How we would spend your time here
The two-day trap: Udaipur is small enough to see its famous sights in two days, which is exactly the mistake.
Leave space: a long breakfast facing the lake, an hour on a bench at Fateh Sagar, a slow drive into the hills.
- Mornings
- Palaces and temples
- One to four
- Hotel, museum or a long lunch
- Evenings
- The lakes
- Old city lanes
- Too narrow for cars
- Fastest route
- Often a boat
- Grouped by theme: pick what suits you. Our Udaipur itinerary turns these into a day-by-day plan.
- Getting around: the lanes around Jagdish Temple and Lal Ghat are too narrow for cars, so your chauffeur drops you at one gate and meets you at another.
- By water: the lakes connect the city, and a boat is often faster and always lovelier than the road.
- The midday sun: strong for much of the year, even in winter.
- Start with the history: our main Udaipur guide covers the Sisodia Maharanas and the lakes they built, which makes every palace here easier to read.
Palaces, temples and the old royal city
Walk the City Palace in its first hour
Almost alone: for the first hour you can stand in the Mor Chowk with its glass peacocks with hardly anyone else.
- Top first: tour groups start at the bottom and work up, so we climb straight to the upper courtyards.
- The Badi Mahal: a garden courtyard on top of a natural hill, with trees and a pool several storeys up.
- Hire a guide who knows the paintings: the court scenes of boat parties and festivals show the same lake you see from the windows.
See the Crystal Gallery and the Durbar Hall
One of India's strangest rooms: crystal furniture, chandeliers, beds and even a crystal fountain, ordered from England by Maharana Sajjan Singh in the late nineteenth century.
- Left in crates: he died young, and much of it stayed packed for decades.
- The Durbar Hall below: the gallery looks down on the great chandeliers over the floor where the court once met.
- Separate ticket: entry is apart from the main museum, and we pair it with tea on the Fateh Prakash terrace.
Join the morning prayers at Jagdish Temple
At first light: bells ring at the top of the steep stair outside the palace's Badi Pol gate.
- The temple: built to Vishnu by Maharana Jagat Singh I in the mid-seventeenth century, carved in tiers of elephants, horsemen, dancers and musicians.
- Morning aarti: the prayer with lamps, when neighbourhood women arrive with brass plates of marigolds.
- Etiquette: leave shoes at the top of the steps, cover shoulders and knees, and stand to one side so the regulars can pass.
Wander the rooms of Bagore ki Haveli
By daylight: most people come only for the evening show, but the house deserves an unhurried hour.
Its builder: Amar Chand Badwa, an eighteenth-century prime minister of Mewar.
- The house: more than a hundred rooms around courtyards overlooking Gangaur Ghat.
- Look for: painted walls, coloured glass windows, a ladies' bath, a games room, brass pots and cooking hearths.
- Why go: it shows how a great Udaipur household lived, which the royal-scale palace cannot.
Sit among the royal cenotaphs at Ahar
Mahasatiya: east of the city, the Mewar rulers' cremation ground holds rows of white domed chhatris, raised where each Maharana was cremated.
- Late afternoon: the domes turn honey-coloured, children fly kites beyond the wall and you may have it to yourself.
- The museum next door: pottery and tools of the Ahar culture, farmers who lived by this river thousands of years before Udaipur.
- Read more: our journal on what a chhatri is.
Watch the sun set from the Monsoon Palace
The road up: climbs through a forested sanctuary where you may see sambar deer and peacocks.
- Its story: begun by Maharana Sajjan Singh in 1884 and finished after his death by Maharana Fateh Singh.
- The view: plain inside, but from the terraces the whole lake district lies below, the City Palace a pale line and the Aravallis fading in layers.
- Timing: go up an hour before sunset and stay until the city lights come on.
Meet the puppets at Bharatiya Lok Kala Mandal
The institute: near Chetak Circle, set up in the early 1950s to collect and keep alive Rajasthan's puppetry, masks, costumes and instruments.
- The museum: old-fashioned and charming, with string puppets, painted scrolls and village shrines.
