Places to Visit in Mysore: 19 Spots with Fees (2026)

Mysore is a two day city for most families. The palace, the zoo, the Jaganmohan gallery, Devaraja Market and St Philomena's all sit within roughly 3 km of each other, so one day goes on foot with short auto or Ola hops in between. The second day needs a car: Chamundi Hill in the morning, the Srirangapatna side in the afternoon, Brindavan Gardens in the evening if you still have energy.

Fix your dates around two closed days. Tuesday shuts the zoo, Karanji Lake and the rail museum. Monday shuts the Jaganmohan art gallery. All distances below are from the palace area, which is where most hotels are.

Places to visit in Mysore city

1. Mysore Palace (Amba Vilas Palace)

The 1912 palace of the Wadiyar family, and the reason most people come to Mysore at all.

Ticket rates on the official Karnataka government palace site are ₹100 for Indian adults, ₹50 for children aged 10 to 18, free below 10. Open 10 am to 5.30 pm, all seven days. A lot of travel sites still show ₹70 for Indians, that is an older rate, so budget ₹100 per head. Online booking is available on mysorepalace.karnataka.gov.in and the ticket stays valid for six months, which helps if your dates shift.

Footwear comes off before you go in, there is a deposit counter and it costs a couple of rupees. Photography and video are not allowed inside the halls, so DSLRs also go to the counter. Budget 1.5 to 2 hours inside. Right at 10 am or after 4 pm are the lighter slots, on weekend afternoons the shoe counter queue alone eats twenty minutes.

The sound and light show is separate from your entry ticket and runs on all days except Sunday and government holidays:

• Kannada show: Monday to Wednesday 7 pm to 8 pm, Saturday 8.15 pm to 9.15 pm. ₹100 adults, ₹40 children.
• English show: Thursday to Saturday 7 pm to 8 pm. ₹120 adults, ₹50 children.
• Tickets go on sale at the Varaha Gate counter from 6.30 pm. No refund if the show stops midway because of rain.

The illumination is the thing people mix up with the show. The whole building is lit up on Sundays, public holidays and through Dasara, roughly 7 pm to 8 pm, and you watch it from the grounds with no ticket. So if you are in Mysore on a Sunday, you get the lights but no show, and if you want the show, keep a weekday evening free.

2. Chamundi Hill and Chamundeshwari Temple

13 km from the city, 30 to 40 minutes up by road. Darshan hours are 7.30 am to 2 pm, then 3.30 pm to 6 pm, then 7.30 pm to 9 pm, though one district listing says the afternoon session starts at 3 pm, so reach by 3 if you are cutting it fine. General queue is free, the special entry ticket is ₹30 and worth taking on a Friday or a weekend when the normal line is long.

The climb is 1,008 steps from the base near Lalitha Mahal, and the large carved Nandi sits around the 700th step. Full climb up takes 45 minutes to about 1.5 hours depending on fitness. Most families drive up, do darshan, then drive down to the Nandi separately, which is the easier version. In the climbing direction the steps are uneven in stretches and there is no shade worth mentioning after 9 am, so start by 7.

Important: on the big festival days, specially the Ashada Fridays in July and August and on Chamundeshwari Vardhanti, private vehicles are banned up the hill. You park at Shashiranjan Grounds and take a KSRTC shuttle. During Ashada the administration also runs a ₹2,000 darshan ticket that includes AC bus transport, a separate queue and a kit, the older ₹300 ticket was withdrawn. For a November to February trip none of this usually applies, but Fridays are crowded year round.

The hill road past the viewpoint has been under landslide repair work since the 2019 and 2021 slides, with work still going on through 2026, so check with your driver which way the traffic is being routed on the day.

3. Mysore Zoo (Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens)

One of the older zoos in the country, started 1892, spread over about 250 acres. Entry is ₹100 for adults, ₹50 for children aged 5 to 12, free below 5. Closed every Tuesday. The zoo's own site lists 8.30 am to 5.30 pm while the Mysuru district page says 10 am, so reach by 9 and you are safe either way.

There is a combo ticket with Karanji Lake at ₹130 for adults and ₹70 for children, which makes sense because the lake is barely 10 minutes away and shuts on the same day. Battery operated vehicle inside is around ₹200 per adult. Tickets can be booked at tickets.mysuruzoo.info.

Walking the full loop is 2.5 to 3 hours and large parts have little shade, so carry water and don't start at noon with small kids. The zoo is 3.2 km from Mysuru railway station and under 2 km from the city bus stand, an auto is ₹60 to ₹100 depending on where you start.

