A capital built after a catastrophe
Our grandfather, who was not from Mewar, used to say that Udaipur families still walk a little taller because of it.
The old seat: for centuries the rulers of Mewar governed from the great fort of Chittorgarh, on a rock in the plains about two hours east.
Who they were: Guhilas, and later the Sisodia branch of that clan, named after the village of Sisoda.
- Founded
- 1559, by Maharana Udai Singh II
- Old capital
- Chittorgarh, about two hours east
- Chittor fell
- Early 1568, after Akbar's siege
- Haldighati
- June 1576, a short drive north
- Lakes
- Pichola, Fateh Sagar, Udai Sagar, Swaroop Sagar
- Why move: Chittor had already suffered two terrible sieges when Maharana Udai Singh II looked for a safer capital.
- The holy man's advice: tradition says a sage meditating on a hill above Lake Pichola told him to build there. In 1559 he founded the city that carries his name, protected by the folds of the Aravallis.
- He was right to worry: Akbar besieged Chittor in 1567. When it fell early in 1568, Udaipur became the capital of Mewar for good.
- Maharana Pratap: Udai Singh's son Maharana Pratap spent most of his reign fighting the Mughals from the hills, and met them at Haldighati in June 1576, a short drive north.
- The last to bend: the Mewar rulers were among the last Rajput houses to accept Mughal terms, and they never gave a daughter in marriage to the Mughal court.
- A city of water: for four centuries the Maharanas added to the palace on the ridge, dammed new lakes and built island pavilions.
- All man-made: Fateh Sagar, Udai Sagar, Swaroop Sagar and Pichola were all dammed, and several are linked by channels, so the city is ringed by water in a dry state.
- The town's barometer: when the monsoon fails, the lakes shrink and everyone talks about it. When it is generous, people walk down to the ghats just to look.
- Udaipur today: a few hundred thousand people, a university town and a wedding capital, with marble traders, miniature painters, hotel staff and boatmen all living within sight of the lakes.
- Its temperament: gentler than Jaipur and greener than Jodhpur. Many travellers tell us it is where they finally stopped looking at their watches.
Servants of Eklingji, the true king of Mewar
The god is king: by long tradition the Maharana was Eklingji's diwan, his minister or regent, rather than an absolute king. Mewar rulers signed state papers in that name.
The founding legend: Bappa Rawal, an early ruler of the eighth century, was blessed by a sage named Harit Rashi and given the kingdom to hold in the god's service.
The temple: at Kailashpuri, about 22 kilometres north on the road to Nathdwara, a walled complex of more than a hundred shrines in marble and sandstone beside a small lake.
- Family deity
- Eklingji, a form of Shiva
- Eklingji temple
- Kailashpuri, about 22 km north
- Present image
- Late 15th century, under Rana Raimal
- Photography
- Not allowed inside
- Nearby
- Sas-Bahu temples at Nagda
- Rebuilt more than once: the temple was destroyed and rebuilt several times. The present image dates from Rana Raimal's rebuilding in the late fifteenth century.
- A living temple: not a monument, so photography inside is not allowed. Come in the evening, when the lamps are lit and local families arrive straight from work.
- Sas-Bahu at Nagda: a few kilometres away, a pair of carved tenth- and eleventh-century shrines beside the Bagela lake. The name is usually explained as mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.
- Have them to yourself: few visitors stop at Nagda, and in the late afternoon its columns of dancers and musicians may be yours alone.
- The idea lives on: the former royal family still lives in part of the City Palace, and the museum is run by a charitable foundation the family established.
- A disputed headship: the headship of the house has been the subject of a public disagreement between branches of the family since 2024, so we prefer not to name a single heir here.
- What matters to you: the palace remains a home and a working institution, not a ruin, and the old rituals are still kept. More in our piece on the Mewar royal family.
The palaces on the water
- City Palace
- Go at opening time
- Pichola
- First dammed in the 14th century
- Jag Mandir
- Begun about 1620
- Lake Palace
- Built 1743-46, a hotel since the 1960s
- Best boat hour
- The hour before sunset
The City Palace, in the first hour
Four centuries of building: Udai Singh II began the palace on the ridge above Pichola, and his successors kept adding to it for four hundred years.
The largest in Rajasthan: a run of courtyards, towers and balconies that grows more ornate the higher you climb.
- Mor Chowk: a courtyard covered in glass mosaic peacocks.
