Tamil Nadu and Kerala trip

canadiantraveller

Day 1 - Arrive Chennai in the morning. Stay in Chennai
Day 2 - Mahabalipuram\ Kanchipuram
Day 3 - Thanjavur
Day 4 - Karaikudi (stay in the bangala)
Day 5 - Madurai
Day 6 - Periyar (stay in home stay around Periyar)
Day 7 - Kumarakom - house boat to Allepey
Day 8 - Allepey to Cochi and take night train to Chennai.
Day 9-11 Stay in Chennai

Here our tentative plan. We are not going to book hotels and going find hotels when we are there. We are planning to hire a car with driver for 7.5 days and we are quoted 440 USD from reputable agency. Is it reasonble rate(including return of the car to Chennai since we are taking the train back)?
We might skip the house boat since the quotes for AC house boat is around RS 8000- RS 9500.

I some times feel it is going to be hectic but except for Mahabalipuram to Thanjavur we will be travelling around 70-150 km a day. Any comments or guidance appreciated.

zoltan

Car hire is generally based on the number of km's travelled.

I worked out (albeit very roughly), that if you were being charged 12rp per km. and you were going to cover close to 200km per day, then you're getting value for money, otherwise...

From another perspective, having a car/driver, does allow you a lot more freedom than if you were to travel by bus/train. You can stop where you want, get out & stretch your legs or take photos, etc.

A few things to keep in mind (based on the last time I travelled with a hire-car and my Indian father - 2007):

1) some hotels may bump up the price & give a commission to the driver

2) make sure that the rate includes all taxes (when you cross from TN into Kerala, your driver is supposed to pay a tax - some agencies will charge you the money & the driver won't stop to pay the toll collector, pocketing the money instead).

3) you are expected to provide a room for the driver - some hotels will have a drivers dorm. others won't.

Houseboats used to be a quaint consideration - 8 years ago, there were small numbers plying the river system. Now, you can't swing a coconut without hitting one.

Cheers
Zoltan

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vandy

"3) you are expected to provide a room for the driver - some hotels will have a drivers dorm. others won't."

Zoltan,Not sure what you mean by the Above.

Have seen many times on this site & Others, where posters and myself have consistently advised Travellers that the Drivers
have to find their own Accom as this is included in the Price.

Drivers usually sleep in the car and Pocket the money they are
allocated for Accom by their Employer.

vandy

bijapuri

your plan is very ambitious. Most of your time will be spent traveling from one place to another. conbsider seeing less, and thus seeing more!

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Nick-H

I agree with Vandy about the driver.

ANd with Bij about seeing less, and thus seeing more: you'll certainly feel more!

So far as the itinerary is concerned, if you like travelling every day, I suppose you like this sort of plan. Personally I'd cut down the number of places by 50% --- but then, to me, never spending two consecutive nights in the same bed is a nightmare, not a pleasure.

I'd slow things down just a little by maybe:

---go direct to Mamallapuram on arrival from Chennai airport. depending on what time you arrive you might or might not be able to fit in Kanchi on the same day. Keep Chennai for your days at the end, exploring and shopping, and maybe cut one day off.

---extend at least one of your stops to two or more nights, perhaps the Periyar homestay? You certainly won't get to feel the 'home' part of the homestay on such a speedy visit. It might be a welcome cooling-down period too, as the rest of your journey is going to be hot!

Personally I would not try to cover TN and Kerala in 11 days. OK, I have done: but only because I needed to be in Chennai for other stuff, and I covered very few places on the trip.

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dhans

Remember the Chinese saying: It's better to see one place with a thousand eyes, than thousand places with one eye.I would concentrate on TN and do Kerala another time.

Hans

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canadiantraveller

Thank you all. I also felt it is too much travelling. I am going redraft plan with less travel.

SueJ

We did a trip round Tamil Nadu just last month and felt there was plenty to see for a whole vacation!

In Madurai, be careful about the location of your hotel. We like to stay in the heart of a place and be able to walk about, and some of the hotels are well out of town.

I would recommend against staying at the Bangala, simply because it is in Karakudai, which is a normal busy town. The mansions are out in the villages. I'd recommend Chettinadu Mansion to stay at. It is right in the heart of a village of deserted mansions. You can wander or cycle round and get a real feel for the place.

And also think about Trichy to your itineray - it's close enough to Thanjavur to be able to overnight at one and visit the other in a day.

I would agree about not booking most hotels ahead, but would recommend that you do serious research before leaving on your trip. We always go armed with the names, addresses and phone numbers of the places that we see as 'possible' in any area. And we usually phone a couple of them the day before to check how availability is. Then we just turn up, ask to see a room & take it from there.

Some places it is worth booking ahead, due to limited availability - Chettinad would be an example.

One other thing to consider is what sequence you do things in. If you are just visiting TN, then you could consider flying into Bangalore & taking the direct overnight train down to Madurai, and meeting your car there (think it is easier to get to Madurai by train from Bangalore than Chennai). If you plan on keeping your itinerary flexible during your trip, it always seems easier to me to be working towards your final point (Chennai) rather than working away from it.

canadiantraveller

Zoltan- The cost includes driver allowances, permits and all car related costs.

