A kingdom told in four places
The four places on this route are not a random selection. They are the chapters of one story: the old capital, the mountain refuge, the great temple of the kingdom's golden age, and the lake city that was built after catastrophe.
The Sisodias: Mewar is their old kingdom, the Rajput house that ruled the hills and plains of southern Rajasthan for well over a thousand years.
Servants of a god: its rulers took the title of Maharana, and saw themselves as servants of Eklingji, the form of Shiva worshipped north of Udaipur, held to be the true king.
- Nights
- Six: Udaipur 2, Kumbhalgarh 1, Ranakpur 1, Chittorgarh 2
- Pace
- Short hill drives, forts at dawn and dusk
- Best months
- October to March, and July to September
- Good for
- Second-time visitors and lovers of architecture
- Starts
- Udaipur airport at Dabok
- Ends
- Chittorgarh, about two hours from Udaipur
- Mewar's pride: its resistance to the Mughals, kept alive in song by its bards.
- Read more: our Mewar region page and our journal on the Mewar royal family.
- Chittorgarh, the old capital: Chittorgarh was the capital from the eighth century until 1568, a city on a great rock above the plains.
- Three sieges: in 1303, 1535 and 1567 to 1568. Their stories of courage and sacrifice are told in every Rajput home.
- Rana Kumbha, the builder: in the fifteenth century he raised the tower of victory at Chittorgarh and built the mountain fortress of Kumbhalgarh, whose wall runs for about 36 kilometres over the ridges.
- Ranakpur: in his reign a Jain minister founded the marble temple of Ranakpur on land the king granted.
- The lake city: when Chittorgarh fell to Akbar in 1568, the court moved for good to Udaipur, founded by Udai Singh II beside Lake Pichola in 1559.
- Maharana Pratap: his son, believed to have been born at Kumbhalgarh, fought the Mughals at Haldighati in 1576 and spent much of his life in the hills rather than submit.
- Close together: unlike the long desert journeys, the drives are short and green, past lakes, terraced fields and villages where women carry water in brass pots.
- Why second-timers love it: it suits guests who have already seen Jaipur and the Golden Triangle and want to go deeper.
Day by day through the hills of Mewar
- Udaipur to Nathdwara
- About 48 km, an hour
- Udaipur to Kumbhalgarh
- About 85 km, two and a half hours
- Kumbhalgarh to Ranakpur
- About an hour
- Ranakpur to Chittorgarh
- Four to five hours, via Rajsamand
- Chittorgarh to Udaipur
- About two hours
- Chittorgarh to Bundi
- About three hours
Days 1-2: Udaipur
Arrive at Dabok: Maharana Pratap Airport is about 22 kilometres east of the city, where our team meets you. Drive to your hotel by the lake and rest.
Pichola before sunset: a private boat on Lake Pichola, first dammed in the fourteenth century, past the ghats, the Lake Palace and Jag Mandir.
Timed for the light: so you are mid-lake as the City Palace turns from cream to amber.
- The City Palace at opening: enter the City Palace before the tour groups and climb straight to the top courtyards.
- Look for: the glass peacocks of the Mor Chowk, and the garden courtyard of the Badi Mahal at the top of a natural hill.
- Down through the lanes: to the Jagdish Temple and Gangaur Ghat.
- A painter's studio: after lunch and a rest.
- The Monsoon Palace at sunset: drive up to the Monsoon Palace for the view over the lakes.
- More ideas: our things to do in Udaipur page.
Day 3: Eklingji, Nathdwara and Kumbhalgarh
North into the hills: after breakfast.
Nagda and Eklingji: the carved Sas-Bahu temples, then the temple of Eklingji, the deity whose servants the Maharanas considered themselves.
- Nathdwara: the pilgrim town of Shrinathji. We time the visit to Nathdwara for a darshan, the moment the shrine opens for worshippers.
- The pichwai painters: walk through their lane. Our journal on Nathdwara and Shrinathji explains what you will see.
- Kumbhalgarh by mid-afternoon: rest, then go up around four.