- Badi Mahal: a garden courtyard at the top of a natural hill.
- The museum: Mewar paintings, weapons and royal portraits.
- How to do it: arrive at opening time, before the tour groups, and climb straight to the top for the view over the lake.
Lake Pichola, by private boat
Older than the city: Pichola was first dammed in the fourteenth century. Tradition credits a Banjara, from a travelling trading community, with building the first dam.
- Its name: Udai Singh II enlarged the lake, flooding the village of Picholi that gave it its name.
- Public or private: public boats leave from the palace jetty. We book private boats for the hour before sunset.
- What you'll see: the ghats and island palaces drifting past while the City Palace turns from cream to amber.
Jag Mandir, the island of refuge
Who built it: Maharana Karan Singh began the southern island palace around 1620, and Maharana Jagat Singh I completed it and gave it his name.
- A prince in hiding: in 1623 the Mughal prince Khurram, the future Shah Jahan, took refuge in Udaipur during his rebellion against his father, and is said to have stayed here.
- Today: courtyards, a café and stone elephants guarding the landing stage.
- After dark: one of our favourite places in the city for a private dinner.
The Lake Palace, which you can only reach by boat
Built: as Jag Niwas, between 1743 and 1746, a summer palace for Maharana Jagat Singh II. It covers almost its whole island, so from the shore it seems to float.
Becoming a hotel: Maharana Bhagwat Singh turned it into one in the 1960s, and in 1971 the Taj group took over its management.
- On screen: it appeared in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy.
- Why it's so calm: only hotel guests and diners may land.
- The moment: arriving there by boat at dusk is one of the great moments in Indian travel.
Bagore ki Haveli, at evening show time
Whose house: Amar Chand Badwa's, prime minister of Mewar in the second half of the eighteenth century, on Gangaur Ghat.
- Inside: more than a hundred rooms, painted walls, glasswork and a small museum of daily life.
- Its keepers: the West Zone Cultural Centre has cared for it since the 1980s.
- The Dharohar show: Rajasthani folk dance in the courtyard each evening, including women dancing with stacked brass pots on their heads.
Jagdish Temple, at the morning aarti
Where: up a steep stair just outside the City Palace's Badi Pol gate.
- Who built it: Maharana Jagat Singh I, in the middle of the seventeenth century, as a temple to Vishnu.
- The carving: tiered walls covered in elephants, musicians and dancers.
- Come early: when bells ring for morning prayers and women arrive with brass plates of flowers. Shoes come off at the top of the stairs.
Gardens, a second lake and a palace in the clouds
- Saheliyon ki Bari
- Morning, when the fountains run
- Fateh Sagar
- Evening, on the embankment
- Monsoon Palace
- Go up an hour before sunset
- Ahar cenotaphs
- Late afternoon light
- Shilpgram fair
- Every December
Saheliyon ki Bari, the garden of the maidens
Who made it: Maharana Sangram Singh II, in the early eighteenth century, as a retreat for the women of the court.
- The name: the garden of the companions. Tradition links it to the young women who came to Udaipur with a royal bride.
- What's there: lotus pools, marble elephants, kiosks and fountains, including a pavilion where water falls like rain.
- When: in the morning, when the fountains run and the garden is quiet, before school groups arrive.
Fateh Sagar, the people's lake
Its dams: Maharana Jai Singh first dammed it in the late seventeenth century. After floods washed the earth dam away, Maharana Fateh Singh rebuilt it in the late 1880s and gave it his name.
- Udaipur's own lake: Pichola belongs to palaces and hotels. Fateh Sagar belongs to the city.
- In the evening: families stroll the embankment, students eat corn roasted over coals, and boats run out to Nehru Garden on its island.
- Science on the water: another island holds the Udaipur Solar Observatory, which studies the sun across the still water.
The Monsoon Palace, at sunset
Its story: Maharana Sajjan Singh commissioned Sajjangarh on a hilltop west of the city in 1884, but died that year. Maharana Fateh Singh completed it.
- Why up there: it was planned partly as a place to watch the monsoon clouds gather over the hills.
- The drive: the road climbs through a forested wildlife sanctuary.
- The view: the lakes, the City Palace and the Aravallis folding away into haze. It also appeared in Octopussy.
The royal cenotaphs at Ahar
What they are: the Mahasatiya, a walled ground east of the city holding the white domed cenotaphs of generations of Mewar's rulers.
