By road
~500 km from Delhi, a major Uttar Pradesh hub well connected by air and rail
North India · Uttar Pradesh
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
Nawabi tehzeeb and a kebab-first food scene · ~500 km from Delhi, a major Uttar Pradesh hub well connected by air and rail
Getting there
By rail
Lucknow Charbagh (Lucknow NR/NER Junction), in the city
By air
Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, in the city
Best time to visit
October to March — kebab weather, garden weather
Don't miss
Bara Imambara
Rumi Darwaza
Residency ruins
Ambedkar Park
Things to do
Heritage walks in Chowk
Chikankari shopping
Boat rides on the Gomti
Where to eat
Sources: wikimedia, Photo: Rishabhgpt · CC BY-SA 4.0
What to pack
Appetite above all, modest wear for the imambaras
A quieter corner
The upside-down labyrinth logic of Bara Imambara's Bhool Bhulaiya
About Lucknow
- Riverside
Where it is
Lucknow is the capital of Uttar Pradesh, on the banks of the Gomti river in the fertile Gangetic plain of northern India, at the heart of the historic region of Awadh.
History
Lucknow rose to prominence when Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula moved the capital of Awadh here in 1775, and his successors filled it with imambaras, palaces and gardens. The British annexed Awadh in 1856, and the siege of the Residency during the uprising of 1857 became one of its most famous episodes.
People
Lucknowis speak Hindi and Urdu, and the city is known for its refined etiquette, called tehzeeb, and for the Urdu poetry, Kathak dance and ghazal singing that flourished under the nawabs. Its kitchens gave India Awadhi cuisine, with slow-cooked dum biryani and melt-in-the-mouth galouti kebabs.
Known for
- Bara Imambara and its Bhool Bhulaiya maze
- Rumi Darwaza
- Chikankari embroidery
- Awadhi kebabs and biryani
- The Residency ruins
Did you know?
The Bara Imambara was built in the 1780s partly as a famine-relief project, and its vast central hall stands without any supporting beams.
We haven't written a guide for this place yet — you can still plan a trip here.