Udaipur × Mount Abu

Trip highlights

• Sunset boat on Lake Pichola, past the Taj Lake Palace as the ghats light up
• 900-year-old marble carving at the Dilwara Temples, the finest in India, and most people have never seen it
• A free afternoon in Udaipur and a free morning in Mount Abu, this is four days doing three days of sightseeing
• Gangaur Ghat and the Jagdish Temple at golden hour, two minutes off the City Palace ramp and skipped by most of the boat crowd
• Dharohar folk dance and puppetry at Bagore Ki Haveli, seats booked ahead so you are not standing at the back
• Sunrise from Guru Shikhar, the highest point in the Aravallis at 1,722m, on a morning you slept properly before
• Rooftop dinner at Ambrai Ghat, facing the floodlit City Palace across the water
• Bonfire night above Nakki Lake on the last evening, capped at 18 people who booked the same weekend

Where you sleep

Named, not “3-star or similar”.

Full itinerary, day by day

1. 1

   Udaipur: a free afternoon, the ghats and the lake at last light

   Land in Udaipur late morning and check into a boutique haveli inside the old city. The rest of the afternoon is deliberately yours — lunch on your own, a nap if the flight was early, or an hour in the lanes around the haveli, which are the best part of the city and cost nothing. We start properly at 4.15pm with the five-minute walk down to Gangaur Ghat and the Jagdish Temple, both a step off the main tourist track and both at their best in golden-hour light. At 5.30pm we board a private boat on Lake Pichola for the last of it, out past Jag Mandir and the Taj Lake Palace as the ghats start lighting up. Back on shore, Bagore Ki Haveli runs the 7pm Dharohar show two minutes from where the boat lands — Rajasthan's classical and folk repertoire under one roof, including the Kalbeliya and the head-balanced pot dance. We book seats for anyone who wants them, and if you would rather keep the evening slow, skip it and go straight up to the roof. Dinner either way is at Ambrai Ghat, a rooftop table directly across the water from a floodlit City Palace, the single best table in the city, booked well in advance.

   • 11:00 AM — Arrival and check-in at the haveli*
   • Free afternoon — lunch on your own, the old city lanes
   • 4:15 PM — Gangaur Ghat and Jagdish Temple, a hidden gem 5 min walk away*
   • 5:30 PM — Sunset boat ride on Lake Pichola past Jag Mandir*
   • 7:00 PM — Dharohar dance show at Bagore Ki Haveli, optional*
   • 8:30 PM — Rooftop dinner at Ambrai Ghat facing the City Palace*
   Breakfast not includedLunch not includedDinner includedBoutique haveli, Udaipur old city
2. 2

   The City Palace in the morning, the Aravallis in the afternoon

   The City Palace opens at 9.30am and the first hour is the quiet one, before the tour groups are funnelled through the same three courtyards. Give it two hours with the Crystal Gallery — the largest palace complex in Rajasthan, four hundred years of maharanas adding courtyards on top of each other, and a room of English cut crystal ordered in 1877 by a ruler who died before it arrived. Back to the haveli, check out, and we are on the road west by half twelve with lunch somewhere on the way. The drive is four hours and in August it is not a transfer, it is the best scenery of the trip: the Aravallis turn green exactly once a year and this is the month, with cloud sitting in the valleys and the ghat road wet and dark from the last shower. Into the hillside resort around five, with enough light left for a first walk down to Nakki Lake if you want it. Dinner at the resort and an early night, because tomorrow starts before sunrise and we would rather you were awake for it.

   • 9:30 AM — City Palace complex and the Crystal Gallery*
   • 12:30 PM — Depart for Mount Abu, 4 hr scenic drive, lunch en route*
   • 5:00 PM — Check-in at the hillside resort*
   • Evening — Nakki Lake on your own if there is light left
   • 7:30 PM — Dinner at the resort, early night before the sunrise*
   Breakfast includedLunch not includedDinner includedHillside resort, Mount Abu
3. 3

   Guru Shikhar at sunrise, Dilwara, and the bonfire

   A 5.30am start for Guru Shikhar, the highest point in the Aravallis at 1,722m — a short drive plus a climb of around 300 steps to the Datta temple at the top. On a clear monsoon morning you are standing above the cloud and looking down at it sitting in the valleys. This is the one early start on the trip and it is deliberately placed here, after a full night, rather than after the bonfire. Back to the resort for breakfast by eight, and then the morning is yours to do nothing with. Dilwara opens to sightseers only from midday, worship hours run earlier for Jain devotees, so we go at half twelve: five Jain temples built between the 11th and 13th centuries, carved from marble so thin the light comes through it. No phones, cameras or leather inside, shoulders and knees covered. Mid-afternoon is Nakki Lake for the Toad Rock walk and the valley sunset, boating on your own if you feel like it. The bonfire is tonight, the last night, with dinner around it and nothing at all to be up for in the morning.

   • 5:30 AM — Depart for Guru Shikhar*
   • 6:15 AM — Sunrise at Guru Shikhar (1,722m), highest point in the Aravallis*
   • 8:00 AM — Breakfast at the resort*
   • Free morning — rest, or the resort, or nothing
   • 12:30 PM — Dilwara Jain Temples, tourist entry opens at noon*
   • 3:00 PM — Nakki Lake, the Toad Rock walk and sunset over the valley*
   • 7:30 PM — Bonfire evening and dinner at the resort*
   Breakfast includedLunch not includedDinner includedHillside resort, Mount Abu
4. 4

   The slow way back: Sajjangarh, and out

   No alarm. Breakfast properly, check out at half nine, and take the ghat road back down through the hills — the same four hours in reverse, and just as green. We come into Udaipur over the ridge rather than through the traffic, stopping at Sajjangarh, the Monsoon Palace, which was built in 1884 for exactly this weather and looks out over both lakes at once. An hour there is plenty. That still leaves the late afternoon free in the city for a last lunch, anything you missed on the first day, or simply sitting somewhere with a view of the water. We get you to the airport or the station by 6pm, so an 8pm flight out is comfortable.

   • 9:30 AM — Relaxed breakfast and check-out*
   • 10:00 AM — Return drive to Udaipur through the Aravallis*
   • 2:00 PM — Sajjangarh Monsoon Palace, views over both lakes*
   • 3:30 PM — Free time in Udaipur, late lunch on your own*
   • 6:00 PM — Airport / railway station drop*
   Breakfast includedLunch not includedDinner not included

* All timings are indicative and subject to change with weather, traffic, local conditions and monument hours. The order of the days and everything included in them stays as written.

Who runs this trip

One person is with the group the whole way. This is them.

Inclusions, exclusions & packing list