It is not a reason to stay elsewhere, but guests who picture a quiet stroll from the front door should know what to expect.

The hotel's story begins with conviction: warned that it would lose money, Jamsetji Tata replied, as the Tata group records it, that this made no difference. It opened with comforts Bombay had never seen. By the group's account it was the first building in the city lit by electricity, with American fans, German elevators, Turkish baths and English butlers, and its Harbour Bar later became Mumbai's first licensed bar. It served as a military hospital during the First World War. In November 2008 it was among the targets of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai; the courage of its staff is now part of its history, and the restored Palace Wing reopened in 2010. It is also the first building in India to hold an image trademark, for its facade and dome. The architecture is as eclectic as it is grand. The Tata group describes a building that borrows as freely from Moorish and Florentine Renaissance architecture as from Oriental and Rajput traditions, and IHCL, its hotel company, calls it Indo-Saracenic. From the water it reads as one long facade of grey and white stone beneath smaller domes and the red central dome, which rises 240 feet and which, the hotel notes, the Indian Navy still uses as a daytime reference point. Inside, the drama is vertical. The famous cantilevered, or floating, staircase climbs floor after floor around an open well beneath a painted dome, its red-carpeted flights edged with wrought iron. Galleries with carved white balustrades rise to a glazed roof, and long corridors hung with paintings from the collection, which includes M. F. Husain, S. H. Raza and V. S. Gaitonde, lead to the rooms. Alabaster ceilings, Belgian crystal chandeliers, onyx columns and hand-woven silk rugs complete the picture, and in the Ballroom stand pillars Jamsetji Tata ordered after seeing them at the Paris exhibition. At ground level the register softens: colonnaded arcades run beside the garden, and flowers and stone elephants dress the halls. A heritage walk with the hotel's historians is the best introduction to it all, and the building repays the time: it is one of the few hotels where looking up is as rewarding as looking out.

Beside the Palace Wing stands the Tower Wing, a high-rise added in the early 1970s that draws, by the hotel's account, on the Victory Tower of Chittor. The Taj now presents the two almost as separate hotels: The Taj Mahal Palace lists 243 rooms and 42 suites, the Taj Mahal Tower 258 rooms and 12 suites, and guests in either share the restaurants, bars and facilities. Palace rooms start at 33 square metres, with period art, heritage details and a butler on call in every category; Tower rooms are 26 square metres and contemporary in style, and many have a balcony behind arched windows. Via Privata stayed in the Palace Wing, in a room with a bay window looking out over the harbour towards the Gateway of India, and its condition was one of the most impressive things about the stay. Heritage hotels often ask their guests to trade some comfort for character; the Taj does not. The room was in excellent order and as comfortable as any in a newer hotel, and the same standard of upkeep runs through the whole building, which is remarkably well maintained for its age. The Palace Wing has ten categories of room and suite. The Luxury Grande Rooms, at 33 square metres, are the classic Taj rooms: on the second to fourth floors with a bay window over the pool or the city, or on the mid-level floors with a bay window facing the Arabian Sea. The Luxury Room is the same size, but the hotel describes no view for it, which is reason enough to choose one of the Grande categories. The Taj Club Rooms, at 37 square metres on higher floors, have a marble bathroom with a bathtub, a separate shower and a dressing area, and include the Taj Club Lounge, with afternoon high tea and evening cocktails, breakfast at the Sea Lounge or Aquarius, a one-way airport transfer, and early check-in and late check-out when available. The suites are where the Palace's character comes into its own. The Executive Suite, at 70 square metres, adds a separate living area. The Luxury Suites, of 83 to 92 square metres, are each individually themed, with separate living and dining areas, and the Grande Luxury Suite, at 121 square metres, has a private balcony facing the Arabian Sea. Above them are the Signature Suites, of 121 to 139 square metres, each furnished with original artwork and artefacts: the Rajput Suite, where the hotel records that John Lennon and Yoko Ono stayed, the maritime-inspired Bell Tower Duplex Suite and the two-bedroom Ravi Shankar Duplex Suite. The Tata Suite, named after the hotel's founder, is a residence of 465 square metres, with two bedrooms, a formal dining room, a meeting room, an office, a spa with its own sauna and a private gym. In the Tower, the Superior and Deluxe Rooms come with a city or sea view, the sea-view rooms looking out over the harbour towards the Gateway of India, and the Apollo Rooms, on the highest floors, include the Harbour Bar's cocktail hour and breakfast at Shamiana. The Apollo Suite, at 52 square metres, has a balcony overlooking the Gateway of India and access to the Taj Club Lounge. For a first stay, book a Luxury Grande Room Sea View in the Palace, the hotel at its most characteristic, with a bay window over the water. The Taj Club Room Sea View is the step up for more space, a full marble bathroom and the lounge. For a honeymoon or a milestone, the Grande Luxury Suite and its sea-facing balcony are the obvious choice, and the Signature Suites suit guests who want a room with a story of its own. The Tower makes sense for a balcony and a high floor, but the reason to stay at the Taj is the building of 1903, and it is better to wake up inside it than to visit it from next door.

