Thanjavur & Trichy to Madurai

My wife and I are about to take our first trip to India in December and I have a few questions that some of you may be able to help us with. We are now looking at how we will get to Madurai after visiting Trichy and Thanjavur? What are the various ways to get from Thanjavur & Trichy to Madurai?
Is a bus the way to go? What about bus frequency/safety and length of trip? Is this a interesting and scenic bus ride?

Is there a train? An express? How frequent and what is the length of the trip?

Thank You
Larry

Don't have information about train much, but you can take the bus, which leaves every hour to to other cities from trichy, from thanjavur maybe you need to check the timings since frequency should be a bit less, whole of tamilnadu is very well connected with bus and its safe too.

There are a few trains between Trichy and Madurai(travel time abt 3 1/2 hrs) and also between Tanjavur and Trichy.You can check out the schedules from the indianrailways website http://www.indianrail.gov.in/.

TN is better connected through buses than by trains. So your best bet is by buses. Trichy bus stand(Terminus in your lingo) is inside the city limits with both the intra-city as well as the inter-city bus stands located next to each other. In Thanjavur, the bus-stand is outside the city.

If you're coming via Trichy, go to Thanjavur, finish up whatever business you want, goto the nearest bus stop, wait for the local bus which will take you to the main bus stand. From there, there will be DIRECT buses to Madurai. If you're stuck somewhere, ask for the 'new bus stand'/ 'main bus stand' to anyone who passes by you & they should at least tell you where the bus stop is, to the bus stand. I think it's about Rs 3/ person from anywhere in Thanjavur town to the main bus stand. If the bus takes you to a bus stand within the city limits, relax, there will be buses, say every 5 minutes which will take you to the bus stand where inter-city buses start.

It should take you about 6 hours to Madurai. If you leave for Madurai from Trichy, it should take you about 3-4 hours as Madurai is about 120 Kms.

Madurai too, has the bus stand outside the city. To add to the confusion, there are several bus terminuses for intra-city buses/inter-city travel co-located in different parts of the city. If I were to hazard a guess that you're trying to go to Meenakshi Amman temple, then once you get down from the bus from Trichy/Thanjavur, trying getting into a local bus which has 'Periyar' written on the board. That will take you to the bus stand within the city, which incidentally is within 200m from the Railway station.

Thanjavur is pretty scenic after the rains.

regards,
Digital Drifter

p.s if you drop a line about your plans, I could help. i.e. if you're out to visit temples and such I could give some pointers.

Hi Larry,

Thanjavur is 60 km. from Trichy. Madurai - Trichy is around 140 Km. The landscapes in Tamil Nadu are nice and your travel by bus will be really picturesque mostly because the friendliness atmosphere.

Jorge-muchas gracias por su ayuda y consejo.
Larry