For me, Udaipur was a real treat, a break from the traditional hustle and bustle that you tend to find in many of India’s great cities. With the lakes of Udaipur taking centre stage, the cars, bikes, Tuk-Tuks and cows take a back stage, allowing some respite from the noise and a rare tranquil vista to sink into.

Of course, you don’t have to go too far to see the usual chaos, but the small lanes and alleyways allow you to walk and explore this city with more freedom than most we’ve encountered so far.

The City Palace is an impressive building which has been extended over many generations to provide a rather eclectic final result. Choose carefully when you go as whilst it is well worth a visit, it’s a very very popular attraction, for local and international tourists, as well as local school parties making some parts of the tour somewhat unpleasant, as in places it’s a maze of rather small narrow corridors

Of course, you can find cows in the alleyways too…

There are many rooftop restaurants looking over the lake, we managed to find one of the best serving both meat (I loved much of the North Indian vegetarian food, but this place had a charcoal grill 🙂 ) and an alcohol licence!!

The view behind us was the moon rising against a backdrop of the Hindu Jagdish Temple.

From the same rooftop, looking out to the lake, we saw the sun setting against the distant mountains.

Beautiful Udaipur, highly recommended!!