Introduction

Post being upgraded to  Platinum status  with SPG, I decided it was time to bring over the family to ITC Grand Bharat(a luxury collection property). This was going to be one of my more extravagant stays while in India. ITC Grand Bharat is, after all, the only category 6 property in  I spent days going through its videos and Instagram feed. It was one of the hosts of India InstaMeet; a celebration of the top twenty-five travel influencers and Instagrammers gathering together to travel along the Golden Triangle.

Photography is one creative domain I absolutely regret not having fully explored till now. But it is an aspiration of mine to have my work featured in some distinguished travelogue.That ought to help justify my existence as an eternal nomad to my parents if nothing else.lol. Obviously, I need to improve my gear to do that.

Warning: Long post ahead.

Felt like being generous and have divided it into three parts for attention deprived folks.
Enjoy!

As I drove up in my car to the entrance, a guard dressed in military uniform confirmed my booking and let me inside. I circled around for a while before reaching the lobby. I knew before hand that the property was on the outskirts of the city and hence was prepared for the long arduous journey back.

I have received similar treatment before at the  Taj Lake Palace but God, this somehow felt much grander.

Imagine how would you live if you were modern day royalty?
Would your home resemble a twenty-first-century palace?A place that screams pure extravagant opulence with a gigantic fountain  right at the entrance with security entrance surrounded by well-manicured gardens. I don”t know about you but ITC Grand Bharat sure managed to hit the spot for me.

Upon entering the premises, I get the real red carpet reception with guards queueing up and the staff coming with traditional diyas ,tika, and scarf to be put around my neck.

The lobby has a big Christmas tree standing it middle surrounded by some chairs.

I am escorted to the peacock bar to wait. After a while, a  staff member takes care of the other details.  In the interim, another person comes in with cold towels and a welcome drink.

Welcome drink manages to make me feel welcome and refreshed.

The bar looks truly magnificient.I’m definitely sure I’m going to rendered inarticulate and adjectiveless by the end of this report.

Once check in and formalities are completed, Guest Relationship Executive Ms. Simran Chakraborty shows me around the property. There are so many water bodies present everywhere. As the Donald would say , this property is” YUGE”.

This is the only ITC resort property. All other properties are hotels and are treated as such. This is an all suite property and considered a  crown jewel.

There is no way this property is ever reaching full occupancy. I strongly doubt they have ever managed to break even, such is the value they offer.

They have a golf cart to drive you around the property.

The property is well maintained and quite clean. Water is scintillating aqua blue.

Room

As I am escorted to my room, my luggage has already arrived before me. I was coming from ITC Maurya and was expecting this room to at least match up to it. To my surprise, it actually managed to exceed my highest expectations. Till I can find a more descriptive bunch of adjectives, I m going to stick with  “ simply marvelous” .

As I enter the room, I see a decent sized sofa set on the left.

Sofa obviously felt way more luxurious than the one I had in my  ITC Maurya room. There was a large table next to it. 

They had placed the welcome amenities( some fruits and chocolate truffles). Nice!  A knife was placed next to it for slicing the fruits. They also provided a complimentary bottle of wine with some more food. I never had such an extraordinary welcome amenity before. Thankfully they were many in my party to help take care of the food..hehe.

In the corner of the room, there is work table with a normal chair. I was expecting an office chair but that wasn’t the case. I found the placement of the table a  little odd.
It was underneath the TV. It should be away from the  Nobody wants TV staring right in their face. It is a common feature of  ITC hotels. Sometimes I suspect it’s  deliberately done to make the table feel crowded.

On the right side is another unit which contains a mini bar, glasses and water bottles.

As you walk further left, there is a nice sit out. There is a lounging chair outside and a semi private swimming pool. This is the view for which the term spectacular was created for.

It felt like an ancient canal system which had doubled up as a swimming pool. You can see water gushing out a designed pipe.

There is also a small garden in the middle that surrounds water body.

Back inside, in front of the living room, you can see the washroom.

While on the right side of the entrance is the bedroom.

They have a  proper King sized bed. A rarity I would say for ITC properties. It was a  large bed with extremely comfortable mattress.

The switchboards next to the bed are modern. They looked nice. I was surprised that they didn’t have an IPAD to control the room. This is one place where they could have used all the works.

At the end of the room was a large couch with a lot of pillows. There is a super cute origami elephant placed in the middle.

There was another TV across the bed.

There is a closet with vanity connected to the bedroom.

The cute box that contains your slippers. You can put your footwear inside the box and put on the locally provided footwear.

You can access washroom from the closet too.

They provided a map of the property with the keys.

Washroom

As in ITC Maurya, there is no half bathroom.However, this is one of the most grandiose washrooms of my life. As you enter, you see dual sinks with marble encasing. There is a well-placed chair in middle that looks comfortable and it’s wonderful for elderly or the  physically-disabled . The carving below the sink looks very royal.

On the right is a toilet in a cabin. Can you believe this? ITC has a toilet in the cabin. There is a  bidet spray connected to it. I guess they have been reading my reports lately. Methinks!

On the left of the sink, you have a  bath area. On the right side is a  lovely royal bathtub. They’ve placed flowers everywhere which fill the room with their lovely scent.

On the left side is the shower cabin. Itis literally gigantic in proportion.It even features a sitting area. You have both  a hand held shower and a proper shower. Remarkable indeed! 

I can’t comment on the water temperature because I didn’t take bath here. Remember, getting transport from here might be a pain. 

The door in the washroom again opens to swimming pool area. So you have a lovely view from every angle in the room.

Toiletries

The toiletries box looks beautiful.I was hugely disappointed with the shaving kit. I was hoping it would be far superior to the  Gillette sachet provided. I prefer the  Taj Lake Palace kit which had proper vector razor and small Gillette foam bottles. Opening a  Gillette pouch is a clumsy affair.

They have a standard ITC DJ Willis bath kit. The shampoo and shower gel is combined into one whereas there is a separate conditioner.  They have  placed  both golden and black toiletries for your selection. Choose your own flavor.

For Part II, Click hereClick here