- The mood: quiet, a little melancholy and very beautiful in the low light of late afternoon.
- Next door: a small archaeological museum of the Ahar culture, a farming community that lived beside the river thousands of years before the city was founded.
Shilpgram and the vintage cars
Shilpgram: a crafts village west of Fateh Sagar, run by the West Zone Cultural Centre, with traditional houses from across western India.
- The December fair: Shilpgram hosts a large crafts fair each December.
- The cars: the late Maharanas' collection of vintage and classic cars is displayed near Gulab Bagh.
- Who it's for: car lovers spend an hour there. Everyone else is surprised by how much they enjoy it.
Life on the ghats and in the old lanes
Gangaur Ghat: with its triple-arched gate beside Bagore ki Haveli, it is the stage for the city's spring festival.
Ambrai and Hanuman Ghats: across the water, they look straight back at the City Palace, which is why photographers gather there at dusk.
Lal Ghat: in the lanes below the palace, packed with guest houses and rooftop cafés.
- Ghat
- A flight of steps down to water
- Festival stage
- Gangaur Ghat
- Sunset view
- Ambrai and Hanuman Ghats
- Wedding season
- November to February
- How to walk them: early, quietly, and with your camera lowered when people are bathing.
- The old lanes: behind the ghats, a maze climbs towards Jagdish Temple, with houses painted white, blue and ochre.
- Murals by the door: many houses have elephants, horses or Ganesh painted beside the entrance, often for a wedding.
- Craft lanes: around the temple you'll find silversmiths, sellers of brass and puppets, bookbinders and miniature painters' studios.
- Everyday shopping: Hathi Pol and Bada Bazaar, for textiles, spices and wedding turbans.
- A wedding city: between November and February you may see a groom on a white horse and a band outside a hotel gate, or fireworks over Pichola late at night.
- If you're invited: to a local wedding, say yes.
- Your own: our team plans destination weddings and vow renewals in palace courtyards and on island terraces.
Where to stay in Udaipur
- On an island
- Taj Lake Palace
- Most space
- The Oberoi Udaivilas
- Inside the palace
- Shiv Niwas, Fateh Prakash
- Out of town
- RAAS Devigarh, about 30 km north
Taj Lake Palace, for the island
The setting: a white marble palace on its own island in Pichola, reached only by the hotel's boats.
- The rooms: they look across the water to the City Palace or towards the hills, and the courtyards hold lily ponds and fountains.
- Choose it for: romance, and the strange, lovely silence of sleeping on the lake.
- Our request: ask us for a lake-facing room on an upper floor.
The Oberoi Udaivilas, for space and service
The setting: on Pichola's western shore, domes and courtyards spread across gardens and old royal hunting grounds, looking back at the City Palace.
- The rooms: many have semi-private pools along the water.
- The service: famously attentive, and the spa is one of the best in India.
- Choose it if: you want to retreat completely between outings.
The Leela Palace and Raffles
The Leela: The Leela Palace Udaipur sits on Pichola beside Udaivilas, with grand lake-view rooms and a palace-style dining room.
- Raffles: Raffles Udaipur is quieter and further out, on its own island in Udai Sagar east of the city.
- Who Raffles suits: travellers who prefer English gardens and complete peace to the bustle of the old town.
Inside the City Palace
Two hotels in the complex: both run by the family's own hotel group.
- Shiv Niwas Palace: Shiv Niwas curves around a courtyard pool with views of the lake.
- Fateh Prakash Palace: Fateh Prakash is home to the Durbar Hall and the Crystal Gallery, a famous collection of English crystal furniture ordered by Maharana Sajjan Singh.
- The privilege: walking the palace courtyards after the visitors have gone.
In the hills outside the city
RAAS Devigarh: about 30 kilometres north at Delwara, an eighteenth-century hill palace turned into a pared-back, modern marble hotel.
- Why go: it is a wonderful base for Eklingji, Nathdwara and Kumbhalgarh.
- Compare them all: our guide to luxury hotels in Udaipur compares every option, room by room.
What Mewar eats
Maize country: in the villages around Udaipur, maize grows on terraced hill fields.
Makki ki roti: in the cold months, flat maize breads cooked over wood and eaten with ghee, jaggery and greens.
Dal baati churma: the dish every Mewari family claims as its own.
