I have been to Udaipur 4 times and have loved it each time. So this time I took Swiss bunny and kids too. But India is not for everyone. You will see why.
Udaipur is a town nestled in the foothills of the Aravalli mountains in India. It used to be the capital of the kingdom of Mewar and boy, you feel the royalty everywhere you look.Building above was our Hotel #2. It was an actual palace until recently. These arches are hand painted.
But let’s begin chronologically; this is how we like to pop in this blog.
We had school holidays. The kids had afterall been to school from 830 am – 12pm every day for 6 straight weeks. So we went to India, worried about the returning monsoons and ensuing mosquitoes but hello, 2026 El Niño, there was no rain or mosquitoes.
The kids were very happy …
painting mummy’s floorcleaning all that dust awaygoing to cool indoor playgroundscreating “art”The kids were happy in Indore, me too, but Swiss bunny was losing his mind. So we decided to holiday somewhere more “holidayish”We began at 530 am from Indore, reached Udaipur at 1430. The road was fantastic all throughout but 8 hours for 400 km, why?This is why.This Volvo ad was no stunt. It was depicting daily commute for many people in India.Our first hotel – Burj Banera. It was just so very beautiful.Sunrise from the room. Thanks but no thanks C.It had some cool authentic photosA beautiful restaurant and really nice furniture inside And monkeys The first evening we went up to the Sajjangarh palace through a forest road. Road is an overstatement here. But the way up was very pretty.Sunset from Sajjangarh. It gets busy. For good reason.A day well spentBest alternative to a ghaghraThe next day we went to Saheliyon ki Badi, very reminiscent of Jardin Majorelle (not as nice)Had lunch at a stupidly expensive restaurantand moved into a new hotel (Fateh Prakash)The hotel is in the same complex as the city palace and quite classy. All guests get a golden embossed card. Whenever we waved it at the entrance, people treated us with so much more respect 😂But some guests didn’t behave very classy at allClassy hotel with not so classy guests
We had a very active time there, walking its infinite corridors (not by choice, to get anywhere one had to go through the hotel), hanging out in and by the pool, doing heritage walks, going for a boat ride, etc.
Boat tour Jal Mandir islandThey have loud parties here. Its awefulGangour ghatThis picture doesnt do the actual view justice We went on a sunset boatride. the buildings look even prettier in the golden lightview from breakfast Watching the city turn yellowThe hotel pool was not enoughWe picked up leaves and sometimes some trash too and coloured, sometimes also ourselves. We ran though courtyards, ate long meals at the hotel restaurant, hung out with the locals and tourists at a temple to watch the city turn yellow, then orange, then yellow again against an inky sky.
The last evening we ate at some random place with very innovative food. We would gladly visit Udaipur again; yet we wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. You need to be a certain kind of traveller to enjoy India. You need to be able to look the other way.
There is a lot you do not see in the pictures – the smells, the sounds, the litter, the hunger, and the ADHD level of chaos playing out in front of you
One needs some resilience to enjoy India (and life!) and to not let the negatives drown the positives. We hope we can teach at least two little Swiss bunnies that.
