The Leela Palace Bengaluru

Bangalore is known as both the Silicon Valley of India and as the Garden City, and the 357-room Leela Palace is a bit of both — a comfortable, highly functional business hotel hiding inside an imposing palace that sits on nine acres of tightly kempt lawns and manicured hedges, with more than a few palm trees and waterfalls sprinkled in for good measure. This is one of those urban oases that looks much more oasis than urban — though its sprawling grounds are indeed right in the middle of things, within easy range of many tech firms, plus plenty of dining and shopping options.

Rather than a converted palace, the Leela is a new build, modeled after the Royal Palace of Mysore. The result is a structure with plenty of grandeur to meet the needs of the modern maharaja, plus the sort of functionality — high-speed internet, desks large enough to actually work on, plenty of outlets and adaptors — that befits India’s technology capital. There’s also a twenty-four-hour business center, a dozen board and meeting rooms, a grand ballroom and four elegant restaurants. And between meetings, the full-service spa, salon, art museum and shopping arcade make relaxing diversions.

All the rooms, starting with the premiere, are spacious and richly furnished. The Turret suites, with apartment-style layouts, occupy particularly peaceful locations, and their large private balconies overlook the city. Royal Club suites are similar to the Turret suites, only here the views overlook the garden and courtyard; and the club is a doozy — private dining, a lavish lounge, cigar- and billiards rooms. It’s all enough to redeem one’s idea of the old palace hotel, even in its modern incarnation.