Bangalore Tourist Places: 20 Spots with Fees (2026)

Bangalore is a city where the distance is small and the traffic is the problem. Nothing in this list is more than 25 km from MG Road except the day trips, but 12 km at 6 pm can take an hour. So plan by area, not by interest, and keep the long drives for early morning.

Which places sit where

• Centre, walkable and on the metro: Cubbon Park, Vidhana Soudha, the Kasturba Road museums, MG Road, Church Street, Commercial Street.
• South, 5 to 8 km: Lalbagh, Bull Temple, Gavi Gangadhareshwara, Jayanagar and Basavanagudi for food.
• Old city, about 4 km west of Cubbon Park: Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace, Bangalore Fort, KR Market, Chickpet.
• East, 10 to 15 km: Shivoham Shiva Temple, HAL Aerospace Museum, Ulsoor Lake.
• Outside: Bannerghatta 22 to 25 km south, Wonderla 28 km on Mysore Road, Nandi Hills 60 km north, Skandagiri 62 km north.

The 20 places, with fees and timings

1. Lalbagh Botanical Garden

About 240 acres in the south of the city, gates open 6 am to 7 pm. Entry is free for walkers between 6 and 9 am and again from 6 to 7 pm, in between it's ₹25 to ₹30 per adult and free for children under 12. Nearest metro is Lalbagh on the Green Line, the West Gate near the metro is the easier entry on weekends. Inside, the 1889 Glass House is the main structure, and the Kempegowda watchtower sits on a rock outcrop at the far end, ten-fifteen minutes uphill walk. Budget 1.5 to 2 hours. The flower show runs twice a year, around Republic Day and Independence Day, and the January 2026 edition ran 14 to 26 January with tickets at ₹80 on weekdays, ₹100 on holidays and ₹30 for children. The next Republic Day show falls around mid January 2027, dates are usually announced in December, booking goes live on hasiru.karnataka.gov.in/flowershow. Important: on flower show days the garden is packed from 10 am and parking around Double Road is a mess, go at 9 am or after 4 pm.

2. Cubbon Park and the Kasturba Road museums

Free, about 300 acres right in the centre, Cubbon Park metro on the Purple Line drops you at the edge. No vehicles inside from 5 to 8 am, and the internal roads are shut to traffic on Sundays, which is when families and cyclists take over. Reports differ on whether the park has a weekly closed day, treat the gates as open and confirm if you're going specially.

Three paid stops sit in or beside the park, all of them small and all of them Monday closed, so don't plan this cluster on a Monday.

• Government Museum on Kasturba Road, ₹20 for adults and ₹10 for children, 10 am to 5 pm, shut Monday. Venkatappa Art Gallery is in the same compound.
• National Gallery of Modern Art on Palace Road, ₹20 for Indians, 10 am to 5 pm, Tuesday to Sunday. Free for students with ID and for senior citizens.
• Bengaluru Aquarium near the Kasturba Road gate, nominal ticket of about ₹15 for adults. It's a twenty minute stop at most.

3. Bangalore Palace

On Palace Road, about 3 km from MG Road. Entry is ₹230 to ₹270 for Indian adults depending on which counter rate is current, roughly double that for foreigners, and the ticket includes an audio guide in English, Hindi, Kannada and a few European languages. Timings are 10 am to 5.30 pm with last entry around 5 pm. Some listings say Monday closed, others say daily, and the palace also blocks off dates for weddings and concerts, so call ahead if it's the one thing you want to see. Photography inside is charged separately. Budget 1.5 to 2 hours if you actually listen to the audio guide, an hour if you don't.

4. Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace

ASI monument in Chamarajpet, near KR Market and Kalasipalya bus stand. Open 8.30 am to 5.30 pm, all days. Tickets are ₹20 if you book online and ₹25 at the counter for Indian adults, free for children under 15. It's a two storey teak building, not large, forty minutes is plenty. The area around it is market and wholesale traffic, so take the metro to Krishna Rajendra Market and walk, parking a car here is a waste of time.

5. Bangalore Fort

Five hundred metres from the summer palace, so club both together. What survives is one gate and a stretch of wall, entry is ₹5 to ₹15 for Indians, 8.30 am to 5.30 pm. Twenty minutes, and only if you're already in the old city.

6. Vidhana Soudha and Attara Kacheri

The state legislature building on the north edge of Cubbon Park. Casual tourists don't get inside, you look at it from the road, and permission for interior visits has to be arranged in advance through official channels. It is lit up in the evenings, roughly 6 to 8.30 pm, mostly on Sundays and public holidays, and that's when people come to photograph it. Attara Kacheri, the red High Court building, is directly across the road. Free, fifteen minutes, pair it with a Cubbon Park walk.

