Choosing · decided
Jodhpur or Udaipur?
The short answer
Pick Jodhpur if you want a place that is doing something other than being beautiful — a working city with the best fort in Rajasthan on top of it. Pick Udaipur if the trip needs a soft landing, or if you are travelling as a couple. If you are doing both, Udaipur goes last: it is the only city on the circuit you would return to for a holiday rather than a journey.
Which one, for you
One city, and you want Rajasthan at its most Rajasthani
Mehrangarh is the fort every other fort in the state is measured against, and the blue city underneath it is a place people live rather than a set. Udaipur is lovelier and less representative.
Jodhpur
A honeymoon, or any trip where the point is the evenings
The lake, the rooftops and the palace hotels make it the most romantic city in India by a distance nobody seriously disputes. It is also the easiest place in Rajasthan to do nothing well.
Udaipur
The last stop before a flight home
Good onward connections, a gentler pace, and it rewards a day with nothing scheduled — which after two weeks of forts is exactly what you want.
Udaipur
Travelling in a dry year, or late in the season
Lake Pichola is monsoon-fed and has been near-empty in drought years. Udaipur without water in the lake is a good city with its main argument removed; Jodhpur's fort does not depend on the weather.
Jodhpur
Photography
The blue lanes, again. Udaipur photographs beautifully at a distance and less well up close; Jodhpur is the opposite.
Jodhpur
Compared, line by line
Jodhpur takes 3, Udaipur takes 1, 2 are a wash
Jodhpur
The blue city under the fort
Udaipur
The city of lakes
The set-piece
Mehrangarh — a fort on a rock 120 metres above the city, and the best-narrated monument in the state.
The City Palace and the lake — four centuries of building across twenty-two maharanas, seen best from a boat.
Reliability
The fort is the fort, in any season.
The lake depends on the monsoon and has been dry in living memory.
Walking
The blue lanes are the reason to come and they are all on foot.
Walkable around the lake and the old city; the rest needs a rickshaw.
Doing nothing
Possible, but the city does not encourage it.
The entire point. Rooftops, boats, and an afternoon that gets away from you.
Crowds
Busy at the fort, quiet in the lanes.
Concentrated and heavy around the lake in season.
Nights needed
Two.
Three, and the third is not a waste.
A marigold mark means that row goes to that city. Rows where they genuinely tie are left unmarked rather than padded.
Octopussy is not a reason to go anywhere
Udaipur has been selling the 1983 Bond film for four decades and several of the locations commonly claimed are wrong. It is a fine piece of trivia and a poor reason to choose a city. The real argument for Udaipur is that Mewar never bowed and built accordingly.
Or take both
They are five hours apart with Ranakpur genuinely on the way, so doing both is easy. Jodhpur first, Udaipur second, always.
VERDICT REVIEWED · AUGUST 2026This is an editorial opinion, held for stated reasons. Disagree and tell us why — we publish corrections.
Keep reading
Take both, properly
The Rajasthan Edition carries every city on the circuit — the stories in acts, the checklist itineraries, Look Closer and the Shot Lists — so you can decide on the ground rather than in advance.
The Rajasthan Edition — $29.99