A Trip to Bangalore
Saturday, January 17th , 2026
We had some winter sunshine for a week in Bangalore. This is my 24th visit to India, and although Bangalore is not the most obvious tourist destination in India, it has some advantages. You can fly direct from the UK, it is quite leafy (it is the “garden city” of India) and, above all, its position high on the Deccan Plateau means that it is cooler than most of India. Whereas in January, Goa and Kerala average around 32C or more as a high, in Bangalore, it is 27/28C high, with the temperature in the evening around 23C. This means that you can dine outside at night and not be frazzled too much during the day.
We stayed at the Leela Palace hotel and tried three of the four restaurants there. Citrus is their all-day casual restaurant, Zen serves (mostly) Chinese food, while Jamavar is the flagship Indian restaurant. There is also a European/American-style place called Le Cirque. Outside the hotel, we tried Indian Durbar and Ssaffron (not a typo).