The Oberoi, New Delhi

The elegant staff are trained to within an inch of their lives and are impeccably helpful and attentive, greeting guests by name. The spa has six treatment rooms, with holistic massage and aromatherapy (I resisted the Ultimate La Prairie Signature Gentlemen Facial) and there are indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a ballroom and a business centre with meeting rooms.

Cool jazz plays in the cigar lounge, where regular smokers can have their own cigar lockers. The clean air comes courtesy of advanced air filters.
The 220 generously-sized rooms (including 34 suites) have huge picture windows, desks, armchairs, iPad docking stations, televisions and Nespresso. Room 706 (not a standard room) has a marble bathroom that can be made almost floodlight-bright and features a small TV screen set into the mirror: best avoided while shaving.

Luxury and comfort are neatly combined, with the higher floors giving bird’s eye views of wheeling black kites. An iPad controls everything from curtain-opening to “Prayer direction” (it points you towards Mecca).
Double rooms from 20,480 Indian rupees (£237) in low season; and from 30,720 Indian rupees (£356) in high season. Breakfast included. Free Wi-Fi.