TRIP OVERVIEW
Day 1 – ISKCON Sri Radha Krishna Temple · Bangalore Palace · Cubbon Park · Lal Bagh Botanical Garden
Day 2 – Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace · Bangalore Fort · Dodda Basavana Gudi · Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple
Day 3 – Vidhana Soudha · National Gallery of Modern Art · Government Museum & Venkatappa Art Gallery · Museum of Art & Photography
Day 4 – Someshwara Temple · Ulsoor Lake · Shivoham Shiva Temple · HAL Aerospace Museum
Day 5 – Nandi Hills
Day 6 · Train Day · Mysuru
Day 1
1.ISKCON Sri Radha Krishna Temple~1 hr 30 min
Bangalore's ISKCON temple crowns a granite rise in Rajajinagar, where a gold-plated flag mast and a glass canopy sit over a traditional South Indian gopuram. The route climbs through the complex to the Radha Krishna shrine, and every visitor is handed free prasadam on the way out.
2.Bangalore Palace~1 hr 30 min
The Wodeyar maharajas built this Tudor Revival pile in 1878 after Windsor Castle, and the family still owns it. Fortified turrets and ivy wrap the outside; inside, the audio guide walks you through the ballroom, the Durbar hall and a corridor hung with Raja Ravi Varma paintings and hunting trophies.
Monday - Saturday 10:00am - 5:30pm
Closed Sunday
3.Cubbon Park~1 hr
Three hundred acres of bamboo, rain trees and shaded walking paths in the middle of the city, laid out in 1870 and still where Bangalore comes to breathe. The red Seshadri Iyer Memorial Hall — the State Central Library — anchors the middle, with the High Court and the state legislature along its edge.
Daily 6:00am - 6:00pm
4.Lal Bagh Botanical Garden~1 hr 30 min
Hyder Ali laid this garden out in the 1760s and his son Tipu Sultan filled it with trees carried in from Persia, Kabul and Mauritius. The centrepiece is a Crystal Palace-style glass house from 1889 that fills with flowers for the shows each Republic Day and Independence Day. A rock outcrop older than the Himalayas sits at the south end.
Daily 6:00am - 7:00pm
Day 2
1.Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace~45 min
Hyder Ali began this teak palace inside Bangalore Fort in 1781, and his son Tipu Sultan finished it a decade later. The two-storey structure is carved wood from top to bottom — pillars, arches and balconies. The ground floor holds a small ASI museum on Tipu's reign, including a replica of Tipu's Tiger, with a nominal ticket bought at the gate.
Daily 8:30am - 5:30pm
2.Bangalore Fort~20 min
Kempe Gowda I raised a mud fort here in 1537 when he founded the city; Hyder Ali rebuilt it in stone in 1761, and his son Tipu Sultan strengthened it further. British troops under Lord Cornwallis breached the walls near this spot in the 1791 Siege of Bangalore, and most of the fort was demolished over the following century. The Delhi Gate, two bastions and a small Ganapathi temple are what remain.
Open 24/7
3.Dodda Basavana Gudi~30 min
Also called the Bull Temple, Kempe Gowda I raised this Vijayanagara-style shrine in 1537 around a single Nandi cut from one block of granite — 4.5m tall and 6m long, among the largest monolithic Nandi statues in the world. The bull sits garlanded under a low stone canopy in Basavanagudi. Every year the Kadalekai Parishe groundnut fair honours the deity in the surrounding lanes.
4.Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple~30 min
Kempe Gowda I hollowed this shrine out of a natural cave in the 16th century, and the sanctum is still cut straight into the rock. In the forecourt, two monolithic granite pillars carry a pair of stone discs and a trident — and twice a year, around Makar Sankranti in January, the setting sun threads between the discs and Nandi's horns to light the linga inside for about an hour.
Day 3
1.Vidhana Soudha~20 min
Karnataka's legislature sits behind this granite Neo-Dravidian facade, built in the 1950s at Chief Minister Kengal Hanumanthaiah's insistence on a "people's palace" rather than a colonial bungalow. The entablature reads GOVERNMENT WORK IS GOD'S WORK in English and Kannada. Weekend guided walks go inside on the 2nd/4th Saturday and Sundays; other days it's viewed from the gardens opposite.
