Kanpur Zoological Park

Lucknow

Lucknow is a food city that happens to have beautiful ruins, and treating it the other way round is how visitors leave underwhelmed. Eat first. The galouti kebab was supposedly made for a Nawab who had lost his teeth, and the good places in Chowk have been doing one thing for four or five generations. Sheermal, nihari with kulcha in the early morning, and the Awadhi biryani which is milder and more perfumed than Hyderabad's — that is the argument between the two cities and you should form your own view. The Bara Imambara's bhulbhulaiya is a genuine labyrinth in the walls of the building and you do need the official guide, not because of the ticket but because people get properly lost. The Residency, shelled during the 1857 siege and left exactly as it was, is the most atmospheric place in the city and usually empty. Chikan embroidery is from here. Buy it in Chowk, not at the airport. October to March. May and June are brutally hot.