Tamil Nadu Travel Guide: Temple Towns, Hill Stations and the Coast

For a visitor the state falls into four parts: the northern coast around Chennai; the Chola country along the Kaveri (Cauvery) around Thanjavur and Tiruchirappalli; the deep south, from Madurai to Rameswaram and Kanyakumari; and the hills of the Western Ghats. Our private routes through the state are on our Tamil Nadu tour packages page.

Chennai

Tamil Nadu's capital, originally called Madras, is where most trips begin. Start on the Marina, a 13-km beach where the city comes out in the evening (Tamil Nadu Tourism warns that its undercurrent makes it unsafe for swimming), then see Fort St George, completed in 1644 for the East India Company, the South Indian bronzes of the Government Museum, opened in 1851, and the Kapaleeshwarar Temple in Mylapore. Our Chennai travel guide covers the city in full.

Mahabalipuram (Mamallapuram)

About 57 km south of Chennai, this seaside town keeps the Pallava monuments of the 7th and 8th centuries that make up a UNESCO World Heritage Site: the great relief of Arjuna's Penance, the Five Rathas, each carved from a single rock, the cave temples and the Shore Temple, which, unlike the others, was built of granite blocks. Each winter the state's Indian Dance Festival holds evening performances at the Shore Temple complex. See our Mahabalipuram travel guide.

Kanchipuram

Tamil Nadu Tourism calls Kanchipuram, about 75 km from Chennai Central, the "Golden City of a Thousand Temples". The Kailasanathar Temple was built around 700 CE under the Pallava king Narasimhavarman II and holds some of the first murals painted in Tamil Nadu; the Ekambareswarar Temple spreads over about 25 acres, with a thousand-pillared hall from the Vijayanagara period. The town also gives its name to Kancheepuram silk saris, woven in pure mulberry silk, each taking 20 to 40 days. It makes a long day out from Chennai.

Puducherry (Pondicherry)

Strictly speaking, Puducherry is not part of Tamil Nadu. It is a Union Territory, once the headquarters of the French in India, bounded by the Bay of Bengal on the east and by Tamil Nadu on its other three sides. It lies about 135 km from Chennai airport, which makes it an easy addition to a trip down the coast from Chennai and Mahabalipuram. Our Pondicherry travel guide covers the town.

Thanjavur and the Chola temples

The Brihadisvara, or Big Temple, at Thanjavur was completed around 1010 under the Chola king Rajaraja I. With the Airavatesvara Temple at Darasuram and the temple at Gangaikonda Cholapuram it forms the Great Living Chola Temples, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Nearer the coast, in Cuddalore district, Chidambaram's Nataraja temple is where the Natyanjali dance festival began in 1981, and the Pichavaram mangroves are about half an hour's drive away. Our Thanjavur travel guide has the town, its palace and the day trips.

Tiruchirappalli (Trichy): the Rock Fort and Srirangam

Once a citadel of the early Chola kings, says Tamil Nadu Tourism, Tiruchirappalli is built around the Rock Fort, an outcrop about 275 feet high with a cave temple and inscriptions. A climb of 437 steps leads to the Uchippillaiyar temple to Ganesha at the top, which looks out over Srirangam island and its Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple. The Jambukeswarar temple and the Grand Anicut (Kallanai), a dam on the Kaveri first built in the 2nd century, are in the same district. Our South India Temple Trail sees the Rock Fort and Srirangam on an afternoon out from Thanjavur.

Tiruvannamalai

This temple town grew around the Arunachaleswarar (Annamalaiyar) Temple at the foot of the Annamalai hill, recorded in Chola inscriptions from the 9th century and enlarged under the Vijayanagara kings and the Nayaks. Its great night is Karthigai Deepam, in the Tamil month of Karthigai (November to December), when a huge lamp is lit on top of the hill and can be seen for kilometres around. Tamil Nadu Tourism puts the town about 170 to 180 km from Chennai airport, and it has its own railway station.

Madurai

Madurai grew up around the Meenakshi–Sundareswarar temple. The temple administration counts 14 gopurams (gateway towers) in the restored complex, the southern one 51.9 metres high, and inside are the Thousand Pillar Hall and the Golden Lotus tank. Tamil Nadu Tourism calls Madurai "Thoonga Nagaram", the city that never sleeps; the Thirumalai Nayak Palace and the Gandhi Memorial Museum are a short ride from the temple. See our Madurai travel guide.

