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.
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.
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.
Road km to Bengaluru Urban; ghat roads and traffic vary — allow extra.
October to February; early morning or late afternoon for walking and boating.
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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.
Verified hotels, homestays, restaurants, experiences, sights, shops and rentals around Ulsoor Lake — commission-free, with direct contact. Filter by what you need.
Hotel on Vasvani Layout, Challaghatta Road, Next to Embassy Golf Link Business Park, Behind Hilton Hotel, Domlur in Central Bengaluru.
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Find food, accommodation and activities across Central Bengaluru. Browse the guides for places to eat, stay and explore along your route.
Walking routes start at Ulsoor Lake. Check the route and access before setting out, especially where a road, gate or waterway separates the stops.
23 more places around Central Bengaluru. Open a guide to plan the visit and onward journey.
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.
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.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

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.
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.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

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.
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.
A former city water reservoir and its associated grassland landscape north-west of Bengaluru, now important for birdlife; water extent changes sharply with rain.
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.
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.
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Add a nearby businessEntry: Free (promenade); boating charged separately
Trinity / Halasuru metro (Purple Line), near MG Road
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.
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.
Emergency numbers are verified against official government and state tourism sources. 112 works anywhere in India.
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
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 lineOne 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
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 walkA 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 lineA 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
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 driveKarnataka'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 driveA 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 driveThe 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 driveA 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
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 driveWalking 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
October to February; early morning or late afternoon for walking and boating.
Entry: Free (promenade); boating charged separately. Timings: Boating ~9:00 AM - 6:00 PM; promenade open through the day.
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.
45 minutes to an hour.
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).
We have not published a story about Ulsoor Lake itself yet. These cover Central Bengaluru and the wider district, with separate journeys between stops.
These guides explore Central Bengaluru and the surrounding area. Choose a visit that fits your interests, allowing separately for travel between stops.

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