Interested in any suggestions re boutique-style accommodation in Delhi and Agra as opposed to major hotels such as the Hilton, Oberoi and Shiraz style places. In Jaipur I am looking at Jas Vilas, which gets good reviews, and in Kolkata - The Fairlawns....

I'm looking for smallish and intimate, with a pool

I should point out the Delhi hotel should be close to the New Delhi train station so we can get the early morning express to Agra.

i can't imagine that any small place in agra would be acceptable....it is one of the most down trodden places i have ever visited....

“Small and intimate”, “boutique” AND “with a pool” is going to be very hard to do in Agra, and except for one hotel, a bit tough Delhi. Really only the larger chain-type hotels are going to have pools in those places. Jaipur is probably not so hard, see the Sawday book, noted below.

In Delhi, I think that the Imperial would qualify as “boutique” as it is the only one of its kind anywhere, i.e. it’s not part of a chain. It has a great location and very nice facilities, including a pool (and they may be building an indoor one as well, have not seen it since October). While I have not been yet, a very interesting hotel to me would be the Tikli Bottom (http://www.tiklibottom.com/), but this is NOT in or really near to Delhi and IMO would not be at all convenient for sightseeing. There is also the Neemrana Fort (see below for link), but again this even further outside Delhi.

Hilton actually has no hotels in India. Their two hotels are operated by Oberoi under a franchise. The Hilton Trident in Gurgaon outside Delhi is definitely “boutique” and has a great pool. At about 200 rooms, its not small, although the way it is designed it is very low-rise and certainly feels small and is never crowded or noisy even when full. Service is outstanding. It is not really well-located for a tourist going into Delhi every day (possible but kind of a pain, would be 20-30 minutes in the car each way with no traffic to the tourist areas), but it is one architecturally of the most beautiful hotels I have ever seen.

If by small and intimate, you mean excellent service, a quiet atmosphere, and no crowds, then IMO you have to go with the Oberoi hotels in Agra and Jaipur. But for romance, I would think about the Rambagh in Jaipur, also has a nice indoor pool. The Hilton Trident in Agra is to be avoided, IMO, although it does have a pool.

Note that many of the early morning express trains (i.e. the 7:15 am Taj Express) depart from the Nizamuddin station in Delhi which is very close to the Oberoi. (Which has very nice indoor and outdoor pools.). The Shabtabdi Express departs from New Delhi station, not sure you will find anything of great quality in that area, but at 5:30 am in the morning there is very little traffic on Delhi and New Delhi streets so I would not pick a hotel for location. I had thought you were taking a car because you wanted to take photos, not that you won’t get some great photos in the train stations, and on the train (at least when its not moving).

For other suggestions for possible “boutique” hotels, a very useful website is at http://sawdays.co.uk/, click on the book for India. You can also buy the book, but the website will give you a very long list of hotels to start with. The vast majority of these hotels are not in the luxury range and some are in the budget range, but all look interesting and several, like the Imperial in Delhi, are outstanding. A good source to start. Also try neemranahotels.com as they run interesting hotels.

The Fairlawn in Kolkata is a real experience and is certainly different to the usual South Asia Hotel experience. If you are going in the relatively less popular monsoon months you'll get a great deal. Recently we stayed at the Samode Haveli hotel in Jaipur and it was simply fantastic, check out the web-site http://www.samode.com/home/haveli/index.htm
It seems to be rated at only 3-stars but was such a unique experiene I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who wants to try somethng different.

we stayed at the nikko in delhi and quite liked it...it has the feel of a small hotel and is centrally located

Thanks for your advice, everyone. You have all helped crystallize my thinking.

Cicerone - I am only using the train between Delhi and Agra simply because it is faster and my time in Agra and Jaipur is limited. I have confirmed bookings at Jas Vilas in Jaipur.

The main purpose of the trip is to visit Assam (Manas National Park and stay at Bansberi Jungle Lodge for a few nights before doing the Assam Bengal Navigation Company's 7-night cruise up the Brahmaputra from Steemer Ghat to Dibrugarh). Rajastan was a last minute add-on!