Customer Reviews
Excellent Travel Planner - By: Lara Zilberkweit, 10 Oct 2007 
My family & I livein India & run a Travel Consultancy business for visitors to India & Bhutan. We have sent our guests to many parts of the country, visiting hotels we have discovered ourselves & also those run by our relatives & friends.
After having bought this guide book we were pleased to discover that many of our most favored places are listed beautifully.
I can highly recommend this book to anyone planning on traveling extensivelyin India & looking for just the right place to stay.
How to find something different - By: S. Holtom, 16 Mar 2007 We have used the AS books before while livingin France so I was interested to see what the Indian version would have. We livein Mumbai but are always looking for interesting places to stay when we get a chance to travel. So far have only stayedin two properties but have booked another two & have bookmarked at least a half dozen more.
The places we have stayed were exactly as described & we have been very impressed so far.
The Verandahin the Forestin Matheran, Maharashtra was very special & we had a fabulous weekend.
The Kayaloramin Kerala was basic but good &in such a fantastic setting.
Here's to Udaipur & Pondicherry!
SPECIAL PLACES TO STAY - INDIA - By: H. J. Carlo, 05 Sep 2006 I used this as the basis of a 14 day tour of Rajasthan which was very efficiently arranged through Western & Oriental Travel as recomendedin the book. I tried a wide range of accommodation including a very frendly eco-lodge [solar water heating etc] for only £10/night, Castle Pachar, where one gets 'a courteous, old fashioned welcome' to a lovely homein a remote village & Fort Kesroli, a typial 'feudal' fort overlooking timeless country scenes, only three hours from Delhi Airport. Having also used the equivlaent volume to find very memorabe places to stayin Italy, I recomend the series unreservedly for the very varied character & price of the accommodation recommended.
Monkeys watching me bath - By: diefledermaus, 31 Aug 2006 As with other Sawday books one expects out of the ordinary places but even more soin India with its wide variety of cultures & exotic nature of the country. The places that I have sampled I have no hesitationin endorsing & all have had genuine hosts who have not seeing a white skin decided to double the price.
Two little incidents of character worth mentioning concering a placein Shimla which on the drinks cardin the bedroom offers 'Captain Haddock's Tonic Water'; quite expensive for a bottle of Tonic Water so I guessed to be avoided & I stuck to good Indian beer with dinner. When at the end of my stay the account was produced against each meal was the item Captain Haddock's Tonic Water. This was the description of beer as a way round licencing difficultiesin India. The second incident wasin an over large bathroom when I was wearing just the swimminh costume that the Almighty provided & there was a tap at the window. Hastily grabbing a towel I found an monkey clearly interestedin a 'distant cousin'.
At a funky placein Rajesthan owned & run by a Maharaj I was invited to a family wedding.
Sawday has found eccentric & interesting placesin India which get one off the tourist track.
Many interesting places, even palaces - By: Angus Jenkinson, 18 Aug 2004 
Sawday's collection of places to stay will provide you with many unusual & I would guess often fascinating places to stay (not having had the opportunity to sample them all). Many feature smaller upmarket guest houses (or somethingin that tradition). In such cases you may well be living with the local family (in what looks like great luxury). This will of course be an advantage or not as you see it. There are also hotels, eco-resorts & other style places though.