- Badal Mahal: climb to the palace of clouds for the late light over the hills.
- The light and sound show: the story of Rana Kumbha, the escape of the infant Udai Singh with his nurse Panna Dhai, and the birth of Maharana Pratap. Our guide translates quietly.
- Why we stay the night: the lit walls afterwards are the main reason.
Day 4: the wall at sunrise, then Ranakpur
On the wall at sunrise: with a guide and a flask of chai.
A white sea: in winter the valleys often fill with mist at dawn, and the wall seems to float above it.
- A quiet stretch: either side of the main gates, past ruined temples, while the stone is cool. Our journal on the Kumbhalgarh wall walk has our favourite routes.
- Down through the forest: about an hour west on a winding road through the sanctuary to Ranakpur. See things to do near Kumbhalgarh.
- Rest first: check in near the temple.
- The first visit, late afternoon: when the light turns the marble gold and many of the day's coaches have gone, walk into the Chaumukha temple.
- Don't read anything yet: just walk among the 1,444 pillars, by tradition no two alike, and let the scale sink in.
- The Sun temple: finish there as the sun drops behind the hills.
Day 5: Ranakpur in the morning, then the road to Chittor
A forest walk: after an early breakfast, with a naturalist, looking for langurs and parakeets.
The temple again: with a guide as visiting hours begin. This time look closely.
- What to look for: the carved serpent canopy above Parshvanath, the dancers in the domes, and the four faces of Adinath turned to the four directions. Our Ranakpur temple guide explains more.
- To Chittorgarh: leave by late morning, about four to five hours through the hills and across the plain.
- Rajsamand: we break the drive at the great lake that Maharana Raj Singh built in the seventeenth century.
- The Nauchowki: on its marble embankment, long stone tablets carved with a Sanskrit history of Mewar, said to be the longest such inscription in India.
- Castle Bijaipur: about an hour beyond Chittorgarh, for a late afternoon by the pool.
Days 6-7: Chittorgarh
The fort as it opens: leave early for Chittorgarh Fort, about 280 hectares on a plateau about 180 metres above the plain, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Seven gates: drive up through them, stopping at the memorials to the defenders.
While the courtyards are quiet: the palace of Rana Kumbha, and the Meera and Kumbha Shyam temples.
- Two towers: in the late morning, the Vijay Stambha, the nine-storey tower of victory raised by Rana Kumbha, and the older Jain tower of fame, the Kirti Stambha.
- When the heat fades: the spring-fed tank of Gaumukh Kund, the Kalika Mata temple and Padmini's palace beside its pool.
- Sunset: on the western ramparts over the plains.
- Read before you go: Chittorgarh in a day and the story of Rani Padmini and Chittor.
- Meera Bai: the Rajput princess who married into the Mewar royal family in the early sixteenth century and gave her whole devotion to Krishna. Her bhajans are still sung across north India.
- Jauhar, told with care: the stories of the fort women's mass self-immolation during the sieges are told in Mewar with deep reverence. We separate what the chronicles record from what the ballads add.
- The second evening: dinner in the courtyard at Castle Bijaipur, or the fort's light and sound show, which our guide translates.
- Day seven: drive to Udaipur's airport in about two and a half to three hours, take a train from Chittorgarh junction towards Jaipur or Delhi, or continue to Bundi, about three hours away, for its painted palace and stepwells.
How to read what you are seeing
Around the hill, not on top: at Kumbhalgarh and Chittorgarh, the walls follow the ridge.
The pol: each gate is set at an angle to the last, so an attacking army, or an elephant with a battering ram, could never build up speed.
Inside: the palace sits on the highest ground, with temples, water tanks and whole villages around it.
- Pol
- A fort gate, set at an angle
- Jharokha
- A projecting screened balcony
- Chhatri
- A domed pavilion on slender pillars
- Chaumukha
- A four-faced temple
- Built to hold out: for months, and every fort had its own water.
- The vocabulary: our guide to reading Rajasthani architecture.