The Taj's restaurants serve the city as well as the hotel, and three stand out. Wasabi by Morimoto, the hotel's award-winning Japanese restaurant from Iron Chef Morimoto, serves contemporary Japanese cooking, with an omakase for guests happy to leave the choice to the kitchen. Golden Dragon has served Sichuan and Cantonese cooking for more than fifty years, with a live kitchen and dim sum, and Loya is devoted to the cooking of northern India. The Sea Lounge is the hotel's drawing room, with Art Deco interiors and views over the Arabian Sea from breakfast until late in the evening. It is the classic setting for afternoon tea, which Via Privata took here during the stay. Tea is served in two sittings that must be reserved, the menu runs from Indian street food to Continental dishes, and the dress code is semi-formal. Shamiana, open around the clock, is the informal café. Harbour Bar, which the hotel describes as Mumbai's first licensed bar, still holds licence number one, and its view over the bay makes it the place for a drink before dinner. The Chambers, the hotel's members-only lounge, is panelled in dark wood over chequered marble floors, The Chef's Studio offers private dining by appointment, and La Patisserie is the hotel's pastry shop and deli. With two or three nights, plan afternoon tea at the Sea Lounge, a drink at the Harbour Bar and one evening each at Wasabi and at Golden Dragon or Loya, reserving Wasabi and the tea before arrival.

The outdoor pool lies in a garden of palms beneath the facade of the Palace Wing, and it is the hotel's quiet centre. Aquarius serves drinks and light dishes at the poolside, the cabanas are reserved for resident guests and members, and morning yoga is held by the water. J Wellness Circle, the Taj spa, has more than 600 square metres of private treatment rooms, hammams and a flotation tank. Its menu combines Ayurveda with contemporary therapies, organised around the five elements of Indian philosophy, and its signature treatments draw on Indian tradition: the Abhisheka, a royal bathing ritual, the Pehlwan Malish, a vigorous warrior massage, and the Shringaar rituals designed for brides. For a more serious programme, the Ayurveda Sanctuary offers consultations with a doctor. The fitness centre, with Technogym equipment, is open around the clock, and the Taj Salon has looked after guests' hair and grooming for more than eighty years. None of this is the reason to come to the Taj, but after a day among the crowds on the waterfront, an afternoon by the pool or a treatment at the spa is a welcome counterweight.

Service was the highlight of Via Privata's stay: exceptional, and all the more striking in a hotel of this size, with two wings and restaurants that serve the city as well as its own guests. The building sets the scene, but it is the staff who make the stay. That standard has deep roots. Taj has its own word for the hospitality it aims at, Tajness, which it describes in terms of warmth, intuition and sensitivity, and by the Tata group's account the idea was born here on the day the hotel opened. Every Palace category comes with a butler on call, and the Taj Club rooms and suites have their own lounge. The atmosphere is that of a grand hotel still at the centre of its city's life. Its restaurants and bars are part of Mumbai's social life and its Ballroom has hosted state and society occasions for generations, yet what stays with a guest in the Palace Wing is the sense of living, for a few days, inside a piece of the city's history.

For heritage hotel enthusiasts and lovers of architecture, the Taj is essential: the Tata group calls it India's first luxury hotel, and the Palace Wing alone justifies the trip. Couples will find the occasion in a sea-view room, afternoon tea at the Sea Lounge and the Gateway lit up at night, and first-time visitors to Mumbai could not ask for a better introduction to the city, provided they are ready for the crowds at the door. Two or three nights is the right length: a day for the city and a full day for the hotel. It is also the natural place to end a journey through India. Udaipur has direct flights to Mumbai, the international airport is roughly an hour away by car, depending on traffic, and Via Privata's own journey ended here, after The Oberoi Udaivilas in Udaipur.

The Taj Mahal Palace is one of the great hotels of the world, with a strong claim to being the defining hotel of India. Its history runs through every part of the Palace Wing, from the dome that greeted ships before the Gateway of India existed to the floating staircase and the art on the walls, and the hotel lives up to it: the service was exceptional, and the rooms are kept to a standard many far younger hotels would envy. Its waterfront position cuts both ways: the views of the harbour and the Gateway are extraordinary, but the crowds begin at the front door. For Via Privata, it was a fitting end to the journey. The hotels before it, in New Delhi, Agra, rural Rajasthan and Udaipur, each borrow from India's history; the Taj is part of it. Built to welcome travellers arriving by sea, it is as natural a place to leave India as it once was to arrive.