Ulsoor Lake

Ulsoor Lake, also called Halasuru Lake, is one of the largest and oldest lakes in Bengaluru, spread over about 50 hectares just east of the city centre near MG Road and the Cantonment. It was expanded to its present form under the Bengaluru founder Kempe Gowda’s legacy and later the Wodeyar-era administration.

Ulsoor Lake, Central Bengaluru
Practical guide

Plan Ulsoor Lake

Who's going?Tailor Ulsoor Lake to your trip
Typeheritage
Nearest baseCentral Bengaluru
DistrictBengaluru Urban
Best timeOctober to February
Time needed45 minutes to an hour
EntryFree
Places to visit24Listed businesses49

The lake is dotted with several small islands and edged by a walking promenade, a boating jetty run by the state and a Ganesha temple on its bank, making it an easy green break in a busy part of the city.

What to expect

Highlights

  • Boating on the island-dotted lake from the state boat club.
  • A lakeside walking-and-jogging promenade near MG Road.
  • The Ganesha temple and the annual Ganesha immersion here.
Getting there

How to visit

  • In the Ulsoor / Halasuru area east of the centre; Trinity and Halasuru metro stations (Purple Line) and MG Road are close.
  • Boating is ticketed at the jetty; the promenade is free to walk.

Distance by road

  • Mysuru145 km
  • Chennai350 km
  • Hyderabad570 km
  • Mangaluru350 km
  • Coimbatore365 km

Road km to Bengaluru Urban; ghat roads and traffic vary — allow extra.

Timing

Best time

October to February; early morning or late afternoon for walking and boating.

Weather in Ulsoor LakeSeasonal guide

Live forecast loads in your browser.

Today at Ulsoor Lake
Sunrise6:10 am
Sunset6:00 pm
Golden hour best light5:00 pm–6:00 pm
Blue hour after sunset6:00 pm–6:25 pm
Sun sets toward compass bearingW · 261°
Moon tonight🌒 Waxing crescent · 31%

Sun and moon are calculated for this location and shown in IST. Photography windows are the hour around sunrise and sunset; the sunset bearing is degrees clockwise from true north. Moon phase is accurate to about half a day.

Visitor notes

  • Boating charged separately; the water is not for swimming.
Stay · eat · do · rent · see · shop

Stays, food & things to do near Ulsoor Lake

Verified hotels, homestays, restaurants, experiences, sights, shops and rentals around Ulsoor Lake — commission-free, with direct contact. Filter by what you need.

45 places to eat near Ulsoor Lake

Top pick
Restaurant
The Yard, Whitefield
14.0 km · 17 min driveOpen · till 1:00 amindian, asian, continental, bar food, grill, fusion5-star

Restaurant (indian, asian, continental, bar food, grill, fusion) on 22/A, Doddanakundi Industrial Area 2, Phase 1, Doddanekkundi in Central Bengaluru.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Top pick
Restaurant
Absolute Barbecue
12.8 km · 16 min driveClosed nowbarbecue

Restaurant (barbecue) on Outer Ring Road in Central Bengaluru. Barbecue, AC.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Top pick
Café
Copper + Cloves @ the organic world
4.3 km · 6 min driveClosed nowplant based

Café (plant based) on 12th Main, 7th Cross Rd, HAL 2nd Stage, Indiranagar in Central Bengaluru. Plant Based, WiFi, AC.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Top pick
Café
Third Wave Coffee
13.2 km · 16 min driveOpen · till 1:00 amcoffee shop, sandwich, burger

Café (coffee shop, sandwich, burger) on Outer Ring Road in Central Bengaluru.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Top pick
Street food
McDonald's
14.7 km · 19 min driveClosed nowburger

Street food (burger) on ITPL Main Road in Central Bengaluru. Burger, AC, Wheelchair access.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Restaurant
1882 Restaurant
15.1 km · 19 min driveClosed nowglobal

