Guest User
July 14, 2023
We stayed here in March at the end of a 5 week trip to India, mainly to see Tigers, but also to see the sights. When we arrived we were greeted by the staff who presented us with cool drinks and garlands of marigolds. We saw our room and nearly fell over, it was the Narmada suite overlooking the river and ghats below, with all sorts of luxury touches including a Nespresso machine. The balcony was a perfect way to view beautiful sunrises and sunsets. We met Prince Richard who was interested in some family history/ graveyard hunting we had done in Indore - trying to find graves of my mothers relatives in one of the earliest British graveyards in Indore. We were treated to the most delicious breakfasts, lunches and dinners, all part of the package. Whilst the Fort has no alcohol, staff would procure you wine/beer or whatever you wanted to drink with meals, no doubt from town, so it wasn't a problem if you wanted a drink, just required a little advance planning. The fort offers some interesting tours which we did - sunset on the Narmada river, travelling out to the Temple at "the centre of the universe" in the river. You could get off and see the temple as well. The boat men performed a floating candle ceremony for us which was beautiful. We went to the villages across the river and a guide was arranged for us - the son of someone who works at Fort, he was not at school that day - he took us around, showed us the temple, weaving households where we were invited in and walked to another village where we caught the boat back to the Fort. We did another river tour one afternoon which was scenic and relaxing and where refreshments were provided and another candle ceremony performed. Our Tour operator had arranged for a guide / driver so we went to Mandu one day - very interesting old/ancient city and with some immaculately maintained gardens. Another afternoon we had a tour of Maheshwar - temples and towns. Its a sacred place and is on a pilgrimage route. We had massages, swims in the pool and enjoyed the ambience of the Ahilya Fort grounds. Perfect way to finish our trip.