Bangalore-Madurai-Rameshwaram-kanyakumari : itinerary required

waiwai

I am planning an itinerary for my parents for a trip starting from bangalore, covering madurai,kanyakumari and rameshwaram. Help will be appreciated.

animdas

Hi...
I too will be interested in that!

snonymous

If PM Velu doesnt respond to this query by tomorrow, suggest both of you PM him, as he is probably the best person to give you the info.

pmvelu

Waiwai / Animdas,

You are planning to use a Cab Or public Transportation . If so, how many days. Based on that I could share what I know on this subject !

Snonymous,

I saw your another thread on Plants and you are utilizing every minutes of your free time to visit places I think !.. Great spirit !!

snonymous

PMV
Those are our usual half day trips during the monsoons to places near Mumbai. Monsoon time here, is the best season for such trips, without the leeches that are abundant in South India during the rains. Maybe the Mumbai area is so polluted that even the leeches ran away!

Apologies for going off thread.

waiwai

We are planning to use public transport. So please suggest accordingly.Also we have a maximum of 7-8 days.

snonymous

Since PM Velu has not replied yet, I am posting:

BLR to Madurai has a night train, I am sure of that because a friend often takes that train. From Madurai to Rameswaram you can take state transport buses or several private buses. Check this site: http://www.madurai.com/pactour.htm
From Rameswaram to Kanyakumari, if you check some other similar threads in this TN forum, I remember someone suggested that you can go via Tirunelveli.

pmvelu

Adding onto what snonymous shared already , The following tentative itenary might be of some help to you waiwai !

Day 0:-

Start from Bangalore JN toward madurai

Day 1:-

Catch a bus Or Train [Passenger plies in this route] from Madurai to Rameswaram [ Absolutely no need of cab as the Bus frequency is just toooo much and the Roads are Excellent].
. From Rameswaram Railway station or bus stand, there are "N" number of city buses plying to the temple as such and you could use that

Temple / Theerthams / Any rituals your parents might want to do in Rameswaram for the day

Day 2:-


You could catch the bus to dhanuskodi [ You could board this city bus from temple entrance itself & buses are frequent and 18 kms ]

Day 3:-

You could catch Direct bus to Kanyakumari which will pass through "Horrible" stretch of around 100 kms + after Ramanathapuram towards Kilakarai/ Ervadi/Sayalkudi/ Thoothukudi to Reach Kanyakumari -- This route could be best avoided -- This is relatively Shorter But not advised even for Middle-aged due to that 100 kms pathetic Stretch

You could catch a bus to madurai . Stay @ Madurai and visit Meenakshi amman temple .

Stay @Madurai

Day 4:-

Morning session could be utilized for visiting Tirupparankunram .
After lunch , direct Bus to Kanyakumari Or Nagercoil [ Buses are sooooo frequent and Roads are excellent]. Around 4 Hours Running time for this Madurai - KK Journey.

Night Stay

Day 5 & 6:-

Kanyakumari + Sucheendram [Temple]

Day 7:-

Your parents could travel back to Madurai to catch Thoothukudi - Mysore express (or) there is another direct train from KK to Bangalore which takes around 18 hrs and passes via Trivandrum-Ernakulam-erode to reach Bangalore !

Hope this helps !

Please post if you need more info on any of the above !

Firstclass

Thank you for this itinerary.

I am planning to stay in Madurai from Nov 20th evening till Nov 23rd early morning. Then (or perhaps already in the night before!) i want to catch a bus running from Madurai to Rameswaram to stay there for around 10-11 hrs before I take the train back to Chennai at around 8pm.

Questions:
- Do the busses from Madurai - Rameswaram run also during the night?
- From where do they start in Madurai?
- How long do they take?

Thank you in advance for your reply :-)

n kumar

hi, i have some doubts,

I am a bit confused with this.
Questions:
- Do the busses from Madurai - Rameswaram run also during the night?
Buses might not run whole night but it might stop around 11-12 in the night and start early morning around 4/5 am.
The buses will start from the new bus stop.
By bus it might take around 4-5 hours.

Thank you in advance for your reply :-)

pmvelu

Nice to know it helped you FC. My comments inline

Do the busses from Madurai - Rameswaram run also during the night?

Yes. Buses are there still between 11 pm to 03:00 am but the frequency will be very less during this time.

From where do they start in Madurai?

I always tend to get confused with Madurai bus stand names.. I think it's from Mattuthavani bus stand. .

- How long do they take?

4 Hours !

But this road is Excellent as such !. If you need more info on this, Please post.
Hope this helps
Velu

waiwai

pmvelu, thanks for the itinerary. I have further questions.
1) what are the options of staying in rameshwaram ? If we start from madurai for rameshwaram in the morning, is it possible to come back the same day or a stay required. I would like to stay there and see everything.
2) for dhanuskodi, u need to come back to madurai ? or from rameshwaram only we can go there ?
3) suggest a few good hotels at madurai, near railway station, or near temple, or midway.

Firstclass

As far as I only found trains leaving Madurai region from Sivaganga I'll try to get a bus around midnight time ( 1 or 2a.m) heading to Rameswaram.

My program will be just:
- temple
- dunes, enjoying the sea, nature, swimming ...

In the evening I'll take a train back to Chennai (leaves at 8.15pm). This train was supposed to stop also at Madurai, but the station has been deleted from the route on IRCTC website.

@ waiwai:

1day seems to be enough (as my colleagues also agreed).
Rameswaram doesnt seem very big. So every accomodation is probably easy to find. But no idea regarding recommendations.

pmvelu

No Problem Waiwai .I infact thought your parents did the trip already !!.. My Comments inline

1) what are the options of staying in rameshwaram ? If we start from madurai for rameshwaram in the morning, is it possible to come back the same day or a stay required. I would like to stay there and see everything.

Stay is required if :

1. you want to experience the theerthams + Worship
2.You want to perform any rituals in the Rameswaram beach
3. You want to explore Dhanuskodi

Bathing in theertham will take around 2 Hours
Rituals in Rameswaram waters will take around 1 hour
Dhanuskodi exploration will take around 5 hours [ Including the To & fro travel in town bus and time spent in Dhanuskodi]

In Rameswaram, you could stay in Hotel TTDC for budget .. And just as a FYI I am telling this, Any house [ Or I would say Many a houses] surrounding the Rameswaram temple is a Virtual Home stay only. Basically Archakars and Temple Admins are staying in these houses . And there are Virtually many lodges around and may be you could just rent one based on your comfort .

2) for dhanuskodi, u need to come back to madurai ? or from rameshwaram only we can go there ?

As I said in my earlier post,Dhanuskodi is just 18 kms from Rameswaram and you could Board "Dhanuskodi Bound City bus" from Rameswaram temple entrace itself OR the other option is Auto !

3) suggest a few good hotels at madurai, near railway station, or near temple, or midway.

Sorry , Till now I never stayed in Madurai but you could try out Hotel TTDC [Hotel Tamilnadu] for comfort and Budget !

Hope this Helps & Have a Fantastic Pilgrimage!!

Velu

pmvelu

@Firstclass,

Before the Broadgauge conversion work, Train took circuitous route of chennai-Madurai-Rameswaram and as now the Broad gauge is ready, it plies in the older and shorter route viz. Chennai-Tiruchi-Sivaganga-Rameswaram !..

And From where you are trying to get to Rameswaram . Just curious as getting 1 am or 2 am bus has it's own drawbacks at Madurai !...

Velu