Rajasthan, India

Six Senses Fort Barwara

Price per night from$629.41

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD629.41), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Six Senses Fort Barwara Photos

Style

Suite-scattered royal fort

Setting

Majestic, mountain-rimmed Rajasthan

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The Rajput rulers of old would undoubtedly approve of Six Senses Fort Barwara – a palatial restoration of a 14th-century stronghold, backdropped by the Aravalli hills. Behind its sandstone ramparts, languid luxury prevails; brass-accented suites, a sequestered spa and the sleekest of pools (all, surely, balm to a weary warrior’s soul). There’s plenty to keep you occupied in and around the hotel, from meditation sessions to mountain-bound adventures – though dreaming the day away on your private terrace is perfectly valid. Energy levels restored, venture out to track Royal Bengals in Ranthambore National Park, or hunt down hand-printed Rajasthani textiles in Jaipur’s chai-fuelled bazaars.

Smith Extra

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A 30-minute foot massage or body scrub

Facilities

Photos Six Senses Fort Barwara facilities

Need to know

Rooms

48 suites of various proportions, spread across the east, west and north wings.

Check–Out

Standard check out is 12 noon. Earliest check-in, 3pm, but flexible, subject to availability.

More details

Rates usually include breakfast.

Also

Mix back-to-nature beauty treatments at the spa’s Alchemy Bar, with an expert-led session using local plants and herbs.

At the hotel

Laundry and pressing service, free WiFi throughout, on-site parking and valet parking service, spa and fitness centre, library, meditation temple, swimming pool. In rooms: flatscreen satellite TV, minibar with homemade snacks, free bottled water, tea and coffee, yoga mat, air conditioning.

Our favourite rooms

The Aravali View suites have particularly dreamy terraces, complete with outdoor showers. Windows in the fort’s 14th-century walls frame the hills and sky; take in the vista from your cushioned window seat or swinging sofa. For money’s-no-object opulence, the turret-set Raja Man Singh Suite delivers on every front, from its outdoor dining pavilion to its sun-dappled private pool.

Poolside

Peel yourself away from that remarkable view to clock lengths in a pool of Olympic proportions, then retreat to a luxuriously cushioned daybed on the deck.

Spa

Behind the frescoed facade of the former Zanana Mahal (women’s palace), the spa is impeccably equipped, with a sauna, steam room, tepidarium and cocooning treatment rooms. Drift away with an Ayurvedic four-handed massage, then sip herbal teas by the courtyard’s mirror-like reflection pool. Activities cater for both the sporting and spiritually inclined, spanning aerial yoga, personal training, and trataka (fire meditations).

Packing tips

Bring binoculars for tiger-spotting at Ranthambore, and woven leather flats for strolling Jaipur’s bazaars. Pack yoga gear and hone your half-lotus at the hotel’s sunrise and sunset sessions (mats are provided in each suite).

Also

A dedicated concierge is at your service 24 hours a day. The hotel is wheelchair-accessible.

Children

All ages are welcome. Under-12s stay free, with a supplement for meals; extra beds and cots can be provided on request. All three restaurants have a children’s menu and chefs will rustle up main-menu half portions for adventurous eaters.

Best for

All ages are warmly welcomed, though gung-ho toddlers will need supervising on some of the private terraces.

Recommended rooms

The suites are all one-bedroom, but have space for an extra bed or cot; some suites are interconnecting.

Crèche

There’s a play area for younger children, with a sandpit, toys and nanny, as well as a separate hangout for teens.

Activities

The Grow with Six Senses kids’ club runs indoor and outdoor activities, with a focus on connecting with nature. 

Swimming pool

Borrow some inflatables and cool off in the lifeguard-supervised pool.

Meals

The hotel’s three restaurants are equipped with highchairs, children’s menus, and obliging chefs, who’ll adapt main-menu dishes where they can, or whip up half-portions for kids.

Babysitting

Kids’ club staff can provide babysitting. The first two hours are free; afterwards there is a charge (prices vary).

No need to pack

Toys, games and pool inflatables.

Also

There’s a spa and wellness menu specifically for kids. It runs from mini meditations to manicures, via massages, foot mapping and playful animal-flow yoga

Sustainability efforts

As with all Six Senses hotels, the onus here is on sustainable luxury. Everything is plastic free, and produce comes from local farmers and the hotel’s own organic gardens. There’s a natural wastewater treatment system, and an on-site water-bottling plant. A swathe of protected land east of the fort is being reforested, too. In terms of community, the hotel work closely with locals to showcase their handicrafts, and help local doctors to ensure women have access to female-specific healthcare.

