Udaipur Travel Guide for Women: Everything You Need to Know

Udaipur sits at about 600 meters in a bowl of the Aravalli hills in southern Rajasthan, built around a chain of artificial lakes dug in the sixteenth century. Maharana Udai Singh II founded it in 1559 after Akbar took the Mewar capital at Chittorgarh, and the dynasty that ruled from here, the Sisodias of Mewar, claim the longest unbroken ruling lineage in the world, tracing back to the seventh century.

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Mewar's distinction was that it never submitted to the Mughals by marriage, unlike the other Rajput states, and Udaipur's architecture reflects a long, expensive habit of independence. The City Palace is the largest palace complex in Rajasthan.

For a visitor, the important practical fact is that Udaipur is gentler than the rest of Rajasthan. The altitude and the hills make it a few degrees cooler than Jaipur or Jodhpur and considerably greener, because the Aravallis catch more of the monsoon. The old city is walkable. The traffic is a fraction of the larger Rajasthani cities. The general noise and intensity that people find overwhelming about north India is dialled down here without being absent.

That makes it a good first city in India and the softest entry to Rajasthan. This guide covers safety and the scams honestly, the seasons, the districts and the trips out, transport, costs, accommodation and the packing list.

Is Udaipur Safe for Women Travelers

Udaipur is one of the more comfortable Indian cities for a woman travelling alone, and it is still India, where the honest answer involves specifics rather than reassurance.

Violent crime against tourists is rare. The old city is busy until late, the tourism economy is mature, and a great many women travel here alone without incident.

Staring is constant. It is usually curiosity rather than threat, it does not stop, and it is the thing most first-time visitors find hardest. Sunglasses help. So does covering shoulders and knees, which measurably reduces it.

Unwanted photography happens, particularly from groups of young men. You are allowed to say no, and saying it firmly works.

Touts and commission scams are the real nuisance here, and they are sophisticated. The pattern: a friendly stranger strikes up a conversation, becomes a guide, and steers you to a gem shop, a textile shop or a hotel where he takes a commission. Udaipur's specific version involves gemstones and miniature paintings. Nobody is going to hurt you; you will simply lose money and an afternoon. The defence is to be unembarrassed about declining help you did not request.

Autorickshaws after dark, alone, are the situation to avoid. Use a hotel car, a prepaid taxi, or Uber and Ola, both of which operate here.

The lanes on the far side of Lake Pichola, around Hanuman Ghat, are unlit in places and quiet late. Fine by day, worth a car at night.

Drink spiking and drugs are not a significant feature of Udaipur, which has little nightlife. Bhang, a cannabis preparation, is sold openly in some places as lassi and is stronger than visitors expect.

Useful numbers: 112 for all emergencies, 1091 the national women's helpline, 181 the women's distress helpline, and 1363 the 24-hour national tourist helpline in English. Rajasthan operates a tourist police unit present around the City Palace and the ghats.

Best Time to Visit Udaipur

October to March, the season

October and November: warm days at 28 to 32 degrees, mild nights, the monsoon just finished so the lakes are full and the hills still green. Arguably the best month is November.

December and January: the coolest. Daytime 24 to 27 degrees, which is perfect for walking, and nights dropping to 8 or 10, which at altitude with lake air feels colder. Rooftop dinners require a real layer, and very few hotels have heating. This is peak season, and the last week of December roughly doubles prices.

February and March: warming steadily to 30 to 34 degrees, clear, and excellent. The Mewar Festival falls in March or April with processions and boats on the lake.

April to June, hot

38 to 42 degrees. Sightseeing shifts to before ten and after five, and the middle of the day becomes a matter of shade and a fan. Prices drop substantially. The gardens and the Monsoon Palace are the places to be.

July to September, monsoon

The contrarian choice, and a genuinely beautiful one. The Aravallis turn green, the lakes fill, the waterfalls run and the light is extraordinary. It is also humid, wet in bursts, and occasionally disruptive to travel. Prices are at their lowest. If the lakes are low after a weak monsoon, which happens, some of the boat trips and the island palaces become inaccessible, so check before committing to a lake-focused trip in a drought year.