- The jharokha: the projecting balcony window with its carved screen, from which royal women could watch without being seen.
- The chhatri: the domed pavilion appears everywhere, on rooftops, at the corners of walls and over the cremation sites of kings.
- Go further: our journal pieces on what a jharokha is and what a chhatri is.
- Ranakpur, the opposite of a fort: open, luminous and built for the spirit.
- Four faces: a chaumukha temple, with an image of Adinath facing each direction, so the building opens outwards to the whole world.
- The domes: a forest of marble pillars carries them, each carved from below into concentric rings of dancers, musicians and flowers.
- Changing marble: natural light falls between the domes, and the stone seems to change colour with the hour.
- A great achievement: the Jain tradition of building such temples, with immense care and without concern for cost. Our page on faith and temples in Rajasthan puts it in context.
- Udaipur's language is water: its palaces were built to be seen from the lake and to look at it. Sit on a boat in the middle of Pichola and the city finally makes sense.
Visiting temples with respect
Dress modestly: shoulders and knees covered at Ranakpur, Nathdwara, Eklingji and the temples of Chittorgarh. A light scarf or shawl is useful.
Shoes off: at the entrance. At Ranakpur, leather items such as belts and bags are usually left outside too, in keeping with Jain rules.
- Photography: rules differ from temple to temple and change over time. Nathdwara does not allow cameras in the shrine. Our guides will tell you on the day.
- Visiting hours: for non-Jain visitors at Ranakpur they are set by the temple trust, and darshan at Nathdwara follows the deity's own daily schedule, so we plan around them.
- Around shrines: walk clockwise, keep your voice low and never touch a sacred image. Our page on temple etiquette has more.
Where you'll stay
Udaipur
The island: the Taj Lake Palace, built between 1743 and 1746 as a summer palace, covers almost its whole island and is reached only by boat.
- The shore: The Oberoi Udaivilas spreads along the western shore of Pichola.
- Inside the City Palace: Fateh Prakash Palace and Shiv Niwas Palace let you walk the courtyards after the visitors have gone.
- Compare them all: our Udaipur hotel guide.
Kumbhalgarh
No palace hotel inside the fort: and that is part of its charm.
- Below the walls: a handful of heritage-style resorts on the slopes, a few minutes from the gate, with gardens, pools and forest views. Comfortable rather than grand, and we choose the one that suits you.
- A hill palace instead: RAAS Devigarh at Delwara, between Udaipur and Kumbhalgarh, is an eighteenth-century palace turned into a calm modern hotel.
- The details: our guide to hotels near Kumbhalgarh.
Ranakpur
In the valley: a few hotels sit near the temple, including Fateh Bagh, a heritage property rebuilt here from an older building, which makes the late and early visits effortless.
- Our favourite nearby: Rawla Narlai, a former royal hunting lodge in the village of Narlai, where dinner is served by a lamplit stepwell.
- A family palace: Deogarh Mahal, still run by its noble family, lies further north, beyond Kumbhalgarh.
Chittorgarh
Castle Bijaipur: Castle Bijaipur is a sixteenth-century castle in a village about an hour from the fort.
- What's there: a courtyard garden, a pool and rooms looking out over the Vindhyan hills.
- Family-run: by the family who own it, and our favourite base for this part of Mewar.
- Other options: our guide to hotels near Chittorgarh, including heritage hotels in the town.
Mewar at the table and in the workshop
A Mewari thali: dal baati, gatte in yoghurt curry and makki ki raab, a warm maize porridge that is a winter breakfast in the villages.
Near Ranakpur: the food is strictly vegetarian, often without onion or garlic, in keeping with the temple's traditions.
- At Nathdwara: the temple kitchens make sweets and savouries as offerings to Shrinathji, and families queue to buy the blessed food.
- More dishes: our Udaipur food guide.
- Miniature painting: Udaipur's painters still work with squirrel-hair brushes and stone pigments.
- Pichwai: Nathdwara's painters make these large cloth paintings of Krishna that hang behind the image of Shrinathji. Our journal on pichwai paintings explains how to read them.
