Best of South India Tour
Duration: 5 Nights - 6 Days
Destinations: Chennai - Covelong - Pondicherry - Tanjore - Trichy - Madurai
- Periyar
Day 1 : Day 1: Abroad - Chennai -
Covelong
Arrive
Madras International airport.
On arrival, the guest will be met by our
representative and directly proceed to Covelong (43 kms/1 hr)
Upon
arrival at hotel the guests will be provided with the traditional Indian
welcome consisting of aarti-tikka and garlands with non-alcoholic welcome
drink.
Overnight at hotel.
Day 2 : Covelong
Fullday sightseeing tour of Kanchipuram and Mahabalipuram.
Kanchipuram
- known as the Golden City of a Thousand Temples, is one of the oldest
towns in India. It is famous for both its temples, many of them remarkably
well preserved and for its hand-woven silks. Kanchipuram is one of the seven
sacred cities of India and it is the only one associated with both Shiva and
Vishnu. Visit Ekambareshwar Temple, Kailashnath Temple, Kamakshi Temple, the
Vaikunthaperumal Temple, all built in the 7th and 8th centuries. With a
weaving tradition dating back to the Pallava era (when silk was the royal
cloth), Kanchipuram is justly famous for its particularly fine silk saris,
embellished with stunning patterns. Visit the local homes of the weavers and
watch them create magic out of silk thread into saris.
Mahabalipuram
- This is a small, quiet seaside resort with a unique 7th-century Shore
Temple, a lovely beach and some of the most beautiful rock-cut temples in
the world. Situated on the shore of the Bay of Bengal, Mahabalipuram was
already a famous seaport in the 1st century AD. This, town was a workshop
for temple building. Visit the seven pagoda-style shore temples, lashed by
the waves of the sea and the seven rathas or temple chariots, a group of
monolithic monuments & animal figures carved out of solid rock, the
earliest known examples of Dravidian architecture. They were constructed in
a single century-long burst of creative enthusiasm, starting in the reign of
Narasimhavarman 1 (AD 630-68). End the visit by photography of the beautiful
Shore temples at sunset.
Dinner and overnight at hotel.
Day 3 : Covelong - Pondicherry
After
breakfast drive to Pondicherry (162 kms/4 hrs)
Pondicherry, which was
up until the 1950s, a far-flung outpost of the French maritime empire. It is
so different from the rest of Tamil Nadu that one feels that one has entered
another country! This busy coastal town is divided roughly into two: the old
White Town of elegant French houses, restaurants & administrative
buildings and the Black Town west of the canal where India takes over again.
Tour of
Pondicherry - visiting
Botanical garden, Eglise De
Sacre Coeur De Jesus and Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Later visit township of
Auroville or the city of Dawn. Designed by a French architect Roger
Arger, it is an entirely new concept in education and urban living. Dinner
and overnight at hotel.
Day 4 : Pondicherry - Tanjore
After breakfast drive to Tanjore (177 kms/4 ½ hrs) Upon arrival at
Tanjore - check into hotel. Afternoon sightseeing tour of Tanjore - was the
capital of the Chola Empire from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries. A
Chola king, Raja Raja Chola, who held the throne from 985 to 1016, built the
greatest of the empire's 74 temples, the
Brahadeeswarar, with its
soaring tower over the inner sanctum. This tower rises more than 62 meters
(200 feet). On its dome rests a single block of granite weighing 80 tons.
Dinner and overnight at hotel.
Day 5 : Tanjore - Trichy -
Madurai After breakfast drive to Madurai (190 kms/5½ hrs)
enroute visiting Trichy
City tour of Trichy - visit the
'Rock Fort
Temple' which rises abruptly to a height of 273 ft. A steep staircase
cut into the rock leads upto the Fort. At the first level are the remnants
of a huge hall blasted into ruins in 1772. The next storey is the
Mathrubhuteshwarer Shrine dedicated to Shiva. Finally at the top of the
hill, the 'Uchhi Pillayar Koil' - a Ganesh Temple offering a commanding view
of the city.
Thereafter continue drive to Madurai
Upon arrival at
Madurai - check into hotel.
Evening visit of the Meenakshi temple -
Leave the hotel for the temple by cycle rickshaws. At 9 PM, attend the night
ceremony at the temple. This is a ceremony that takes place every evening
when the temple bronze of Lord Shiva is carried to the bed chamber of
Parvati. The procession is accompanied by religious prayer and temple music.
Dinner and overnight at hotel.
Day
6 : Madurai - Periyar
Morning city tour of Madurai visit the
Meenakshi
temple one of the biggest temple complexes in India - 46 ft. long by 790
ft broad built in the 17th Century. It is a rectangular twin shrine: the
southern temple dedicated to Meenakshi (the consort of Shiva) and the other
to Shiva. It is Madurai's greatest landmark - a file city within a city: the
complex includes a bazaar that bustles from dawn to nightfall. The high
point of the Meenakshi temple is Hall of a "Thousand Pillars",
built in the 16th C which is as great a work of structural engineering as it
is of art. Also visit the palace of
Tirumala Nayak which is an
example of the architectural mastery of the Nayaks - a blend of Hindu and
Saracen architecture. It's enormous roofed arcade supported by 48 foot high
stoned pillar still stands.
After breakfast drive to Periyar (177 kms/5
hrs)
Upon arrival at Periyar - check into hotel.
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