Recommended Tours and Experiences

Top Regions and What Each One Requires

The old city and Lake Pichola

Where you will spend most of your time. The City Palace on the eastern shore, four centuries of construction by successive maharanas, with courtyards, mirror work, a crystal gallery and the best museum in Rajasthan. The Jagdish Temple, an active seventeenth-century Vishnu temple in the middle of the lanes. Bagore ki Haveli, a merchant's mansion with a nightly dance performance. And the ghats, where the city washes, prays and sits.

On the lake, the Taj Lake Palace floats in the middle, and Jagmandir is the other island palace.

Terrain: narrow uneven lanes, steps, motorbikes, and cows. Walkable and occasionally claustrophobic.

Temperature: as the city, with the lakeside a degree or two cooler.

Pack: slip-on shoes for temples, covered shoulders and knees, a scarf, and a warm layer for rooftop evenings in winter.

Fateh Sagar, the gardens and the hills

North of the old city, Fateh Sagar lake has a lakeside road locals walk in the evening, an island garden and the solar observatory. Saheliyon ki Bari, the garden of the maidens, is a small eighteenth-century pleasure garden of fountains and lotus pools, and the coolest place in the city on a hot afternoon. Sajjangarh, the Monsoon Palace, sits on a hill above everything with the best sunset in Udaipur, inside a wildlife sanctuary with its own entry fee.

Terrain: flat lakeside, and a steep road up to the Monsoon Palace, usually done by taxi.

Pack: hat and water for the hill, a windproof layer at the top where it is exposed.

Day trips into Mewar

Ranakpur, two hours northwest, is one of the great buildings of India: a fifteenth-century Jain temple of 1,444 marble pillars, every one carved differently, in a forested valley. No leather whatsoever is allowed inside, which includes belts, handbags, camera straps and shoes, and it is enforced at the gate. Covered shoulders and knees. Photography rules are strict and there is a time window for non-worshippers.

Kumbhalgarh, also two hours, is a fifteenth-century hill fort with a 36-kilometre perimeter wall, the second longest continuous wall in the world after the Great Wall of China, and a UNESCO World Heritage site. This is a hot, exposed climb over uneven stone, not a walk around a monument.

Chittorgarh, two and a half hours, is the abandoned former Mewar capital, vast, and the site of three separate mass suicides by its defenders rather than surrender. Sobering rather than pretty.

Eklingji and Nagda, half an hour north, hold an important Shiva temple complex still used for worship.

Pack for all of these: proper closed shoes, two litres of water, a hat, sunscreen, and a leather-free outfit for Ranakpur.

What to Pack for Udaipur: Women's Packing List

The full detail is in the Udaipur packing list for women. The essentials:

Base layers. Two Roman Trail Women's Merino Wool Base Layers ($49-59) in long sleeve. The long sleeve does three jobs: it satisfies temple and palace dress codes, it protects you from sun on a rooftop or an open boat, and it keeps you warm on a December evening. Merino at 17.5 micron and 160 gsm manages the swing from a 27-degree afternoon to a 9-degree night better than anything of the same weight, and it stays fresh through several days of dust and heat, which matters where laundry takes a day.

Mid layer. The Columbia Women's Fast Trek II Jacket ($65), and pack it even though this is a hot country. December and January nights at altitude are cold, rooftop restaurants are colder, and almost no hotel here has heating.

Covered, loose clothing. Loose cotton or linen trousers, two or three pairs, a maxi or midi skirt, long tunics or sleeved shirts, and one smarter outfit for a Lake Palace dinner. A large light scarf, which is the most useful single item in an Indian suitcase: shoulders, head covering, sun, dust and an evening shawl. Buy a kurta locally on arrival; they cost very little and are better suited to the conditions than anything you brought.

Footwear. Slip-on sandals or shoes you can remove in seconds, because you will be taking them off at temples, shops and homes constantly. Closed walking shoes for the old city lanes and for Kumbhalgarh. The Darn Tough Women's Hiker Micro Crew Merino Socks ($28), two pairs, which manage heat and dust better than cotton and make hot temple floors bearable.

Accessories. A Wide Brim Sun Hat Women UPF 50 ($25), sunglasses, which also reduce the impact of being stared at, and high-factor sunscreen.

