How's This for an Itinerary?

My girfriend and I have decided to do a last minute, spontaneous trip, this time to Southern India. We have about 10 days to spend there, and want to see temples in Tamil Nadu. Est dates are April 2-15. Here's what we're thinking:

Fly to Chennai/Madras - Kanchiuram - Mahabalipuram - Thanjavar - Madurai

Sound do-able? Any other recomendations? Any must see places or must visit hotel, guest houses or restaraunts? Thanks for any tips!

very, and you can throw in Tiruchy and Kumbakonam as day trips from Thanjavur as well. In fact, although Madurai is the most famous, it is also the biggest tout magnet, plus you can't go into the inner sanctum. You wont miss that much if you went to the other sites instead. And I'm sure many would disagree with me, so just my 2 annas

i would say that you should definately go to madurai, but i'm biased i worked near there for 6 months, and sri meenakshi is my favourite temple, it's so, so beautiful and there is always something going on. If you do stay in madurai, find a hotel where you can get on to the roof - the view of the temple at night from up high is really amazing.
I never really found touts to be much of a probelm there, tamil people are usually abnormally friendly, so it'll be kind pestering rather than the aggression you can get elsewhere. I remeber touts in mahabalipuram being pretty awful, they are eveywhere and i think i ended up buying all kinds of crap that i didn't want to get them to leave me alone, but it was worth it, the shore templeand five rathas are incredible.
have a good trip

Thanks for the tip laureninTN! Any suggestion for a decent place with a good rooftop in Madurai? I am a sucker for any type of rooftop restaraunt with a view, be it Anoop's in Delhi or the Utse in KTM. Anybody with good rooftop places in any of the above mentioned cities please jump in! Thanks!

Yes Madurai is a great place. One of the oldest towns in TM fantastic atmosphere. I regret that I could only stay for 2 days.
There are lots of Hotels with nice rooftop Restaurants - sorry can't remember any names.

umm, hotel supreme is kind of expensive, but it has air con, there's a restaurant on the roof that you can use if you aren't a guest with an amazing view and really good dosai, and you can get meat and beer there too, if that's your thing. When i stayed in the city i stayed in ravi towers, it's grim but cheap and you can walk there from the train station.
If you get a chance theris an amazing palace in madurai too, i think it's called tirumala nayak, it's empty now but hauntingly beautiful, give the light show they do a night a miss though.
good luck

Well, now we're talking about changing above itinerary to include the following instead:
Mysore, Ooty, Coonoor

I myself am more for cities, towns and temples, whereas she is also interested in trekking etc. Anybody think one is better than the other? We leave in T -4 weeks and counting. Flight in/out of Chennai is booked.

if you still have only 10 days, you'll never get all those places in along with the temple towns. Travel takes time, seeing stuff takes time, etc. If you want to include a hill station, you could do this:
Chennai (straight to Mahabs from the airport) Tiruchy/Thanjavur, Madurai, Kodaikanal, and back to chennai. You really won't have time enough for much more. Kodaikanal is near Madurai, and less touristy than Ooty.
There are other combos you could do too, and this is just one of them. It will be DAMN hot on the plains, so look for AC rooms.