Nick- I was thinking of staying in Chennai first day because we wanted to get some clothes tailored.So when we come back after the trip and pick up the order.

After reading all the feedback, I am now thinking of only doing Tamil Nadu and staying two nights in couples of places.

We are not booking the hotels ahead but taking a list of hotels in the area so we can see and decide. We are both very fluent in Tamil so we hope it will be easy to find and negotiate price. Can we negotiate price in all the hotels or only in budget hotels?

SueJ- Only reason we chose Bangala is because I read that the chef there is an expert in Chettinad food. We love food and wanted to have real Chettinad food. We will explore Chettinad mansion as well. How was the food in Chettinad Mansion?

bijapuri

unless it's a major massive festival, it's easy to show up and get middle class accommodation- especially if you show up durng the day. Most pilgrims actually seem to travel FASTER than your itinerary- they hustle through as many sites as they can, it appears. If you have a phone- and you driver should have one- you can call ahead in the morning or even the night b4 and book a lodge from your list.

Ya- from Thanjavur- Tiruchi and Kumbakonam are only an hour or so away, and stupendous in their own right. Both easily can take a full day of sightseeing. If you make the lovely, efficient and a bit pricey River View Hotel your base for a couple of days in Thanjavur, you'll be all set for a great tour of this region. Be advised-that hotel fills up far in advance, but is a cut above.

SitaParityaga

You've chosen many of my favorite places... its gotta be hard paring them down to size!

I've stayed at the Bangala and the River View Hotel (after the good review from Bijapuri) Both are really great places. I spent four nights at the Bangala, and kept busy during the day with tours of the surrounding old Chettinad houses, incredible temples in rural areas, and that Chettinad food is really memorable. If you are there for just one night, do try to get a few hour car tour of the area, as it is a bit spread out. I'm into textiles, and the little town the Bangala is in is full of cotton weavers, making high quality cotton fabrics. Ask for Meena to be your guide...she was great..the owner, Meenakshi, takes loving care of all the guests.

The River View is such a pleasant place to stay, a bit outside of town, on the Cauvery river. Comfy room, great, friendly service, and tasty food. I had an ayurvedic massage here as well, for only 350 rps, also highly recommended. They have a very pretty pool too.

Have fun!

SueJ

I'd describe the food at Chettinadu Mansion as Chettinad home cooking - not fancy, but definitely local Chettinad fare. This is still the home of the owner of this mansion, who believes that the way forward for the area is to open up enough of the mansions to tourism to ensure that at least a number survive in the long term.

The owner will happily organise for you to visit some of the mansions belonging to his relations, and if you show a genuine interest that will probably open further doors. For me, staying right in the village and wandering around as it got dark seeing this ghost town with caretakers just camping in the front of each mansion was a highlight of the whole trip. Karakudai was pleasant and interesting, but it didn't have that unique atmosphere of the village. Maybe you could stay at one and eat at the other?

Definitely agree with your idea of a couple of nights in some places - and would recommend to keep flexible about which nights you spend where. For example, everything we'd read suggested that Madurai was very touristy and that we would want to see the temple and be on our way. We found that although there were tourists, it was easy to get off the main street and just wander without seeing other foreigners, and landed up staying an extra night and visiting the temple at different times of day.

Rangoli

SueJ, I would love more details on the Chettinadu Mansion, I am planning a trip there this summer and it sounds exactly what I am looking for. It doesn't seem to be in the hotels section, so any contact information, prices and even the name of the village would be most welcome. Was it a homestay? How many people were there? I am especially intrigued by the Chettinad home cooking! The Bangala looks amazing, but at 30 times our normal hotel budget it is a bit pricey...

SueJ

There is a bit of info about it on tripadvisor at

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...amil_Nadu.html

Their website is www.chettinadumansion.com

It's certainly not cheap, although significantly less than Bangala. I think we paid about 6,500INR which was well over twice what we paid on any other night, but it felt worth that much for the atmosphere of the village.

When we were there I think 6 of the rooms were occupied, so about 12 people. There are about 20 when they are full, so although it has a 'wander anywhere' homestay feel it is bigger than your average homestay. You eat at separate tables in one of the halls - a bit surreal as the huge open space is now half restaurant and half 'lounge' with comfortable but incongruous chairs and a heap of coffee table books and magazines.

The food was good and of a wide variety (set meal). We found the staff happy to answer questions about the food and how it was cooked. Some was served on banana leaves and we got into a happy discussion about how in Tamil Nadu when you are finished you fold your banana leaf towards you to be polite, and in Kerala you fold it away from you...... or was it the other way round

We didn't take the offered bullock cart ride, but those who did said it wasn't good. We just loved wandering around & borrowing the bikes to explore a bit further away. Make sure that you ask someone from the hotel to show you more mansions - staying there opens doors to some specific mansions you could not otherwise visit.