Tamil Nadu & Andhra Pradesh · 12 days
The temple country
Tirupati to Rameswaram, along the pilgrim route rather than the tourist one.
The journey
The same temples everyone photographs, seen the way the people queueing for them see them. It follows the pilgrimage line — Tirupati, which takes more offerings than anywhere else on earth; Kanchipuram; Madurai; Kanyakumari at the tip; and Rameswaram, out on its island, where the corridor runs for more than a thousand feet. It is a demanding fortnight and a completely different India from the one in the brochures.
Route
- Chennai
- Tirupati
- Vellore
- Kanchipuram
- Madurai
- Kanyakumari
- Rameswaram
- Chettinad
- Trichy
- Pondicherry
- Mamallapuram
What stays with you
- 01Tirupati, and the scale of what arrives there every single day
- 02The golden temple at Vellore, and Kanchipuram's thousand years of building
- 03Madurai, twice — once in daylight and once for the night ceremony
- 04Kanyakumari, where the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean meet
- 05Ramanathaswamy at Rameswaram, and the corridor that is the longest of its kind
- 06Srirangam at Trichy, which is a temple with a town inside it
Day by day
A shape rather than a timetable. Days move, and most people move one or two of them.
1
Into Chennai and straight up to Tirupati.
2
Tirupati, early, which is the only sensible hour for it.
3
Down to Vellore, and the golden temple.
4
Kanchipuram on the way south, then the long run to Madurai.
5
Madurai. The temple in the morning and again at night.
6
South to Kanyakumari, for the point and the sunset off it.
7
Across to Rameswaram.
8
Rameswaram: the temple, the corridor, and Dhanushkodi at the end of the island.
9
North through Chettinad to Trichy.
10
Srirangam and Rock Fort, then up the coast to Pondicherry.
11
Pondicherry in the morning, Mamallapuram in the afternoon, Chennai by evening.
12
Out of Chennai.
Shall we plan it?
Tell us roughly when, and how many of you, and we will come back with dates, a price and anything we would change about the route.
Or write to us at info@scenicescapesindia.com
Tamil Nadu