Hotel near Amber Fort

Of the places and hotels we stayed in, the one which I liked the most was near Jaipur called Amer View (no idea why not Amber view ... perhaps it was taken?)

While nothing much to distinguish it from the outside; the interior decoration, quality of rooms,
nice bathrooms and friendly staff were a nice change. As an Australian (and my partner is a Finn) tipping is not something customary. To us, the whole idea is just an indication that staff are not paid properly and need to pester visitors for a proper salary.

Here at Amer view we didn't get the "hanging around like flies" type of staff to carry your bag for 5 feet then stick their hand out for money. Sure, people helped and were friendly, but quickly turned off to go about other business before we could even think about getting money out (having been conditioned into tipping for meaningless tasks already)

One of the nice things there was the roof top dining (not really a restaurant, but the kitchen was up there too). It was refreshing to have dinner up there in the (relatively) cool breezes and enjoy the views of the town at night.

The food was well priced and the Kingfisher was cold!

Not much more that you can ask for after a days walkin around in the heat if you ask me. Well ... now that I mention it ... relief from the heat would be nice. I makes eating a big meal (and the food certainly deserved it) harder.

The interior was nicely (but sparsely) decorated with paintings of Rajasthan culturally significant icons.

Because of our "package tour", knowing the actual prices of the hotel is nearly impossible to guage. This is annoying as why shouldn't (as a consumer) I have some idea what things cost?

Actually this point is a common issue in India, hotels regularly seem to list one price on their WWW sites, but charge another when you walk up (or call from a local Indian mobile) and ask for the prices.

Back to the Hotel, the views from the roof top both day and night are great. Walking around the local area (up towards the fort) was not only visually, but filled with all sorts of great small food and fresh vegetable markets.

I really wish we'd spent more time here ....




So, if you go to Jaipur, I recommend this place to stay!