- The show: short, and loved by children and by grandparents who remember kathputli from childhood.
- Read more: our piece on kathputli puppets, and ask about a private puppet theatre evening at your hotel.
On the lakes
- Pichola boat
- The last hour of light
- Jag Mandir
- Begun around 1620
- Fateh Sagar
- Evenings with local families
- Badi Lake
- About 20 minutes north-west
Take a private boat on Pichola at sunset
Never skip it: the one thing we would never let a guest miss.
- Public boats: fine, but they run to a timetable and fill up.
- Our way: a private boat for the last hour of light, drifting past the bathing ghats and the Lake Palace to be mid-lake as the sun drops behind the western hills.
- By season: bring a shawl in winter. In the monsoon the light is softer and the clouds put on their own show.
Land at Jag Mandir
The island palace: begun around 1620 and finished by Maharana Jagat Singh I.
- A prince's refuge: the young Mughal prince Khurram, later Shah Jahan, is said to have sheltered here during his rebellion.
- Today: stone elephants at the water's edge, courtyards, a garden, a café and a restaurant.
- Our favourite way: land in the late afternoon, wander the pavilions, then stay for dinner as the City Palace lights up. A private palace dinner after the day visitors leave is one of our favourite evenings in Rajasthan.
Walk the embankment at Fateh Sagar
The people's lake: Pichola belongs to palaces. Fateh Sagar belongs to the people of Udaipur.
- Evenings: families stroll, students share corn roasted over coals and ice-cream carts ring their bells.
- Islands: boats run out to Nehru Garden, and on another island the Udaipur Solar Observatory watches the sun.
- A quieter view: climb the path to Neemach Mata temple on the hill above the eastern shore.
Picnic by Badi Lake
Its story: dammed in the seventeenth century by Maharana Raj Singh I, partly to give work and water to his people in a famine.
- The setting: ringed by bare hills, with a few chhatris on the embankment and almost no shops.
- Winter breakfasts: we bring hampers, when cormorants dry their wings on the rocks and the only sound is the wind.
- The antidote: to a busy day in the old city.
Gardens, hills and viewpoints
See the fountains of Saheliyon ki Bari
Its story: laid out by Maharana Sangram Singh II in the early eighteenth century for the women of the court. The name means the garden of the companions.
- The water: fed by Fateh Sagar, with one pavilion ringed by jets that fall like rain.
- Come in the morning: before school groups, when the lotus pools are still and the marble elephants cool to the touch.
- Hariyali Amavasya: in late July or August the garden hosts part of this monsoon fair.
Ride the ropeway to Karni Mata
From Doodh Talai: a cable car climbs Machhla Magra from gardens beside this small lake next to Pichola, to a temple of Karni Mata.
- A few minutes up: the view takes in Pichola, the City Palace, the old city and the Monsoon Palace on its far hill.
- Timing: go in the late afternoon, then walk down to the Doodh Talai gardens for sunset with local families. Our Udaipur sunset spots has more.
Spend an early hour in Gulab Bagh
The largest garden: laid out by Maharana Sajjan Singh in the late nineteenth century, also called Sajjan Niwas Bagh.
- Morning walks: old men do yoga on the lawns, joggers circle the rose beds and monkeys watch from the trees.
- Saraswati Bhawan: a library built in the old royal style inside the garden.
- The vintage cars nearby: guests who love engines say the collection is worth the whole trip.
The old city, its markets and its makers
- Textiles
- Leheriya, bandhani, block prints
- Paintings
- Miniatures and pichwai
- Metal
- Silver jewellery, brass lamps
- Stone
- Mewar marble boxes and inlay
- Where
- Bada Bazaar, Hathi Pol, below Jagdish
Walk the ghats at dawn
Six in the morning: the ghats belong to women washing clothes and bathing, and the loudest sound is cloth slapping on stone.
- Our route: Gangaur Ghat under its triple-arched gate, past Lal Ghat to the old Chandpole bridge, then across to Hanuman Ghat and Ambrai Ghat facing the whole palace front.
