Why we choose Udaipur for Holi
Every city in Rajasthan plays Holi. Udaipur is the one where the night before matters as much as the morning, and where there is a lake to sit beside when it is over.
The royal bonfire: the former royal household of Mewar keeps its own Holika Dahan in Manak Chowk at the City Palace, with local families crowding in to watch.
A gentler colour morning: Udaipur plays with joy, but it is calmer than Pushkar or the lanes of Braj. A private courtyard by the water is easy to arrange.
Facts to know
- Festival
- Holi, the festival of spring
- Lunar date
- Phalgun Purnima, the full moon
- Usual month
- March, sometimes late February
- Two parts
- Bonfire night, then colour morning
- Dates
- We confirm them each year
- Spring weather: warm days and cool mornings, with the hills still green-brown and the palash trees flowering orange.
- What comes next: Gangaur begins the morning after Holi, and in Udaipur it coincides with the spring Mewar Festival. Stay on, and you get two festivals.
- The lake: after a morning of colour, an afternoon on Pichola is the most civilised way to recover we know.
- The wider festival: our Holi festival page tells the story of Prahlad, Holika and Krishna. Here we focus on Udaipur, and on practical planning.
Local tip
Holi is a holiday week for Indian families, and Udaipur's palace hotels fill early. If you know you want to come, tell us in the autumn.
The days before: drums, pyres and powder
Holi doesn't arrive on one day in Udaipur. For a week before, the old city hums with it, and the best of it is free to watch.
The pyres grow: piles of wood and cow-dung cakes rise at crossroads and in small squares across the old city, added to by each household.
The bazaars turn pink: stalls near the Jagdish temple and in Bada Bazaar pile up gulal, coloured powder, in pyramids of every shade.
Words to know
- Holika Dahan
- The bonfire, the night of the full moon
- Dhulandi
- The morning of colour
- Gulal
- Soft coloured powder
- Gujiya
- The sweet of Holi
- Holi hai
- It's Holi, said as you throw colour
- Sweet shops: the halwais start frying gujiya, pastry half-moons filled with sweetened mawa, by the hundred.
- Spring songs: in the evenings you may hear phag, the cheeky spring songs of Krishna and Radha, from temple courtyards and homes.
- Buy your colours early: good herbal gulal from a proper shop, not loose bright powders from a street cart.
- Old city lanes at night: in the evenings before Holi, young men drum and sing in the squares. It is noisy, cheerful and best watched from a doorway with your guide.
- What we do with guests: an evening walk through the old city with a guide, from the Jagdish temple down to Gangaur Ghat, watching the pyres being built.
Bonfire night in the old city
The full-moon evening is the part of Holi most visitors miss, and the part our family loves best. It is a ritual first and a celebration second.
Afternoon, worship at the pyre
- What happens: women wind raw cotton thread around the pyre and offer water, turmeric, grain and sweets.
- How to watch: quietly, from a respectful distance, with your guide. Ask before photographing anyone.
Evening, the royal Holika Dahan
Where: Manak Chowk, the great forecourt of the City Palace.
- What: the former royal household keeps its own ceremony, and the fire is lit at the auspicious hour.
- The crowd: local families pack in to watch. Go with our team, stay together and keep valuables minimal.
- Staying close: guests of Shiv Niwas Palace and Fateh Prakash Palace are a short walk away.
Later, the neighbourhood fires
Where: in the lanes around the Jagdish temple, Gangaur Ghat and the old quarters, each neighbourhood lights its own pyre.
- The rituals: families walk around the flames, toss in green ears of wheat and coconuts, and carry embers home for luck.
- The feel: warm, smoky and friendly. This is the Holi our grandparents knew.
Local tip
Ask your guide for a few ears of green wheat to roast in a neighbourhood fire. Families will show you how, and someone will press a piece of coconut into your hand.
The morning of colour, hour by hour
By eight the drums are going and the streets are full of people with powder and water. By noon the whole city has gone home to wash.
Eight o'clock, the start
- Eat first: a proper breakfast. It is a long, energetic morning.
- Oil up: rub coconut oil into your hair and skin. The colour comes off far more easily.
Nine to eleven, the play
Our way: a private courtyard or lakeside garden with herbal colours, a drummer, gujiya and cold thandai, the spiced milk drink of Holi.
- The custom: a touch of gulal on the cheek with a smile and a Holi hai. Begin gently, especially with older people.
- How long: play for an hour, or the whole morning. There is no wrong answer.
Noon, the great wash
- The city: shops closed, streets quiet, everyone bathing.
- Washing off: cool water first, then soap. Hot water sets some dyes.
Late afternoon, white clothes and visits
- The gentlest hour: families come out again in clean white clothes, visiting relatives with plates of sweets.
- For you: a walk along Lake Pichola, or a boat as the light goes.
