How much does a trip to Udaipur cost?

What Udaipur costs

Udaipur is cheap for Rajasthan and expensive for India, and the reason is simple: it is the one Rajasthani city where the view is the product. Lake-facing rooms and rooftop restaurants command a premium that Jaipur and Jodhpur do not. Away from the lake, prices drop to normal.

🎟️ Sightseeing

• City Palace — sources differ for 2026: some list ₹250 Indian / ₹500 foreign for the palace, others ₹300 / ₹700 for the palace museum specifically. Confirm at the gate and expect the museum to be a separate or higher ticket than palace grounds access.
• City Palace Museum — ₹300 Indian / ₹700 foreign, 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM
• Crystal Gallery, inside the palace — ₹750 for everyone, Indian and foreign alike. The rare Indian monument with no two-tier pricing. Extraordinary, and the single most expensive ticket in the city.
• Lake Pichola boat — ₹400–600 adult day, ₹700–900 sunset, ₹200–600 child. The lake itself is free.
• Jag Mandir island palace — about ₹400 including the boat
• Fateh Sagar boat — ₹30–50
• Bagore ki Haveli and the Dharohar folk dance show — small entry plus about ₹100–200 for the evening performance, which starts around 7:00 PM and sells out. The best-value hour of entertainment in Rajasthan.
• Saheliyon ki Bari — a small fee, roughly ₹10–50
• Jagdish Temple, Gangaur Ghat, the ghats, the old-city lanes — free
• Sunset from Ambrai Ghat or the Fateh Sagar drive — free, and better than anything paid

A three-sight day — City Palace museum, the sunset Lake Pichola boat, and Bagore ki Haveli — covers the best of Udaipur for about ₹800–1,000 for an Indian visitor and ₹1,200–1,500 for a foreign one. That is genuinely cheap for what you get.

🛏️ Where you sleep

• Hostel dorm, old city — ₹400–900
• Guesthouse without a lake view — ₹800–2,000
• Guesthouse or haveli hotel with a lake view — ₹2,500–6,000. This is the buy. A restored haveli room looking at the City Palace and the lake costs less than a business hotel room in Delhi.
• Boutique hotel — ₹4,000–12,000
• The lake palaces — Taj Lake Palace (on an island in Lake Pichola, reachable only by boat) and Taj Fateh Prakash Palace run ₹40,000–1,50,000+ a night. Among the most expensive hotels in India, and the reason Udaipur appears on every luxury list.

A three-night budget trip runs about ₹5,300 solo; a mid-range couple about ₹25,500 for three nights including food, local transport, sightseeing and one day trip.

October to March is peak and the lake-view rooms book out weeks ahead. Book early for Diwali, Christmas and New Year. Monsoon (July–September) is the secret season — the lakes are full, the Aravallis are green, and rates drop 30–50%. April to June is hot.

🍛 Food

• Thali at a local dhaba — ₹80–150
• Street food (kachori, samosa, poha) — ₹20–60 an item
• Dal baati churma — ₹150–300. The Rajasthani signature: hard wheat balls baked over cow-dung embers, cracked open and drowned in ghee, with lentil curry and sweet crumbled churma.
• Full Rajasthani thali — ₹200–400
• Laal maas — ₹300–500. Fiery red mutton curry, the Rajput dish, and the thing to order if you eat meat and can handle heat.
• Ghevar — ₹30–80. The disc-shaped monsoon sweet.
• Fresh sugarcane juice — ₹20–30
• Chai and snacks — ₹15–30
• Rooftop dinner with a lake view — ₹800–2,000 for two. You are paying for the view and it is worth it once.

Udaipur is a strongly vegetarian city — more so than Jaipur. Most old-city restaurants are pure-veg, and many do not serve onion or garlic. Laal maas and other meat dishes are available but you have to look for them.

Named places worth knowing: Natraj Dining Hall for the Rajasthani thali near Town Hall, Krishna Dal Bati Restro for dal baati churma, Santosh Bhojnalaya for cheap authentic vegetarian, and on the rooftop-and-view side Ambrai (lakeside, facing the City Palace), Upre by 1559 AD, Jagat Niwas Palace Rooftop, Jheel's Rooftop, Sun and Moon at Jagdish Chowk, and The Sunset Terrace at Fateh Prakash Palace for the top of the range.

🚕 Transport

• Auto-rickshaw — ₹50–150 in-city, ₹300–500 to station or airport
• Uber/Ola — ₹80–350
• Scooter rental — ₹400–800 a day plus fuel
• Full-day car with driver — ₹1,800–3,000
• Lake Pichola boat — ₹400–900
• Fateh Sagar boat — ₹30–50
• Ranakpur and Kumbhalgarh day trip by private cab — ₹2,500–4,000; shared ₹700–1,200

🛍️ Shopping

Hathi Pol Bazaar and Bada Bazaar for miniature paintings, Rajasthani textiles, mojaris, silver and jewellery; Mochiwada for leather jutti. Bargain 20–40%. Udaipur's specialities are Pichhwai and Rajasthani miniature paintings — genuine hand-painted work on cloth or paper starts around ₹1,500 and runs very high; printed reproductions are ₹200–500 and are sold as originals, so look for brushwork irregularity and ask whether it is hand-painted.

💰 Three daily budgets

Shoestring — ₹1,200–2,000. Hostel or non-lake-view guesthouse ₹500–1,200, dhaba food ₹250–400, walking and one auto ₹100–200, Bagore ki Haveli and the free ghats.

Mid-range — ₹4,000–7,000. Lake-view haveli room ₹2,500–4,500 between two, City Palace museum and sunset boat ₹1,000–1,500, rooftop dinner ₹800–1,500, autos and a shared day trip.

Comfort — ₹20,000+. Taj Lake Palace or Fateh Prakash, private car and driver, fine dining, a private boat.

💳 Money

UPI is universal in Udaipur including at rooftop restaurants and boat counters. Foreign cards work in hotels and better restaurants but not in the bazaars. ATMs are plentiful around Jagdish Chowk, Hathi Pol and outside the old city.

Carry ₹1,500 in small notes for autos, boats, chai stalls and temple shoe deposits.

For getting between all of these, see the Udaipur transport guide.

Next on the circuit: Jodhpur.