2.National Gallery of Modern Art~1 hr
A hundred-year-old mansion on Palace Road — built for the merchant Haji Sir Ismail Sait and later renamed for owner Manickavelu Mudaliar — now holds roughly 500 works spanning the 18th century to the present. Raja Ravi Varma and Amrita Sher-Gil anchor the collection, alongside Jamini Roy and Bengal School painters, spread through a corridor, small rooms and two full halls.
3.Government Museum & Venkatappa Art Gallery~1 hr
Founded in 1865, the second-oldest museum in India sits in Chief Engineer Richard Sankey's red Neoclassical hall on Kasturba Road. Its galleries hold sculpture, jewellery, coins and pottery from Chandravalli, Mohenjo-daro and Halebidu, including the Halmidi inscription, the earliest Kannada text. One ticket also covers the Venkatappa Art Gallery next door, 600-plus works by K. Venkatappa.
4.Museum of Art & Photography~1 hr 30 min
The Museum of Art and Photography opened on Kasturba Road, a five-storey, purpose-built museum holding more than 60,000 works from the 12th century to the present across six areas — painting, photography, textiles, popular culture, pre-modern art and living traditions. Architects Mathew & Ghosh built it around openness and daylight, with a library, auditorium and rooftop restaurant.
Tuesday - Friday 10:00am - 6:30pm · Saturday - Sunday 10:00am - 7:30pm
Closed Monday
Day 4
1.Someshwara Temple~30 min
The sanctum, vestibule and pillared hall here date to the Chola period, roughly the 12th-13th century, among the oldest standing structures in the city — centuries older than Bangalore itself. Kempe Gowda I added the maha-mandapa and eastern gopuram in the 16th century, after Someshwara led him to buried treasure funding the work, the story goes. Chola stone sits under Vijayanagara ornament here.
2.Ulsoor Lake~45 min
One of the biggest lakes inside Bangalore proper, Ulsoor Lake was built up as a tank on the city's eastern edge and now holds several wooded islands near its centre, ringed by rain trees. A promenade runs along the western shore, and pedal boats and small rowboats launch from the boathouse for a slow circuit past the islands — the only stretch of open water on the itinerary.
3.Shivoham Shiva Temple~30 min
A 65-foot seated Shiva, carved by sculptor Kashinath in 1995, rises out of an artificial grey rock face built to suggest Mount Kailash, trident in hand and a cobra coiled at the shoulder. The temple beside the Kempegowda Institute complex on Old Airport Road draws worshippers all day and lights the statue for a laser show every Mahashivaratri.
4.HAL Aerospace Museum~1 hr 30 min
India's first aerospace museum opened in 2001 on Hindustan Aeronautics Limited's own Bangalore campus, tracing six decades of the country's aircraft industry. Full-size jets and helicopters — a MiG-21, a Sea King, the HJT-36 Sitara trainer, an Ajeet — sit under open-sided hangars alongside engine cutaways, a mock air-traffic-control tower and flight simulators visitors can pay to try.
Day 5
1.Nandi Hills~2 hr
A fortified granite hill rising to 1,478m above the plain north of the city, Nandi Hills has been a retreat since the Ganga dynasty and later a Tipu Sultan stronghold — his summer house still stands near the top, beside Tipu's Drop, a sheer cliff on the western edge. The reason to come this early is the view: cloud rolls over the valley most mornings and burns off at sunrise.
Day 6
KSR Bengaluru City Junction → Mysuru Junction · Vande Bharat Express · 2 hr 15 min
book at: irctc.co.in or Omio
6:20am KSR Bengaluru → 9:30am Mysuru Junction
6:35am KSR Bengaluru → 10:20am Mysuru Junction
10:05am KSR Bengaluru → 12:20pm Mysuru Junction
1.Mysore Palace~1 hr 30 min
British architect Henry Irwin rebuilt the Wodeyar dynasty's royal seat after a fire, finishing this Indo-Saracenic palace of domes, turrets and grey granite in the early 20th century. Inside, the Kalyana Mantapa's stained-glass dome sits on cast-iron pillars from Glasgow, and two durbar halls carry carved granite columns. Around 97,000 bulbs outline it every Sunday and public holiday after dark.