4. Brindavan Gardens and KRS Dam

19 to 21 km from the city, 30 to 40 minutes. Gardens are open 6.30 am to 8 pm, entry ₹50 for adults, ₹15 for children aged 5 to 10, free below 5. Still camera ₹20, car parking ₹50, two wheeler ₹20.

The musical fountain is the draw: 6.30 pm to 7.30 pm on weekdays, 6.30 pm to 8 pm on weekends and holidays, each session running 20 to 30 minutes. Reach by 5.30 pm so you see the garden in daylight, get a decent spot and then stay on for the fountain. If you reach at 6.45 on a Saturday you will be standing at the back.

The dam wall above the gardens is part of the same stop, go up for ten-fifteen minutes before you go in. Tip: this is an evening stop, not a morning one, and it pairs badly with a late Chamundi Hill plan. Keep it for the day you do Srirangapatna and Ranganathittu, both are on the same road.

5. St Philomena's Cathedral

About 3 km from the palace, open roughly 5 am to 6 pm, free entry. Twin Gothic style spires, big stained glass panels, and the crypt below. Ten to twenty minutes is enough unless you are attending mass. Visitors are expected to stay quiet and out of the way during services, so avoid Sunday morning if you are only sightseeing. Shoulders covered is the sensible default.

6. Jaganmohan Palace and Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery

400 m west of the palace's north gate, so club it with the palace in the same morning. Open 8.30 am to 5.30 pm, closed Monday. Entry is listed at ₹75 for Indian adults and ₹35 for children 5 to 12 on current listings, though some older pages still say ₹20, so carry change and confirm at the counter.

What's inside: sixteen original Raja Ravi Varma oils, Haldankar's "Glow of Hope", Mysore style gold leaf paintings and a set of old French mechanical clocks. Phone and DSLR photography is not allowed in the exhibition halls, there are lockers at the entrance. Budget 45 minutes to an hour. If nobody in your group cares about paintings, skip it, it is a gallery and nothing else.

7. Devaraja Market

The old covered market near the palace, about 3.7 acres of flower stalls, bananas, kumkum, spices, incense and sandalwood goods. Most sources put the hours at 6 am to 8 pm, one lists it as closed on Sunday and another as open daily, so don't build a Sunday morning around it.

Go early, around 7 to 8 am, when the flower section is being set up. Prices are quoted high for tourists, so bargaining is normal, and sandalwood oil sold loose on the street is often not the real thing. For sandalwood soap and oil you are safer at the government Cauvery emporium. Most stalls take UPI now.

8. Karanji Lake

8.30 am to 5.30 pm, closed Tuesday. Entry is small, around ₹10 to ₹30 per adult depending on which listing you read, or free with the zoo combo ticket. Boating is ₹25 per person for about 20 minutes, last boat around 4.30 pm. The butterfly park on the island opens at 9 am, half an hour after the main gate, and there's a walk-through aviary. Good for an hour with kids, not a destination on its own.

9. Mysuru Rail Museum

10 am to about 5 or 6 pm, closed Tuesday and national holidays. ₹50 for adults, ₹20 for children, digital camera charge is steep at ₹500 so leave it in the car. Old royal saloon coaches, a few steam engines and a short toy train ride for kids. Thirty to forty minutes. It is near the railway station, so it slots in well if you are catching an evening train anyway.

10. Mysore Sand Sculpture Museum

On the Chamundi Hill road, so stop on the way down. Open about 8.30 am to 6.30 pm all days, ₹60 adults and ₹40 children. Sixteen or so themed sand sculptures, kids like it, adults are usually done in half an hour.

11. KSIC silk factory and sandalwood shopping

The KSIC factory does a free walk through where you can watch Mysore silk being woven, generally Monday to Saturday in working hours, around 8 am to 4.30 pm, and the factory showroom keeps longer retail hours closer to 10 am to 7 pm. Buy the saree at the KSIC showroom or Cauvery emporium if you want the genuine silk mark and a proper bill, the lanes around the market sell plenty of lookalikes at similar prices.

12. Kukkarahalli Lake and Lalitha Mahal

Kukkarahalli Lake, next to the Mysore University campus, is free and has a walking track used mostly by locals early morning and at sunset. No tickets, no queue, good for a 40 minute walk if you are staying nearby.

