By road
~265 km from Ahmedabad, ~660 km from Delhi
North India · Rajasthan
Udaipur, Rajasthan
Lake palaces and old-world romance · ~265 km from Ahmedabad, ~660 km from Delhi
Getting there
By rail
Udaipur City (UDZ)
By air
Maharana Pratap Airport (Dabok), ~22 km
Best time to visit
September to March — lakes full from the monsoon
Don't miss
City Palace
Lake Pichola
Jagdish Temple
Saheliyon ki Bari
Monsoon Palace
Things to do
Boat rides to Jag Mandir
Heritage walks
Miniature-painting classes
Where to eat
Sources: wikimedia, Photo: Gerd Eichmann · CC BY-SA 4.0
What to pack
Evening layer, shoes for old-city cobbles
A quieter corner
Baahubali Hill viewpoint over Badi Lake at sunset
Questions travellers ask
When should I visit Udaipur?
September to March, when the lakes are full from the monsoon and the city is at its best.
How do I get to Udaipur?
Dabok is 22 km out, and Udaipur City is the station. By road it is about 265 km from Ahmedabad and 660 km from Delhi.
What should I carry?
An evening layer and shoes that cope with the old-city cobbles.
Where is the best sunset?
Baahubali Hill, looking over Badi Lake. The palaces get the attention, but this is the view people remember.
What is there to do on the water?
Take a boat out to Jag Mandir on Lake Pichola. Heritage walks and miniature-painting classes fill the rest of a day nicely.
About Udaipur
- Lakeside
- Hills
Where it is
Udaipur lies in southern Rajasthan in the historic region of Mewar, built around a chain of man-made lakes, among them Lake Pichola and Fateh Sagar, in a valley of the Aravalli hills.
History
Maharana Udai Singh II of the Sisodia Rajputs founded Udaipur in the 16th century as a new capital for Mewar, safer in the hills than Chittorgarh, which fell to the Mughal emperor Akbar soon afterwards. He and his successors built the City Palace and the lake palaces, and Mewar came under British paramountcy in the 19th century before joining the Indian Union after independence.
People
Udaipur's people speak Mewari, a form of Rajasthani, alongside Hindi, and the hills around the city are home to Bhil communities. Miniature painting remains a living craft, and the festival of Gangaur is celebrated with processions down to the lakeshore.
Known for
- The City Palace on Lake Pichola
- The Lake Palace and Jag Mandir islands
- Mewar miniature painting
- Jagdish Temple and Saheliyon ki Bari
Did you know?
The Lake Palace and the Monsoon Palace both appeared in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy, much of which was filmed in and around Udaipur.
We haven't written a guide for this place yet — you can still plan a trip here.