One week in Tamil Nadu - advice, please

SueJ

We want to spend about a week working our way down from Chennai, landing up in Trivandrum. We are looking to spend our time in Tamil Nadu, just using Trivandrum as a place to fly out of.

We are likely to arrive at around 1am in Chennai direct from UK and are counting this as the night 0, and expecting to take a taxi straight to Mamallapuram. After that, we'd like to stick to public transport where possible, and not to move every night. We don't want to head into the hills or go to Chennai, having been before.

This is what we're thinking at the moment:

Nights 0 & 1 - Mamallapuram
Nights 2 & 3 - Puducherry
Nights 4 & 5 - Tiruchirappalli
Night 6 - Madurai
Night 7 - ???

We are likely to be flying out of Trivandrum late morning on our final day, and we could probably squeeze one more day into the itinerary in if there is an overwhelming reason to do so.

I've allowed more time at Tiruchirappalli than Madurai on the basis of it being a quieter less touristy place, which is what we're looking for. Or have I got that wrong?

Night 7 is totally open - depends on whether the advice is that we shouldn't miss Kanyakumari. And if we do go there we are adding significant mileage.

Any advice, please.

agatap

Hi,
I can not give you advice, as I am planning my first trip to India, but I am also arriving at 00:55 AM in Chennai - we go in the middle of February. Perhaps my itinerary can be of inspiration to you?

We plan to spend 4 days in Mamallapuram like you, taking a taxi straight from the airport to get there. We have booked a room with Ideal beach resort. In the are we want to see the turtle eggs, and perhaps the bird sanctury, perhaps a daytrip to Chennai?
From there, we take the train to Mysore - yoga, silk, maharajas palace ...
After Mysore, we go to stay at a coffe plantation near Madikeri, to see wildlife, and do some trekking in the area.
From there I plan to hire a car, and go trough Ooty to Munnar - trying the toy train ride on the way.
Periyar wildlife santuary offers interesting jungle trips on the tiger trail, and then you can go to Allepuzy/Cochin for a stay in the backwaters.
Best,
Agata

Rachmilievitch

The Tamil Nadu part of our just finished India trip included Mamallapuram, Pondy, Trichy, Madurai, and Kanyakumari. If I were going to spend only a week visiting these cities again, I'd skip either Trichy or Madurai, spend only a day in Pondy unless there was a home stay available in Auroville, and, for sure, I'd include Kanyakumari.

bijapuri

I envy you- a week cruising TN is one of my most cherished things to do!

A week . . .
I'd go straight to Mahabs from the Chennai Airport, and spend only one day and night there- or 2 nights if I arrive at night. A day in Mahabs is usually aboput relaxing at the beach, but if you're eager you can pop over to Kanchipuram, about an hour away, and start your templization process straightaway! MY favourite thing to see in Mahabs is the croccodile farm. Kanchi is world famous for its silk saris, if that's of interest. Go into any store and watch tme fling cloth after cloth out into the air for your perusal!

I'd skip Pondy altogether. There's nuthin to see there, unless you are involved in the Ashram there.

You can get a train from Mahabs to the rest of TN by taking a taxi to Chengalapattu, about 45 minutes away. Or, you can either hire a car for the trip or take buss from point to point. Busses in TN are pretty good, as are the roads, and the distances are not huge. Ask for the good ones.
Then I'd recommend Chidambaram, Thanjavur, and Tiruchirapalli for temples. Thanjavur and Tiruchi are close enough that you can stay at either place and see both, and if you want you could see Kimbakonam as well.
I'd finish off the temple tour with Madurai.

All these temples will take not only 4-5 days but will overwhelm your mind with thousands of images, and prolly you can't fit all that into your time frame.. . Feel free to drop one or two sites from that intinerary. I'd finish with a day and night in either Kodaikanal or Periyar on my way to the West coast.

Oh the things you'll see!!!

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SueJ

Thanks for the replies. We are really looking forward to TN, not least because we are not trying to cover huge distances, which we hope will make it a nice laid back trip.

Agata - if you are visiting backwaters, I would recommend Kumarakom over Alleppey, it's much less touristy. But wherever you land up have agreat time, your first tripto India is always memorable.

Plans have changed a bit in the last 24 hours and we are now doing this trip in reverse, arriving in Madurai from Bangalore by overnight train, and then working our way up to Chennai (just as a gateway, we've visited Chennai before and don't think we have time to more than go to the airport this time) , so Kanyakumari is going to have to wait for another time.

A few more questions/thoughts, having plotted your suggestions on the map.

- We don't need a beach for its own sake, as we are now going on to the Andamans (can't wait - they've been on our 'must see' list for years!). We were visiting Mamallapuram for the rock carvings....but I've now read lots about it, and it sounds as if it is really touristy for other reasons, so we may want to pass through at speed. Any thoughts?

- Pondy was on the list because 'a little bit of France in India' fascinates - India and France are two of our favourite places and the thought of seeing a cross between the two appeals. So I think we want to keep it on the list, even if we don't say too long.

- Further reading has also unearthed some 'Madurai is overrun with tourists, Trichy is quieter and nicer' feedback, which I'd be grateful for your thoughts on. I think we will hit both, but it is a matter of how long where.

- Change of direction automatically drops Periyar, which we've visited before, and Kodaikanal.

I'd like to keep some flexibility so now I am thinking to go

- Madurai (at least one night, after the overnight train journey)
- Trichy
- Stay in one place around Thanjavur/Kumbakonam/Kumbakonam to use as a base & see how templed out we get (I don't want to move EVERY night, it's too tiring and you miss getting to know the little local bits that way, always rushing)
- Depending on how we are feeling about temples by then, we can balance the time we have left between Chidambaram, Pondy inc Auroville) & Mamallapuram

How does that sound?

peuks

Trichy was a friendly place, although the city itself is not very beautiful. the temple was impressing and worth the trip! from trichy we also did go to thanjavur in 1 day and back in the evening - great crazy busride, unfrogettable. do not miss it, thanjavur is different from the trichy-temple and worth the trip!
madurais meenakshi-temple is also special and nice to visit. we did spend 3 days in madurai, went to the palace ( nice lightshow in the evening, in the daytime a little rotten) to the market - and i didnt have the feeling it was very touristy, there are so many pilgrims ...
toouristy i would apply to places like Mamallapuram. still its cool to hang out there after stressful big cities.

Munivar

Trichy-Thanjavur-Kumbakonam areas are full of amazing temples.

Do visit the Thirunageswaram Raahu temple. The milk - when poured from the top of the deity, turns blue when it comes to the bottom.

Probably something to do with the stone, but legend (sthala-purana or temple history) is that because the main deity Raahu is the snake - the milk turns blue. And people then drink it because they think it will give blessings.

Not a myth - the milk turning blue - I have been there dozens of times and tested it myself.

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Brisso

if you consider Periyar and an evening or night treck, wear good shoes or boots - walking in the swampy areas (rich in elephant, deer and wild pig dung) can lead to tropical ulcers (strepocochus (sp.?).