- Kingfishers: dive from the railings.
- Cameras down: the bathing steps are private spaces. Our heritage walks are led by guides who grew up in these lanes.
Watch a miniature painter at work
A living school: Mewar was one of the earliest Rajput courts with its own school of painting, and the tradition never stopped.
- The craft: mineral colours ground on stone slabs, and brushes of a few squirrel hairs.
- In the studio: the painter sits on the floor with a board on his knee and lets you try a line.
- No pressure: buy if you love something, never because you feel obliged. Our miniature painting experience runs from a short visit to a morning's lesson.
Shop the old bazaars, and know what to buy
Where Udaipur shops: Bada Bazaar, Hathi Pol and the lanes below Jagdish Temple.
- Pichwai: painted cloth hangings from the temple town of Nathdwara, an hour north.
- Marble: from the quarries of Mewar, turned into boxes and inlaid tabletops.
- Avoid commission showrooms: our shopping guide explains how to tell good work from bad. We pay drivers no commission.
Visit Shilpgram, especially in December
The village: west of Fateh Sagar, the West Zone Cultural Centre's traditional houses from Rajasthan and Gujarat to Goa and Maharashtra.
- Most of the year: quiet and a little sleepy.
- The December fair: in the last days of the month, artisans and folk performers come from across India, with music, food stalls and Udaipur families.
- Buy direct: one of the best places in India to buy from the people who make things.
Eating your way around Mewar
Eat a Mewari thali for lunch
What a thali is: a round metal platter of small bowls, usually dal, gatte ki sabzi, a seasonal vegetable, kadhi, rice, rotis and something sweet.
- Refills: they keep coming until you put your hand over your plate.
- Where: long-running dining halls serve unlimited vegetarian thalis, and our guides take you to their favourite.
- Before you go: our Rajasthani thali guide tells you which bowl to start with.
Cook with a Udaipur family
Home kitchens: several women in the old city teach the dishes they make every day: dal, a vegetable curry, rotis and sometimes chai from scratch.
- Our preference: private classes that begin in the morning market, then cook and eat with the family.
- Grander: our haveli cooking class brings a cook trained in the old Rajput kitchens, for safed maas and slow-cooked dal baati.
Dine on a rooftop facing the palace
Rooftops everywhere: the best look straight across Pichola at the lit City Palace.
- The table to ask for: at the edge, for the hour after sunset when the palace lights come on in rows.
- Choose carefully: the food varies a great deal. Our best rooftop restaurants in Udaipur names the terraces we trust, and our food of Udaipur guide covers what to order.
Udaipur after dark
Watch the Dharohar show at Bagore ki Haveli
Every evening: an hour of Rajasthani folk dance and music in the haveli's courtyard.
- The highlight: near the end, a woman dances with a tower of brass pots on her head, adding one after another until the audience stops breathing.
- Also: puppets, a fire dance and the swirling skirts of the ghoomar.
- Arrive early: for a seat near the front. It is a fine introduction to the deeper folk music of the desert.
Watch the palace lights come on from Ambrai Ghat
Across the lake: the steps of Ambrai Ghat face the full length of the City Palace.
- At dusk: the lights come on floor by floor, and the reflection lies across the water almost without a ripple.
- Who's there: photographers with tripods, students with friends and couples sharing chai.
- The steps, not the restaurant: there is a well-known restaurant on the ghat, but we like the steps best. Come twenty minutes before sunset.
Dinner on the water
A special night: dinner on a boat moored mid-Pichola, or on a pontoon lit with lamps, with a musician playing softly.
- The Lake Palace: it has at times taken dinner bookings from non-residents (we check the current policy for you), and arriving by its boat at dusk is a small adventure.
- Remembered for years: these are the evenings our honeymoon guests talk about.
- A proposal: ask us quietly and we will do the rest.
Outdoors, active and wild
Cycle out to the villages
Winter mornings: the lanes lead quickly into farmland, with maize and wheat on terraced fields and women carrying water from the wells.