Health and hygiene. DEET Insect Repellent Spray ($12), since mosquitoes gather around the lakes at dusk and dengue is present in Rajasthan. Rehydration salts, hand sanitiser, two litres of water capacity filled only from sealed or filtered sources, a basic stomach kit, and prescriptions in original packaging.

Organisation and documents. The Eagle Creek Pack-It Cube Set ($59). Passport and the Indian e-visa, which must be obtained before travel for most nationalities, plus your accommodation address written in Hindi to show a driver.

The Lake Palace, and How to Actually See It

This causes more disappointment than anything else in Udaipur, so it is worth being direct about it.

The Taj Lake Palace, built between 1743 and 1746 as a royal summer residence and converted to a hotel in 1963, cannot be visited as a day tripper. Access is restricted to hotel guests and to people holding a confirmed restaurant reservation, and the boat from the palace jetty carries only those two groups. There is no walk-up and no tour.

Book dinner or afternoon tea directly with the hotel, well in advance. In December through February, and especially around Christmas and New Year, that means weeks to months rather than days. A card is required and the reservation is enforced.

Dress code: smart. No shorts, no beachwear, no flip flops. This is one of the two reasons to pack a decent outfit for this city.

The alternative, which many people prefer: a table on the terrace at Ambrai, or any of the rooftops on the Hanuman Ghat side, gives you the palace lit at sunset across the water for a small fraction of the price. Jagmandir, the other island palace, takes lunch and drinks bookings with far less difficulty.

Getting Around Udaipur

Walking is how you see the old city, and it is genuinely walkable, which is unusual in Rajasthan. Lanes are narrow, uneven and shared with motorbikes and cows.

Autorickshaws are everywhere and unmetered. Agree the fare before getting in, expect to pay two or three times the local rate as a visitor, and avoid using them alone after dark.

Uber and Ola both operate in Udaipur, which solves the fare negotiation problem entirely and is the best option for a woman travelling alone. Coverage is good in the city and thinner for day trips.

Hired car and driver is the standard way to do Ranakpur, Kumbhalgarh and Chittorgarh, and it is inexpensive by Western standards at roughly 2,500 to 4,000 rupees for a full day. Arrange through your hotel rather than on the street, and confirm whether the price includes fuel, tolls and the driver's food.

Trains: Udaipur City station connects to Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Mumbai. Overnight trains to Delhi and Jaipur are a good option; book AC2 or AC3 tier through IRCTC well ahead, as sleeper classes sell out. Women travelling alone generally report AC classes as comfortable and unremarkable.

Buses: the Rajasthan state buses reach everywhere cheaply. Private sleeper coaches run the long routes and vary enormously in quality.

Flights: Maharana Pratap Airport is 20 minutes out, with connections to Delhi and Mumbai.

Costs: What to Budget

Udaipur is inexpensive by international standards with a very high ceiling, because the palace hotels are among the most expensive rooms in Asia.

Budget, $20 to $35 a day: a guesthouse room at $8 to $18, thali meals and street food at $5 to $10, autorickshaws and walking, two or three site entries.

Mid-range, $50 to $90 a day: a good haveli hotel with a rooftop at $30 to $60, restaurant meals at $15 to $25, a hired car for a day trip, entries and a boat ride.

Higher end, $250 and up: the heritage and palace hotels from $180 to well over $1,000 at the Lake Palace and the Oberoi, private guides, and the palace dining rooms.

Specific costs: City Palace around 400 to 500 rupees for foreign visitors with the camera fee, the Crystal Gallery a separate 700 or so, Lake Pichola boat 400 to 900 depending on the hour with sunset dearest, Monsoon Palace around 100 plus the sanctuary fee, Bagore ki Haveli dance show around 150, Ranakpur around 200 with a camera fee, Kumbhalgarh around 600, a full-day car with driver 2,500 to 4,000, a thali 150 to 300, a rooftop dinner 600 to 1,200.

Money: the Indian rupee. ATMs are widespread and reliable in the city; carry cash for smaller places, rickshaws and temple donations. Cards work in hotels and better restaurants. UPI payment apps dominate locally but generally require an Indian bank account. Tipping: 10 percent in restaurants where no service charge is added, 50 to 100 rupees a day for a driver, and small amounts for hotel staff. Official fees and current site prices are published at tourism.rajasthan.gov.in.

