Where to Stay in Udaipur: Old City Haveli, Lakeside Apartment or Aravalli Villa?

Udaipur gives you three genuinely different stays, and the right one depends less on budget than on where you want to wake up. The old city puts you within a kilometre of City Palace, on foot. The Fateh Sagar side gives you an apartment with a hill-view balcony and a caretaker. The Aravalli foothills give you a whole house with a pool and room for twenty. Most people book the wrong one because they compared photographs instead of distances.

Viraalay runs homes in all three pockets, so this is written from the inside. Here is how the city actually splits, and which kind of stay suits which trip.

The three Udaipurs

1. The old city, around Chabila Bheru Marg and Teliwara

This is the lattice of lanes behind City Palace, where the havelis are. Staying here means City Palace is roughly a kilometre away, Karni Mata Temple about two and a half, and Udaipur Junction three. You walk to Gangaur Ghat for sunrise, eat dinner on a rooftop, and never book a cab.

What you give up is space and parking. Old city houses are vertical, built around courtyards and staircases, and the lanes are narrow enough that a large vehicle will not reach the door. There are no lawns and no full-size pools here.

Our property in this pocket is The Blue Root, a five-bedroom heritage home where the rooms carry their old names, Darikhana, Badi Medhi, Choti Medhi, Ori and Aakashiya. You can take one room or the whole house.

2. The Fateh Sagar and Badgaon side

North-west of the centre, around Manoharpura and Tiger Hills, is where Udaipur actually lives. Fateh Sagar is a few kilometres away, Lake Pichola around nine, Sajjangarh ten. Roads are wide, there is parking, and it is far enough from the tourist grid to feel like a city rather than a monument.

This is apartment territory, and apartments suit a specific kind of trip better than villas do: four to six people, a stay of a week or more, someone in the group who needs to work, or a family that wants a kitchen and a lift rather than a lawn. Our Lakecity Apartments are four separate 2BHKs in this belt, each with a balcony facing the Aravallis, workstations in both bedrooms, and a caretaker on site.

3. The Aravalli foothills and the outskirts

Twelve to forty kilometres out, depending on the direction, land opens up. This is where the villas are, and where the pools, gardens and bonfires live. Debari to the east, Badi to the north-west, Kasniyawad further out towards the hills.

Distances vary more than people expect, so it is worth being precise. Kvanya Mansion in Debari is about 11 km from Maharana Pratap Airport but roughly 16 km from City Palace. The Horizon Villa off Badi Hawala Road is 27 km from the airport and 8.5 km from City Palace, with Shilpgram a two and a half kilometre drive away. The Brindha Villa at Kasniyawad is the furthest, around 38 km from the airport, and the most rural, with a freshwater stream running past the front of the house.

Pick by which end of your trip matters more: the airport or the lakes.

Matching the stay to the trip

A couple, two or three nights, first time in Udaipur. Old city, one room at a heritage home. You will spend your waking hours out anyway, and walking back through the lanes at night is the memory people keep.

A family of four to six, a week or longer. An apartment on the Fateh Sagar side. Kitchen, laundry, a lift, groceries nearby, and a rate that does not punish you for staying ten days instead of three.

A group of ten to twenty. A villa in the foothills. Nothing in the old city holds that many people, and splitting a group across four apartments defeats the purpose of travelling together.

Anyone travelling with elderly parents. Avoid the old city. Heritage homes mean staircases, and Blue Root's best rooms are on the first and second floors. An apartment or a villa with ground-floor bedrooms is the kinder choice.

A workation or a long project deployment. Apartments, in either city. Every Lakecity bedroom has its own workstation, which matters when two people on the trip both have calls.

When to come

October to March is the season, and November and February are the best of it: cool mornings, warm afternoons, and crowds that have not peaked. December and January are beautiful but school holidays and the wedding calendar push rates up and clear out the good properties by October.

July to September is genuinely underrated. The lakes fill, the Aravallis turn green, and Udaipur looks better in the monsoon than at any other point in the year. April to June regularly crosses forty degrees, which makes a villa with a pool less of a luxury and more of a requirement.

Building the days

A few timings that shape a Udaipur itinerary more than anything else. City Palace opens at 9:30 AM and the first hour is the difference between a walk and a shuffle. Boat rides on Lake Pichola run from roughly 10 AM to 5:30 PM from the City Palace jetty, and the evening slot is worth the higher fare because the palace lights up as the sky turns. Sajjangarh, the Monsoon Palace, is the best sunset in the state, and the road up runs through a wildlife sanctuary, so arrive by 4:30 PM and expect peacocks. Bagore ki Haveli runs its folk dance show at 7 PM.

For a longer trip, Kumbhalgarh and Ranakpur sit around two and a half hours away and make a comfortable full day. Eklingji is much closer, roughly 20 km from most of the city, and Haldighati about 35.

Things worth knowing before you book anything in Udaipur

• Check the actual distance, not the city name. Two properties both described as "in Udaipur" can be twenty-five kilometres apart. Ask for the distance to City Palace and to the airport separately.
• Ask whether a Tempo Traveller can reach the door. In the old city, frequently not.
• Ask about the pool in winter. Between late October and mid-February, unheated water in Udaipur is cold enough that children will swim and adults will not.
• Ask what the kitchen serves. Every Viraalay home is a pure vegetarian kitchen. Breakfast is included with every stay, and lunch, dinner and high tea are arranged on request with at least twenty-four hours' notice.
• Check-in and check-out. Across our properties, check-in is 2:00 PM and check-out is 11:00 AM.

The short version

Old city for atmosphere and walking. Fateh Sagar for long stays, work and families of four to six. The foothills for groups, pools and the kind of evening that runs past midnight. If you tell us the headcount, the dates and roughly what the group wants to do with the days, we will pick from all three rather than push whichever is empty.

Browse our Udaipur homes.