- The ride: a couple of hours with a support vehicle, past village temples and stepwells to a chai stop where farmers ask where you come from.
- Who it suits: gentle and mostly flat, good for older children. See our cycling tours.
Ride a Marwari horse in the hills
The Rajput horse: the Marwari, with curved ears that almost touch at the tips.
- For riders: experienced riders can spend a morning on hill and village trails, and beginners a quiet hour on a gentle horse.
- Animal welfare: we work only with stables that care properly for their animals. Read about horse safaris and Marwari horses.
Go birding at Menar
Where: about 45 kilometres east on the road to Chittorgarh, a village with two lakes.
- When: about November to February, for wintering waterbirds: flamingos in some years, pelicans, ducks, storks and waders.
- What makes it special: villagers who have protected the birds for generations.
- How: early morning, with binoculars and a guide, as an easy addition to a Chittorgarh day trip. Our birding page has more.
Day trips into Mewar
- Eklingji
- About 22 km north
- Nathdwara
- About an hour north
- Jaisamand
- About an hour south-east
- Chittorgarh
- About two hours east
- Kumbhalgarh
- About 2.5 hours north
Eklingji and the Sas-Bahu temples at Nagda
Eklingji: a walled temple to the form of Shiva whom the Maharanas served as regents.
- A living temple: photography inside is not allowed, so come for the bells, lamps and families with offerings.
- Nagda: a few kilometres away, carved Sas-Bahu temples of the tenth and eleventh centuries stand beside a lake, often empty.
- One morning: we do both, unhurried.
Nathdwara and the painters of Shrinathji
Shrinathji: a form of Krishna as a child, in one of western India's most visited shrines.
- Darshans: the temple opens for short viewings through the day, and the crowds are intense and devoted.
- Painters' lanes: nearby, artists make pichwai hangings for the god. Read our guide to Nathdwara.
Kumbhalgarh and Ranakpur
Kumbhalgarh: Rana Kumbha's great fort, ringed by a wall that runs for kilometres over the hills.
- Ranakpur: an hour beyond, a marble Jain temple with a forest of carved pillars.
- Better overnight: you can see both in a long day, but they are better as an overnight or as stops on the drive to Jodhpur.
Chittorgarh, the old capital
The fort Udaipur replaced: vast, with towers of victory and fame, palaces and the temple of the poet-saint Meera Bai.
- A moving day: leave early to arrive at opening time.
- See it well: our things to do in Chittorgarh guide.
Jaisamand Lake
Its story: Maharana Jai Singh dammed the Gomti river in the late seventeenth century to make one of the largest man-made lakes in Asia.
- The dam: lined with marble pavilions and carved elephants.
- A sanctuary: the forested hills around it are protected.
- Best season: very quiet and very beautiful in the monsoon.
Haldighati and Rajsamand
Haldighati: the narrow, yellow-earthed pass north of the city where Maharana Pratap fought the Mughal army in 1576.
- Chetak: a memorial to his horse stands nearby.
- Rajsamand: the great lake of Maharana Raj Singh I, whose marble embankment holds pavilions carved with one of the longest Sanskrit inscriptions in India.
- Read more: Maharana Pratap and Haldighati.
What we tell friends before they go
The daily rhythm: palaces and temples before eleven, rest until four, and every evening by the water.
Boat timing: book your Pichola boat for the last hour of light, never the middle of the afternoon.
- Temple dress: cover shoulders and knees for Jagdish, Eklingji and Nathdwara, and leave leather belts and bags in the car where temples ask.
- The ghats at dawn: private spaces. Watch from a distance and keep your camera lowered.
- Free visits: say no politely to anyone offering a free visit to a painting school or textile cooperative. Our guides take you to studios we know.
- Drinking water: the lakes supply the city. Throw nothing in them, and refuse plastic bottles where you can.
- Weekends: Fateh Sagar and the ropeway fill with local families, so come on a weekday for space.
- Khamma ghani: the Mewari greeting. Boatmen and shopkeepers light up when you use it.
