Charmingly set amid dense forest 10km outside of Dhenkanal, this elegant heritage palace dates back to 1935 and belongs to one of the families of the Dhenkanal royals. The current head of the house, the affable JP Singh Deo, and his wife, Navneeta, have opened up four rooms inside their tranquil mansion for guests.
Sleeping here is like overnighting in a museum: the whole place is chock-full of antiques collected from around the world, and the palace lives and breathes of bygone regal splendour. The surrounding forest hides at least 22 wild elephants, a common sight on JP’s morning and evening nature walks. Wild boar, jungle fowl and barking deer also roam freely outside the palace doors. JP grew up here and is ever too pleased to take you to rarely-visited Sabara tribal villages or nearby Joranda temples, or tell tales of elephant and tiger kills in crazier days over wonderful meals sourced from their own organic gardens.
Dhenkanal is an easy train ride from Bhubaneswar. Pick-up and drop is arranged from the station.