India · State of Karnataka · Udupi
Manipal, Udupi — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Manipal is a plateau suburb of Udupi in coastal Karnataka, with the Arabian Sea on one hand and the Western Ghats on the other.
About Manipal
Where to stay in Manipal
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Manipal or Udupi City, five kilometres decide it. The plateau keeps the quieter rooms, set back from the temple traffic below and high enough to take the air coming off the Arabian Sea, while the older centre puts a visitor within walking distance of the Krishna temple. Both answer to the Udupi City Municipality.
Anyone wanting the Western Ghats side of a day, or an early start down the road toward Mangalore, gains from sleeping up on the plateau.
About Manipal
What are the main landmarks in Manipal?
The plateau is the exhibit. Manipal stands roughly 75 metres above sea level with the Arabian Sea eight kilometres off and the Western Ghats rising behind, and it is that double outlook, rather than any single building in the suburb, that the sources single out. Udupi holds the monuments.
Its Krishna temple and the monastery founded beside it belong to one of the three main philosophical strains of Hinduism, and they lie five kilometres from the plateau, near enough to fill a half-day and return.
What is the history of Manipal?
Manipal came up on the plateau without a dated beginning. The record gives a sequence instead: a temple town at Udupi that grew around its Krishna temple and the monastery of a founder of one of the three main philosophical strains of Hinduism, and a suburb that took shape later on the higher ground five kilometres away. Administration caught up with both.
The Udupi City Municipality governs the plateau and the old centre alike, which is how a place inside Udupi District came to be described as a suburb and a town at the same time.
Where is Manipal?
The suburb covers about 26 square kilometres of high ground 62 kilometres from Mangalore, held between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats in Karnataka.
Good for
Updated September 2026