7. Bull Temple, Basavanagudi

Free entry, open about 6 am to 8 pm, with some sources listing a midday break from 12 to 5.30 pm, so mornings are safer. The Nandi inside is carved from a single rock and that's the whole point of the visit, fifteen-twenty minutes. Dodda Ganapathi temple is next door in the same compound, add ten minutes. Once a year in late November or early December the Kadalekai Parishe groundnut fair fills the streets here for two days and the lanes become unwalkable, nice if you want the crowd, avoid if you don't. Dates shift with the Kannada calendar, confirm locally. Basavanagudi is also where you eat, the old darshinis around Gandhi Bazaar do idli, vada and khara bath till about 11 am.

8. Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple

Free, about 2 km from Lalbagh in Gavipuram. A rock cut cave temple, open roughly 6 am to 12.30 pm and 5 to 8.30 pm. The known thing here is Makara Sankranti, 14 to 16 January, when the evening sun lines up through the entrance and falls on the Shivling. On those three days expect queues of two hours plus and road closures nearby. Any other day it's a quiet twenty minute stop.

9. ISKCON Temple, Rajajinagar

Free entry, about 6 to 8 km from the centre on a small hill in Rajajinagar. Darshan runs 4.15 to 5.20 am, then 7.15 am to 1.15 pm, then 4.15 to 8.20 pm. On weekends and public holidays they usually keep it open straight through from 7.15 am to 8.20 pm. There's a nominal charge at the footwear counter and for parking. Dress is traditional or at least covered, shorts are not ok. The walk up is through a long ramp lined with shops, so with elderly parents allow extra time. Prasadam counters at the exit, and the queue on Janmashtami and Ekadashi days runs for hours.

10. Shivoham Shiva Temple

Old Airport Road, Murugeshpalya side, so it fits a day spent in east Bangalore. The 65 ft seated Shiva and the 32 ft Ganapathi are the reason people come. General darshan is free, special darshan and seva packages run ₹150 to ₹500. Open roughly 9 am to 9 pm, some listings say from 6 am. Thirty to forty minutes. Mahashivaratri here is a full day crowd, not a casual visit.

11. Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium

High Grounds, near Vidhana Soudha. ₹75 for adults and ₹50 for children up to 16 on most current listings, with a few sources quoting ₹100 and ₹60, and one ticket covers one show. Open 10 am to 5.30 pm, closed Monday, second Tuesday and public holidays. Shows alternate between English and Kannada through the day, English slots are commonly around 12.30 pm and 4.30 pm, so check the board on arrival rather than planning your morning around it. Good with kids above six, the dome show is 40 minutes and small children get restless.

12. Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum

On Kasturba Road next to Cubbon Park, which makes it the easiest add on in the centre. ₹85 for adults and ₹50 for children 5 to 18, open 9.30 am to 6 pm all days including most holidays, which is useful when the Monday closures hit everything else. Shows and rides are charged on top: about ₹35 for the 3D show, ₹45 for Science on a Sphere, ₹15 for taramandal and ₹60 for the flying simulator. Free entry for serving defence and police personnel and for children under five. With kids you'll spend two to three hours, mostly on the hands on floors.

13. HAL Heritage Centre and Aerospace Museum

Near the old airport, about 15 km from Majestic. ₹70 for adults and ₹30 for children on most listings, a few still say ₹50, plus ₹50 for a still camera and ₹100 for video. Open 9 am to 5 pm. Real aircraft parked outside, a simulator, and a hall on HAL's history. An hour and a half. It's on the east side, so pair it with Shivoham temple or Ulsoor rather than with Lalbagh.

14. Bannerghatta Biological Park

22 to 25 km south of the city, around an hour from Jayanagar in normal traffic and more from the north. Closed on Tuesday, every week, this is the single most common planning mistake here. Zoo timings are 9.30 am to 5 pm and safari slots run 10 am to 4.30 pm.

Fees have changed more than once and sources now disagree, so take these as the range and confirm on etickets.bannerughattabiopark.org before you go. Zoo entry is quoted at ₹100 to ₹120 for adults, ₹50 to ₹60 for children 6 to 12 and about ₹60 for senior citizens. The butterfly park is a separate ₹50 for adults. For the safari, the grand safari is quoted around ₹260 per adult and ₹130 per child, and combined zoo plus safari packages run ₹370 to ₹420 on a non AC bus and ₹690 to ₹740 for the AC bus version that bundles the butterfly park and camera. Specially abled visitors get free zoo entry and a reduced safari rate.

