Splendours of Southern India

Fly overnight from your chosen airport to Chennai (formerly Madras).

 In the evening enjoy a welcome dinner and classical dance show at your hotel.
(D)

This morning you will continue exploring Chennai on a city tour which includes a visit to the Government Museum and St Mary's Church. Plus you will take a Tuk Tuk ride, famously driven by women,  through Marina Beach. Return to your hotel for an afternoon at leisure or take advantage of the optional excursion to experience the Peacock Trail where you will discover the hidden rituals of daily life in a bustling neighbourhood (bookable locally).

(B)

Drive (3hrs) to Pondicherry, when enroute you will visit Mahabalipuram and explore the famous Shore Temple, a splendid UNESCO World Heritage site of shrines and carved granite monuments plus visit the 7th-century Five Rathas pagoda temples. Later, arriving in Pondicherry you will be greeted by the air of arty elegance in the tree-shaded streets of its colonial French Quarter where your hotel is located. After check-in at your hotel you spend the afternoon visiting the Sri Aurobindo Ashram spiritual community, where yoga and meditation are complemented by craft workshops; the Pondicherry Museum of art and history; and the Catholic Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, built by French missionaries in 1908. Overnight at the 4-star ‘CGH Earth’ Palais de Mahe boutique hotel. (B)

Travel (3hrs), through the valley of the sacred Kaveri River, to  Chidambaram Nataraja temple.  Continue (2hrs) to Tanjore, an important centre of learning and religion in its glory days, its heritage continuing now as a university town. In the evening you will visit the Big Temple for the night ceremony. Overnight at the boutique Hotel Svatma.
(B, D)

Visit the fabled Brihadeshwara Temple, dedicated to the god Shiva. Set in gardens studded with ornate ‘gopuram’ towers, the UNESCO listed, 11th-century temple is a place of pilgrimage for Hindus, and of fascination for historians and art aficionados. Leave Tanjore to visit  the Rock Fort, blending into the cluster of monolithic formations on which it stands, as you drive to nearby Srirangam to visit the river-island ‘temple town’, a massive and magnificent centre of Hindu pilgrimage. Continue to Madurai (3 hrs), for two nights at the Heritage Hotel or Taj Gateway.
(B, D)

Set beside the Vaigai River, Madurai is a totally, terrifically Tamil town, yet embraces modernity with a distinctly 21^st century way of life. Enjoy a rickshaw ride to its Meenakshi Amman Temple, as holy to Hindus as it is awe-inspiring for its artistry. Visit the 17^th-century Thirumalai Nayak Palace, its lavish façade featuring phenomenal pillars, 25m high; and the Gandhi Memorial Museum, housed in the Rani Mangammal Mahal, and listed as one of the United Nations Peace Museums.
(B)

Drive up into the Western Ghats (5hrs) to Periyar. Soak-up the scents and scenery on a visit to a spice plantation, and later experience a performance of Kalaraipayattu, a local martial art. Two nights at the 4-star ‘CGH Earth’ Spice Village, Periyar.
(B, D)

 Afternoon at leisure. In the evening you have the chance to join an optional excursion to witness the Kathakali dance performance (bookable locally).
(B, D)

This morning, visit a rubber plantation, with lunch at a plantation house; before travelling (4hrs) to Kumarakom, an intriguing backwater village, comprised of a cluster of little man-made islands, and set in the largest of Kerala’s lakes, Vembanad. Overnight at the 4-star ‘CGH Earth’ Coconut Lagoon, accessible only by boat.
(B, L)

Take to the water on a traditional Keralan houseboat, for a cruise of the web of waterways, with canoes to explore the smaller canals. Overnight on the houseboat.
(B, L, D)

Disembark and drive to Cochin, a spice trading centre from the 14th century, when it was known as ‘the Queen of the Arabian Sea’, and a beguiling and flourishing port city today. A walking tour of Fort Cochin includes the Mattancherry Palace, Paradesi Synagogue, and St. Francis Church; and, at the seafront, the famous, much photographed, Chinese Fishing Nets, hung on teak and bamboo poles. Two nights at the 4-star ‘CGH Earth’ Hotel Eighth Bastion within Fort Cochin.
(B)

Visit the village of Kumbalanghi, an Integrated Tourism Village Project which transformed its tiny island into a model fishing village; surrounded by backwaters and liberally draped with Chinese fishing nets. Afternoon at leisure in Cochin followed by an evening's cooking demo  and dinner with a local family as you bid farewell to your fellow travellers.
(B, L, D)

Transfer to the airport for your return flight.
(B)