Restaurant (global) on ITPL Main Rd, EPIP Zone Brookefield in Central Bengaluru. Global, WiFi, Wheelchair access.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Restaurant
Tiger Trail
2.8 km · 5 min driveClosed nowregional

Restaurant (regional) on Park Road, Shivaji Nagar in Central Bengaluru.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Street food
Papa John's
7.1 km · 12 min driveClosed nowpizza

Street food.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Street food
Sbarro
7.5 km · 12 min driveClosed nowpizza

Street food. Pizza, AC.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Restaurant
Chinita
2.8 km · 4 min driveClosed nowmexican

Restaurant (mexican) on Indiranagar Double Road in Central Bengaluru.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Restaurant
The Big Barbeque
13.1 km · 17 min driveClosed nowbarbecue

Restaurant (barbecue) on Outer Ring Road in Central Bengaluru. Barbecue, AC.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Restaurant
Shanmukha Restaurant
12.0 km · 16 min driveClosed nowregional

Restaurant (regional) on Near Home Town, Outer Ring Rd, Marathahalli, Bengaluru in Central Bengaluru.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Restaurant
Onestà
3.2 km · 5 min driveClosed nowpizza

Restaurant (pizza) on Chinmaya Mission Hospital Road in Central Bengaluru.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Restaurant
Holy Flames
12.9 km · 17 min driveClosed nowregional

Restaurant (regional) on Silver Springs Layout, Marathahalli, Bengaluru in Central Bengaluru.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Restaurant
Al Khair Restaurant
8.6 km · 12 min driveClosed nowregional

Restaurant (regional) on 1st Main Rd, Kanaka Nagar, Hebbal, in Central Bengaluru.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Restaurant
Sukh Sagar
7.4 km · 11 min driveClosed nowregional

Restaurant (regional) on Kammanahalli Main Road, Near-Jal Vayu Vihar, Kalyan Nagar in Central Bengaluru.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Restaurant
Pākaśāla
2.1 km · 25 min walkClosed nowindian

Restaurant (indian) on Mahatma Gandhi Road in Central Bengaluru.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Restaurant
UP south
7.3 km · 11 min driveOpen · till 12:00 amindian

Restaurant. Indian, AC.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Street food
KFC
9.5 km · 15 min driveClosed nowchicken

Street food (chicken) on Modi Hospital Main Road in Central Bengaluru.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Restaurant
Tadka Singh
2.9 km · 4 min driveClosed nowindian

Restaurant (indian) on Chinmaya Mission Hospital Road in Central Bengaluru.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Restaurant
Maffei Kitchen
7.7 km · 11 min driveClosed nowmediterranean

Restaurant (mediterranean) on 5th Cross Road in Central Bengaluru.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Restaurant
Alt Pizza
7.6 km · 11 min driveClosed nowpizza

Restaurant.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Street food
Burger King
10.0 km · 12 min driveClosed nowburger

Street food (burger) on Whitefield Main Road, Mahadevpura, Devasandra Industrial Estate, Krishnarajapuram in Central Bengaluru.

Directions Commission-freeView details
Restaurant
Chung Wah
6.3 km · 11 min driveClosed nowchinese

Restaurant (chinese) on Vyalikaval Main Road in Central Bengaluru.

Directions Commission-freeView details

Book with the place itself. India’s cyber-crime coordination centre warned in April 2025 that convincing copies of hotel and pilgrimage booking sites are being pushed through sponsored search and social ads, taking payment for rooms the property never hears about. Every listing here links to the business’s own contact details and its own Google or Bing profile — we take no commission and sit in nobody’s payment path. If a booking page reached you through an ad, check the address bar against the property’s own site before you pay. Fraud can be reported on cybercrime.gov.in or on 1930.

Ranked

More ways to explore Central Bengaluru

Find food, accommodation and activities across Central Bengaluru. Browse the guides for places to eat, stay and explore along your route.

