ITC Mughal, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa

Rooms and decor

Picture a low-rise red-brick resort scattered across 35 acres of gardens, with arched walkways, fountain courts and reflecting pools you would expect inside a Mughal palace — that is the first hit of ITC Mughal. The architects deliberately drew on Mughal-dynasty design (the same era that produced the Taj Mahal) and reworked the entire resort around it, winning the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in the process. The roughly 233 rooms and suites are distributed across several wings around the gardens, finished in warm tones with timber, Indian woven fabrics and motifs lifted from Mughal art. Many rooms open onto a balcony or private courtyard looking into the greenery. Beds are soft, bathrooms are generous, and higher categories like Mughal Chamber deliver noticeably more space and better garden views. Walking the covered colonnades to your room — fountains burbling, birds overhead — feels closer to staying in a palace within a garden than a hotel in a busy city.

Food and amenities

Two things dominate the review chatter. The first is Kaya Kalp – The Royal Spa, one of the largest spas in Asia. It is built as a self-contained kingdom of treatment suites, a hydrotherapy pool, oversized royal rooms with private courtyards, sauna, steam room and traditional Indian Ayurvedic therapies. Reviewers repeatedly call it the single best part of the stay and the reason they would return. The second is the food. Peshawri is the marquee Indian restaurant, famous for charcoal-tandoor kebabs and oversized naan you grip with both hands. Taj Bano and the international restaurant cover Mughal classics and a global menu. The breakfast buffet earns particular praise — Indian dishes, fresh bakery, tropical fruit and made-to-order stations all in one spread. Beyond that you get an outdoor garden pool, a fitness centre, yoga and acres of green space to wander in the cooler hours of the day.

Location and getting there

ITC Mughal sits on Fatehabad Road, Agra's main hotel strip — the spine that concentrates most of the city's upscale hotels and restaurants. The trade-off works in your favour for the highlight sights: the Taj Mahal is about a 10-minute drive (roughly 4 km), and Agra Fort, the other UNESCO World Heritage site in town, is around 15 minutes away. The resort runs a shuttle and the concierge will arrange a sunrise Taj tour for you, which matters in a city with no metro and famously chaotic traffic. If your vision of the trip is a peaceful garden base to retreat to after a hot day of sightseeing — a long soak at the spa, dinner in the courtyards, sleep in a cool room — this stretch of road delivers both proximity and seclusion in a way the hotels squeezed right up against the Taj cannot.

Things to know before booking

Straight talk to help you decide. First, the location is not walkable to the Taj. The 10-minute drive sounds short, but you will need the hotel car or a taxi every time you head out, and Agra has no metro to fall back on. If you imagined strolling out of the lobby and seeing the Taj rise into view, adjust expectations. Second, the resort has been open since 1976. It has been renovated continuously, but some older wings and entry-level rooms still feel dated for the price, and room quality is uneven — request a recently renovated room or step up to a higher category. Third, on-property extras (spa treatments, drinks, dining outside the package) run high by 5-star standards. Finally, because the footprint is 35 acres, the walk from your room to the lobby or restaurant can be genuinely long. If that is an issue, ask reception for an internal golf cart ride.

Our take

After working through real guest reviews, ITC Mughal lands as a resort that bundles a sprawling-garden atmosphere, top-tier Mughal-revival architecture, the massive Kaya Kalp spa and genuine 5-star value near the Taj Mahal into one package. If your trip picture is a sunrise Taj visit followed by a royal-spa afternoon and a tandoor-kebab dinner at Peshawri in the open courtyards, this place hits almost perfectly. If you want to step out of the lobby and walk to the Taj, or you expect every room to feel brand new without picking a category carefully, the drive-only access and the age of some wings will give you pause. Overall we give it 9.0/10 — best suited to couples and families who want a relaxed, well-priced luxury resort with a serious spa and Mughal-garden atmosphere within striking distance of the Taj Mahal.