Daily 10:00am - 5:30pm
2.Chamundeshwari Temple~45 min
The Wodeyar maharajas' family deity, Chamundeshwari, is enshrined atop Chamundi Hill, 13km and roughly 1,000 vertical feet above Mysuru. A Hoysala-era shrine from the 12th century grew a soaring Vijayanagara-style gopuram in the 17th, and a monolithic granite Nandi stands roughly two-thirds up the old thousand-step staircase. The road drive up trades the steps for a city panorama instead.
3.St. Philomena's Cathedral~30 min
Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV laid the foundation stone in 1933 after being presented with a relic of St Philomena, and the finished cathedral — modelled on Cologne Cathedral, with twin 175-foot Neo-Gothic spires — opened in 1936 as one of the tallest churches in Asia. A crypt beneath the altar holds the relic, and stained glass along the nave runs through the life of Christ.
Mysuru Junction → KSR Bengaluru City Junction · Wodeyar Express · 2 hr 30 min
book at: irctc.co.in or Omio
11:30am Mysuru Junction → 2:00pm KSR Bengaluru
1:05pm Mysuru Junction → 3:20pm KSR Bengaluru
9:00pm Mysuru Junction → 11:45pm KSR Bengaluru
Weekly Closures
Palaces · Closed Sunday
Museums & Aquariums · Closed Monday
Tours
Viator
A four-hour morning walk through Malleswaram, the quarter laid out north of the old fort: breakfast at a decades-old eatery, two ancient temples, a silk-saree house, the street bazaars, and the modern ISKCON temple at the finish.
4 hr · Small group
Restaurants Near Hotel
Farzi Cafe · 4.1 · 267+ reviews
Modern Indian, small plates and a kitchen that plays with the classics.
Daily 12:00pm - 1:00am
Toscano · 4.4 · 5800+ reviews
Northern Italian, handmade pasta, a terrace over the courtyard.
Daily 12:00pm - 11:30pm
Sriracha · 4.2 · 3400+ reviews
Pan-Asian small plates, dim sum and a long cocktail list.
Daily 12:00pm - 11:30pm
Downtown Restaurants
Koshy's · 3.8 · 577+ reviews
An Anglo-Indian dining room unchanged since the 1940s.
Daily 9:00am - 11:30pm
Truffles · 4.2 · 291+ reviews
Burgers and American diner plates, with queues down the pavement.
Daily 11:00am - 11:00pm
Local Tastes
Masala Dosa
Bangalore's own version: the crisp rice-and-lentil crepe comes stained red with a chilli-garlic smear before the potato goes in, and arrives with butter still melting on it. Served from breakfast until it runs out.
Filter Coffee
Coffee from the Karnataka hills, ground fine and dripped through a two-part steel filter, then poured between tumbler and dabarah until it foams. Ordered by strength of decoction, not cup size, and drunk standing up.
Bisi Bele Bath
Rice, lentils, tamarind and a roasted spice blend cooked into one hot dish — the name means hot lentil rice. Karnataka's comfort food, served with a spoon of ghee and fried boondi on top for crunch.
Mysore Pak
Gram flour, sugar and a startling quantity of ghee, cooked until it sets into a sweet that crumbles as it is lifted. Invented in the Mysore palace kitchens down the road, and sold by weight all over the city.
Food Delivery
Swiggy
Foreign number: accepted. — International Login covers 27 countries including the US, UK, Canada, Germany and Australia, and the sign-in code reaches a foreign handset.
The one that actually delivers fastest here: deeper restaurant coverage across the central districts, quicker rider assignment at peak hours, and tracking precise enough to meet the rider at a hotel gate. Foreign cards are refused more often than they should be, so keep cash on delivery in reserve.
Zomato
Foreign number: not accepted. — Phone sign-in wants an Indian number for the OTP; the browser version takes an email login instead, which is the way in from a foreign handset.
