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.
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Where to stay in Manipal
How the choice of base plays out on the ground.
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.
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The Manipal plateau
The raised shelf roughly 75 metres up that gives Manipal its outlook, quieter than Udupi City and open to the wind off the Arabian Sea.Find hotels in The Manipal plateauReaching the Krishna temple and its monastery on footUdupi City centre
The older core five kilometres below the plateau, where the Krishna temple and the monastery that carried Udupi's name across India stand together.Find hotels in Udupi City centreHotel links are affiliate links: booking through them may earn us a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never affects how places are ranked. How this works
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.
Common questions
What is the best area to stay in Manipal?
The Manipal plateau: Waking above the coast with the Western Ghats in view. Udupi City centre: Reaching the Krishna temple and its monastery on foot.
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Updated September 2026