- Winter bread
- Makki ki roti, maize over wood
- Breakfast
- Kachori with thin kadhi
- Royal dishes
- Maas ke soole, safed maas
- Vegetarian
- A deep Jain and temple tradition
- Gatte ki sabzi: gram-flour dumplings in a spiced yoghurt gravy, at almost every festive meal.
- Ker sangri: the dried desert berries and beans of western Rajasthan, another festive regular.
- For breakfast: hot kachori with a thin, tangy kadhi in the stalls around the old city.
- The hunting kitchens: maas ke soole, smoked skewers of meat, and safed maas, mutton in cream and ground nuts, are Rajput classics the palace hotels still cook well.
- No more game: hunting is long banned, so the meat is now goat or chicken.
- Vegetarians eat superbly: Mewar's vegetarian tradition runs deep, shaped by its Jain merchant families and the temple kitchens of Nathdwara.
- Where you eat: on a boat in the middle of Pichola, in a courtyard at Jag Mandir, or on rooftops above the lake facing the lit City Palace.
- A palace dinner: a private dinner in a palace can be a family-style thali or a full Rajput banquet.
- The full list: our food of Udaipur guide, and our rooftop restaurants piece for the terraces with the best views.
Miniature painting and the crafts of Mewar
An early school: Mewar was one of the first Rajput courts to develop its own school of painting, and its artists worked for the Maharanas for centuries.
Early subjects: Krishna among the cowherds, scenes from the Ramayana and the musical moods called ragas.
Later court work: the Maharanas themselves at festivals, hunts and boat parties, often in large panoramas now among the treasures of the City Palace museum.
- Early style
- Bold, flat, saturated reds and yellows
- Pigments
- Mineral and plant, ground by hand
- Brushes
- Squirrel hair
- Pichwai
- Nathdwara, an hour north
- Terracotta
- Molela village
- Still made the old way: many studios use mineral and plant pigments, squirrel-hair brushes and a burnished paper or silk ground.
- Weeks for one work: some of the finest pieces are copies of old masterpieces, and the best painters spend weeks on a single small work.
- Try a line yourself: we take guests to working studios to watch a painter at the brush. See our miniature painting experience.
- Pichwai: the painted cloth hangings of the Shrinathji temple come from Nathdwara, an hour north.
- Molela: a village near Nathdwara that makes votive terracotta plaques.
- In Udaipur's markets: silver jewellery, wooden toys, puppets, leheriya and bandhani tie-dye, and marble from the region's quarries.
- Buy well: our shopping guide explains how, and how to avoid the showrooms that pay drivers commission.
Sunsets, honeymoons and the art of doing nothing
A private boat on Pichola: in the last hour of light, drifting past Jag Mandir as the City Palace turns gold. We time it so you're mid-lake as the sun drops behind the western hills.
The Monsoon Palace terraces: an hour before sunset, for the widest view of the lakes and the Aravallis.
Ambrai Ghat: the whole facade of the City Palace across the water, as the palace lights come on one by one.
- Honeymoon length
- At least four nights
- Split it
- Lakeside hotel, then a hill palace
- Best sunset
- Mid-lake on Pichola
- Widest view
- Monsoon Palace terraces
- The ropeway: up Machhla Magra hill to the Karni Mata temple, for a view over Pichola and the old city.
- Breakfast in bed at the Lake Palace: shutters open, and the lake completely still.
- Dinner on Jag Mandir: candlelit, reached by boat, after the day visitors have gone home.
- Honeymoons: at least four nights, split between an island or lakeside hotel and a hill palace outside the city. The days hold palaces and studios, the evenings nothing at all.
- Ready-made versions: our Udaipur romance journey, or Rajasthan honeymoons pairing Udaipur with the desert.
- Proposals: our team has quietly arranged rings on boats, on rooftops and on palace terraces.
- More sunset spots: in our journal on sunset spots.
When to come to Udaipur
October to March: warm, clear days, cool nights and lakes usually full after the rains.
December and January: chilly mornings, so pack a shawl for early boats.
- Classic season
- October to March
- Chilly mornings
- December and January
- Hot season
- April to June, near 40°C
- Monsoon
- July to September, green and quiet
- April to June: hot, often near 40°C, and the lakes can fall low in a poor year.
- July to September: the hills turn a deep, startling green, the waterfalls run and the Monsoon Palace finally makes sense. Hotels are quieter and rates kinder.
