India · Tamil Nadu
Plan your Chennai trip
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01Your itinerary
02Where to stay
Mylapore
Best for first-timers who want the temples, the messes and the music on their doorstepThe old temple town at the city's heart: gopuram views, flower markets, morning temple bells, and a street life that starts before six. Denser and less polished than the beach suburbs, and far more interesting.
A heritage-style hotel near the Kapaleeshwarar tank
Being able to walk to the temple at dawn and to Karpagambal Mess for lunch is the entire argument for staying in Mylapore rather than commuting into it.
₹₹A serviced apartment off Luz Church Road
Luz sits between Mylapore and Alwarpet, which puts several sabhas and a lot of good eating within a ten-minute auto ride during Margazhi season.
₹₹Nungambakkam and Alwarpet
Best for travellers who want comfort and central access, and anyone here on businessThe consulate-and-boutique belt — leafy, upmarket, quiet at night, with Khader Nawaz Khan Road's cafés and the city's better restaurants clustered nearby. Central without being chaotic.
A five-star hotel on the Cathedral Road corridor
Chennai's grand hotels are concentrated here and several run genuinely serious South Indian restaurants of their own — worth it if the heat is limiting how far you want to travel to eat.
₹₹₹₹A boutique property near Khader Nawaz Khan Road
Walkable to the closest thing Chennai has to a café strip, and a short ride from both Mylapore and the Egmore museum.
₹₹₹Besant Nagar and Adyar
Best for longer stays, repeat visitors, and anyone travelling with childrenThe southern coastal neighbourhoods: Elliot's Beach at the end of the road, the Theosophical Society's enormous green estate, and an easier, breezier version of the city that locals actively choose to live in.
An apartment a few streets back from Elliot's Beach
The evening walk to the beach and back is the reason people love living here. Being twenty-five minutes from Mylapore is the trade-off.
₹₹A mid-range hotel in Adyar near the Theosophical Society
Quiet, green, well positioned for Kalakshetra and for heading straight down the East Coast Road to Mamallapuram in the morning.
₹₹Egmore
Best for short stops, tight budgets, and onward rail travelThe old railway and museum district — Indo-Saracenic architecture, mid-range hotels in every direction, and the best transport connections in the city if you are moving on by train.
A business hotel near Egmore station
Unromantic but efficient: the Government Museum is a walk away, the green metro line is close, and overnight trains south leave from the platforms next door.
₹₹Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.
03Tickets & tours
Kapaleeshwarar Temple, Mylapore
The city's defining Dravidian temple — a Shaivite complex rebuilt in the 16th century after the Portuguese destroyed the original, with a towering…
Tip Go at 6.30am. The morning puja is under way, the crowd is worshippers rather than sightseers, and the stone courtyard is still cool enough to cross barefoot.
Government Museum Bronze Gallery, Egmore
One of the finest collections of Chola bronzes anywhere, including Nataraja figures cast a thousand years ago by the lost-wax method.
Tip The museum complex is large and uneven; skip most of it and give the bronze gallery a proper hour.
Marina Beach at dusk
A thirteen-kilometre sweep of sand along the Bay of Bengal that becomes the city's living room every evening — cricket matches, sundal vendors,…
Tip Do not swim. The currents are genuinely dangerous and no local goes in. Come between 5pm and 8pm and eat your way along the vendor line instead.
San Thome Basilica
A white neo-Gothic church built over what tradition holds is the tomb of the apostle Thomas, who is said to have died in Mylapore in AD 72.
Tip The underground tomb chapel is the reason to come and is easy to miss — the entrance is at the side of the main church, down a separate staircase.
Fort St. George and St. Mary's Church
The first English fortress in India, founded in 1644 and now housing the Tamil Nadu legislature. Inside sits St.
Tip The Fort Museum is small and cheap and does more for your understanding of how Madras became a city than any amount of reading beforehand.
A Margazhi season kutcheri
Between mid-December and mid-January, sabhas across Mylapore, Alwarpet and T.
Tip Pick a mid-afternoon slot by a younger artist at a smaller sabha — cheap or free, less formal, and often the best music.
Kalakshetra Foundation, Thiruvanmiyur
The institution where Rukmini Devi Arundale reshaped Bharatanatyam into its modern concert form in 1936, set in a quiet wooded campus by the coast.
Tip Check the campus calendar before visiting — public performances and open classes are the point, and outside those the grounds are pleasant but quiet.
T. Nagar and Ranganathan Street
Chennai's shopping district and one of the busiest retail streets on the planet: multi-floor silk emporia around Panagal Park, wholesale lanes, and a…
Tip Weekday mornings are survivable; Saturday afternoons and the weeks before Diwali and Pongal are not.
Day trips from Chennai
Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram)
Ninety minutes down the East Coast Road: a UNESCO-listed group of 7th and 8th-century Pallava monuments carved from living granite, including the…
Day tripPuducherry (Pondicherry)
Three hours south by car or bus. The former French colony keeps a grid of ochre villas, bougainvillea and street names in two languages in its White…
Day tripKanchipuram
An hour and a half inland: one of Hinduism's seven sacred cities, dense with major temples including the 8th-century Kailasanathar and the vast…
Day tripDakshinaChitra and the ECR coast
A heritage museum on the East Coast Road with relocated, reassembled traditional houses from across the four southern states, plus craft…
Day tripEverything to do in Chennai
Skip-the-line tickets, guided tours and day trips, all in one place on Booking.com.
04Getting there & around
Getting around a city that sprawls
Chennai is long. It stretches roughly thirty kilometres along the coast and inland again, and unlike Prague or Paris it cannot be walked between neighbourhoods. Individual districts — Mylapore, Georgetown, Besant Nagar — are excellent on foot, but you will be taking transport between them, and the distances are the single…
Flights
Compare fares into Chennai and pick dates that suit the days you planned.
Airport transfers
Book a private or shared ride from the airport so the first evening starts at your door, not at a ticket queue.
Car hire from Chennai
Only worth it for day trips beyond the city — in town, the plan above works on foot and public transport.
Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.