Cab hire in Chennai for travelling to Pondicherry and back via Mamallapuram

edoq

Hi,

we're planning to travel by the following route:
Chennai railway station=>Chennai airport=>Mamallapuram=>Vedanta ngan bird sanctuary=>Pondicherry=>back to the Chennai railway station.

By we I mean 3 people and we've got only 3 days for this route so it seems reasonable to hire a taxi. Could you please recommend some reliable and honest (i.e. no hidden charges and other tricks) Chennai-based cab rental companies?

Another question: all the companies I've found do charge a minimum daily price based on 225 or 250 km per day. Our route's length is about 400 km in 3 days I suppose, so is it possible to find a company with lower (say, 150 km/day) minimum daily usage?
Thanks in advance.

zanzi

You can easily do Chennai-Mamallapuram by bus. There are comfortable buses, and you can hop one directly from the Thiruvanmiyur bus depot (South Chennai).

There are lots of buses to Vedanthangal as well, and nothing will require pre-booking. But this is a nice drive and you might want to hire a cab for a day, which you can do in Mamallapuram. That way you can stop by on the way for a picnic

I'm sure the cab can drop you to Pondicherry, though they'll charge for the return trip to Mamallapuram. But from Pondicherry to Chennai there are comfy buses as well, available easily, the SETC ones especially. It'll be way cheaper, and even if money is not a concern, it's a nice way to travel, if you like observing local people. Chennai-Mamallapuram and Pondicherry-Chennai are short enough legs to do by bus.

ribhu95

I will get you some cab rental companies details.

Regarding usage, you are unlikely to find any rental agency offering you a lesser daily commitment.

ribhu

edoq

Thank you for your advice, and I agree that it's a nice way to use busses. But time is a concern - for example, at what time we have to leave Pondicherry by bus to be sure we are not missing our 21:00 train from Chennai?

Raghu.Kumar

Hi ,

there are lot of Air conditioned volvo buses from Chennai to Pondy and Vice Versa. The travel time would be approximately 3.5 hours point to point.

To visit mahabalipuram , you can take the hop on hop off bus that starts at 9 AM and takes to you to 13 tourist spots enroute the East Coast Road and comes at 250 Rs. the buses are airconditioned and have a Guide.. The bus returns to Chennai in the evening.

Raghu

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zanzi

"Thank you for your advice, and I agree that it's a nice way to use busses. But time is a concern - for example, at what time we have to leave Pondicherry by bus to be sure we are not missing our 21:00 train from Chennai?"

If you hop a bus by 16:30hrs, it'll get you to South Chennai (Thiruvanmiyur bus depot) by 19:30hrs, or 20:00hrs at the latest. From here, hopping into an auto to Chennai Central (INR120) would ensure that you reach in time to catch the 21:00hrs train.

I notice from your other thread that you plan to do Pondicherry-Ooty. Good luck on that - there already seem to be enough suggestions covering that one. I'd say go by the toy train - you never know whether such an experience will be possible again. But taking a bus to Mamallapuram from Chennai (from the airport, get to Thiruvanmiyur bus depot, and hop a bus from there), and another from Mamallapuram to Pondicherry, should be pretty unproblematic.

edoq

Because there're so many comments suggesting taking busses instead of a taxi I'll try to explain our plans once again in more details.

We're (2 people) going to arrive to Chennai Mambalam station at about 11:30 by a morning train from Trichy. At the same time our friend (hopefully) lands at Chennai domestic airport after overnight flight from Moscow to Delhi and morning flight from Delhi to Chennai. So in ideal scenario we'll meet in the airport at say 12:30 if there're no major flight delays/train delays/airport luggage delays/traffic problems/etc

Then we could head futher south by a taxi OR go back to Chennai to find a bus to Mamallapuram. In the first case we'll be in Mammalapuram in less then 1 hour, and in the second it's could be 2..3 hours (travel to bus depot+waiting for departure+slower speed compared to a car). 12:30+3 hours=15:30, just a few hours before sunset, and we have only this day to see Mamallapuram.

On the day two, we're planning to visit Vedantangan sanctuary. I've heard that best time to visit is early morning or late afternoon. Finding a local bus in the morning (maybe even before sunrise) could be problematic I suppose, and we'll have to return to Mamallapuram and do another bus ride to Pondicherry. And of course it would be easier to visit the sanctuary and get to Pondicherry quite early by taxi. Then we'll have time from say 10:00 to 16:00 next day for Pondichetty and Auroville if we'll take a taxi. And with busses I suppose we'll arrive to Pondicherry at something about 15:00 so it's considerably less time - 5 daylight hours less.
On the route back to Chennai we could make a short visit to Kanchipuram if we'll go by car, and it's rather inconvenient with busses.

So I see a lot of advantages in taking a cab in terms of saving precious time. In 4 days for the same route I would go for busses, but in 3 (even slightly less really) taxi still seems more reasonable. But please correct me if I'm wrong with something, because I don't know bus schedules, times and so on.

zanzi

All things considered, it makes sense to take a cab. Don't worry about the extra miles per day - you'll have the freedom to go up and down between Auroville and Pondicherry, move around town, etc. Although I would give Vedanthangal bird sanctuary a miss - to see anything spectacular, you'd have to get there super-early, say 5am, and I doubt you'll be in the mood the morning after you arrive, especially the friend flying in from Moscow. Also, Mamallapuram is great fun to be at for breakfast at Moonraker's or the Blue Elephant, and a laze on the beach. Get there as early as possible the first day, though, as the sights close down by 5:30pm, and you'll only be wandering around town after that. I would even suggest driving down to Pondicherry starting 6pm, especially if it's the weekend, and that's an option you can take a call on on the spur of the moment.

I'd say trying to include Kanchipuram would be stretching it, and Chennai's a lovely city too, with plenty to see, and some interesting cultural things going on most evenings.

Gametotravel

You can contact the Aurobindo Ashram office at Chennai ph 044 28569566 for cab details and pricing as they would have such details.

You should also go through the bottom thread links for contact details of cabs.

In both instance specify the ECR Mamallapuram route as some cabs prefer the Airport GST Route to save themselves interstate tax to Pondicherry.

There is a toll too on the ECR highway!

zanzi

I think the Airport GST Road route makes more sense in this case, though the ECR one is infinitely more scenic.

edoq

One more question - what do you suppose to be a reasonable price for this route and these 3 days? We've contacted several companies and they all quoted us prices in 5500..6000 rupees range for inexpensive cars like Indica and Ambassador, all inclusive (i.e. driver's food/accomodation, tollways and so on).