Udaipur Trip Oct 13-16, 2021

I have travelled to a handful of places and I was very young at those times so I barely remember anything. It is safe to say that this is my very first trip. I came to know that majorly there are two types of vacations.

One is the "Stay" kind where you are relaxed and just want to hang around in the place where you are staying. The other one is the "Visiting Spots" kind where you spend less time in your place of stay and visit different spots that the place is famous for.

Although it's a bit early to say given my personality, I definitely am the person who loves the first kind.

I have travelled in trains; again when I was very young so will be considering this as my first train journey too. I won't be describing every single thing that happened in order but will focus on things that I found interesting and things that made me realize stuff. Also, all the pictures included in this particular post are taken by my cousins. I took very few pictures, I wanted to take photos with a camera but did not have one.

In Udaipur, we stayed at Hotel Swaroop Vilas

As you can see from the photos and video, the hotel was very nice. It had a resto-bar on the roof named "Sangria". It also had a 24x7 cafe called "The Pot Garden" which in my opinion was better than "Sangria".

We had a "lake view" room but frankly, it's better to visit the lake than have a room with a lake view because the charges for those rooms are higher and if you will be visiting different spots during the day and only sleeping in the hotel why pay the extra price?

In terms of service, the hotel was very prompt and no problem arose in that domain.

On the next day, we visited City Palace which was the most disappointing experience on the whole trip. I for one, have no interest in visiting old forts and since it was a long weekend, there were a LOT of people there. 3 hours of watching people take photos everywhere they possibly can, was really annoying. 

In the afternoon we had lunch at a place called "Panna Vilas" and the food there was amazing. Especially honey chilly potatoes. Right from the first thing we ate, to the last thing, there was no disappointment there whatsoever. The ambience was also perfect. Definitely, a place I would visit again if I am in Udaipur.

In the evening, we visited Sajjangarh fort which was comparatively less crowded than the city palace. The only thing people go there for is mainly sunset.

We were back at the hotel by EOD and didn't want to eat a lot so we headed up to "Sangria" for some light dinner.

The next day our cab arrived and we checked out from the hotel to leave for Mount Abu. It's a 3-hour ride from Udaipur. We stayed in a resort named "Cama Rajputana" and it was a brilliant 135-year-old property. By visiting that I realized that I am fond of luxury that is more polished and sophisticated and not a hybrid of 2 cultures.

There is a local market near "Guru Shikhar" which I found interesting. Apart from that, I was not interested in visiting any of the spots in Abu either and just wanted to stay in the resort itself.

When we were back from Abu, we visited "Under The Sun Aquarium" which I enjoyed a lot since I like fishes.

I can describe every single aspect of our trip in detail but since I am lazy, instead of that let me tell you things that will help you when you visit Udaipur/Mount Abu or any other tourist spot in general:

• For stay, it, of course, depends on your budget but Hotel Swaroop Vilas is pretty good. It is a bit on the expensive side though. If you are travelling by train, then Hotel Le ROI is also good. It literally is just outside the railway station and some of my friends also travelled on the same weekend, stayed there and they gave a positive review.

• For travelling in the city the ideal option I recommend is to find a local place (not an app) which lets you rent vehicles on a daily basis. I know this is something that might be difficult when you visit a new city but with some proper research and help from locals, this I think would be the most efficient solution.

• DO NOT follow google maps as it will surely misguide you. Ask the locals instead.

• If renting is not possible or you don't drive, local transport like auto-rickshaws are the second-best option. But consult some locals about fares so that you don't end up overpaying.

• The last thing I would suggest you is to book a cab package but remember you WILL be overpaying and drivers there will try to make you visit places from where they will get a commission. Also, they will try to make you visit places in the order which will make them drive less. Please keep this option as the last resort.

• For eating food you can visit Hotel Panna Vilas Palace or The Bungalow. The food at both these places was delicious. Although not a big fan of the place, but if you are on a budget, you can go to The Natraj Restaurant. You can also visit The Pot Garden 24x7 Bistro for late-night cravings.

• Boating facility is available in lake Pichola and Fatehsagar. Fatehsagar has the speedboat option also but there might be a queue there.

• In Mount Abu, you will not have problems renting vehicles. I saw a lot of posters and ads for that.

• If budget is not an issue, you can stay in Cama Rajputana Club Resort. I enjoyed our 1 day stay in Mount Abu and I will surely be going there again.

• Do visit the local market near Guru Shikhar. They will state high prices for the products but you can bargain.

• In that market, there is a place to eat of which I don't remember the name but their Rabdi is worth eating.

• While driving on the ghat section of Abu, stay clear of the monkeys. Their behavior is very unpredictable. Watch the below video.