Chettinad

Around Karaikudi, about 100 km from Madurai's airport, the Chettinad villages are known for the mansions their merchant families built, for handmade Athangudi floor tiles and for Chettinadu cooking, which Tamil Nadu Tourism describes as built on freshly ground masala of spices such as fennel, star anise, cinnamon and peppercorns. Our Chettinad food trail combines tastings with a restored merchant mansion and can be run fully vegetarian. See our Chettinad travel guide.

Rameswaram

Rameswaram stands on Pamban Island, joined to the mainland by the Pamban bridges. It is one of the four Char Dham of Hindu pilgrimage, and its Ramanathaswamy Temple, known for its long pillared corridors, is one of the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines of Shiva. The new Pamban rail bridge, opened in April 2025, is India's first vertical-lift sea bridge. Dhanushkodi beach and the Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Memorial are on the same island. See our Rameswaram travel guide.

Kanyakumari

Kanyakumari is the southernmost tip of the Indian mainland, where, in Tamil Nadu Tourism's words, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean converge. The Vivekananda Rock Memorial and the Thiruvalluvar Statue stand side by side in the sea, reached by the Poompuhar Shipping Corporation's ferry, which stops in high winds, heavy rain or storm alerts. The nearest airport is Thiruvananthapuram, in Kerala. See our Kanyakumari travel guide.

Ooty and the Nilgiris

Ooty (Udhagamandalam), in the Nilgiris district, was a summer resort in British times. The Nilgiri Mountain Railway, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005, climbs 46 km from Mettupalayam through Coonoor to Ooty in nearly five hours, and Tamil Nadu Tourism describes it as the only operational rack railway in India. On the slopes below, Mudumalai Tiger Reserve lies where Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka meet. See our Ooty travel guide.

Kodaikanal

At about 7,000 feet, Kodaikanal was established as a hill station by British officials and Christian missionaries in 1845, according to Tamil Nadu Tourism, which lists boating, cycling, horse riding and trekking as the usual pastimes. Boats go out on Kodai Lake from the Kodaikanal Boat and Rowing Club, and the most popular hike starts at Berijam Lake; the tourism department advises trekkers to use certified local guides. Madurai's airport is about 115 km away. See our Kodaikanal travel guide.

Tamil Nadu's rains come late in the year. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) calls October to December, the north-east monsoon, the chief rainy season of the Tamil Nadu subdivision, with 48 per cent of its annual rain, and the same months are the main cyclone season. In Chennai, November is the wettest month, averaging about 374 mm (1991–2020), while January, February and March each average under 20 mm in Chennai, Madurai and Tiruchirappalli. April to June are the hottest months on the plains, with average highs of about 37 to 38°C at Madurai and Tiruchirappalli.

That makes January to March the most comfortable time for the temple towns and the coast. December brings Chennai's music season and the start of the dry weather in the north, and Pongal, the harvest festival, is usually celebrated between 13 and 16 January. In the hills, Tamil Nadu Tourism recommends March to June for Ooty and April to June for Kodaikanal, when the plains are hot.

• By air: Chennai International Airport has separate domestic and international terminals. Madurai International Airport has direct flights to Colombo, Dubai and Singapore as well as Indian cities, and Tiruchirappalli and Coimbatore also have international airports; Coimbatore, about 88 km from Ooty, is the one for the Nilgiris. For Kanyakumari, the nearest airport is Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, 76 km away by Tamil Nadu Tourism's figure.
• By train: Chennai is the headquarters of the Southern Railway, with four main terminals: Chennai Central (Puratchi Thalaivar Dr M.G. Ramachandran Central), Chennai Egmore, Chennai Beach and Tambaram. Madurai Junction has direct trains to New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, and since April 2025 a train has run from Rameswaram to Tambaram over the new Pamban bridge.
• By road: national highways link Chennai with the rest of India, and long-distance buses leave from the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus at Koyambedu.

Distances are long, so most visitors travel by car with a driver, which every one of our packages here includes, or by train between the larger cities. In the temples, footwear comes off at the entrance, and our temple trail advises covered shoulders and knees and a light pair of socks for hot stone floors at midday. Many large temples close in the middle of the day: the Meenakshi temple from 12.30 to 4 pm and the Ramanathaswamy temple from 1 to 3 pm, by their own published hours, and timings change at festivals. Rules on phones and photography have been tightened at major temples; the Meenakshi temple lists a mobile phone locker among its services, so ask at the entrance what is allowed that day.