Lalitha Mahal is the big white palace building at the foot of Chamundi Hill, run as a heritage hotel. Non guests mostly stop outside for photos or go in for a coffee, access inside depends on the hotel, so treat it as a five minute stop on the way to or from the hill.

13. GRS Fantasy Park

Water and amusement park about 10 km out, useful only if you are travelling with children and have a spare half day. Tickets run around ₹749 for adults and ₹649 for kids, with senior rates near ₹499, and there is a cheaper after 3 pm entry at roughly ₹599 and ₹499. Carry a change of clothes, costumes are compulsory for the water rides and are rented inside.

Day trips from Mysore

14. Srirangapatna

15 to 20 km on the Bengaluru road, 30 minutes. Tipu Sultan's island capital, and three stops that take a half day together.

Daria Daulat Bagh, the summer palace, is open 8.30 am to 5.30 pm with last entry around 5 pm, entry ₹25 for Indian adults and ₹10 for children under 15 (some listings say ₹20). It is an ASI monument and several ASI sites now sell tickets online only, so keep your phone and UPI ready rather than assuming a counter. The painted walls of the durbar hall are the reason to go in.

Gumbaz, the tomb of Tipu Sultan, Hyder Ali and Fathima Begum, is about 8 am to 6.30 pm and free. The Ranganathaswamy temple in the town is the third stop, it is an active temple so footwear off and no photography inside the sanctum. The old fort walls, the dungeon and the river ghats are scattered around the same loop, a driver who knows the place will do all of it in two to three hours.

15. Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary

16 to 19 km from Mysore, right next to Srirangapatna, so do both on the same morning. Entry ₹80 for Indian adults and ₹40 for children or students, the shared boat ride is ₹120 per adult and ₹40 per child, and a private boat is about ₹2,200. Car parking ₹70. Timings are generally 9.30 am to 5.30 pm.

The boat is the whole point: you go close to painted storks, river terns, cormorants and the marsh crocodiles sitting on the rocks. Winter into early summer is good for the nesting and migratory birds, which makes a November to February trip the right one. Go at opening, the light is better and boats fill up by mid morning on weekends. Boats are shared with eight to eighteen people and you cannot row yourself.

16. Somanathapura Keshava Temple

About 26 to 35 km from Mysore depending on the route, call it an hour. ASI site, open 8.30 am to 5.30 pm, entry around ₹20 to ₹25 for Indians. A 13th century Hoysala temple with three shrines and some of the most detailed stone carving in the state. No puja happens here, the idols were damaged long ago, so come for the architecture or not at all. Forty minutes to an hour. Hire a local guide at the gate if carvings interest you, otherwise most of the detail will pass you by.

17. Talakadu

45 km from Mysore on the Kaveri's bank, and often clubbed with Somanathapura since they are on the same side. The temples here were buried in sand over centuries and some have been dug out, the Panchalinga darshan held every few years is the big event. Normal day, it is a quiet, sandy temple site with a river bank, worth adding if you have a full day and like temple towns, skippable on a short trip.

18. Shivanasamudra falls

80 to 85 km, around two hours each way. The river splits into two falls here, Gaganachukki and Barachukki, and there is a 14 km drive between the two viewpoints, so count the time. Entry is free, the Barachukki viewpoint enclosure charges about ₹10 per person.

This one is season dependent. Water is heavy from the monsoon into roughly November, and by February to May there is very little flow, still a drive but don't promise anyone a waterfall. Steps down at Barachukki get slippery when wet, and swimming is not allowed.

19. Bandipur and Nagarhole

Bandipur is about 80 km on NH766, 1.5 to 2 hours. Forest department safaris run 6.30 am to 9 am and 3.30 pm to 6 pm. The bus safari is about ₹650 per person (₹325 safari plus ₹325 park entry) and the open camper is around ₹1,100 per person. Book on the official portal at bandipurtr.in, walk-in slots on a weekend morning are not reliable.

Nagarhole is the other half of the same forest, usually entered at the Veeranahosahalli gate via Hunsur. Quoted rates vary a lot between sources, from about ₹600 per adult for the bus to ₹1,000 and more for a jeep, with higher rates listed at some gates, so confirm when you book rather than carrying a figure from a blog.

Important for drivers: night traffic on NH766 through Bandipur is banned from 9 pm to 6 am, and two wheelers are stopped from 6 pm. If you are driving Mysore to Wayanad or Ooty, finish the forest stretch before the cutoff or you will be sitting at the check post till morning.

How to reach Mysore

From Bengaluru it is the obvious approach, roughly 145 to 150 km.

