Padmanabhapuram Palace

Ciao to all of you India travellers! I writeb from Italy, and I am planning my first trip in India by the next March. I will spend a couple of weeks in Tamil Nadu, starting from Trivandrum, where I will arrive from Maldive in the afternoon with the only available direct flight.
My itinerary should be: Trivandrum - Madurai - Tiruchirapalli - Thanjavur - Chidambaram - Mamallapuram - Kanchipuram - Chennai - Cochin - Trivandrum, I will travel using only public transportation, in particular by train.
I have checked in detail all the necessary train schedules, and I have seen that I cannot travel from Trivandrum to Madurai overnight unless I take a Passenger Train with sleeprs only, and I would like to avoid this for my very first train journey in India (with my girlfriend!!).
I would like to start my Indian experience with a visit to Padmanabhapuram Palace first, and then take a train from Nagarcoil to Madurai; unfortunately I have seen that it's not possible to collect the train tickets purchased online directly in Nagarcoil, so I have to spend the first night in Trivandrum. I plan to leave from Trivandrum early in the morning and reach Nagarcoil later to take the 17:35 train arriving in Madurai at 21:40, without returning to Trivandrum.
Does somebody know if is it possible to reach the Palace by bus with our backpacks and find a luggage storage once there? Or shall we go to Nagarcoil, leave the baggages at the rail station and reach Padmanabhapuram from there?
Thank you for your help!!
Gianni, Rome, Italy

Not an answer!

(except to say that the palce is truly wonderful building: don't miss it )

Don't be shy of travelling by Sleeper! I was, and only did it for the first time this year. It was (I travelled 2AC) a comfortable and enjoyable experience.

Check out the train threads here on IM. Book yourself 2 side births and you and your GF will have two window seats and a two-birth section all to yourself.

Take any bus bound for Nagercoil or Kanniyakumari from Trivandrum's Thampanoor bus stand (next to the railway station). Get off at Thakkaly (sometimes spelt Thuckalai) - the bus will probably not stop for long, so be sure to ask the conductor when to hop off. Bear in mind that the palace is only open Tuesdays to Sundays. The journey between Trivandrum and Nagercoil is about three hours, with Padmanabhapuram roughly two hours into the trip.

Suggest you to alight at Nagarcoil and keep your baggage in the cloak room of Nagarcoil railway station.and then journey to Padmanabhapuram.Nagarcoil is a bigger town.Also you have frequent busses from Trivandrum. You can either take a train or a bus to reach Madurai from Nagercoil.

your schedule of visiting the cities is perfect. One suggestion is that visit kancheepuram and then visit Mamallapuram(mahabalipuram).

have a nice journey

Dont really remember well about Padmanabhapuram palace, but this is what I normally do in my travel in India. Most of the places have fairly freindly staff in the ticket counter (except Ajantha and Ellora ). So I leave the stuff in the counter or inside the office and come back a few hours later to pick it up.

Another option would be some shops nearby - I remember that some places in front of the palace were very freindly and could be entrusted with the stuff basis my reading of them. I would do it BUT I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT. Moreover this was many many years back.

Of all the IM members, I would have visited Padmanabhapuram palace most times. We used to be in Trivandrum and once every three months or so, I had to chaperon family visitors to this palace. Maybe 20+ times on the whole !!! But never got bored of it !!!

Anyone been there in the recent past ?

happy to note that you are visiting india during march. You can take a bus from Trivandrum main busstation to Thuckalai, which is 52kms from trivandrum and on the way to nagarcoil. From Thuckalai to nagarcoil again you have to drive appro. 25kms. so it is not suggestable to go to nagarcoil and back to Thuckalai to see the Palace. You can keep your backpacks inside the palace, there is a clock room ( right side once u enter), where you can keep your laggages and shoes. And also the palace is opened from 10.00 hrs to 17.00 hrs except on MONDAYS.

with regards
rajesh pillai