South India: Tamil Nadu Temples, Kerala and Mysore

1. Day 1: Arrive in Chennai

   Chennai International Airport (MAA) to your hotel in Chennai, then Mylapore

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Chennai
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Chennai International Airport (MAA), where a driver meets you for the short drive into the city. Chennai is the capital of Tamil Nadu and sits on the Bay of Bengal, and the old neighbourhood of Mylapore is the place to start. If you land by about 2 pm, join your See Sight Tours guide for a late-afternoon walk there: the painted gopuram of the Kapaleeshwarar Temple, the temple tank, flower sellers threading jasmine for evening prayers, and the lamps being lit in the outer courtyards at dusk. It is a gentle first lesson in the temple etiquette you will use all trip: shoes off at the gate, shoulders and knees covered, inner shrines for worshippers only. In the evening the whole group meets for a short briefing on the two weeks ahead, then sits down to a welcome dinner of South Indian vegetarian dishes served on a banana leaf.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Chennai International Airport (MAA)
   • Mylapore walk with your guide and the Kapaleeshwarar Temple at dusk (if you land by about 2 pm)
   • Welcome briefing and welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the late-afternoon walk

2. Day 2: Mamallapuram's shore temples, then Pondicherry

   Chennai to Mamallapuram on the East Coast Road, then on to Pondicherry

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Pondicherry
   Day 2 details

   We leave Chennai at about 7 am and take the East Coast Road south, so we reach Mamallapuram at about 8:30, while the stone is cool and before the tour coaches. This was the port of the Pallava kings, and its monuments, listed by UNESCO in 1984, were carved in the 7th and 8th centuries. Your guide starts at the Shore Temple on the edge of the sea, then the Pancha Rathas, five temples each cut from a single granite outcrop beside a life-size stone elephant. Arjuna's Penance is a whole cliff face of gods, animals and sages carved in relief, and the rocky hill behind it, past the balanced boulder called Krishna's Butter Ball, has carved shrines and a view to the coast. Lunch is fish or vegetarian thali in town, near the workshops where stone carvers still work. Then two hours south to Pondicherry and an evening walk on the seafront promenade.

   Included

   • Mamallapuram with your guide: the Shore Temple, the Pancha Rathas, Arjuna's Penance and the hill shrines
   • Lunch in Mamallapuram
   • Evening walk on the Pondicherry seafront

   Free time: Evening free in Pondicherry

   Activity: About 2.5 hours on foot in Mamallapuram on sand and smooth rock; the hill path is short but steep.

   

3. Day 3: Pondicherry's French Quarter

   Pondicherry on foot: White Town, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the Tamil Quarter

   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Pondicherry
   Day 3 details

   Pondicherry was French until 1954, and the old town still splits in two along a canal. We walk at 7 am, when the streets are quiet and the light is soft on the mustard and white villas of White Town, past the Church of Notre Dame des Anges, the war memorial on the promenade and the bougainvillea over the old French schools. Then the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, founded in 1926, where visitors file past the flower-covered tomb of its founders in silence; dress modestly and leave phones in your bag. Across the canal, the Tamil Quarter has verandahed houses and a small market. Breakfast is in a White Town cafe, and by late morning the rest of the day is yours: a long lunch of Creole and Tamil dishes, a swim at your hotel, or the boutiques on Rue Romain Rolland. Your guide can arrange a visit to Auroville, the international township founded in 1968.

   Included

   • Early-morning walk in White Town and the Tamil Quarter with your guide
   • The Sri Aurobindo Ashram

   Optional experiences

   • Auroville visitor centre and the Matrimandir viewpoint (about 10 km), arranged by your guide

   Easier option: Join the walk for White Town only and meet the group for breakfast.

   More active option: Hire a bicycle in the afternoon and ride to Auroville and back, about 25 km on flat roads.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

4. Day 4: Chidambaram and the Chola road to Thanjavur

   Pondicherry to Chidambaram and Gangaikonda Cholapuram, then Thanjavur

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Thanjavur
   Day 4 details

   Today follows the old Chola heartland inland. We leave at 8 am and reach Chidambaram in about an hour and a half, while the morning rituals are under way at the Nataraja Temple, where Shiva is worshipped as the cosmic dancer under a gold-covered roof. Men may be asked to remove their shirts for the inner hall. An hour on, Gangaikonda Cholapuram was the capital built by Rajendra I around 1035 to mark his victories; its great temple stands almost alone in the fields, quiet and unhurried. Lunch is a banana-leaf meal on the way. We reach Thanjavur in the middle of the afternoon and rest, then go to the Brihadeeswarar Temple when it reopens at about 4 pm. Completed in 1010 by Rajaraja I, its tower rises about 66 m above a monolithic Nandi bull, and the granite turns gold as the sun drops behind it.