Where to play Holi in Udaipur
Where you play decides what kind of Holi you have. We think about it the way we think about a table for dinner: the right setting matters more than anything.
A private courtyard by the lake
- Why: our favourite. Natural colours, a drummer, sweets, your own group and our team beside you.
- Who it suits: almost everyone, from families with children to couples and older travellers.
Your hotel's garden
- Why: several palace hotels host their own celebration for guests, with music and safe colours.
- Ask us: what each hotel plans that year. It changes.
A rooftop over the old city
- Why: watch the street play below without being in the thick of it, with a bowl of gulal for anyone who comes up the stairs.
- Who it suits: the quietly curious, and photographers.
The open streets
- Our view: joyful, but crowds can turn rough as the morning goes on, sometimes after drinking or bhang.
- If you go: with our team, for a short time, and never alone. Women travellers especially should play only in private gatherings or with us.
Local tip
Play in the morning and then stop. Locals know that the best Holi is the first two hours, before tempers and colours get out of hand.
The colours, and how to choose them
Long before factory powder, Mewar played Holi with flowers. The hills around Udaipur still blaze orange with the tree that made the first colour.
Palash: the flame-of-the-forest flowers across the Aravallis in February and March. Its orange blossoms were soaked overnight to make saffron-coloured water.
Other old colours: turmeric for yellow, flowers and bark for reds and pinks, and indigo for blue.
- Good gulal: soft, slightly scented powder made from flowers and starch. The better shops in Udaipur sell herbal gulal clearly labelled.
- Avoid: shiny, metallic or very bright powders and wet pastes sold loose. They stain and sting.
- Gulal gota: Jaipur's lac shells filled with powder, thrown to burst softly. A few make a lovely gift to bring to an Udaipur Holi.
- Colour etiquette: dry gulal first, and only with people who are playing. Water comes later, if at all.
Local tip
Buy a small bag of good gulal in each colour and keep the leftovers. Our family uses last year's for the rangoli at Diwali.
Playing safely, and saying no
Holi suspends the usual rules for one morning. That is its joy, and also why it needs care. You are always entitled to say no.
Consent comes first: if someone does not want to play, the decent thing is to leave them alone. The same applies to you.
Natural colours only: avoid bright pastes, silver and gold powders and anything sold loose in the street. They can contain harsh dyes and metal.
Before you play
- Wear
- Old white cotton you can throw away
- Shoes
- Old closed shoes or sandals
- Protect
- Sunglasses, scarf, oiled skin
- Carry
- Phone in a sealed pouch
- In the car
- Towel and a spare set of clothes
- Eyes and mouth: wear sunglasses, and keep your mouth closed when someone approaches with a handful of powder.
- Bhang: the cannabis preparation in some thandai and sweets is strong and slow to act. Always ask. Ours is made without it unless you request otherwise.
- Phones and jewellery: seal your phone in a plastic pouch, and leave watches and jewellery in the hotel safe.
- Health: tell us about asthma, sensitive skin or contact lenses, and we keep your play gentle and dry.
- Animals: never colour them. Street dogs and cows suffer from the dyes.
- Women travellers: our page for women travellers has more advice on festivals and crowds.
What Udaipur eats and drinks at Holi
Holi is as much about the kitchen as the colour. Every house sends plates of sweets to the neighbours, and every guest who walks in is fed.
Gujiya: pastry half-moons filled with mawa, nuts and cardamom, fried and sometimes dipped in syrup. The sweet of the festival.
Malpua: soft, syrup-soaked pancakes, sometimes served with rabri, the reduced milk of Rajasthani kitchens.
- Dahi bada: lentil dumplings soaked in yoghurt with tamarind and spice, for the guests who arrive all afternoon.
- Namkeen: crisp savoury snacks, mathri and spiced mixtures, piled on every table.
- Thandai: milk blended with almonds, fennel, melon seeds, rose petals and black pepper, served very cold.
- Lunch after the wash: something simple and filling. In many Mewar homes, a dal-baati lunch closes the day.
- Where to taste more: our food of Udaipur guide and our Rajasthani sweets guide.
Local tip
If a family offers you gujiya, take one and say how good it is. Somebody's aunt made them, and she will want to know your verdict.
The day after Holi, and Gangaur
Holi ends at noon. But in Udaipur the morning after brings a new festival, and the city slips from colour into the long, gentle weeks of Gangaur.
Gangaur begins: the morning after Holi, the women of Rajasthan begin about eighteen days of worship of Gauri, the goddess of marriage. See our Gangaur festival page.
Clay idols: girls and women shape small images of Gauri and Isar and worship them each morning.
After Holi
- Gangaur
- Begins the morning after Holi
- Lasts
- About eighteen days
- Finale
- Processions to Gangaur Ghat
- Mewar Festival
- At the same time as Gangaur
- The finale: processions carry the goddess to the water at Gangaur Ghat, named for this festival.
