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

Tamil Nadu · 12 Days

Tamil Nadu & the Nilgiris

The classic circuit with the Nilgiris on the end — coast, temples, Chettinad, Madurai, and two nights in the hills.

Day by Day

12 Days, In Full

The lowland route with a cool finish in the hills. The Pallava coast, the French quarter, the Chola temples and a Chettinad mansion night, as the ten-day classic. Then a full day in Madurai for the Meenakshi temple. The long climb into the Nilgiris to Ooty for two nights: the botanical garden, the lake, Doddabetta, and a ride on the UNESCO-listed toy train through the tea. Out from Coimbatore, below the hills.

Chennai

Arrive in Chennai

Chennai is the usual gateway to the south, with direct flights from the Gulf, South-East Asia and across India. You are met at the airport and driven to the hotel. If the arrival is early enough, the afternoon covers Mylapore: the Kapaleeshwarar Temple with its painted tower, the lanes of flower sellers, and San Thome, the church built over the tomb of the apostle Thomas. The evening is free, perhaps a first South Indian meal and a walk on Marina Beach as it cools.

A coconut palm leans over the sea at a beach along Chennai's East Coast Road.

Chennai → Mahabalipuram

Chennai to Mahabalipuram — Down the East Coast Road

A short drive south, about two hours, down the East Coast Road along the sea. Stops on the way: the Cholamandal artists' village, India's largest artists' commune, and DakshinaChitra, an open-air museum of relocated South Indian houses and living crafts. You reach Mamallapuram by early afternoon. The rest of the day is the Shore Temple on the beach, best in the low evening light, and a walk through the carvers' workshops along the main road.

An open coastal highway on the Coromandel coast running toward Puducherry.

Mahabalipuram → Pondicherry

Mahabalipuram to Pondicherry — the Coast Road

A drive of about two and a half hours further down the coast to the old French town of Pondicherry. The road runs past salt pans and fishing villages, with an optional stop at the Sadras Dutch fort or the bird sanctuary at Vedanthangal in season. You arrive in White Town by afternoon and settle into the quieter pace. The evening is for the Promenade, closed to traffic, as the town comes out to walk by the sea.

Pondicherry

Pondicherry — White Town and Auroville

A morning walk through the French Quarter: the grid of mustard-and-white houses, the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, and the seafront. It can be done on foot or by bicycle. After lunch, the short drive north to Auroville, the international township founded in 1968, for the visitor centre and the walk to the viewpoint over the golden Matrimandir. The late afternoon is free for the cafes and boutiques of the old town.

The tank and towered halls of the Nataraja temple at Chidambaram in the Kaveri delta.

Pondicherry → Thanjavur

Pondicherry to Thanjavur — the Chola Temple Country

A long but rewarding drive inland, about four and a half hours, through the rice country of the Kaveri delta. Two great temples break the journey: Chidambaram, where Shiva is worshipped as the cosmic dancer Nataraja in a gold-roofed hall, and Gangaikonda Cholapuram, the near-empty temple a second Chola king built to match the one at Thanjavur. You reach Thanjavur by evening, in time to see the Brihadeeswarar Temple lit and quiet after the day's crowds have gone.

Thanjavur

Thanjavur — the Big Temple and the Palace

A morning at the Brihadeeswarar Temple, finished in 1010, before the heat: the sixty-six-metre granite tower, the giant Nandi bull, the Chola frescoes and inscriptions along the inner walls. Then the rambling Maratha palace: the Art Gallery of Chola bronzes in a Nayak hall, the Saraswathi Mahal manuscript library, and the painted durbar hall. The afternoon can take in a Tanjore painting studio, where images are built up in gold leaf and inset stones, or the bronze casters of Swamimalai nearby.

A river winds through green rural countryside near a Tamil Nadu village.

Thanjavur → Chettinad

Thanjavur to Chettinad — into the Mansion Country

A drive of about two and a half hours south into the dry Chettinad country, with a stop at Pudukkottai for the rock-cut Sittanavasal cave, painted with faded Jain murals older than Ajanta's later work. You reach Karaikudi and the mansion villages by afternoon and check into a restored Chettiar house. The evening is a walk through Kanadukathan as the light drops, past the long shuttered facades, and a Chettinad dinner on the veranda.

Ornate geometric floor tiles in black, white and red in a traditional South Indian house.

Chettinad

Chettinad — the Mansions, the Tiles and the Kitchen

A slow day in the mansion country. A guided walk through several of the Kanadukathan houses, some lived in, some open by arrangement, to see the Burmese teak doorways, the pillared courtyards and the imported glass and marble. The Athangudi tile workshops, where the patterned floor tiles are still made by hand, one at a time. The antique shops of Karaikudi, full of pieces from the emptied houses. And a cooking session in a mansion kitchen, ending in a banana-leaf meal.

Chettinad → Madurai

Chettinad to Madurai

A drive of about two and a half hours west to Madurai, one of the oldest cities in India and a seat of Tamil learning for two thousand years. You arrive around midday. The afternoon is free to rest before the heat of the old town, or an early look at the Thirumalai Nayak Palace, the 1636 courtyard ringed by twenty-metre pillars. In the evening, the walk to the Meenakshi temple for the night ceremony, when Shiva is carried in procession to the goddess's chamber.

Madurai

Madurai — the Meenakshi Temple and the Nayak City

A full day in the old city. The Meenakshi Amman Temple in the cool of the morning: the fourteen painted towers, the twin shrines to the goddess and to Shiva, the hall of a thousand carved pillars, and the golden-lotus tank. Then the Thirumalai Nayak Palace and the Gandhi Memorial Museum, housed in a Nayak queen's palace. The afternoon is the flower and produce market and the tailors' hall by the east tower, and, if there is time, the drive out to the Tiruparankundram rock temple.

A cloud-wrapped forested mountain range on the road up to Kotagiri in the Nilgiris.

Madurai → Ooty

Madurai to Ooty — Up into the Nilgiris

A long climbing drive, about six hours, from the heat of the plains to the cool of the hills. The road runs through Dindigul, under its rock fort, and past the hill-temple town of Palani, then begins the ascent to the Nilgiri plateau through thirty-six numbered hairpin bends, the forest thickening as you go. You reach Ooty in the late afternoon, the air suddenly needing a jacket. Flying Madurai to Coimbatore and driving up from there is a shorter alternative.

Ooty

Ooty — the Garden, the Lake and the Toy Train

A morning ride on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, the UNESCO rack line, on the pretty upper stretch between Ooty and Coonoor through the tea. Back in Ooty, the Government Botanical Garden, laid out in 1848 in terraces below Doddabetta, with its twenty-million-year-old fossil tree. The afternoon is Ooty Lake, and the drive up Doddabetta, the highest point in the Nilgiris at 2,637 metres, for the view on a clear day. The old St Stephen's Church, built with timber hauled from Tipu Sultan's palace, is on the way.

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luxury · 11 Nights