When to visit Udaipur, season by season

There is a season everybody recommends and two that are better than their reputation. Which one suits you depends on what you want out of the trip rather than on a chart.

The cool months

The easy answer, and the crowded one. Warm days, cold mornings, clear air over the hills, and every popular place busy. If you want a particular house over a holiday weekend, book far earlier than feels sensible — this is the season that goes first.

Bring more warm clothing than you expect. A morning on a roof terrace out in the hills is properly cold, and people who packed only for "Rajasthan" spend it indoors.

The monsoon

The one we would nudge you towards. The Aravallis go green in a fortnight, dry riverbeds run, the light turns soft, and the crowds thin right out. A villa with a covered terrace is a very good place to watch a storm come up a valley.

What it asks of you is flexibility. Rain arrives when it arrives and an afternoon plan becomes an evening one. Roads are slower. It is a poor season for a trip built around being out all day and an excellent one for a trip built around a house.

Summer

Hot and very bright. Early mornings and late evenings are the usable hours and the middle of the day is not. This is the season when a private pool stops being a nice feature and becomes the plan — and it is the quietest and cheapest time to have a whole house.

The shoulder weeks

Just before the cool season and just after the monsoon are the underrated windows: the green has not gone yet, the air is clear, and the crowds have not arrived.

So

Cool months for sightseeing, monsoon for landscape and quiet, summer for a pool and a good rate. All four of our houses are on villas in Udaipur.