Udaipur Diaries 3 days Itinerary

Ending the Year 2021 with unforgettable Udaipur trip. Whether it is "Yeh jawani hai deewani" capturing magnificent Udai villas, Gangaur ghat or Goliyon ki rasleela Ramleela or one of the richest people in the world Ambani's daughter wedding , Udaipur was always the most beautiful picturesque destinations for Bollywood giving us major FOMO.

Venice of the east has even inspired many Hollywood directors especially Octupassy(Bond movie) had shown mesmerizing Jag mandira and Sajjangarh palace. For couples it is both a romantic haven or as a travel enthusiast a great cultural heritage location with Massive palaces, forts, lakes, temple.

Since we were on our first anniversary trip we had planned both, romantic and travel part covering mostly everything.

Rang Sagar

Also we had made an itinerary and first stop was Restaurant Millet of Mewar but instead we went to "Khammaghani" as it was close and enroute to out hotel location. At around 4:30pm we reached and the restaurant was fully occupied, it took approx 30-35 minutes for us to get a place to sit. Restaurant is situated at Rang sagar lake and it's terrace view was splendid, then only we realized that people had pre booked the place for lake view eating experience. Udaipur cuisine comprises vegetarian dishes as the place is highly dominated by Jainism and Vaishnavism.

I was craving for Rajasthani authentic food so we ordered As expected food was Yumm!! We ordered Chicken Banjara kebabs, Gatte ki sabz and "Mewari Murg Dungar" Bill was Rs.1920/-. We asked the Guard outside restaurant to book us auto in reasonable price and he called a known for Rs 150. From Khammaghani to Hotel distance was 4kms.

OYO 9161 Hotel Janak Vilas

We reached our Hotel Janak Vilas. It was heritage property and very beautifully maintained. It was a haveli converted to hotel and gave us the glimpse of Rajputana Gharana. Booking this hotel has a back story too, we wanted to book Lake palace hotel or Jagat niwas or chunda palace mostly heritage property facing lake but they all were booked. Just FYI as i am writing this blog Udaipur has record breaking tourist this season. I will rate this property 5 star and must visit. It is centrally located just walking distance to entry gate of City Palace. Within 5 kms is "Karni mata temple" and "Jagdish temple" which you can cover by foot easily.

I had in advance told them to decorate the room to surprise my wife and when we went to the room even i was shocked to see the décor and the arrangements they made. It was so good and refreshing with Rose petals, clean décor, diye lighting and traditional things like that old telephones and lamps. Our evening plan involved dinner at "Upre" but we couldn't get the seat confirmed as it is also in high demand so i did a little scoop at the property especially rooftop restaurant and realized it was much better deal than anything. Mr Narendra the GM arranged a special dinner date at the rooftop with the mesmerizing city palace view, private guitarist, 3 course meal and drinks on the house for the special night. I must say we spend that day much more than we expected. Better planning could have been done with Leela but it was completely booked till 16th so nothing that we could have done.

City Palace

Day2: City palace/Jagmandir/Karni mata Temple

We woke up next morning and headed to the breakfast buffet by Hotel janak vilas. It was in rooftop, believe you me when i say this that we had one of the best tasting breakfast and to top it all it was beautiful sunny day.

Photo of City Palace, Old City, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India by shikhar

Jheel's cafe

Day3: Sajjangarh palace/Shopping/Fatehsagar lake

We rent a scooty for Rs300/-. The journey to the fort is through a hilly road which gives a Magnificient view of the city. An isolated palace is also known as "Monsoon palace", because it was built for weather predictions mainly Monsoon and originally planned for astronomical center which was not completed due to Maharana Sajjan singh death. It also has a cafe chunda ....we sat there after exploring the palace for 2 hrs and had a fresh cold pressed Watermelon juice.

Udaipur

Day 1: 10th of Dec the day we got hitched for a journey of lifetime. Celebrating our first Anniversary we chose Udaipur. City of lakes as famously called has the most romantic locations in India. Our flight was around 2:35 from Delhi and landed at Maharana Pratap airport at 3:35pm. Since we had already booked our hotel we thought of having lunch first and then head to the hotel. Let me tell you that local commuting in Udaipur is not cheap. Even a auto will take min. Rs100 for 2 to 3 km ride. Maharana Pratap airport is approx 25kms from the main town. Ola and local taxi were not ready to travel below 800rs. I somehow convinced an Ola driver to take me for Rs650.