- Month by month: our guide to the best time to visit Udaipur, and Monsoon in Mewar, our journey built for the rains.
Gangaur and the Mewar Festival, March or April
Gangaur: honours the goddess Gauri. Udaipur's women, in their finest, carry her images in procession to the lake.
- Where: the celebrations centre on Gangaur Ghat.
- The Mewar Festival: held at the same time, with music, dance and boats on Pichola.
Holi, in February or March
The night before: bonfires burn across the city for Holika Dahan, and the royal household keeps its own ceremony at the City Palace.
- The morning: colour.
- Without the crowds: we arrange a family Holi in a private courtyard for guests who want to play away from the street.
Teej, in the monsoon
- What happens: swings hang from trees, women wear green leheriya and the city celebrates the rains.
- Why come: it is the loveliest week to see Udaipur at its greenest.
Diwali, in October or November
- On the water: lamps line the ghats and the lake reflects every one of them.
- In the city: fireworks burst over Pichola and families crowd the bazaars late into the night.
Getting to Udaipur and getting around
By air: Maharana Pratap Airport at Dabok is about 22 kilometres east of the city, with direct flights to Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur and other major cities.
From Jaipur: about six hours by road, or an hour by air.
- Airport
- Maharana Pratap (UDR), Dabok, about 22 km east
- From Jaipur
- About 6 hours, or 1 hour by air
- From Jodhpur
- About 5 hours, via Ranakpur
- Chittorgarh
- About 2 hours east
- Kumbhalgarh
- About 2.5 hours north
- Mount Abu
- About 3.5 hours west
- From Jodhpur: five to six hours by road. We usually drive it via Ranakpur, stopping to see the temple.
- Nearby: Chittorgarh is about two hours east, Kumbhalgarh about two and a half hours north, and Nathdwara about an hour north.
- Further west: Mount Abu is about three and a half hours, and Ahmedabad about four to five hours south-west.
- In the old city: lanes are narrow and parking is scarce. Your chauffeur drops you at a gate, and we walk or take a boat across the lake.
- How we time drives: so you arrive for the evening light, not the middle of the day. Our guide to getting around Rajasthan explains how.
Three days in Udaipur, at a lake's pace
With more time: continue to Kumbhalgarh for its great wall and Ranakpur for its marble temple on the way to Jodhpur.
- Nights
- Three
- Day one
- The palace and the lake
- Day two
- Gardens and the Monsoon Palace
- Day three
- Eklingji and the northern temples
- Longer versions: in our Udaipur itinerary guide.
- The whole region: Mewar Lakes and Temples ties it together, and our Mewar region page covers the wider kingdom.
Day one, the palace and the lake
Opening time: enter the City Palace and climb to the top courtyards before the crowds.
- Late morning: walk down to Jagdish Temple and through the lanes to Gangaur Ghat.
- Afternoon: after lunch and a rest, a private boat on Pichola, stopping at Jag Mandir.
- Evening: the show at Bagore ki Haveli, then dinner at your hotel by the water.
Day two, gardens and the Monsoon Palace
Morning: the fountains of Saheliyon ki Bari, a miniature painter's studio and the vintage car collection.
- Afternoon: a slow lunch, then the embankment at Fateh Sagar.
- Sunset: drive up to the Monsoon Palace.
- Dinner: on a rooftop facing the lit City Palace.
Day three, Eklingji and the temples of the north
Early: drive north to the Sas-Bahu temples at Nagda, then Eklingji.
- Nathdwara: a darshan of Shrinathji and the painters' lane.
- Evening: back through the hills for a last sunset at Ambrai Ghat, or stay at RAAS Devigarh and continue to Kumbhalgarh.
What we tell friends before Udaipur
Time your boat: book the last hour of light, not mid-afternoon. The lake is a different place at sunset.
Dress for temples: at Jagdish and Eklingji, shoulders and knees covered, with leather and shoes left outside.
- Respect the ghats: bathing ghats are private spaces at dawn. Watch from a distance and keep your camera down.
- Keep the lakes clean: they are drinking-water sources. Don't throw anything in, and choose a hotel that takes the lake seriously.
- Skip the free tours: ignore anyone offering a free trip to a painting school or textile cooperative. Our guides take you to studios we know and pay no commission.
- Carry a light shawl in winter: mornings on the water are colder than you'd expect.