- The studios we visit: our guide to miniature painting names the kind we choose.
When to go
October to March: the classic time, with warm, clear days, cool nights and lakes usually full after the rains.
Chilly mornings: in December and January on the Kumbhalgarh ramparts and on early boats in Udaipur, so bring a warm layer.
Chittorgarh is hotter: it lies on the plains, so in the shoulder months we start there at opening time.
- February or March
- Holi, with the royal Holika in Udaipur
- March or April
- Gangaur and the Mewar Festival
- Early December
- Kumbhalgarh Festival
- Navratri
- Kalika Mata temple, Chittorgarh
- Janmashtami
- Nathdwara's great festival
- The monsoon, July to September: the Aravallis turn a deep, startling green.
- What the rains bring: clouds drift through the Badal Mahal, streams run in the valley at Ranakpur, Udaipur's lakes fill and the Monsoon Palace finally makes sense.
- Monsoon caveats: paths can be slippery and plans need some flexibility. Our Monsoon in Mewar journey is built around the season.
- Holi: in February or March, and in Udaipur the royal household keeps its own Holika ceremony at the City Palace.
- Gangaur: in March or April, with processions to the lake at Gangaur Ghat and Udaipur's Mewar Festival at the same time.
- Dancers at the fort: the Kumbhalgarh Festival in early December.
- April to June: hot, often near 40°C, so we keep sightseeing to early mornings and evenings.
Make it yours
Shorter
- Four nights: two in Udaipur and two at Rawla Narlai, seeing Kumbhalgarh and Ranakpur from there.
- Chittorgarh as a day out: a long one from Udaipur. Our Udaipur itinerary shows how.
Longer
More lake: a third night in Udaipur.
- Leopards: two nights at Jawai after Ranakpur, among the granite.
- More marble: Mount Abu and the Dilwara temples.
- Hadoti: continue from Chittorgarh to Bundi. Our offbeat Rajasthan journey links Chittorgarh with Bundi and Dungarpur.
Towards Jodhpur
- North into Marwar: many guests turn from Ranakpur and finish in Jodhpur instead of Chittorgarh.
- The route: our Mewar and Marwar journey, and our journal on Udaipur to Jodhpur via Ranakpur.
For couples and families
Couples: love the Lake Palace and a candlelit dinner on Jag Mandir.
- Families: enjoy the boats, the forts and the forest walks, and we keep temple visits shorter for children.
- More ideas: our Udaipur romance journey and our family journeys.
How we look after you
A private chauffeur and car: from Udaipur to Chittorgarh, with every drive kept short and timed for the light.
Local guides: for each fort and temple, who tell Mewar's stories with care and separate history from legend.
- Planned around the hours: wall walks, forest walks and temple visits around sunrise, visiting hours and darshan times.
- On the lake: a private boat on Pichola and, if you wish, a dinner on Jag Mandir or a concert in a courtyard.
- Arrivals and onward travel: meetings at Udaipur airport, and trains or drives from Chittorgarh booked for you.
- Your planner on WhatsApp: throughout, ready to change a dinner, a drive or a whole day.
- No published prices: the hotels, rooms and season change them. After one conversation we send a written plan and a clear quote.
- What drives cost: our page on what a luxury Rajasthan journey costs.
Who will love it, and who should choose another journey
Going deeper: you will love it if you have seen the Golden Triangle and want more.
Architecture, history and craft: if you love them.
- Love it
- Architecture, history and craft lovers
- Also
- Couples and curious families
- Driving
- Very little
- Not here
- Desert or wildlife
- Short and beautiful: if you want a journey with very little driving.
- Who it suits: couples, curious families, and travellers who would rather spend two hours inside one great temple than ten minutes in five.
- No desert, no wildlife: neither is on this route.
- Dunes and camps: take Under the Thar Sky.
- Tigers and leopards: choose Palaces and Tigers.
- A first visit to India: the Golden Triangle and Udaipur is the better start.