Tip: book the safari slot online for weekends and holidays, the jeep and AC bus slots go first. Take the earliest slot you can, animals move in the first hour and then sit under trees. The zoo walk afterwards is 2 to 3 km, so shoes and water, and the whole outing eats five to six hours with travel.

15. Ulsoor Lake and Sankey Tank

Ulsoor is free, open about 5 am to 7.30 pm, with pedal and row boats run by the state. Sankey Tank in Malleswaram charges a token ₹10 for adults and ₹5 for children, 6 am to 8 pm, with cheap boating. Both are walks, not sights, useful if you're staying nearby and want an evening hour.

16. Commercial Street, MG Road and Chickpet

Commercial Street is clothes, footwear and costume jewellery, bargaining expected on the pavement stalls and not inside the shops. Most shops open around 11 am and run till 9 pm. MG Road, Brigade Road and Church Street are the cafe and bookshop stretch, all three are a five minute walk from each other and from MG Road metro. Chickpet in the old city is where you go for silk sarees at wholesale rates, narrow lanes, and a good number of shops there shut on Sunday, so check before making the trip. Cash plus UPI both work everywhere, card machines less reliably in the lane shops.

17. Wonderla

28 km out on Mysore Road, about an hour from the centre and less now with the expressway start. Tickets are roughly ₹1,470 for an adult on weekdays and ₹1,790 on weekends, children a few hundred less, and fastrack versions cost nearly double. Park timings are 11 am to 6 pm on weekdays and 11 am to 7 pm on weekends, with the water rides usually opening around 12.30 pm. Carry a change of clothes and slippers, swimwear is on rent inside, and lockers are paid. Full day, so don't plan anything else that day.

18. Nandi Hills

60 km north via NH44 towards Chikkaballapur, 1.5 to 2 hours by car. Gates open 6 am and close around 6 pm. Entry is ₹10 to ₹20 per person and parking is ₹30 to ₹50 for a two wheeler and ₹60 to ₹100 for a car, higher on weekends. Entry is capped at any given time, around 1,000 two wheelers and 300 light vehicles, so on Saturday and Sunday the queue starts below the hill well before dawn.

For sunrise you need to leave the city by 3.30 or 4 am, which for most families is the deal breaker. Going at 9 or 10 am on a weekday is a far easier trip and the walk to Tipu's Drop and the Yoga Nandeeshwara temple on top is the same either way. In November to January the top is cold and windy at dawn, carry a jacket.

Important: the state has announced a plan to stop private vehicles on the hill road and run electric shuttles from the foothills instead, with a cable car talked about later. It was not fully in force at the time of writing, so check the current rule a day or two before you drive up. Bhoga Nandeeshwara temple at the foot of the hill is free and worth thirty minutes, most people skip it and shouldn't. Nearest railway station is Chikkaballapur, about 9 km away, then an auto or cab.

19. Skandagiri

62 km north, close to Nandi Hills, and the better option if you want to actually walk. Entry is through the Karnataka Forest Department's eco tourism booking at about ₹250 per person, and it has to be booked online, walk ins are turned away at the check post. Permits per slot are capped. The climb is 4 to 5 km each way, three hours up for an average walker on loose rock. Night trek permissions have been on and off and sources contradict each other, so confirm the current status before you book a package. Operators running it from Bangalore with transport, guide and breakfast charge roughly ₹800 to ₹1,200 per head.

20. Big Banyan Tree, Ramanagara and the Savandurga side

West of the city on the Mysore Road side, all free or near free, and they club into one half day drive. The Big Banyan Tree is 28 to 34 km out, a single tree spread over a few hundred metres of rooted branches, twenty minutes. Ramanagara is 47 to 50 km, granite hills where Sholay was shot, also a vulture sanctuary. Savandurga is 60 to 70 km and is a serious monolith climb, not a casual outing, and people have got into trouble on it in the afternoon heat. Manchinbele reservoir sits between them. For a gentler version, Nrityagram dance village near Hesaraghatta is 30 to 38 km north west and takes visitors on specific days only, so write to them first.

How to reach Bangalore

Kempegowda International Airport is about 40 km north of the centre and the drive is 60 to 90 minutes, longer in the evening peak. BMTC's Vayu Vajra AC buses connect the airport to most parts of the city on about 21 routes, fares roughly ₹150 to ₹380 depending on distance, with the Majestic route around ₹200 to ₹280 and services every 12 to 15 minutes at peak. Ola and Uber both work from the designated bays. The metro line to the airport is still under construction, with the airport stretch targeted for late 2026 into 2027, so for now budget road time for early flights.

