Tamil Nadu itinerary: 10 days in Madurai, Chettinad, Kumbakonam, Pondicherry and Chennai
10 days · 9 nights · 5 stays · sample itinerary
Ten days up the Tamil coast and its temple country: Madurai, the merchant mansions of Chettinad, Thanjavur and Darasuram on the way to Kumbakonam, French Pondicherry, and Mahabalipuram on the way to Chennai.
It is a sample itinerary — a starting point, not a timetable. Each night has a place to stay, named where one is known; check that it is open and has room before you book. No flight or train is named, and the times in the plan are placeholders. Open it in the planner and it becomes a trip of your own, starting a month from today, with the places to see already on their days.
Day by day
Day 1
Stay: The Gateway Hotel, Pasumalai, Madurai
1 night
Meenakshi Amman Temple
The flower and market lanes
Thirumalai Nayakar Palace
Day 2
Madurai → Karaikudi
By road · 09:00–12:00
Times approximate.
Stay: CGH – Visalam, Karaikudi
2 nights
Kanadukathan: the Chettiar mansions at dusk
Day 3
Narthamalai cave temples at sunrise
Optional, early.
Inside a Chettinad mansion
Athangudi tile workshop
Chettinad handloom weavers
Day 4
Karaikudi → Kumbakonam
By road · 08:00–15:00
By road by way of a village Ayyanar shrine and Thanjavur: the Brihadeeswarar Temple, a bronze-casting workshop and the old lanes. Times approximate.
Stay: CGH – Mantra Koodam, Kumbakonam
2 nights
Day 5
Darasuram’s Airavatesvara Temple
Day 6
Kumbakonam → Pondicherry
By road · 09:00–16:00
By road; Gangaikonda Cholapuram and Chidambaram are optional stops. Times approximate.
Stay: Palais de Mahe, Pondicherry
2 nights
Day 7
White Town: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Manakula Vinayagar Temple and Notre Dame des Anges
Auroville
Svaram instrument workshop
Day 8
Pondicherry → Chennai
By road · 09:00–16:00
By road, stopping at Mahabalipuram’s rock-cut temples. Times approximate.
Stay: The Leela Palace – Chennai, Chennai
2 nights
Day 9
Fort St George
St Thomas Cathedral
Kapaleeswarar Temple
A walk through Mylapore
In the afternoon.
Day 10
Chennai → Madurai
Flight · 11:00–12:15
Madurai, where the plan began, is filled in as where the flight goes; change it to wherever you go next. Times approximate.
How the route runs
A night in Madurai for the Meenakshi temple, then two in Chettinad among the merchant mansions. By road through Thanjavur to Kumbakonam for the Chola temples, on to Pondicherry’s French quarter and Auroville, and up the coast past Mahabalipuram to Chennai.
What is left for you to fill in
No flight or train is named, and every time in the plan is a placeholder, marked approximate: choose the services that suit, and set the drive times with whoever is driving. Where a journey says how is not stated, choose how. The places to see have no time of day; add one if it helps.
A stay that reads "not named" is a night with no place to stay yet: choose one. A stay whose note lists others has alternatives worth comparing. Check that each is open and has room for your dates before you book.