Food and Drink

Photos Six Senses Fort Barwara food and drink

Top Table

Overlooking the landscape at Mardana Mahal in the fort’s observation tower.

Dress Code

Maharaja-chic, with printed silks and gem-set bracelets. Mr Smiths, pack your finest linen, and deploy the hotel’s laundry-pressing service.

Hotel restaurant

Chef Matthew Cropp rustles up Rajasthani-inspired sustainable cuisine at Specialty Restaurant, fuelled by produce grown by local farmers or picked in the fort’s organic gardens. In the former men’s palace, high up in the fort’s observation tower, Mardana Mahal is a more intimate affair, lit with gleaming brass lamps and green-glass chandeliers. Here, visiting guest chefs showcase regional Indian food; tamarind-spiked Keralan fish curries, say, or Punjabi-style dal makhani. Finally, there’s the alfresco Poolside Grill, for unhurried lunches by the water; share a succession of small plates, with a carafe of something cool.

Hotel bar

Watch the sun setting over the hills from the Viewing Gallery bar, with a pre-dinner martini in hand, or claim a leather club chair in the oak-panelled Library Lounge – the cocktail list’s an excellent read.

Last orders

Breakfast is served at Specialty Restaurant between 7am and 10.30am. The hotel’s two bars are open from the afternoon onwards, only closing when the last guest has retired to bed.

Room service

There’s round-the-clock room service.

Location

Photos Six Senses Fort Barwara location
Address
Six Senses Fort Barwara
Chauth Ka Barwara
Sawai Madhopur
322702
India

The hotel occupies a handsome walled fort above the village of Chauth Ka Barwara, seventy miles south-east of Jaipur.

Planes

Jaipur International Airport is a two-and-a-half hour drive. You’ll be picked up at the airport in a sleek hybrid SUV, with WiFi and cold drinks.

Trains

From Delhi, it’s a three-and-a-half-hour journey to Sawai Madhopur Station, aboard the August Kranti Rajdhani express train. From here, it’s half an hour’s drive to the hotel, in a slickly-appointed SUV, if you opt for the ‘Arrive like a Royal’ package.

Automobiles

Rajasthan’s horn-slamming drivers and pothole-dotted roads aren’t for the fainthearted, which is why the hotel offers transfers.

Worth getting out of bed for

There’s plenty to keep you occupied inside the fort’s walls, from panoramic walks along the ramparts to silk-suspended aerial yoga sessions. The palatial spa should definitely feature on your agenda, along with chef-led clay-pot cooking classes and Earth Lab kitchen-garden tours. Venture out for gentle ambles around local villages, set up by the hotel, forays to the Aravalli mountains in one of its vintage Land Rovers, or handsomely-catered picnics by the Banos River.

Half an hour’s drive away, stalk some tigers in Ranthambore National Park, home to 69 resident Royal Bengals. Along the way, watch out for leopards, crocodiles and jumpy-looking chital (spotted deer) – also on the lookout for big cats. Pro tip: you’re likely to see more on the morning safaris, when it’s cooler.

Further afield, Jaipur deserves at least a day trip, with its signature-pink mansions and labyrinthine bazaars. In a city famed for its artisan know-how, the shopping possibilities are endless, whether you’re looking for emeralds, blue pottery or a pair of embroidered jutti (shoes). Exquisite, hand-block printed textiles are a specialty; pick up a quilt at Chaura Rasta Market or browse the rails at Anokhi. Stroll past handsome havelis (column-fronted mansions) to the Palace of the Winds and Jantar Mantar – an 18th-century astrological oddity that looks like a modern sculpture park. Northeast of Jaipur, the Amber Fort is a triumph of decorative excess, with its frescoed courtyards, temples, terraces and glimmering hall of mirrors. 

Local restaurants

With three excellent restaurants at the hotel, there’s no need to venture beyond the ramparts. If you are in the mood for an excursion, Jaipur’s the best bet. Baradari has a sublime setting; a centuries-old courtyard at the City Palace. Centering on a sleek bar in a brass and marble pavilion, it’s atmospheric come evening, for upscale cocktails and a menu that flits between Italy and India (kick off with mozzarella kachori, paired with a beetroot dip). Just outside the city, 1135 AD is Bollywood-set romantic, with a petal-scattered, candlelit terrace on top of the Amber Fort. It’s strong on silver-plattered thalis and Rajasthani specialties, including yoghurt-laced laal maas (slow-cooked mutton curry).

Local cafés

In Jaipur, take a detour to Shree Pandit Kulfi Bhandar at Gangori Bazar, for chewy, made-that-morning pistachio and saffron kulfi. For lunch, head to the Anokhi Cafe, after browsing the store’s block-print wares. Its feelgood menu’s farm-fresh and mainly organic; corn fritters, say, or pomegranate-dressed pumpkin and feta salad.