• Train is the easy option. The Vande Bharat does it in about two to two and a half hours, chair car fares start in the ₹340 range and go up by class and date. The Shatabdi and several express trains cover the same route, and Mysuru Junction is 2 km from the palace.
• By road on the Bengaluru to Mysuru expressway, the pure driving time is often quoted as 75 minutes to two hours, but door to door with city traffic at both ends it is realistically three hours. Car toll one way was revised to ₹355 from April, keep FASTag loaded.
• KSRTC buses run through the day, roughly ₹320 to ₹340 depending on whether you board at the Satellite bus stand or Majestic.
• Mysuru airport is about 10 km from the city and currently has IndiGo flights to Chennai and Hyderabad, a few a week. For everything else fly into Bengaluru and take the train or a cab, the airport is on the far side of Bengaluru, so budget four to five hours from there.

Inside the city, autos are everywhere, Ola and Uber work but supply thins out after 9 pm. A full day cab with a driver for the Chamundi Hill plus Srirangapatna loop is the sensible thing for a family. KSTDC also runs a packaged city sightseeing tour in the ₹400 to ₹850 band per person depending on boarding point and inclusions, with entry tickets charged separately.

Best time to visit

Mid November to the end of February is the window. Days sit around 28 to 30 degrees, nights drop to 17 or so, and January is the driest month of the year. December and January are peak, so hotels near the palace get booked out and rates move up, book two to three weeks ahead if your dates fall in the Christmas to New Year stretch.

March to May is hot, 33 to 36 in the afternoon, which makes the zoo and the Chamundi steps hard work. June to September is wet and the waterfalls are at their best, with Dasara in September or October being the biggest event of the year in Mysore, also the single most crowded and expensive time to be in the city. If you are planning for the coming few months, November to February is the right call and you can read our December in India picks if your dates are still open.

Plan around the closed days

• Tuesday: zoo, Karanji Lake and the rail museum are shut.
• Monday: Jaganmohan art gallery is shut.
• Sunday: no palace sound and light show, but you get the free illumination instead. Devaraja Market may be shut, listings disagree.
• Friday and weekends: Chamundi Hill gets heavy, go at 7 am or take the ₹30 special entry.

A sample 2 day plan

Day 1, city on foot. Palace at 10 am, 1.5 to 2 hours. Walk 400 m to the Jaganmohan gallery (not Monday). Lunch near the palace. Zoo at 2.30 pm with the Karanji combo ticket, finish around 5. Evening either the sound and light show at 7 (weekday) or the illumination at 7 (Sunday). Devaraja Market can swap into the morning at 7 am if you are an early riser.

Day 2, car day. Leave at 6.30 am for Chamundi Hill, darshan at 7.30, then down to the Nandi and the sand sculpture museum. Back in the city for breakfast by 10. Drive out to Ranganathittu for the boat, then Srirangapatna for the summer palace and Gumbaz, lunch there. Reach Brindavan Gardens by 5.30 pm, fountain at 6.30, back in Mysore by 8.30.

If you have a third day, pick one: Somanathapura with Talakadu, or a Bandipur safari, or Shivanasamudra if there is water. If you have four, drive on to Coorg (118 to 120 km, 2.5 to 3 hours via Hunsur and Kushalnagar), Ooty (about 125 km, 3.5 to 4.5 hours through Gundlupet and Mudumalai, see our Ooty guide for the e-pass rule) or Wayanad (130 to 170 km depending on the route).

Where to stay

Stay around the palace, JLB Road or Nazarbad if you want to walk to the main sights and keep auto costs low. Gandhi Square is the budget cluster and is noisy but central. The Chamundi Hill road and the Lalitha Mahal side is quieter with resort style properties, but you will be in a cab for everything. Near the railway station works if you are doing Mysore as a one night stop off the train. Book early for late December, and for Dasara dates book months ahead.

What to carry

Shoes you can slip off quickly, because footwear comes off at the palace, at Chamundeshwari and at the Srirangapatna temple. Socks help on the hot stone in the afternoon. Cash in small notes for shoe counters, parking and boat tickets, UPI works at most ticket counters now but not all. A cap and water for the zoo and the hill steps. One set of modest clothes for the temples. If you are driving to the falls or the forest, fill fuel in the city, pumps thin out past Malavalli and Gundlupet.

If you would rather have the cab, hotels and the day by day sequence handled for you, our team plans customised south India trips, see MyTripLama packages.