Hotels in Hyderabad

Hyderabad's hotels sit mostly in Latifabad and along Auto Bhan Road, the newer commercial spine with the better mid-range properties and restaurants. Qasimabad on the western side is residential and quieter. Saddar and the old city hold the bazaars, the Pacco Qillo fort walls and the glass bangle workshops that the city is known for, but very little worth booking. Most visitors are here for business, for Sindh University and LUMHS, or as a first stop on a run into the interior.

A clean mid-range double runs Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 a night, and the better Auto Bhan Road and Latifabad hotels Rs 12,000 to Rs 20,000. That is roughly half what the same standard costs in Karachi, which is why many business travellers working the Sindh corridor base themselves here. Confirm generator backup and air conditioner capacity for anything between April and September; summer here is more punishing than Karachi because there is no sea breeze to soften it.

The M-9 motorway covers the 140 kilometres from Karachi in about two hours, and the M-5 continues north toward Sukkur. Trains stop at Hyderabad Junction on the main Karachi to Lahore line. Within the city, rickshaws and the local Chingchi are the practical options and distances are short. Bhit Shah with the shrine of Shah Abdul Latif is about an hour north, and Hala, known for its blue Kashi tilework and ajrak, is on the same road.

November to February is the comfortable window, with daytime temperatures in the twenties and cool evenings. April to June is severe, regularly crossing forty-five degrees, and the city has some of the highest recorded temperatures in the country. The evening wind that gives Hyderabad its old wind-catcher architecture still picks up in summer and is the reason the roof terraces get used after dark. Bombay Bakery's coffee cake remains the standard thing to carry back.