Will we need a guide in Udaipur?
 

With our trip finally planned and largely booked, we are now fine tuning what we'd like to do & see in each place we visit. To that end, I'm wondering what your opinions are on whether we'd really need to hire a guide in Udaipur?

I've heard that you can find local guides at many of the main tourist sites. Have any of you done that or would you normally organise a guide prior through your tour operator?

You do not need a guide in Udaipur. You will be spending most of your time around the City Palace complex - just get a good guidebook and also take a look at my trip report from 2010.

A driver might be helpful if you want to see some of the temples, drive around the lakes, gardens etc. You could arrange this after you get there thru your hotel, or if you find a good taxi driver negociate a daily rate. Just walking down by the lake at the base of the city palace thru the neighborhood is interesting.

Thanks Craig and kmkrnn for your comments.

The tour operator we are working with has offered to provide guides in a number of places (if we want to). Udaipur is one of the places I thought we might be able to 'wing it' on our own. As we're staying at Jagat Niwas, sounds like we will be well positioned to explore the City Palace and old city areas. We'll have a driver with us throughout Rajasthan if we want to venture further, though looks like he'll get a few easy days in Udaipur...

kmkrnn - you mention temples - are you referring to Eklingji? I gather they are worth a visit then?

Craig - thanks for directing me to your trip report - think I'll give Shilpgram a miss, also not sure about the Sound & Light show now... seems like there are several nice places to be in Udaipur at that time of day...

Any recommendations for a good guide book to take?

We had Fodor's India, but Lonely Planet and Frommer's are also good.

Jagat Niwas. Just a note that we stayed there for 3 nights last November and loved it. Super great location and decent facilities, including an excellent rooftop restaurant overlooking the lake, below the palace.

The only thing our driver did for us there was a general drive around the city for orientation and the next day drove us to the boat landing for the obligatory sunset circumnav of the lake.

I wrote in my book that it was the Jagdish temple. It was not far from the palace. We had a delightful dinner on the roof of Jagat Niwasone night. Also try to have dinner or lunch at Amet Haveli. The rest. is called Ambrai. Get a lake side table. We liked the food better.

Attached to your hotel is a travel agent. We hired a driver from there and thought he was wonderful. His English was great and we enjoyed our time with both him and his uncle the next day (although the uncle's English was more limited). A guide is unnecesary. In fact don't bother with a guide at city palace. The audio tour is fabulous in all the palaces. We regretted hiring a guide there.

I'd add Footprints to the guide book suggestions.

The general consensus seems to be that a guide isn't necessary, so I think we'll wing it our own here. Thanks everyone for your input and info. If we do decide we need one, we'll use either the one next to the hotel, or the one recommended in trip report below.

A drive around the city for orientation sounds like a good idea. GoogleMaps has also been useful to get a sense of where things are located, though not in a great deal of detail.

The following trip reports are worth reading to get some good info and a feel for Udaipur:
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...ad-bangkok.cfm
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...-and-nepal.cfm
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...e-in-india.cfm
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...a-360761-2.cfm

Jagat Niwas - Almost everyone says it's great (except for a few on TA). Upper end of the price range for us, we could only get a Pichola Suite, so I hope it's worth it...

Guidebooks - I have Lonely Planet (if only they would make the text large enough to actually read...) and Eyewitness which has great pics. Of the three F's (Fodor's, Footprints & Frommer's), looks like Fodor's might have the best maps?

We downloaded months worth of research onto my kindle and also had a hard copy printed. If you are interested, I would be happy to share my notes with you. Just email me dgunbug at aol.com. Our notes are a combination of info from tour books, web sites and recommendations from other fodorites.

Carobb looking forward to hearing about your trip.
Yes, you do not need a guide in Udaipur if you have a reasonable guidebook.