The Orchard Palace

What People are saying

Royal

on 21/06/2017 20:12

Hello this is good to hear when you will on way to gondal you can enjoy experience of royal ness with harmony at this place
Enjoy food with costliest lunch and dinner with or without night stay .you can also stay here for more royal experience and have night sleep on royal king's or queen's personal bed
You will have to priorly call and book for mahal or for dine what you want to book
Great experience personally
Dine is costliest but of international quality and enjoyable with sometime king Also and celebration of festival also

Good in many ways, but lacked a decent manager

calinurseon 18/06/2017 00:55

If you're in Gondal town--a great place to visit--this is your best and practically only option for stay. I was here for two nights.
(Be sure you are booked into The Orchard Palace, not the affiliated Riverside Palace!)

Orchard Palace is unique, and fascinating, with many items from the Royal Family's collection. (Don't mss their extensive collections at the Royal Palace.) The beautiful large lounges and public areas, the wraparound terrace, the bedrooms themselves, are like stepping back in history. The grounds are well maintained, and include a small park with pond, the famous vintage car collection, and the old railroad car on the siding for the Maharajah's private train station. Since the website explains all this, I'll keep further comments to the stay itself.

My room on the "second story" ( first floor UK/India terminology) was huge and lovely lovely: bed was comfortable, air conditioning adequate, electric tea maker included. Cleanliness was fine in the bedroom, although in the large bathroom, loads of and gunk emerged from under the shower floor ledge when there was a flooded area under it from a problematic faucet. (See bellow) , Wifi was available only in public areas, which meant, depending on the signal's strength, leaving the bedroom to enter the adjoining central lounge, or going downstairs to the main lounge.

Food at dinner in the dining room varied between mediocre and good. Breakfast was good. If you're expecting outstanding meals, with the exception of a few items you'll be disappointed. Service among most staff , including the housekeepers, was fine, with pleasant helpful people. In contrast, the on-duty manager was indifferent, impatient, and rude, irritated by my two questions. I don't know if he is the permanent person in that role, or whether he had "issues" that affected his work. In any case, he was a poor representative for Gondal Palace.

The faucet in the bathroom--which inexplicably points not into the bowl of the sink, but onto its edge --directed water on to the floor. I informed the manager, who unsmilingly shrugged, then looked annoyed, but sent up a very helpful employee who figured out the faucet was clogged with old debris (yuck) . After clearing, it was fine. The housekeeper appeared courteously and promptly to mop the floor. Second issue: the room lock is unlike any other I've seen ever, requiring twists of the key in different directions. I needed instruction, which in retrospect should have been given by the man who showed me the room. Once instructed, I was fine.However, bringing these issues to the duty manager was unpleasant.

There are no elevators, so if you have trouble with stairs, request a room on ground floor level. Also, the only way to contact the front desk was to walk downstairs ---there was no interoffice-room connection phone.

A delight

shashibaligaon 20/05/2017 17:04

We didn't stay in this palace hotel, alas, but just visited to see its vintage car museum and it was well worth the time we spent there, even though it shaved time off our journey to the airport dangerously. If you're a vintage car aficionado, you will be in heaven here. But even if you aren't, you can't help be fascinated and delighted by the incredible collection at this palace. The palace grounds, with peacocks scurrying about are lovely too and the family retainer who took us around was so gracious. A must-visit if you're anywhere close to Gondal.

Beautiful hotel

felicityjg1on 22/02/2017 18:04

This is a delightful hotel. There are not many rooms and ours was huge and beautiful. The staff are very friendly and helpful. After arriving and depositing our bags we went to look at the vintage car collection belonging to the former Maharajah. Unfortunately we were unable to view the interiors but it was interesting. We were also shown the Maharajah's train carriage and were able to walk through - which was lovely. Unfortunately, when we went up to our room, hot and tired from the day - there was insufficient hot water to even wash my hair - let alone shower! My husband waited about for about 20 minutes, but his shower was very cold too! Dinner is served in a dining room with a large table and a few smaller ones. Evidentally the guests eat whatever the Maharajah is eating that night - which was delicious, although I was unable to eat some of the dishes as they were very creamy and I'm lactose intolerant. The waiters could not understand when I didn't want a whole bowl of the soup - or the yoghurt - so I had a taste. However, I would recommend that anyone with real allergies contact the hotel prior to arriving to see what could be done about the food. There were plenty of choices and what I could eat was absolutely delicious - so in fact I did not feel hungry. Our bedroom was full of mosquitoes - but we requested that it be sprayed and this had been done by the time we went back upstairs. The following morning we had quite an early start and so requested breakfast at 7.15am. We were assured this would be fine - but when we went downstairs we found the dining room in darkness! We saw someone in the kitchen but unfortunately they spoke no English. It took about 15 minutes for someone to arrive to serve us breakfast. Breakfast was good, although my husband does not like a cooked breakfast and he was limited to toast and jam! The hotel is absolutely stunning with amazing sitting room areas and beautiful bedrooms. I would recommend it, provided there was hot water!

Very comfortable hotel

Poppadoc5748on 18/02/2017 17:15

This hotel is approached down a driveway. The brickwork is painted red with white around the windows and doors. There was a warm welcome from the staff with cold drinks and garlands. Our room was on the first floor and was huge with a separate dressing room and bathroom. It was very clean and comfortable. Dinner and breakfast were served in the dining room on the ground floor and the food was served to the table rather than the usual buffet style. In the grounds of the hotel is a vintage car display which is worth a visit and also a railway sleeping car. We stayed for one night at this hotel.