Local bars

Naturally, both of the hotel’s bars mix cocktails with panache, and will happily cater to off-menu requests. Come sunset, the Viewing Bar’s the place to be, looking out on the Aravalli mountains. If you’re visiting Jaipur, Bar Palladio is a decadent spot for a drink, with its cobalt-blue, mirrored salons and pale green marble terrace. Peacocks strut between canopied daybeds on its lawns, and an Italianate menu teams Venetian-style spritzes with dainty arancini.

Reviews

Photos Six Senses Fort Barwara reviews
Elizabeth Bennett

Anonymous review

By Elizabeth Bennett, Journeying journalist

I am unsure if many people arrive at Six Senses Fort Barwara in a battered hire car, though I suspect Mr Smith and I may have been the first. It’s cliche to describe India as a place of contrasts but the journey and the destination couldn’t have been more different. After dodging numerous potholes, a herd of goats and a car speeding the wrong way down the highway (yes, really), arriving in the safe arms of the Six Senses felt like one big exhale.

Like all good forts, Fort Barwara is strategically positioned atop a large hill, and as the car trundled its way up the cobbled path inside the fort walls, we were greeted by a sweeping view of the sky as it turned a tangerine orange. The smiling face of Shagufta, our lovely GEM (Guest Experience Manager) who I’d coordinated our arrival over WhatsApp, was there to meet us. Car keys were taken, luggage was whisked away, and we were standing under a shower of rose petals before we knew it.

We were lucky to spend two nights at ‘the fort’ (as staff refer to it) sandwiched between trips to Jaipur and Jaisalmer as part of a Rajasthan road trip. And in seeking some serious respite, our prayers were answered.

Now to the fort itself. Originally built in the 14th century, much of it had fallen into disrepair, though the wing that the Rajasthani Royal Family still used had survived. It was them who partnered with Six Senses on a ten-year project to conserve the two palaces and two temples within the walled fort, and sensitively designed the hotel that now surrounds them. The job is so seamless that at first glance you might not realise what is old and what is new. 

The wing which houses the suites (there are no bedrooms at Six Senses) is newly constructed. Our Fort Suite had a view looking over the lake, with the village of Barwara and the towering Chauth Ka Barwara Mandir temple behind. The suite subtly reflected its surroundings with a draped canopy over the bed and Rajasthani details like arched door frames and Jali screens with a beautiful lattice design. Touches of technology like the smart lighting system and remote-controlled toilet make it clear you’re in a very luxurious modern hotel.

Tiger-watching country is just an hour from the fort and many guests check in here to bed down before a Ranthambore National Park safari. However, we weren’t partaking in this trip and prioritised our 48 hours for relaxing. Turns out, you needn’t leave the grounds to build up a pretty busy schedule. There was the morning heritage and horticulture walk where we were educated on the building’s fascinating backstory and showed the gardens where some of the produce for the restaurants and bars is grown. After that, there was a visit to the Earth Lab where the charming Sustainability Director shared some of their projects like the twenty young eco-warriors from Bharwara village who he works with to track the birdlife on the lake. We also squeezed in a couple’s massage in the original (and truly stunning) women's palace, and put a good few hours in at the Olympic-sized swimming pool, too – laying beside it, that is.

Of course, you’ve got to make time for eating and drinking, which is not something you want to rush here. Exploring the breakfast buffet at The Cortile courtyard restaurant could be a full morning’s activity with its numerous stations dedicated to everything from hot Indian dishes like masala dosas to almond croissants and turmeric overnight oats. That’s before the menu of continental hot dishes you can order. I highly recommend taking the staff up on their offer of a buffet tour to avoid missing anything. 

Lunch was taken poolside at Rani Bagh, the Mediterranean-style restaurant where we enjoyed a mezze platter of Middle Eastern dips alongside rose-scented labneh and a roasted watermelon salad. We enjoyed it so much that we returned for dinner, this time opting for lentil soup, roasted eggplant and braised chickpeas. The candlelit setting by the pool is particularly lovely. 

Back at the Cortile, it’s an all-day multi-cuisine affair, with the chance to sample local Rajasthani food. It’s also the perfect place for a pre-dinner aperitivo. We loved the ‘Viewing Gallery’ cocktail, a Fort Barwara special made with tequila, passionfruit sorbet and masala.  Settling down around the fire pit in the shadow of a 12th-century hunting tower while local musicians play traditional Indian music is pretty special, especially after a few cocktails. With our hazardous journey behind us, we knew that tearing ourselves away from the fort would be an even tougher task.

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