Nearest to Ulsoor Lake, on foot

Walking routes start at Ulsoor Lake. Check the route and access before setting out, especially where a road, gate or waterway separates the stops.

Across the whole of Central Bengaluru

Ranked guides

Top experiences around Central Bengaluru

23 more places around Central Bengaluru. Open a guide to plan the visit and onward journey.

heritageCubbon Park

5.0 km · 9 min drive

A 300-acre landscaped green lung in the city centre, laid out in 1870, ringed by the red-brick Attara Kacheri (High Court), State Central Library and Government Museum.

heritageVidhana Soudha

4.1 km · 6 min drive

Karnataka's monumental granite state legislature building, completed in 1956 in a Neo-Dravidian style; floodlit on Sunday evenings and viewed from outside.

heritageBangalore Palace

6.2 km · 11 min drive

A Tudor-revival palace built in 1878 by the Wodeyar royal family, with fortified towers, arches and interiors of Wodeyar-era portraits and furniture.

heritageTipu Sultan's Summer Palace

An ornate two-storey teak palace completed in 1791 for Tipu Sultan, richly carved and painted, now an ASI-protected monument beside the KR Market fort area.

templeISKCON Temple Bangalore

A large hilltop Krishna-Balaram temple at Rajajinagar, one of the biggest ISKCON temples in the world, known for its gopuram, glass-and-gold shrine and multimedia halls.

museumVisvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum

4.1 km · 8 min drive

A hands-on science and technology museum on Kasturba Road beside Cubbon Park, opened in 1965 in memory of engineer-statesman Sir M. Visvesvaraya, with interactive galleries on engines, electronics and space and a full-scale Wright Flyer replica.

museumHAL Aerospace Museum

India's first aerospace museum, opened in 2001 by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited near the old HAL airport, displaying vintage fighter aircraft, helicopters, aero-engines, a flight simulator and the story of Indian aviation.

museumJawaharlal Nehru Planetarium

3.9 km · 7 min drive

A sky-theatre and science centre at the High Grounds run by the Bangalore Association for Science Education, with domed astronomy shows, a science park of interactive exhibits and a public telescope programme.

heritageSankey Tank

A scenic man-made lake created in 1882 by Colonel Richard Sankey between Malleswaram and Sadashivanagar, ringed by a popular walking and jogging track, with boating and plentiful water birds.

heritageKR Market

The Krishna Rajendra Market (City Market), the largest and oldest wholesale market in the old city — a teeming bazaar of flowers, fruit, produce and wholesale goods beside the Jamia Masjid and Tipu’s fort area.

heritageCommercial Street

1.6 km · 19 min walk

A century-old shopping street in the Shivajinagar / Tasker Town area, one of Bengaluru’s oldest and busiest retail districts, packed with clothing, footwear, jewellery and street-food stalls.

templeHalasuru Someshwara Temple

2.1 km · 25 min walk

The oldest temple in the city, a Chola-era Shiva shrine in Ulsoor greatly expanded under the Vijayanagara-era chief Kempe Gowda, with an ornate gopuram, a pillared kalyana mantapa and finely carved Yali pillars.

museumKarnataka Chitrakala Parishath

A leading visual-arts complex and art college on Kumara Krupa Road, with galleries of Mysore traditional paintings, folk and tribal art, Nicholas Roerich’s Himalayan works and contemporary Indian art; host of the annual Chitra Santhe street art fair.

museumGovernment Museum, Bengaluru

4.1 km · 7 min drive

One of the oldest museums in India, established in 1865 on Kasturba Road beside Cubbon Park, with archaeology, coins, sculpture and inscriptions, sharing its compound with the Venkatappa Art Gallery and the technology museum.

museumNational Gallery of Modern Art

4.7 km · 9 min drive

The Bengaluru branch of the National Gallery of Modern Art, in the restored early-20th-century Manikyavelu Mansion on Palace Road, with a permanent collection of modern Indian art and rotating exhibitions in landscaped grounds.

