Most people give Udaipur a night and regret it. The city is small enough to cover quickly and interesting enough that doing so feels like a waste. Three days lets you take the lake at sunset twice, which is the point of coming.
Best time to visit
October to March, without much argument. Nights are cool, the lakes hold their level after a decent monsoon, and the evening light on the palace walls is at its best. April to June crosses forty degrees by noon and turns sightseeing into a sequence of dashes between air-conditioned spaces. July to September is green and dramatic, and the lakes fill, but expect afternoon rain to rearrange your plans.
Getting there
Udaipur is about 660 km from Delhi on NH48 through Jaipur, Ajmer and Bhilwara — eleven to twelve hours of driving, which is why we usually recommend splitting it with a night in Jaipur or Pushkar rather than pushing through. From Ahmedabad it is a comfortable 260 km, roughly five hours. Maharana Pratap airport sits 22 km from the city and the road in is quick.
What to see
- City Palace complex, ideally at opening time before the tour groups arrive
- A sunset boat ride on Lake Pichola with the stop at Jag Mandir
- Jagdish Temple, two minutes uphill from the palace gate
- Bagore ki Haveli for the evening folk dance and puppet show
- Saheliyon ki Bari and the Sajjangarh Monsoon Palace for the view down over the lakes
- Eklingji and the ruined temples at Nagda, 22 km north
The day trip worth taking
Kumbhalgarh fort and the Ranakpur Jain temple sit about 85 and 95 km out respectively, and pair naturally into one long day. Kumbhalgarh has the second-longest continuous wall in the world and almost none of Amber's crowds; Ranakpur's 1,444 carved marble pillars are worth the detour on their own. Leave by seven and you are back for dinner.
Where a tempo traveller helps
The old city around Jagdish Temple is a knot of lanes where no full-size vehicle reaches the hotel door — that part is on foot or by auto regardless of what you booked. Where a tempo traveller earns its keep is everything else: the airport run, the Monsoon Palace climb, and especially the Kumbhalgarh day when a group of twelve would otherwise be split across three cars. Ask your Raahi Vacation driver to park near Gangaur Ghat and walk you in; it saves an argument with the traffic police.
Rough budget
- Vehicle: ₹4,500 to ₹6,000 a day for a 12 seater within Udaipur and its day trips
- City Palace entry: around ₹400 per adult, boat ride extra
- Stay: ₹2,000 for a clean lake-view guesthouse, ₹8,000 upwards for a heritage hotel
- Food: ₹800 to ₹1,200 per person per day, more if you eat on a rooftop with the palace in view
Book the boat ride for the second evening, not the first. You will want to have seen the city from the ground before you see it from the water.
