Hi! I am a frequent poster from the Africa board, but I am hoping that you can help here.

My husband and I have the opportunity to spend 6 nights and 7 days at any oberois we want for free. We know the indian oberois are top notch, so we are thinking that is where we would like to go. Has anyone been to the tiger reserve? What were your thoughts? If you were to arrange a trip in india, how would you divide the days and which oberois would you visit? We don't mind adding a day or two, but there is only so many days we can travel with work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Ideally, you'd do 2-4 nights Delhi, 2 nights Agra, 3 nights Jaipur and 2 nights Ranthambore. I highly recommend Amarvilas in Agra and Rajvilas in Jaipur. We did not stay there but did stop in at Vanyavilas - as nice as the other two. I suggest the Imperial however in Delhi. The Oberoi in Delhi is nice but IMO not as well situated. The tiger reserve is beautiful but I'd cut it if you are limited on time. You will not have time to enjoy Vanyavilas if you spend all of your time on the (very) long game drives. When do you plan to go?

Hi Dr. Andrea,

I recently stayed at the Amarvilas, the Raj Vilas and the Udaivilas. The Amarvilas is wonderful if you want to visit Agra (which you really need to see).

The Raj Vilas in Jaipur is flawless. You simply couldn't improve this property or the staff.Gorgeous property, wonderful pool, great city, perfect service.

When I was in Jaipur, we met an English family who had just returned from three nights at Vanyavilas and couldn't stop raving about how enchanting it was.

Udaivilas is a beautiful property on Lake Pichola, but its service is no where near the invisible, but always present, service for the Raj Vilas or Amarvilas.

We would go in August. Do you think we are crazy?

one other fodorite posted last year about her august trip and while it was very hot, she enjoyed her time...

Ranthambore Park is closed in August.

One other Oberoi to consider if you are going in August is the Udaivilas in Udaipur as the deluxe rooms have swim-out pools and the Udaipur area is supposed to be "somewhat" cooler than elswehere in Rajastan.

August is either very hot/muggy or very rainy in Delhi/Agra/Rajasthan so I'm not sure you'll enjoy your holiday. As a matter of fact it's a bit of a waste to use free nights in August as all the hotels mentioend will anyway have off season rates. Ranthambore closes mid April-mid Sept. If it is raining the day you are in Agra it will be - literally - a wash out for your Taj viewing. I'd suggest you consdier a combination of the Oberoi Kerala cruise and Mauritius. This can be combined with Bombay if you like cities. The other option which will be lovely in August is Wildflower Hall in Shimla, this can be combined with Delhi. But that requires a lot of travel i.e. fly to Delhi, by train to Chandigarh, then 3-4 hrs by car or direct Delhi-Shimla by car 7-8 hours. Flights on the route can be considered but may also involve a lay over as it may not be possible to connect direct. Oberoi has a small fleet of planes but for just 2 pax it may be expensive unless they throw that in free too.

The only thing that you couldn't do would be Ranthambore, but I had no problems travelling in August. It was very hot, but we were in air conditioning much of the time and carried an umbrella when outside.

I stayed at both the Amarvilas and Udaivilas. Found both to be fabulous and would go again in a heartbeat. Because of the location, I'd also stay at the Imperial instead of Delhi Oberoi.

Rates even in August are very high, so I'd take the free night whenever I could manage.

Actually, I think I'd try to

Hmmm....I am thinking that we switch the india vacation to January instead. And go some place else for now. We actually have already stayed at the Oberoi in Mauritius, so we would not want to return.