The Oberoi Amarvilas, Agra

The Oberoi Hotel in Agra is certainly one of the top hotels in India. There’s no doubt about that. In this review, I’d like to focus specifically on our guided tour of the Taj Mahal. The tour, the tickets to the Taj Mahal, and the guide were all arranged by the hotel. The hotel works with a handful of carefully selected guides. On the recommendation of the front desk, our tour was scheduled to start very early in the morning. After a friendly wake-up call, we found a small breakfast buffet waiting for us in the lobby to kick off our tour. Then we met Kishore, our guide. Together with him, we took the hotel’s own taxi service to the gates of the Taj Mahal before sunrise. Even on the way there, Kishore raved about the unique play of colors the Taj Mahal displays during the golden hour. As we strolled through the gardens and around the Taj Mahal, Kishore told us about the history and legends surrounding this monument. Kishore adapted his pace entirely to our rhythm. Kishore also took wonderful photos of us at the Taj Mahal. He has an eye for aesthetic photography—you should definitely check out his Instagram page. Instagram: wanderwithkishore Thank you so much for an unforgettable time in Agra.

We have been lucky enough to stay in some amazing hotels around the world and I would put our stay at Oberoi Armavillas as one of the best. We were welcomed by and taken to our room by Abhay who provided a brilliant service throughout stay. OUr room was just beautiful, with a huge balcony, a bath with an out of this world view. We had a wonderful start to the evening by sharing a bottle of fizz on the balcony, watching the dance show and the sun set over the Taj Mahal. The pool area was very comfortable and we were well looked after with ice cold water and towels brought to our sun loungers and a very attentive pool side team. We enjoyed dinner at Esphahan where the food was spectacular and Vishal made it extra special by arranging a beautiful cake and romantic moment outside with candles to celebrate our anniversary. The next morning we got up at dawn and headed to see the Taj under the excellent guidance of Kishore who shared his knowledge eloquently and we had and amazing visit and some wonderful photos too. Our visit was finished with a beautiful breakfast and great service from the restaurant team. If you are considering staying here I highly highly recommend it, the memories will stay with us for a very long time.

We had an opportunity to witness the ever marvelous Wonder of the world Taj accompanied by Kishore gupta ji. The overall experience was seamless from logistics, story telling, technical, historical detail to the how personized it was. Great job sir. Thank you very much.

You can talk all you want about Michelin stars or the 50 best list or whatever raring system you want but to me this hotel was perfect and it does not have to be better than this. The room was so lovely, the staff was wonderful and made us feel like royalty, the food was divine. They made us a lunch box for the airport pickup, I loved it. The driver was great. The guided tour to Taj Mahal was perfect. I only stayed one night but will remember it forever. I hope you get to visit, it is a perfect hotel experience!

I have a great time staying at this hotel. And the tour guide Sandeep did a good job showing us around Taj Mahal. He is knowledgeable and we learn a lot from him.