- The Mewar Festival: Udaipur's spring celebration coincides with Gangaur, with processions, music and lights by the lake.
- The best plan: play Holi, travel for a week to Kumbhalgarh, Ranakpur or Jodhpur, then return to Udaipur for the Gangaur finale.
- Sightseeing resumes: most monuments and shops reopen the afternoon after Holi or the next day.
What most Holi visitors miss in Udaipur
Most travellers come for the colour and leave by lunch. The quieter moments of the festival are the ones our cousins talk about afterwards.
The pyre-builders: boys in each neighbourhood collect wood for days and guard their pyre at night. Ask them how tall it will be. Every answer is taller than last year.
The cotton thread: watch women wind raw cotton around the pyre in the afternoon, circling it again and again with a small brass pot of water.
- Embers carried home: after the fire, families carry a few embers home in a small pot, for luck in the year ahead. Some still use them to light the kitchen fire.
- The morning silence: walk out on the lake road at six on colour day. For one hour the city is still asleep, and Pichola is utterly calm.
- White clothes at dusk: the evening visits, when families walk out spotless in white with plates of sweets, are the gentlest scene of the festival.
- Pink dogs, pink cows: you will see animals splashed with colour. Locals who care will tell you it shouldn't happen, and they are right.
Photographing Holi without ruining your camera
Holi is the most photogenic morning of the Indian year, and the most dangerous for a camera. A little preparation saves both the pictures and the lens.
Seal it: a rain cover or a clear plastic bag taped around the camera, with a UV filter on the lens.
Phones: a waterproof pouch, and wipe the screen with a dry cloth, never a wet one.
- Shoot from above: a rooftop or balcony gives you the colour clouds and keeps you out of range.
- Ask first: close-ups of people need permission, as always. Most revellers will happily pose, and some will colour you in return.
- Clean slowly: at the end, blow powder off before wiping. Grit scratches. Our photography tips have more.
Holi beyond the city
For repeat visitors, the quietest and oldest Holi is not in Udaipur at all. It is in the villages and temple towns an hour or two away.
A village Holi at a family fort
Nathdwara and Krishna's spring
- What: the great temple of Shrinathji celebrates the spring weeks with special adornments, songs and colour for the god.
- Where: Nathdwara, about an hour north. Crowds are dense, so we plan carefully.
Braj, if you want the wildest Holi
- What: Lathmar Holi at Barsana and Nandgaon, about a week before, just over the border in Uttar Pradesh.
- How: our Holi in Rajasthan journey begins there and ends in Udaipur.
Where to stay for Holi in Udaipur
For Holi we choose a hotel for two reasons: how close it is to the royal bonfire, and whether it has a calm garden for the colour.
Inside the City Palace: Shiv Niwas Palace and Fateh Prakash Palace put you a short walk from Manak Chowk.
On the water: Taj Lake Palace on its island is the most romantic retreat for the afternoon after the colour.
- Gardens for a private Holi: The Oberoi Udaivilas and The Leela Palace Udaipur on the shores of Pichola.
- Out of town: Devi Garh in Delwara, for a quieter village Holi in the hills.
- Book early: Holi week fills fast. Several months ahead is wise.
- Ask for: a room or suite with a terrace. On colour morning you can watch the city play from above, then come down when you are ready.
- Compare them all: our luxury hotels in Udaipur guide.
A four-night Holi plan we like
Holi in Udaipur needs at least three nights. Four lets you see the city properly on the days around it.
Day 1, arrive and walk the old city
- Afternoon: settle in, then an evening walk from the Jagdish temple to Gangaur Ghat as the pyres go up.
- Evening: dinner on a rooftop facing the lit City Palace.
Day 2, bonfire night
- Morning: the City Palace at opening, then a slow lunch.
- Evening: the royal Holika Dahan in Manak Chowk, then the neighbourhood fires.
Day 3, colour
- Morning: a private courtyard Holi with natural colours, music and sweets.
- Afternoon: wash, rest and take a boat on Lake Pichola as the light goes.
Day 4, the city reopens
- Morning: Saheliyon ki Bari and Fateh Sagar.
- Sunset: the Monsoon Palace on its hill.
Local tip
Don't plan a long drive on the day of colour. Roads are unpredictable until the afternoon, and you will want the afternoon by the lake anyway.
Who will love Holi in Udaipur
Holi is for joining in. If you would rather watch, Udaipur is still the kindest place to do it.
Families: a private courtyard with water pistols, gentle colours and gujiya is a morning children never forget. See travelling with children.
Couples: an hour of colour, then an afternoon on the lake. Our Udaipur romance journey can be timed for it.
- The curious: bonfire night alone is worth the trip, calm and beautiful.
- Not for you if: you dislike crowds and mess, or want the monuments at their quietest. Come in February instead.
- A longer journey: our Holi in Rajasthan journey adds Braj and Jaipur to the Udaipur bonfire.