Where to Stay: Hostels, Guesthouses and Hotels for Women

Lal Ghat and the old city is where most visitors stay, in converted havelis stepping down to the lake, most with a rooftop restaurant and a view of the City Palace. Rooms are often small and stairs are steep and numerous. The atmosphere is the point.

Hanuman Ghat, across the water, is quieter, has the best views back towards the palace, and a more bohemian feel with yoga and art schools. The lanes are unlit in places, so it is worth a car at night.

Fateh Sagar and the north has larger modern hotels, more space, and a twenty-minute ride from the old city.

Hostels: Udaipur has a good and growing hostel scene, with several well-run properties offering female dorms, rooftops and organised trips to Ranakpur and Kumbhalgarh. They are the easiest way to find other travellers for a shared car.

Heritage and palace hotels: the city's speciality, from modest family havelis at $40 to the Taj Lake Palace and the Oberoi Udaivilas at the other extreme.

What to check as a woman travelling alone: a lockable room with a solid door rather than a padlock, whether reception is staffed at night, how far the property is from a road a car can reach, and whether the rooftop is accessible. Read reviews written by solo women rather than the aggregate score, and be wary of guesthouses that also operate as gem or textile shops, which is where the commission scams originate. Book the last week of December months ahead.

Essential Resources for Women in Udaipur

Emergency numbers in India: 112 is the single national emergency number. 100 for police directly, 102 ambulance, 101 fire. 1091 is the national women's helpline and 181 the women's distress helpline.

Tourist police and assistance: Rajasthan operates a tourist police unit, visible around the City Palace and the main ghats, in identifiable uniform and generally English-speaking. The national tourist helpline is 1363, 24 hours, in English and several other languages.

US consular services: the US Consulate General in Mumbai covers Rajasthan, with the embassy in New Delhi. There is no consulate in Udaipur. Contact details and the after-hours emergency line are at in.usembassy.gov.

Main hospitals: Geetanjali Medical College and Hospital and American Hospital Udaipur are the private facilities visitors use, both with 24-hour emergency departments and English-speaking staff. Maharana Bhupal Government Hospital is the main public hospital. Private care requires payment or an insurance guarantee up front, so carry your insurer's emergency number separately from your phone.

Official health authority: the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare at mohfw.gov.in.

Official tourism authority: incredibleindia.gov.in nationally and tourism.rajasthan.gov.in for Rajasthan.

US State Department travel advisory for India: current advisory level and the state-by-state detail.

UK FCDO travel advice for India: entry requirements, safety and health guidance. Most nationalities need a visa in advance, available as an e-visa.

Solo women safety assessment: Udaipur is one of the easier places in India to travel alone as a woman, and the honest caveats are about wearing and attention rather than danger. Violent crime against visitors is rare and the old city is populated late. Staring is relentless and almost always just curiosity; sunglasses and covered shoulders and knees both reduce it. The genuine nuisance is the commission economy: a friendly stranger who becomes a guide and steers you to a gem or textile shop, and the cure is being unembarrassed about refusing help you did not ask for. Use Uber, Ola or a hotel car rather than autorickshaws alone after dark, and take a car back across to Hanuman Ghat at night, where the lanes are unlit. Drink only sealed or filtered water. Save 112, 1091 and 1363 in your phone, keep your hotel address written in Hindi, and expect to be treated with a good deal of warmth by people who are not trying to sell you anything.

Reading On

Udaipur is the softest landing in Rajasthan and a sensible first Indian city. The Udaipur packing list for women has the gear detail, the Rajasthan travel guide for women covers the state, and the India travel guide for women the country. Jaipur is the usual next stop, Delhi the likely arrival, and the Kerala travel guide for women covers a completely different India in the south. Nepal is the natural onward trip for anyone heading to the mountains. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for every destination. For why a merino long sleeve covers a temple dress code and a cold rooftop in the same trip, the merino wool base layer guide explains the fibre, and the full range is at Roman Trail women's merino base layers.

If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.