If you are spending Christmas or New Year in Udaipur, you are in good company. The last week of December is the busiest of the whole year here. The weather is at its best, the lakes and palaces are lit up, and travellers from across India arrive for the holidays at the same time as the city's winter wedding season is in full swing.
It is a wonderful week to be here, and it rewards a little planning. Here is what to expect, and how to get around without losing your evenings to waiting for a cab.
The 2026 calendar makes the holidays longer than usual. Christmas Day is a Friday, which gives a long weekend from 25 to 27 December. New Year's Eve is a Thursday and New Year's Day a Friday, which gives a second long weekend from 1 to 3 January. In practice the city stays full from around 23 December to 3 January, with the heaviest days on 25 December, 31 December and 1 January.
Hotels sell out and rates are at their highest across those ten days. Flights into Udaipur are full, and the airport is at its busiest on the mornings of 24, 25, 30 and 31 December.
Christmas here is a hotel and lakeside affair rather than a street one. Most of the larger hotels hold Christmas Eve dinners and Christmas Day brunches, the lake palaces and ghats are lit in the evenings, and the cafes in the old city stay busy late. It is a relaxed, festive time, and it is easier to get a table or a boat ride on Lake Pichola in the days before Christmas than in the week after it.
The Shilpgram Utsav, the crafts and folk arts fair at Shilpgram on the western edge of the city, usually runs from 21 to 30 December and overlaps the whole Christmas week. Evenings there are lively, with folk music, dance and food stalls, and the roads leading to it get very congested. Go in the afternoon if you can, and arrange where your driver will wait before you go in.
Most of the New Year's Eve celebration happens inside hotels and resorts, many of which hold ticketed gala dinners, and on the rooftop restaurants of the old city overlooking Lake Pichola. Fateh Sagar is the other big draw, and its lakeside road fills with people and traffic through the evening. Several of the bigger parties are at resorts outside the city, which means a drive there and, more importantly, a drive back after midnight.
The roads work differently that night. In recent years Udaipur police have set up checkpoints across the city, carried out random breath tests and made several old city routes one way or closed them to cars, including around Jagdish Chowk, Hathipol, Chandpol and Brahmpol. If your hotel or restaurant is inside the old city, your car may not be able to reach the door, and the walk to a point where it can is part of the evening.
If you are celebrating in the old city on the 31st, agree a pickup point with your driver in advance, somewhere the car can reach under the one way rules. Share your live location on WhatsApp when you are ready to leave, and allow a little extra time for the walk.
The city sleeps in on the first of January, then fills up by late morning. The City Palace, Sajjangarh at sunset and the boat rides are at their busiest from 1 to 3 January. If you want to see them, go early in the day. If you would rather escape the crowds, this is a good moment for a day out of the city: the temples at Eklingji, Nathdwara and Haldighati make an easy half or full day, and Kumbhalgarh and Ranakpur are spectacular in the clear winter light. Leave by 8 or 9 in the morning, since the sun sets before 6.
Days are mild, around 25°C, but nights drop to 8 or 9°C and sometimes colder. The evening you spend outdoors on a rooftop or by the lake will be cold, especially after midnight on the 31st. Bring a proper warm layer, not just a light sweater, and something to wrap up in for the drive back.
This is the week when finding a ride on the spot is hardest. App cabs are scarce at the airport and around the lakes in the evenings, and prices on apps climb when demand is high. Between November and February many of the city's drivers are also booked for weddings. Arriving at the airport on Christmas Eve or the 31st without a pickup arranged can mean a long wait. Our guide to taxi apps in Udaipur has more on this.
The simplest plan is to book your airport transfer before you travel, and to book New Year's Eve as two rides: a drop to your party and a return at a time you choose. Late night returns after midnight can be arranged when you book them in advance. If you are planning a full evening of stops, a half day or full day hire keeps one car and driver with you throughout.
Aavre's fares are fixed and the same all year. There is no Christmas or New Year surge and no night charge, and the fare is agreed before you travel. That week, early booking matters more than anything else, because once the cars are booked, they are booked.
Airport pickups, New Year's Eve drops and returns, and day trips, pre confirmed at a fixed fare that does not change in the busiest week of the year. Book on WhatsApp in under a minute.
Book on WhatsAppYes. The week from Christmas to New Year is the busiest of the year in Udaipur. In 2026 the city is likely to stay full from around 23 December to 3 January, with the heaviest days on 25 December, 31 December and 1 January.
Mostly at hotel and resort gala dinners, on old city rooftop restaurants overlooking Lake Pichola, and along the Fateh Sagar lakeside road. Several of the larger parties are at resorts outside the city.
In recent years police have set up checkpoints and random breath tests, and made several old city routes one way or closed them to cars, including around Jagdish Chowk, Hathipol and Chandpol. Agree a pickup point your car can reach before the evening.
App cabs are hard to find that night. Book your return in advance with a fixed pickup time and place. Aavre arranges late night returns after midnight when they are pre booked.
No. Aavre fares are fixed all year, with no festive surge and no night charge. The fare is agreed before you travel.
Read more from Aavre: Udaipur from October to March, month by month and Everything first time visitors need to know about Udaipur airport.