India
Tamil Nadu
The land of the great Dravidian temples, still in daily use: towers covered in painted gods, festivals with temple elephants and music, and a food culture all its own.
Tamil Nadu has kept its traditions more completely than almost anywhere in India. Its temples are not museums: they are full every day, from the first ceremony at dawn to the night procession when the god is carried to bed.
Most journeys run south from Chennai along the coast to Mamallapuram and Pondicherry, then inland to Thanjavur, Chettinad and Madurai, and over the hills into Kerala.
Written by the TravelZeg team in New Delhi.
In short
- Best for
- Temples and living culture, architecture, food, Pondicherry's French quarter
- Less suited to
- The coast between October and mid-December, when the north-east monsoon brings heavy rain
- Best time
- Mid-December to March.
- Ideal length
- 6 to 10 nights.
Where to go
Where to go in Tamil Nadu
- Mamallapuram
- Seventh-century rock-cut temples and the Shore Temple on the beach, an hour from Chennai.
- Pondicherry
- The French quarter's yellow villas and bougainvillea, cafés, and the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
- Thanjavur
- The Brihadeeswarar temple, built a thousand years ago and still one of the largest in India, and the Chola bronzes in the palace museum.
- Chettinad
- Villages of vast merchant mansions with Burmese teak and Italian tiles, some now hotels, and the region's famous cooking.
- Madurai
- The Meenakshi temple, a city within the city, with its night ceremony.
Our view
What we rate, and what we would skip
What we rate
The night ceremony at Meenakshi
When the god is carried to the goddess's chamber, to drums and pipes.
Two nights in a Chettinad mansion
The architecture, the quiet and the food.
A south Indian breakfast
Dosa, idli and filter coffee, eaten with your hand off a banana leaf.
What we would skip
Going inside every temple
Some inner sanctums are open to Hindus only; your guide will know which.
Rushing through Chennai
One night is fine; most of the interest is south of the city.
October to mid-December on the coast
The north-east monsoon makes it wet.
Practical
Getting there and around
- Getting there
- Fly to Chennai through the Gulf, or via Delhi, Mumbai or Bengaluru. Leave from Madurai or across the hills from Kochi.
- Combine with
- Kerala; Sri Lanka (about an hour's flight from Chennai).
Plan my journey
Tell us roughly what you have in mind
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