   Included

   • The Nataraja Temple in Chidambaram
   • Gangaikonda Cholapuram
   • Lunch on the way
   • The Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur in the late afternoon

   Easier option: Stay in the vehicle or the shade at Gangaikonda Cholapuram and save your energy for Brihadeeswarar.

   More active option: Stay on at Brihadeeswarar for the evening lamps after the group returns to the hotel; your guide arranges an auto-rickshaw back.

   Activity: Three temples barefoot today; bring socks for hot stone and water for the van.

5. Day 5: Thanjavur's bronzes, Swamimalai and Darasuram

   Thanjavur Palace, then Swamimalai and Darasuram, and back to Thanjavur

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Thanjavur
   Day 5 details

   Before breakfast, anyone who wants to can go back to Brihadeeswarar at about 6 am, when the first rituals are held and the courtyard is almost empty. At 9 am we visit Thanjavur Palace, built by the Nayak and Maratha rulers, and its art gallery, which holds one of the finest collections of Chola bronzes, with the Saraswathi Mahal Library alongside. Then about 45 minutes to Swamimalai, where families of bronze casters still make temple images in the lost-wax method: you watch the wax model, the clay mould and the pour. This is a working visit, not a shop stop, and nothing needs to be bought. A few minutes away is Darasuram, the third of the Great Living Chola Temples, built in the 12th century, with stone chariot wheels on its hall and fine carved friezes. Lunch is your choice in Kumbakonam, known for its filter coffee, and the late afternoon and evening are free in Thanjavur.

   Included

   • Thanjavur Palace, the art gallery of Chola bronzes and the Saraswathi Mahal Library
   • A bronze-casting workshop in Swamimalai
   • The Airavatesvara Temple at Darasuram

   More active option: An early return to Brihadeeswarar at about 6 am for the first rituals, with your guide.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

6. Day 6: Chettinad mansions, then Meenakshi at dusk

   Thanjavur to Kanadukathan in Chettinad, then Madurai

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Madurai
   Day 6 details

   About two hours south, the villages of Chettinad were built by the Nattukottai Chettiars, merchant bankers who made fortunes across Southeast Asia in the 19th and early 20th centuries and came home to build enormous mansions. In Kanadukathan we visit one that is open to visitors: courtyards ringed by Burmese teak pillars, imported tiles and marble, and long halls for family weddings. Nearby, at a workshop in Athangudi, craftsmen pour the hand-made cement tiles that floor these houses. Lunch is a Chettinad meal on a banana leaf, known for its pepper and spice. Two more hours bring us to Madurai by late afternoon. At about 5 pm we enter the Meenakshi Amman Temple, a city within walls with towering painted gopurams, the Golden Lotus tank and the Hall of a Thousand Pillars. Phones and cameras stay in the lockers. After dinner on your own, your guide takes anyone who wants back for the night ceremony, about 9 pm.

   Included

   • A Chettinad mansion in Kanadukathan
   • An Athangudi tile workshop
   • Chettinad lunch
   • The Meenakshi Amman Temple and the Hall of a Thousand Pillars in Madurai
   • The night ceremony at the Meenakshi temple with your guide

   Free time: Dinner free

   Activity: The Meenakshi complex is large and busy; expect about 2 hours on foot barefoot.

   

7. Day 7: Madurai's flower market, then the cardamom hills

   Madurai to Thekkady through Theni and the Cumbum valley

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Thekkady
   Day 7 details

   Madurai wakes early. At dawn we walk through the wholesale flower market, where jasmine and marigold are sold by the sack before the heat, then return for breakfast. At 9 am the Thirumalai Nayak Palace opens: built in 1636, its courtyard of giant white pillars and its stucco domes are best before the sun is high. We leave Madurai at about 10 am and drive west through Theni and the Cumbum valley, where vineyards and coconut groves run up to the wall of the Western Ghats, then climb the hairpins to Kumily and Thekkady, at about 900 m on the Kerala border. Lunch is on the way. In the late afternoon a planter walks us through a spice garden, where cardamom, pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla grow under the trees. In the evening we watch kalaripayattu, Kerala's martial art, performed by a local troupe.

   Included

   • Madurai flower market at dawn
   • Thirumalai Nayak Palace
   • Lunch on the road to Thekkady
   • Spice garden walk with a planter
   • Kalaripayattu performance in Thekkady

   Optional experiences

   • Ayurvedic massage in Thekkady, price confirmed at booking

   Activity: The last hour is a winding mountain road; take motion-sickness tablets if you need them.