museumNIMHANS Brain Museum

A teaching museum associated with the Human Brain Bank at NIMHANS, displaying preserved human brains and neurological specimens only through the institution’s current confirmed visitor arrangement.

heritageBangalore Fort

The surviving Delhi Gate and bastions of the old fort founded in mud by Kempe Gowda in 1537 and rebuilt in stone by Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, beside the KR Market; scene of the 1791 British siege, and a natural pairing with Tipu’s Summer Palace.

templeKote Venkataramana Temple

A late-17th-century temple to Venkataramana (Vishnu) built by the Wodeyars beside Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace and the old fort, in a Vijayanagara-Dravidian style with carved pillars and a gopuram.

churchSt. Mary's Basilica

1.7 km · 21 min walk

The oldest church in Bengaluru and one of the few minor basilicas in India, a Gothic-style Catholic church in Shivajinagar with stained glass and a tall spire, famed for the September St Mary’s Feast procession that draws huge crowds.

churchSt. Mark's Cathedral

2.1 km · 27 min walk

A British-era Anglican cathedral of 1808 on MG Road, in a neo-classical style modelled on St Paul’s Cathedral in London, with a domed sanctuary, stained glass and a quiet churchyard in the heart of the city.

heritageHesaraghatta Lake

A former city water reservoir and its associated grassland landscape north-west of Bengaluru, now important for birdlife; water extent changes sharply with rain.

heritageFreedom Park

A large public park in Gandhi Nagar on the site of the old Central Jail where freedom fighters were held; some jail structures are preserved, and it is now a green space and the city’s main venue for protests and public events.

mosqueJumma Masjid

1.8 km · 22 min walk

One of the largest and oldest mosques of the Bengaluru Cantonment, in the Shivajinagar / Tasker Town area near Commercial Street, with a colonnaded prayer hall and slender minarets.

Roampedia is commission-free — own or know a stay, eatery, guide or shop near Ulsoor Lake? List it and it appears here once verified.

Add a nearby business
Before you go

Ulsoor Lake — at a glance

TimingsBoating ~9:00 AM - 6:00 PM; promenade open through the day
Best timeOctober to February; morning or late afternoon

Entry: Free (promenade); boating charged separately

Getting here

How to reach Ulsoor Lake

Trinity / Halasuru metro (Purple Line), near MG Road

Getting back

If you are travelling by bus or ferry, check the return service with the operator before setting out. Leave time to reach the stop or jetty after your visit.

Ask at the bus stand for the time of the last service back, not the next one. If you miss it, an auto or app cab is the fallback — agree the fare before you get in.

Getting around Ulsoor Lake

If you need step-free access, contact the site before travelling. Ask about a level entrance, steps along the route, the nearest drop-off point, seating and accessible toilets.

If you need help at Ulsoor Lake
112All emergencies (police · fire · medical)The single number to call in any emergency (ERSS).

Emergency numbers are verified against official government and state tourism sources. 112 works anywhere in India.

Nearby

What’s near Ulsoor Lake

heritageCommercial Street

A century-old shopping street in the Shivajinagar / Tasker Town area, one of Bengaluru’s oldest and busiest retail districts, packed with clothing, footwear, jewellery and street-food stalls.

1.6 km · 19 min walk
churchSt. Mary's Basilica

The oldest church in Bengaluru and one of the few minor basilicas in India, a Gothic-style Catholic church in Shivajinagar with stained glass and a tall spire, famed for the September St Mary’s Feast procession that draws huge crowds.

1.7 km · 21 min walk · straight line
mosqueJumma Masjid

One of the largest and oldest mosques of the Bengaluru Cantonment, in the Shivajinagar / Tasker Town area near Commercial Street, with a colonnaded prayer hall and slender minarets.

1.8 km · 22 min walk
templeHalasuru Someshwara Temple

The oldest temple in the city, a Chola-era Shiva shrine in Ulsoor greatly expanded under the Vijayanagara-era chief Kempe Gowda, with an ornate gopuram, a pillared kalyana mantapa and finely carved Yali pillars.