Trains come into four stations, so check your ticket: KSR Bengaluru City (SBC) at Majestic, Yesvantpur, Bengaluru Cantonment and SMVT Bengaluru at Baiyappanahalli, which is well east of the centre. Long distance buses use Kempegowda bus station at Majestic for KSRTC and most private operators, with the Mysore Road satellite stand for the Mysore and Mangalore side.

Getting around the city

Namma Metro is the only transport in Bangalore that keeps time. The Purple Line runs east to west through MG Road and Majestic, the Green Line north to south through Lalbagh and Majestic, and the Yellow Line to Electronic City opened in August 2025. The Pink Line's elevated stretch cleared its safety inspection on 28 October 2026 and was expected to open soon after, so one or two new stations may be live by the time you travel. Buy QR tickets on the Namma Metro app, the counters have queues at Majestic and MG Road.

For everything off the metro, Ola, Uber, Rapido and the BMTC buses. Autos ask for extra over the meter in the evenings, use the app and prepay by UPI. Between 8.30 and 11 am and 5 and 8.30 pm, assume anything over 8 km will take double the time Maps says.

Best time to visit

November to February is the window. December and January get under 20 mm of rain and February is the driest month of the year, days around 26 to 27 degrees and nights down to 16, which for most Indian travellers is jacket weather in the morning. October is the wettest month in Bangalore, about 147 mm over roughly seven rainy days, and the rain comes in short evening bursts rather than all day, so it's still travellable with an umbrella. March to May is hot and dusty, 33 to 35 in the afternoon, do indoor museums in the middle of the day. June to September is moderate with on and off drizzle.

If you are planning around the flower show, mid to late January is the date, and if you want Nandi Hills with clear air, December and January mornings are the best but also the coldest.

A sample 2 day plan

Day 1, centre and south. Start at Lalbagh at 6.30 or 7 am while it's free and empty, do the Glass House and the watchtower, breakfast in Basavanagudi around Gandhi Bazaar. Bull Temple and Dodda Ganapathi next, then Gavi Gangadhareshwara, both quick. Back to the centre by late morning for the Visvesvaraya museum and a Cubbon Park walk, add the Government Museum or NGMA if it isn't Monday. Bangalore Palace at 3 pm with the audio guide. Evening on Church Street and MG Road, or Commercial Street if you're shopping.

Day 2, old city and east, or Bannerghatta. Option A: metro to KR Market, do Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace and Bangalore Fort by 10.30, Chickpet if you want sarees, then cross to the east for the HAL museum and Shivoham Shiva Temple, finish at ISKCON Rajajinagar in the evening slot after 4.15 pm. Option B, better with children: leave at 8 am for Bannerghatta, pre booked safari slot, zoo and butterfly park, back by 4 pm, Nehru Planetarium show or Ulsoor Lake in the evening. Remember Bannerghatta is shut on Tuesday.

If you have a third day, pick one: Nandi Hills with Bhoga Nandeeshwara, Skandagiri with a booked permit, Wonderla for a full day, or a Mysore run on the expressway. Mysore is 145 to 150 km and the expressway stretch takes the drive down to roughly 2.5 to 3 hours door to door, with car toll around ₹170 per plaza one way at the April 2025 revised rates and FASTag required. It's a long day as a return trip, one night there is better, and our Mysore guide has the palace and zoo timings. Travellers continuing south often go Bangalore to Mysore to Ooty, which works well in the same November to February window.

Where to stay

• MG Road, Church Street and Residency Road: best for a two day sightseeing trip, walkable to Cubbon Park and on the Purple Line. Mid range and upwards.
• Majestic and Gandhi Nagar: cheapest beds, next to the bus station and SBC railway station, noisy and not great for families.
• Jayanagar and Basavanagudi: close to Lalbagh and the temples, good food, quieter, but fewer hotels.
• Indiranagar and Koramangala: restaurants and bars, 6 to 10 km from the central sights, fine if you're here for a weekend rather than monuments.
• Near the airport at Devanahalli or Yelahanka: only if you have a dawn flight.

What to carry

A light jacket or shawl for December and January mornings, specially if Nandi Hills or Skandagiri is on the list. Shoes with grip for the rock sections at Skandagiri, Savandurga and the Lalbagh watchtower. A small umbrella in October and November, the evening showers here arrive fast. ID for ASI online tickets at the summer palace. Keep ₹200 to ₹300 in cash for parking, footwear counters and the small lakes, everything else takes UPI.

If you want this stitched into a longer south India route with hotels and a car, see our trips.