Travel in Chennai

Two of the fifteen India trips in our catalogue reach Chennai, and both treat it the same way: as the airport you land at. South India – Exotic World is eleven days from EUR 1,570. The diversity of South India is twenty-five days from EUR 2,860. Each gives the city one night. Neither comes back at the end. If you want a stay in Chennai, this page will not sell you one. It is a page about a stopover.

The arrival is identical on both. You book your own international flight, land at Chennai International the following morning, and are met inside the terminal by a member of the local team, who drives you to your hotel. Nothing else is scheduled that day. It exists to sleep off the flight.

Day two is where the routes part. The twenty-five-day trip gives Chennai a real morning. It names Fort St George, built by the East India Company and still the working seat of the Tamil Nadu government, so the part visitors see is the museum inside, which is closed on Fridays. It names San Thome Basilica, raised over the tomb attributed to the apostle Thomas. And it names the Kapaleeshwarar Temple in Mylapore, whose gopuram stands 37 metres; like most Tamil temples it opens early, shuts for several hours around midday and reopens in the late afternoon, so the morning slot is the one the itinerary uses. Marina Beach appears as a drive-past, described in the itinerary as where the city goes after work. A look at the seafront, not a beach day. Then you head south down the Coromandel Coast to Mahabalipuram, roughly 55 km and an hour and a half on the East Coast Road depending on traffic. Mahabalipuram gets what Chennai does not: two nights and a full day among the shore temple, the monolithic temples and the rock-cut caves.

The eleven-day trip compresses all of that into one day. Its day two lists the Chennai sights and the Mahabalipuram temple complex together, and the next morning it drives on to Pondicherry. In practice you get a couple of hours in Chennai, then the road. Read that day as a transfer with stops, not a city visit.

Now the awkward part. Much of what Chennai is known for is in neither itinerary. The Government Museum at Egmore and its Chola bronze gallery: not included. The December music and dance season the city is famous for: not included, and neither trip is dated to it. The Theosophical Society gardens at Adyar, an evening at a sabha, a food walk through Mylapore or Sowcarpet: none of them appear. There is no free day in Chennai on either route and no second night. If any of that is why you are reading this page, say so when you enquire. Every trip is private and built to order, so a night can be added. It is an addition, not something already in the itinerary.

One practical thing catches people out. Neither trip flies home from Chennai. The eleven-day route ends in Kochi and the twenty-five-day route ends in Goa, with an airport transfer on the final morning in both cases. You need an open-jaw international ticket, into Chennai and out of somewhere else, and international flights are not included on any of our trips.

Hotels: the twenty-five-day trip names The Residency Tower in a Premier Room for the Chennai night, then the Ideal Beach Resort in Mahabalipuram for two. The eleven-day trip names no hotels anywhere, so ask for the night-by-night list with your quote. Check one more thing on that quote. The twenty-five-day trip names a hotel at all fifteen stops but still lists hotel accommodation under what is not included. That is a contradiction in our own catalogue and you should have the answer in writing.

Both trips are private and guided, with a German-speaking guide, breakfast and someone reachable twenty-four hours a day. Rooms run Standard, Deluxe, Superior and Executive. There is no five-star tier. Neither trip has fixed departure dates.