Fort Dhariyawad

The setting

Southern Rajasthan keeps a lower profile than the Jaipur–Jodhpur circuit, and Dhariyawad is a good example of what that discretion buys you. The town was founded in the middle of the 16th century by Prince Sahasmal, the second son of Maharana Pratap — Mewar's most celebrated hero — and the family fort still presides over it. The hotel's own telling places it at the confluence of the Jakham and Karmoi rivers, surrounded by thick subtropical forest of the Aravalli Hills and villages of the Bhil and Meena communities. The fort has been converted into a heritage hotel with, the family says, its decor and traditional splendour kept intact.

Rooms

The hotel doesn't carve its rooms into elaborate categories; it simply promises a traditional Rajasthani ambience, attached bathrooms and modern amenities, with yearly upgrades across the rooms and suites. The public spaces do the showing off: a sitting room decorated with hookahs, a cannon and chandeliers, a rooftop restaurant, a lobby lounge, gardens, a poolside and — rather sportingly — a badminton court.

The table

Guests are served Indian, Continental and Rajasthani cooking, and the kitchen travels well: the hotel lays on a riverside jungle lunch beside a perennial river, breakfasts by the water, and an evening safari into Sitamata Sanctuary that winds up with high tea.

Beyond the walls

Sitamata Wildlife Sanctuary is the headline act — the hotel calls it a wilderness pilgrimage, known for rare flying squirrels and leopards. Jeep and horse safaris head out from the fort, and there are tours to tribal villages where doors are handcrafted and decorated with wheat-starch designs, to the Baneshwar tribal fair, to a Thewa jewellery makers' workshop, and to the Jakham reservoir for sunrise or a sundowner. A telescope is kept for stargazing, and the hotel adds practical comforts: Wi-Fi, laundry, indoor games, a gift shop and a doctor on call.