8. Day 8: Periyar Lake at first light, then Munnar

   Periyar Lake, then Thekkady to Munnar through the cardamom estates

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Munnar
   Day 8 details

   We are at the boat landing for the first forest department boat of the day, at about 7:30 am, when the water is still and animals come down to drink. Periyar Lake was formed by the Mullaperiyar Dam in 1895, and dead trees still stand in the water. From the boat you may see elephants, gaur, sambar and wild boar on the shore, and you will almost certainly see cormorants, darters and kingfishers; nothing is promised. Back for breakfast, then we drive about three and a half hours north through cardamom estates and small hill towns to Munnar, the old tea station of the High Ranges at about 1,600 m. Lunch is on arrival. The afternoon and evening are free: the air is cool, the light is long over the estates, and your hotel is a good place to sit with a pot of local tea.

   Included

   • Forest department boat on Periyar Lake, first departure
   • Lunch in Munnar

   More active option: Swap the boat for the forest department's guided nature walk, about 3 hours from 7 am, with a forest guide.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free in Munnar

   Activity: Boat tickets are limited and issued per departure; your guide books them.

9. Day 9: Eravikulam and the tea estates

   Munnar to Eravikulam National Park, the tea estates and the Tea Museum

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Munnar
   Day 9 details

   We take one of the early park buses up to Eravikulam National Park, part of the Western Ghats World Heritage area, where the rolling grassland is home to the Nilgiri tahr, a mountain goat found only in these hills. They graze close to the road, and on clear mornings you look across to Anamudi, at about 2,695 m the highest peak in India south of the Himalayas. When the park is closed for calving, usually from February, we go instead to Top Station on the edge of the plateau for the view down into Tamil Nadu. Back in Munnar, an estate guide walks us along the pickers' paths between the tea bushes and explains how the leaf is plucked and graded. The Tea Museum shows the machinery and the history of planting here and ends with a tasting. The afternoon is free.

   Included

   • Eravikulam National Park, with the park bus (Top Station when the park is closed)
   • Tea estate walk with an estate guide
   • The Tea Museum and a tasting

   Easier option: Skip the estate walk and join the group at the Tea Museum.

   More active option: A longer guided estate walk of about 3 hours in the afternoon, arranged with your guide.

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: Eravikulam is about 2 km of paved, gently climbing path; Munnar mornings can be 10 C in winter.

10. Day 10: Down from the hills onto a houseboat

    Munnar to Kumarakom, then by houseboat across Vembanad Lake

    • Drive about 4.5 h
    • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
    • Stay in Kerala backwaters (houseboat)
    Day 10 details

    This is one of the two longer days, about four and a half hours on the road, because there is no shorter way from the High Ranges down to the backwaters. We leave at 7:30 am after breakfast and break the drive at the Cheeyappara waterfalls and a roadside tea stop, then cross the rubber country around Kottayam to Kumarakom on Vembanad Lake. We board our houseboat around 1 pm, in time for lunch on deck: fish curry, red rice and vegetables cooked on board. In the afternoon we cruise across the lake and into the canals of Kuttanad, where rice is farmed below sea level behind earth banks, past churches, ferries and villagers washing at the water steps. The boat moors before dark, about 5:30 pm, and the crew cooks dinner while the frogs start up.

    Included

    • Stops at the Cheeyappara waterfalls and for tea on the way down
    • Overnight houseboat cruise on Vembanad Lake and the Kuttanad canals
    • Lunch and dinner on board

    Activity: The road from Munnar winds for the first two hours; houseboat bedrooms are air-conditioned at night.

    

11. Day 11: Alleppey to Fort Kochi

    Houseboat to Alleppey, then Fort Kochi and Mattancherry

    • Drive about 1.5 h
    • Breakfast and lunch
    • Stay in Fort Kochi
    Day 11 details

    Breakfast is on deck while the boat cruises the last stretch into Alleppey, where we step off at about 9 am. An hour and a half north is Fort Kochi, the old port where Arab, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and British traders all left their mark. After a Kerala lunch we start in Mattancherry, at the palace the Portuguese built and the Dutch rebuilt, whose rooms hold some of the best Ramayana murals in Kerala. A few steps on is the Paradesi Synagogue, built in 1568, with its blue hand-painted floor tiles, then the spice warehouses of Jew Town. In Fort Kochi we walk past St Francis Church, where Vasco da Gama was first buried in 1524, to the Chinese fishing nets on the shore for sunset. In the evening we watch Kathakali, arriving early to see the performers paint their faces.