After breakfast our first place was City palace whose gates were 500mtrs from our Hotel. We kept our bag in the hotel itself and headed straight to city palace. It has ticket of Rs 330 per person.

City palace foundation was laid by Maharana Udai singh II in 1553 an was built over period of 400years contributed by various Maharanas and that's why it has many rooms("Kaksh").The interiors of the palace complex with its balconies, towers and delicate mirror-work, marble-work, murals, wall paintings, silver-work, inlay-work and leftover of colored glass. The complex provides a view of the lake and the Udaipur city from its upper terraces. Recommended to take a guide so that the history can be relived. We had to also rush to Jag mandir whose entry is within the palace. We thought of completing the Jag mandir in the afternoon so that we can cover karni mata also.

Jagmandir

At around 2pm we went to the gates of entry to jag mandir. It is within the palace and it take around 40 mins ferry ride to Jag mandir. A beautiful palace built in lake Pichola. Named after last named Maharana Jagat Singh, it was a summer pleasing place for holding parties. For entry it took 30rs per person and for boat ride 500rs per person.(10 am to 2pm- 500rs and after 2 pm is 800rs). It has a restaurant inside so we decided to have lunch within Jag mandir after covering the place and taking lots of pics we had Veg biryani, kathi rolls and Beer. They don't have proper menu for food so one has to take what they offer.

Karni Mata Temple

After coming back we went straight to Karni mata since it has time of closing ropeway. In between we had Lemon tea from Mangal Chai shop while walking towards karni mata. We hired an auto and as i said earlier min. charge is 100rs going anywhere. Since it was a saturday, we didn't knew that there would be so much of waiting. So they have like 6 Chambers, out of which they offer either regular or couples or group of 4 to 6 people separate. Sabke alag charges hai. We took there regular ones as their price was cheapest i.e 119rs per person. We had to wait till 6 even after reaching there by 4:30 to get our turns on ropeway. Our entire plan of capturing sunset was ruined. No matter we went and had our darshan. Even while coming back they have waiting as per the number. Although it has a proper restaurant for waiting, we had to wait again 45mins to get our turns back.

While we wasted so much time waiting we canceled our plan for Jagdish temple and headed to our next booked hotel(Actually hostel) goStops. On the way we had made our deal with the auto guy that covering Sajjangarh palace, leaving us to shop and the to Lunch will give him 500rs. Otherwise best way is rent a scooty which is available in old town easily. We had cancelled our Dinner plan on the night of 10th so we decided to either try Upre or Harigarh palace. Both are equally good an amazing ambience they had overlooking Lake Pichola and City palace which look beautiful at night with all the lights it turns golden completely. Both were just on walking distance from goStops. We finally settled in Harigarh.

Photo of Karni Mata Temple, Jawahar Nagar, Pichola, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India by shikhar

Sajjangarh fort udaipur

Next morning as per the plan we had to explore Sajjangarh palace but before that we went for breakfast at a rooftop restaurant "Jheels" suggested by a friend. It has a 2nd floor dining and rooftop and again packed with people like us exploring places. I met an friend after 10 years who suggested this place and made our plan for the evening. We then went to the palace, it has a ticket of 90rs per person and 45rs for 2 wheeler entrance and palace is situated around 20mins distance from the main entrance gate. One can either rent a scooty or car which has fixed charges.

We returned back and went straight to the market "Hathi pol". A famous market for local artisans. Sunday the market remains closed but they opened it till half so we tried our luck. After spending quite a time purchasing we went for lunch to the restaurant we missed at day 1, "Millet of Mewar".

Millets Of Mewar - Best Restaurant in Udaipur

They had written on board outside that it is the 6th healthiest Restaurants of India. Mainly based of millets since they are healthy and traditionally grown rooted 5000years in Indian history. They serve delicious Millet tikki, Millet bhelpuri, pancakes made of Ragi. A must visit eatery, even the owners are so humble and you can learn so much from their journey.

FatehSagar Lake Udaipur

After having a wonderful dinner our next stop was "Fatehsagar lake". We hired another auto and went to the lake around sunset. One can feel the Mumbai chowpatti vibes at this place, loaded with road side vendors and beautiful lake alongside one can easily spend hours at the evening. I was their to try Sagar's Kulhad coffee.

We were picked by our friend spent the rest of the night partying at his place. Almost forget to mention "Pandit ji lemon tea", a place visited by various food blogger is also once a try.