2.1 km · 25 min walk
churchSt. Mark's Cathedral

A British-era Anglican cathedral of 1808 on MG Road, in a neo-classical style modelled on St Paul’s Cathedral in London, with a domed sanctuary, stained glass and a quiet churchyard in the heart of the city.

2.1 km · 27 min walk · straight line
museumJawaharlal Nehru Planetarium

A sky-theatre and science centre at the High Grounds run by the Bangalore Association for Science Education, with domed astronomy shows, a science park of interactive exhibits and a public telescope programme.

3.9 km · 7 min drive
museumGovernment Museum, Bengaluru

One of the oldest museums in India, established in 1865 on Kasturba Road beside Cubbon Park, with archaeology, coins, sculpture and inscriptions, sharing its compound with the Venkatappa Art Gallery and the technology museum.

4.1 km · 7 min drive
heritageVidhana Soudha

Karnataka's monumental granite state legislature building, completed in 1956 in a Neo-Dravidian style; floodlit on Sunday evenings and viewed from outside.

4.1 km · 6 min drive
museumVisvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum

A hands-on science and technology museum on Kasturba Road beside Cubbon Park, opened in 1965 in memory of engineer-statesman Sir M. Visvesvaraya, with interactive galleries on engines, electronics and space and a full-scale Wright Flyer replica.

4.1 km · 8 min drive
museumNational Gallery of Modern Art

The Bengaluru branch of the National Gallery of Modern Art, in the restored early-20th-century Manikyavelu Mansion on Palace Road, with a permanent collection of modern Indian art and rotating exhibitions in landscaped grounds.

4.7 km · 9 min drive
heritageCubbon Park

A 300-acre landscaped green lung in the city centre, laid out in 1870, ringed by the red-brick Attara Kacheri (High Court), State Central Library and Government Museum.

5.0 km · 9 min drive
heritageBangalore Palace

A Tudor-revival palace built in 1878 by the Wodeyar royal family, with fortified towers, arches and interiors of Wodeyar-era portraits and furniture.

6.2 km · 11 min drive

All 24 places to visit in Central Bengaluru →

Walking and driving times are real routed distances, except the few marked “straight line”, which are direct-line estimates and will read short.Routing: © openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT | Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

On the map

Where Ulsoor Lake is

Good to know

Ulsoor Lake — frequently asked

When is the best time to visit Ulsoor Lake?

October to February; early morning or late afternoon for walking and boating.

What are the entry fee and timings at Ulsoor Lake?

Entry: Free (promenade); boating charged separately. Timings: Boating ~9:00 AM - 6:00 PM; promenade open through the day.

How do I reach Ulsoor Lake?

In the Ulsoor / Halasuru area east of the centre; Trinity and Halasuru metro stations (Purple Line) and MG Road are close. Boating is ticketed at the jetty; the promenade is free to walk.

How much time do I need for Ulsoor Lake?

45 minutes to an hour.

What else is near Ulsoor Lake?

Nearby you can pair Commercial Street (1.6 km), St. Mary's Basilica (1.7 km), Jumma Masjid (1.8 km), Halasuru Someshwara Temple (2.1 km).

Read before you go

Ulsoor Lake guides, stories & itineraries

We have not published a story about Ulsoor Lake itself yet. These cover Central Bengaluru and the wider district, with separate journeys between stops.

Around Central Bengaluru

These guides explore Central Bengaluru and the surrounding area. Choose a visit that fits your interests, allowing separately for travel between stops.

Karnataka-wide guides & itineraries

Route-level itineraries and practical guides for the rest of Karnataka.

See all 11 Bengaluru Urban guides & stories →

Image credits

Photographs: Ramesh NG from Bangalore, INDIA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0), rjha94 (CC BY 2.0), Prateek Karandikar (CC BY-SA 4.0), Abhiman Singh (CC0). Wikimedia Commons.