An Urban Oasis

Name: Mayfair Lagoon
Address: Bhubaneswar, Odisha, IN

Ten AcresIn The Temple City

The paths run the full circuit of the water, about twenty minutes at a walk, past golden Buddha statues and an ornate horse chariot in the gardens. Nothing here is stacked above the lagoon: the cottages and villas are set around it, with the gardens in between. Indoors, the lobby holds intricate marble flooring, a chandelier and a double staircase, Odia craft against colonial grandeur, with art and antiques along the corridors. Of eight kitchens, Baron & Baroness is the quietest after dark: a Scottish-themed bar built as a Victorian library, carved dark wood, stained glass, a case of single malts behind the gantry.

Step through the gate and Bhubaneswar falls away behind the wall. The air turns cooler, the noise of the street gives way to the sound of water, and the paths wander round the lagoon past golden Buddhas and flowering gardens. At dusk the lit facade lies reflected in the water, and the estate settles into a green, unhurried quiet that guests carry home with them.Through the gate the city falls away: cooler air, the sound of water, paths round the lagoon past golden Buddhas, and at dusk the lit facade reflected in the water.

Highlights

Gardens laid around a lagoon, in the heart of the temple city. The estate keeps its own microclimate, and you feel it the moment you step through the gate.

A Climate of Its Own

Up to 4°C cooler inside the gate than on the streets outside, year-round. Ten acres of garden around the water hold the temperature down.

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Kanika, the Odia Kitchen

Odia food and nothing else: thalis built from recipes handed down in families, served in a room worked with indigenous motifs. Rare in a hotel, in the state it comes from.

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Weddings on the Lawn

The lawn takes 2,500 standing or 700 at round tables, the largest space here by a wide margin. Or forty people in a walled garden nobody can see into.

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Accommodations

cottages and villas around the water

Air cooler than the city beyond, from the garden path to your balcony.

Royal Villa

279 sq m (≈ 3,003 sq ft)

Two bedrooms, a separate living room and a private dip pool. The only one on the property and the largest thing on it.

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A Capital of Temples

For two thousand years Bhubaneswar has been a capital, of ancient Kalinga and now of Odisha. Hundreds of sandstone temples stand across the old city, the great Lingaraj among them, and the Jain caves of Udayagiri and Khandagiri were cut in the hills nearby before the Common Era.

It is at its most gracious in the cool months, October to February, when the days stay mild for the temples and the gardens.