Inside Laxmi Vilas Palace, Vadodara's Royal Colossus

I have seen a lot of palaces in India, but Laxmi Vilas in Vadodara did something none of the others managed. It made me stop at the gate and just look, because the sheer scale of the thing is hard to take in from a single spot. People say it is several times the size of Buckingham Palace, and standing in front of that long, ornate facade, I believed it. It is still a private residence of the Gaekwad family, which makes wandering the parts open to visitors feel oddly intimate, like being a guest in a home that happens to be enormous.

The building went up in the late nineteenth century under Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III, a ruler remembered in Vadodara for his push toward education and reform. The style is Indo-Saracenic, that confident blend of Mughal domes, Rajput detail and European engineering that the era loved. What you get is a structure that looks Indian and Victorian at the same time, bristling with turrets and arched windows. I bought the audio guide, which I usually skip, and this time it was worth every rupee for the stories it unlocked.

The Durbar Hall and the details that stop you

The Durbar Hall is the room everyone comes for, and it earns the attention. The floor is a vast Venetian mosaic, the walls carry detailed murals, and stained glass throws coloured light across the space in the late morning. It was built for court ceremonies and still hosts the occasional music concert, and even empty it has a hush that makes you lower your voice. I stood under the arches for a while just tracing the patterns overhead, trying and failing to count the tiny tiles that make up the floor.

What surprised me was the art. The palace holds works by Raja Ravi Varma, the celebrated painter who spent time here under the Gaekwads' patronage, and seeing his canvases in the setting they were made for adds a layer you do not get in a gallery. There are Italian marble sculptures, old weapons, and family portraits that trace the dynasty down the generations. The audio guide is essential here, because without it the objects are just handsome things behind rope; with it, they turn into a story about a family and a city.

Sursagar Lake in the heart of Vadodara, a short drive from the palace grounds.

A palace that is still a home

The thing to understand about Laxmi Vilas is that the Gaekwads still live here, in wings closed to the public. That changes the feeling entirely. This is not a fossilised museum but a working residence, and you sense it in small ways, a car parked in a courtyard, a note that certain areas are private today. Only a portion of the roughly one hundred and seventy rooms is open, which frustrated me a little until I realised how rare it is to walk through any part of a lived-in royal home at all. It keeps the place from feeling like a theme park.

This is not a monument pretending to be alive; it is a home so large that it accidentally became a monument.

The grounds are worth lingering in. There is a golf course laid out on part of the estate, a small museum in a separate building that holds more of the royal collection, and gardens designed by the same landscape planner who shaped parts of the estate long ago. I walked the outer paths in the cooler part of the afternoon, and the palace kept revealing new towers and balconies from every angle. Photography rules change from area to area, so ask before you shoot, especially near the private wings and inside the halls.

Beyond the gates, into Vadodara

Do not treat the palace as the whole trip, because Vadodara around it is a genuinely pleasant city. A short drive away is Sursagar Lake, a circular tank in the middle of town with a tall statue of Shiva rising from the water and a lit promenade that fills with families after dark. I ended my palace day there with an ice cream, watching pedal boats drift past the statue. The city also has the Maharaja Sayajirao University, the Baroda Museum, and a food scene that punches well above its reputation. Give the place two days if you can.

If you go

• Timings: the palace is usually open to visitors in the morning and afternoon but closed on Mondays and some holidays, so check before you go.
• Take the audio guide; it is the difference between a nice walk and actually understanding what you are seeing.
• Getting there: Vadodara is a major rail and air hub, well connected from Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Delhi.
• Photography is restricted in several areas, so ask staff and respect the rules near the private wings.
• Pair the visit with Sursagar Lake in the evening and set aside two days for the wider city.

Laxmi Vilas is not a quick photo stop. Give it a slow morning, take the audio guide, and let the scale of the place sink in properly. What makes it linger in your memory is not just the size but the fact that a family still calls it home more than a century on. Walk the grounds, stand under the Durbar Hall arches, then head into Vadodara itself. The city that raised this palace is every bit worth your time.