Luxury Madurai Tours

One of Tamil Nadu's oldest cities, built around the Meenakshi Amman Temple.

Meenakshi Amman Temple tower in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, covered in carved and painted figures

Overview

Madurai At A Glance

Madurai is one of Tamil Nadu's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Its Meenakshi Amman Temple anchors the old town, its towers rising over a maze of markets. A private guide reads the carved gopurams with you, deity by deity. You beat the crowds that fill the temple streets by mid-morning.

Where To Stay: Heritage Madurai, Madurai, Gateway Pasumalai Madurai — IHCL SeleQtions
Continue To: Chennai, Chettinad, Mahabalipuram

What To See

What To See In Madurai

Madurai's real highlights are what a private guide builds each day around.

Temple / Religious Site

Meenakshi Amman Temple

The vast twin-shrine temple at the heart of Madurai, dedicated to the goddess Meenakshi and Shiva, ringed by 14 painted towers.

Fort / Palace / Heritage

Thirumalai Nayakkar Mahal

The 1636 palace of the Nayak king Thirumalai in Madurai, a courtyard ringed by giant stucco-domed pillars.

How To Travel

Journeys Through Madurai

Every journey comes with a private guide and driver for each day on the road. Full details live on each journey's own page.

A towering tiered Dravidian gopuram of a South Indian temple rises against the sky at Tiruchendur.

13 Nights

Slow Tamil Nadu

Chennai · Chettinad · Madurai · Mahabalipuram · Ooty · Pondicherry · Thanjavur

Misty tea gardens roll across the hillsides around Coonoor in the Nilgiris.

11 Nights

Tamil Nadu in Depth

Chennai · Chettinad · Madurai · Mahabalipuram · Ooty · Pondicherry · Thanjavur

Neatly trimmed tea plantation rows under a blue sky in Munnar, Kerala

10 Nights

Kerala & Tamil Nadu — the Complete South

Kochi · Munnar · Thekkady · Madurai · Ooty

The pillared frontage of a traditional Chettinad mansion with its deep verandah.

9 Nights

Classic Tamil Nadu

Chennai · Chettinad · Madurai · Mahabalipuram · Pondicherry · Thanjavur

The towering granite vimana of the Brihadeeswarar temple rises over the complex at Thanjavur.

8 Nights

South India Temple Trail

Chennai · Madurai · Mahabalipuram · Pondicherry · Thanjavur

Waves roll onto a Coromandel beach with the silhouette of a Mahabalipuram temple on the horizon.

8 Nights

Tamil Nadu Honeymoon

Chennai · Chettinad · Madurai · Mahabalipuram · Pondicherry · Thanjavur

A traditional wooden house on Kerala's backwaters

7 Nights

Kerala & Tamil Nadu Grand Circuit

Kochi · Munnar · Thekkady · Madurai

The painted gopuram towers of the Ranganathaswamy temple at Srirangam glow at sunset.

7 Nights

First-Timer's Tamil Nadu

Chennai · Madurai · Mahabalipuram · Pondicherry · Thanjavur

Where To Stay

Where To Stay In Madurai

Stays are chosen for the setting and the service, then matched to the pace of your route.

Exterior of Heritage Madurai, the former Madurai Club designed by Geoffrey Bawa, with landscaped lawns

resort · luxury

Heritage Madurai, Madurai

★★★★★

Heritage Madurai occupies the old Madurai Club grounds, a walled garden designed by the Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa. It keeps Bawa's low pavilions and water courts, and adds villas with private plunge pools among the trees. The main pool is long and quiet. There is a spa, and the restaurants cover Madurai street food as well as the usual range. It is a ten-minute drive from the Meenakshi temple, but it feels well out of the city, which after a day in the old town is the point. It is the most comfortable base in Madurai by a distance.

Colonial-style facade of Gateway Pasumalai Madurai, IHCL, the 1890s bungalow on Pasumalai Hill

hotel · premium

Gateway Pasumalai Madurai — IHCL SeleQtions

★★★★

The Gateway sits on Pasumalai hill, on a wooded estate of about sixty acres south of the city. The core is an 1890s British bungalow, and the grounds fall away in terraces with old trees, a pool, and clear views across Madurai to the Meenakshi temple towers, especially at night when they are lit. Rooms are in the bungalow and in newer garden blocks. It is a Taj-group hotel, calm and green, ten minutes from the noise of the old town but entirely apart from it.

years crafting private India journeys

30,000+

travellers guided end to end

4.5

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