Things to Do in Bangalore, India: Walking Guide

Looking for things to do in Bangalore? The capital of Karnataka combines royal architecture, ancient temples, historic churches and museums devoted to art, science and aviation. Its landmarks reveal a city shaped by the Wodeyar dynasty, Tipu Sultan, the British period and modern India. Neywo has a free audio guide for Bangalore with 56 narrated places, available in 11 languages.

What to See in Bangalore

Bengaluru Palace

Bengaluru Palace is one of Bangalore’s most distinctive landmarks. Built in the Tudor style and modelled on Windsor Castle, it stands in Palace Gardens with fortified towers, battlements and steeply pitched roofs.

Construction began in 1862 under the supervision of Reverend Garrett. In 1884, Maharaja Chamarajendra Wadiyar of the Wodeyar dynasty purchased the property and completed it as a royal residence. Inside, the first-floor Durbar Hall was the ceremonial setting where the Maharaja held court. Paintings by Raja Ravi Varma decorate the rooms, while Chinese-style furniture adds an unexpected detail to the palace’s eclectic interiors.

Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace

In Old Bangalore, Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace offers a very different royal setting. Built within the walls of Bangalore Fort, the teakwood palace was begun by Hyder Ali in 1781 and completed in 1791 during Tipu Sultan’s reign.

Its two-storey structure combines wooden pillars, stone bases, arched vaults and painted floral decoration in an Indo-Islamic style. Tipu Sultan held his daily durbar in the large central hall on the upper floor, with projecting balconies on the east and west sides. After Tipu’s defeat in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, the British used the palace as their secretariat until 1868.

Vidhana Soudha

Vidhana Soudha is the seat of Karnataka’s legislature and houses both the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. Its monumental scale reflects the ambitions of the newly independent state.

The foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on July 13, 1951. Designed by B.R. Manickam, the building blends Mysore Dravidian traditions with Indo-Saracenic elements in a style often called Neo-Dravidian. Its domes, columns and arches echo temple architecture from across Karnataka.

Kote Venkataramana Temple

The Kote Venkataramana Temple, also known as the Kote Lakshmi Venkateshwara Temple, stands on Krishnarajendra Road in the heart of Bangalore. Built in 1689 by King Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar, it is dedicated to Venkateshwara, a form of Lord Vishnu.

Its architecture brings together Dravidian and Vijayanagara styles, making it an important religious and historical site associated with the Mysore kingdom.

Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple

Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple is a 16th-century rock-cut shrine created by Kempe Gowda I, the founder of Bangalore. The sanctum sits inside a natural cave, giving the temple a cool and contemplative atmosphere.

The site is known for its stone discs in the forecourt and for an astronomical alignment that allows sunlight to pass through the architecture and illuminate the shrine on specific days each year. Dedicated to Lord Shiva as Gangadhareshwara, the temple connects Bangalore’s origins with sophisticated knowledge of astronomy and geometry.

Historic churches

Bangalore’s churches reflect several periods of the city’s history and include a range of architectural traditions.

At the western end of Mahatma Gandhi Road, St. Mark’s Cathedral is an English Baroque church inspired by St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Its foundation was laid in 1808, and it serves as the mother church of the Diocese of Central Karnataka for the Church of South India.

Holy Trinity Church stands at Trinity Circle, at the eastern end of MG Road. Built in 1851 for the British regiment stationed in Bangalore, it follows the English Renaissance style and was designed to hold 700 people.

St. Francis Xavier’s Cathedral is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bangalore. French missionaries built the first church on the site in 1851. The present building was inaugurated in 1932 and became a cathedral in 1940. Its two domes, part of the original architectural plan, were finally completed in 2009.

Museums and galleries

Bangalore has a particularly broad cultural scene, from modern Indian art to the history of aviation and science.

The National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru opened in 2009. Its collection includes works by Raja Ravi Varma, Jamini Roy, Amrita Sher-Gil and Rabindranath Tagore, as well as modern and contemporary Indian artists. The building also contains an auditorium, a public art reference library, a cafeteria and a museum shop.

The Museum of Art & Photography, known locally as MAP, brings together Indian art, textiles, photography, craft and design objects dating from the twelfth century to the present. It began as a digital museum in 2020 before opening its physical venue to the public on February 18, 2023.

Gallery G, founded by Gitanjali Maini, has been a contemporary art space since 2003. Its stated aim is to provide informed access to art and connect artists with the people who live with their work.

For a view of India’s aviation story, the HAL Aerospace Museum displays aircraft, helicopters and aircraft engine models. It also includes flight simulators and a mock Air Traffic Control Tower. Opened in 2001 as part of the HAL Heritage Centre, it presents six decades of development in Indian aviation and at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

Other museums add further perspectives. The Kempegowda Museum, on the first floor of Mayo Hall, explores the history of Bangalore’s founder through a statue, posters and images of forts, temples, reservoirs and inscriptions. The Archives at NCBS preserves documents and materials relating to the history of science in contemporary India. Science Gallery Bengaluru is another museum dedicated to science and its place in the city.

Explore Bangalore with a free audio guide

Neywo lets you discover Bangalore through five walking tours, one bus route and one bike route. Together, they include narrated stops across the city’s palaces, churches, museums, civic buildings and historic districts.

• Cubbon Park: Legislature, Kings and Museums — 3.88 km, 113 minutes, 11 stops
• Cantonment Churches and Russell Market — 3.29 km, 83 minutes, 6 stops
• Tipu’s Bangalore: Fort, Palace and the Old Pete — 5.02 km, 118 minutes, 8 stops
• MG Road: Cathedral, Theatre and Church Spires — 2.9 km, 72 minutes, 5 stops
• Palace Road: Bengaluru Palace and the Galleries — 5.35 km, 106 minutes, 4 stops
• Bus 292: Museums and Queen’s Park from KR Market — 2.6 km, 11 minutes, 5 stops
• Cubbon Park Ride — 2.9 km, 14 minutes, 8 stops

Download Neywo and explore Bangalore at your own pace. The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, with no group and no schedule. After Bangalore, continue exploring Karnataka, discover the heritage of Mysore, or visit Hampi and Vijayapura.