Stronger as a directory than as a courier: menus, photographs and review counts run deeper than anything else in the city, which makes it the app to decide on dinner with even when the order goes somewhere else. Delivery coverage matches Swiggy in the centre and falls away toward the edges of town.
Shows, Performances & Concerts
Chowdiah Memorial Hall
A concert hall built in the shape of a seven-stringed violin, honouring the violinist T. Chowdiah. Carnatic recitals, orchestras and touring dance.
Ranga Shankara
A working repertory theatre with a play almost every evening, in Kannada, English and Hindi, and a standing rule against dark nights.
Getting Around
Uber
Foreign number: accepted. — An account opened abroad keeps working here, and a fresh sign-up sends its code by SMS, so the home SIM has to stay live for roaming texts.
The predictable way across a city whose street numbering follows no sequence a visitor can read: the fare is fixed before you accept and the route is on screen. Cars thin out and cancel at peak hours; Uber Auto puts the same app on a rickshaw, costs a fraction, and gets down lanes a sedan cannot.
Ola
Foreign number: not accepted. — Sign-up requires an Indian mobile number for the OTP, and a foreign handset never clears that verification step.
The home-grown rival, and on Bangalore's streets it often has cars where Uber has none, with an auto-rickshaw tier that is the cheapest metered way across town. The catch for a visitor is the door: without an Indian SIM there is no account, so it is worth knowing about mainly if you are travelling with someone local.
Rapido
Foreign number: not accepted. — Registration is India-only and the code goes to an Indian number, so a foreign handset cannot open an account at all.
Bangalore's answer to gridlock: a bike taxi that filters between stopped traffic and turns a 40-minute crawl into 15 minutes, plus the city's most reliable auto-rickshaw hailing. Helmets are provided and the ride is not for everyone, but locals use it more than anything else at rush hour.
Train Stations Near Hotel
KSR Bengaluru City Junction
The main terminus — Vande Bharat and Shatabdi services to Mysuru, Chennai, Hubballi and Mangaluru, plus the long-distance trains north.
Bengaluru Cantonment
The closer of the two — most Chennai and Mysuru trains call here before the terminus, and the platforms are far calmer.
Day Trips by Train
Hassan · 2 hr 40 min
The Panchaganga Superfast is the quickest run to Hassan, then a taxi covers the last hour to Belur and Halebidu, UNESCO-listed Hoysala temple towns whose soapstone carving rewards the whole detour. Chennakesava Temple in Belur and the twin shrines at Halebidu carry some of the finest stone carving in South India.
book at: Omio
Worth Knowing
Bangalore runs on two clocks, and the traffic decides which one you are on
Distance means nothing here and time means everything. The four stops in this guide sit inside a six-kilometre triangle, and the same leg that takes nine minutes at ten in the morning takes forty at six in the evening. Plan the day north to south the way it is written, keep the long hop out to Rajajinagar for early, and treat any crossing of the centre after 5pm as a half-hour whatever the estimate promises.
The city sits at nearly a thousand metres, which is the whole reason it exists as it does. Evenings are cool enough for a layer even in April, the light goes fast and flat after six, and the monsoon arrives twice — once from the southwest in June and again from the northeast in October. Neither is a washout; both mean an umbrella and an hour's patience in the afternoon.
Cash still opens more doors than a foreign card. The gate at Lalbagh, an auto-rickshaw flagged on the street, a filter coffee at a stand-up counter — all of them are simpler with small notes. Almost every counter takes UPI, which visitors cannot use without an Indian bank account, so the tourist's fallback is cash rather than plastic.
Temples ask for bare feet, and shoes go into a rack at the entrance for a small fee or nothing at all. At ISKCON the route is one-way through the complex and doubles back for no one, so leave nothing you need beyond the shoe counter. Shoulders and knees covered is the safe default, and it costs nothing to be the person who was dressed for it.
The Kannada name is Bengaluru — it has been official since 2014 and appears on every station board, timetable and street sign in the city. Bangalore is what most people still say out loud, including locals. Recognising both is worth more here than picking one.
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