Hyderabad - City of Nawabs

Hyderabad city doesn’t need any introduction - Capital city of Telangana, also known as the Pearl City of India due to obvious reasons and yet another technology hub of India. I was fortunate enough to visit this city in Feb this year on my official travel. Our official work was for 2 days, which luckily happened to fall on Thursday and Friday. While other colleagues decided to travel back on Friday night itself, one of my colleague also a good friend showed interest to explore the city and agreed to stay back. So we extended our bookings for 2 more days for the same to return back on Sunday evening.

Day 1 and 2

We were put up in Holiday Inn Hotel in Hitech City during our initial 2 days stint in Hyderabad. This place is home to top IT companies just like any other IT tech parks in India. This place is actually Hyderabad’s center of modernity with malls, multiplexes and top-notch restaurants.

Since Hyderabad is famous for Biryani, on first day we could somehow make time in the evening to have a lavish dinner. Most of us already knew about Bawarchi, which is famous for the best Hyderabadi Biryani. We booked a cab and reached Bawarchi restaurant in Hitech City. Since we had a long tiring day, we just hogged the yummy Biryani and the taste was simply outstanding. We now understood why this is the specialty of Hyderabad. This is a must try for Biryani lovers. If not, you are surely going to miss something important in this place.

Second day after we finished all our official meetings we made plans of our city tour for day 3 and 4.

Day 3

Birla Mandir - We set off on our first day sightseeing tour at 10 am. Our first stop was “Birla Mandir”. From Hitech city, we reached Birla Mandir in 30 minutes by cab. This temple is on top of a hill and stands magnificently with white marble work which gives a completely outstanding look. You are not allowed to take cameras or phones inside the temple. Hence, you need to keep them in your lockers. Once you deposit them, you need to start climbing few steps to reach to the main temple. This temple is dedicated to Lord Venkateshwara. Post offering your prayers to god, when you take a walk around the temple you will get to see sensational views of Hyderabad city. You can sit there, relax for a while and enjoy the cool breeze. While climbing down, you will also get to see Hussain Sagar Lake. Unfortunately, you cannot capture anything in your camera.

Salarjung Museum – Our next stop was the most famous Salarjung Museum. This was one of the largest museums I have seen till date. The collections are spread across two floors - each floor has separate wings and you need to plan well if everything needs to be covered. This museum has good collection of sculptures, antiques, fine art, manuscripts and all sorts of items from the past. Make sure you plan this after lunch since you really need lot of energy and patience to cover the entire museum.

Sorry I am not a museum person, hence did not click much pictures. Its so vast that you would need one blog-post exclusively to explain each and every section of this museum. But if you are a museum lover, please don't miss to visit this. You can spend a day easily here but make sure you carry food, water with you since we did not find any restaurants close-by. 

We were super exhausted and hungry by now. Time to look for a good restaurant. Quickly took out our phones and checked for good restaurants nearby. Found out the Jewels of Nizam had good ratings. So decided to go there for lunch.

Located inside the Golkonda resort, this place will give you a rich vibe. The dining area and the interiors are designed to give you a grand royal feeling. Waiters walking around in Nawabi attire serving the food in traditional royal cutleries calls for a vow feeling. For non-vegetarians menu has good options but for vegetarians its average.  It was a good relaxation place for us.

Charminar – After savoring a nice lunch, our next stop was the most iconic Charminar. I felt it’s the most crowded place of Hyderabad obviously due to people thronging for shopping at Ladd Bazaar. We reached there in 15 minutes from the restaurant and went straight to Charminar first to click good pictures before it gets dark. This majestic structure is a good representation of Islamic architecture. There are stairways to go on top but there was huge rush for that. Hence, we just walked around Charminar to get a view from all four angels and then started walking towards Ladd Bazaar.  

Ladd Bazaar. This is the famous bangle market. Also around this area, you will find good places to shop for pearls. Shopping is incomplete if you do not take pearls as a souvenir for your loved ones back home.  My friend shopped for all the women in his family and thanks to him, I also got a bonus souvenir J.

A very important note: If you plan to stroll around Charminar area for shopping, please take care of your belongings since this place is too crowded with lot of action in every corner.

Hussain Sagar – Our last stop of the day. It was almost 6 pm in the evening and we took a cab to visit this famous landmark of Hyderabad.  There are good eateries around the lake, seating places for people to relax and enjoy the calm breeze. You will see a large monolithic statue of Buddha standing in the middle of the lake. During daytime, there are boating options to go around lake. There are nice pathways around the lake for people to take a walk around the lake. We took a stroll and the calm breeze was refreshing after a full day sight seeing in scorching heat. 

We were actually happy with the amount of places we covered on first day. We decided to call off for the day, booked a cab and headed back to hotel to catch good sound sleep.

Day 4

We checked out from hotel in the morning since we had to take flight in the evening at 5 pm.

Today our itinerary was very short with just one stop – Golkonda Fort. Hence, we had decided on previous day itself to start our day early since we had read reviews that this fort would take half day to see it 75% atleast. We had hired a full day cab today so that the same can drop us to airport in the evening.

Golkonda Fort – You need to take entry fee at the ticket counter and then start your journey inside this magnificent fort. Actually, you will be confused from where to start and move next. We saw a bunch of school kids who had come for picnic that day. Hence, we tried to make sure we cover the not so crowded places first and then make our climb to the hill. Some tips – please carry lots of water and cap. Scorching heat will be hitting sharp on your head and you will not find much resting areas inside the fort. 

Each piece of architecture in this fort is so fascinating that you will get amazed at every point. You will find huge darbar halls, gateways, stables and mosques with different design styles. 

Once you reach on top, you will get sweeping views of the surrounding areas. 

We clicked few pictures and started descending since it was getting late for us.

One tip - If you have time, please take a guide because I am sure there are lot of interesting facts to know about a place with such a rich heritage.

Our next stop was to pick up the next best souvenir home - Karachi Biscuit. This is a must try item in Hyderabad. Our driver took us to one of the best outlets where we could taste as well as pack some home.

We were super hungry by now but were getting late to airport as well. Hence decided to reach airport and have lunch there before boarding the flight. However, we were really happy and proud of ourselves for covering all the iconic places we had planned to see in these 2 days.

There are some more places like Chowmahalla palace, Qutub Shahi Tomb, Ramoji film city etc. For that, Hyderabad I will see you soon J.