1 day in Udaipur

That's all you basically need to get a good sense of the city and what it has to offer. To get good historical and facts head over to Nite or wikipedia. When you are in India,

1. Absolutely get a guide unless you plan to hide in a shopping mall. 
2. Do not put too high expectation that the guide can offer you many insightful facts about the place of attraction. Knowledge is very surface but they are honest when they don't know something.
3. The guide's sole purpose is to help you fend off unwanted beggars and peddlers. Some guide will still let you be harassed. Feel free not to tip them if that happens.
4. Hire a driver as well. The last thing you want is to be groped in public transport especially if you are female.

Now we established the importance of a guide, the first guide we had was the best guide now that I think about it and we didn't even tip him. Although Udaipur has many palaces, most were bought over and refurbished into luxury hotels. Talk about pawning your heritage but it's probably a smart way to preserve it without using the government money. Thus whatever remaining attraction can be covered in a day assuming you also hire a driver. You will need to see the City Palace. Palace architecture always interests me, where the King eats, work, dine, shits and where the concubines and kids were.

From the palace it's just a walk away to the jetty to board a boat to Jag Mandir. The boat will also detour around Lake Picola where you can see the buildings surrounding it and the bathing and washing ghats which reminds me of how lucky I am to have tap water. As you can see the lake is like a big washing basin, the water is nothing much to be desired. However the surrounding view is very photogenic.

Jag Mandir is also owned privately but they still open up the front area for tourists. It isn't much to be honest. I won't sweat over it if I need to pass it over for some other sights.

Our day trip in Udaipur was rounded up by a visit to the Saheliyon Ki Bari - a garden made specifically for the 48 maidens that accompany a princess as her marriage dowry. It must be boring to be part of a dowry because your job ends as soon as the marriage is over and you are not allowed to go home. Well at least there is the garden. Would be better if it's a shopping bazaar, I am sure. One note worthy feature of the garden is the water fountain at the entrance re-acts to claps. The louder you clap the higher the fountains shoots. I leave it to you to figure out how a country that still washes and baths in lakes can develop something as sophisticated like an audio controlled fountain (~wink)

In between we break for lunch and it wasn't too rush at all. It was the most relaxing trip I'd ever had.