Evolve Back Hampi

Evolve Back Hampi, also known as Kamalapura Palace, sits amid rugged forest and boulders a few kilometres from the ruins of Hampi, a 14th–16th-century city on the Deccan Plateau listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The resort is built as a palace — stone-paved boulevards, arched hallways and stately chambers — set against a landscape of giant boulders.

Its architecture deliberately borrows the language of Hampi’s old palaces: the Palace Suites in the main building and the private pool villas take their cue from the structures of the Zenana Enclosure among the ruins. Breakfast and dinner are included in every stay, and days revolve around walks through the ruins with the resort’s own historians, evening storytelling about the city’s past and the stillness of an infinity pool above the boulders.

Hampi itself is the main pursuit: trails through the ruins are led by the resort’s own historians, while the morning and evening naturalist walks and the evening storytelling are included in the stay.

• Vittalapura Walk — through an old bazaar to the temple with the stone chariot and its ‘musical’ stone pillars.
• Virupaksha Trail — an easy climb up Hemakuta hill, the Virupaksha Temple and a huge monolithic sculpture.
• Tungabhadra Trek — a trek among giant boulders along the Tungabhadra River to the ruins of an old temple.
• Anegundi Trail — across the Tungabhadra to Anegundi, with fortified villages, lakes, old palaces and rock formations some 2.5 billion years old.
• Nature Trail — a naturalist-led walk through the scrub forest beside the resort, where more than 200 bird species have been recorded; wild sloth bears live in the neighbouring reserve.
• Story Corner — evening tales of Hampi’s past from the resort’s historians.
• Hampi by Balloon — a seasonal hot-air balloon flight over the boulders, for children aged six and over.
• Royal Coracle Cruise — a ride in a round woven coracle for up to four, and Eternal Moments, a two-hour photo session.

For quieter hours there is the Katha reading lounge, serving the resort’s own Sidapur coffee, Deep Mahal, a hushed room lit only by oil lamps, and the Bazaar shop with local crafts and antiques.

The infinity pool, inspired by Hampi’s ancient temple tanks, looks out over the boulders and is for adults only. Families with children have a separate Family Pool. The suites have shallow water-jet pools, and the Jal Mahal villas private pools set within lily ponds.