    Included

    • Houseboat cruise to Alleppey
    • Lunch in Fort Kochi
    • Mattancherry Palace, the Paradesi Synagogue and Jew Town
    • Fort Kochi walk: St Francis Church and the Chinese fishing nets at sunset
    • Kathakali performance, with the make-up beforehand

12. Day 12: Fly to Bengaluru, drive to Mysore

    Fort Kochi to Cochin International Airport (COK), fly to Bengaluru (BLR), then drive to Mysore

    • Drive about 4.5 h
    • Breakfast and lunch
    • Stay in Mysore
    Day 12 details

    The second longer day, about four and a half hours on the road in two halves. By road, Kochi to Mysore is about nine hours through the Wayanad hills, and there is no quick direct train, so we fly. Early risers can walk back to the fishing nets at first light, when the crews lift them. After breakfast we drive to Cochin International Airport, about an hour and a quarter, for a flight of about an hour to Bengaluru. Your guide flies with you and a Karnataka vehicle meets the group. We stop for lunch on the road and then take the Bengaluru to Mysuru expressway, about three to three and a half hours from the airport, passing the toy-making town of Channapatna, famous for its lacquered wooden toys. We reach Mysore in the late afternoon. On Sundays and public holidays the palace is lit with thousands of bulbs in the evening, and your guide will take anyone who wants to go.

    Included

    • Flight from Kochi (COK) to Bengaluru (BLR) with a checked bag
    • Lunch on the way to Mysore

    Easier option: Sleep in rather than visit the nets at dawn; the group leaves for the airport after breakfast.

    More active option: A dawn walk to the Chinese fishing nets with your guide before breakfast.

    Free time: Evening free in Mysore

    Activity: Checked bag allowance on domestic flights is lower than on long-haul; we confirm it with your flight.

13. Day 13: Chamundi Hill and Mysore Palace

    Chamundi Hill, Mysore Palace and the Devaraja Market

    • Drive about 1 h
    • Breakfast and dinner
    • Stay in Mysore
    Day 13 details

    We drive up Chamundi Hill at about 7:30 am, before the pilgrim queues build, to the Chamundeshwari Temple and the view over the city. On the way down we stop at the Nandi bull carved from a single rock in the 17th century, about 5 m tall and garlanded every day. At 10 am we are at the gates of Mysore Palace as it opens. The present palace was finished in 1912 for the Wodeyar maharajas, and its marriage pavilion, stained-glass ceilings and carved silver doors are best seen before the school groups. Shoes come off inside. Lunch and the middle of the day are free. In the late afternoon we walk through the Devaraja Market, one of the oldest in the city, among piles of flowers, betel leaves, incense and bright kumkum powder. In the evening we gather for a farewell dinner.

    Included

    • Chamundi Hill, the Chamundeshwari Temple and the Nandi bull
    • Mysore Palace at opening
    • Devaraja Market walk with your guide
    • Farewell dinner

    Easier option: Drive up and down Chamundi Hill and see the Nandi from the road.

    More active option: Walk down the stone stairway from the temple to the Nandi and on to the foot of the hill, about 1,000 steps; the van meets you.

    Free time: Lunch and early afternoon free

14. Day 14: Srirangapatna and home from Bengaluru

    Mysore to Srirangapatna, then Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (BLR)

    • Drive about 4 h
    • Breakfast
    Day 14 details

    We leave Mysore at about 8 am. Twenty minutes away, Srirangapatna sits on an island in the Kaveri River and was the capital of Tipu Sultan until he died defending it in 1799. We visit the Ranganathaswamy Temple, where Vishnu reclines on a serpent, and the Gumbaz, the domed mausoleum Tipu built for his parents, where he is also buried, its doors inlaid with ivory. Then it is about three hours on the expressway and the ring road to Kempegowda International Airport, arriving at about 2 pm, with a break on the way. Your guide sees you to departures and checks your flight before saying goodbye. Book a flight leaving after about 5 pm. If you would like more time, we can add a night in Bengaluru at the end.

    Included

    • Ranganathaswamy Temple and the Gumbaz in Srirangapatna
    • Drop-off at Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (BLR)

    Easier option: For an earlier flight we go straight from Mysore to the airport.

    Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 5 pm.

Wildlife and weather: November to February is the dry, cooler season across most of the route. The northeast monsoon can still bring heavy rain and occasional cyclones to the Tamil Nadu coast in November and early December. Wildlife at Periyar is never guaranteed: elephants, gaur and sambar come to the lake shore, and birds are the surest sighting. Eravikulam usually closes from about February 1 for the Nilgiri tahr calving season.

• Chennai1 night
• Pondicherry2 nights
• Thanjavur2 nights
• Madurai1 night
• Thekkady1 night
• Munnar2 nights
• Kerala backwaters (houseboat)1 night
• Fort Kochi1 night
• Mysore2 nights