Madurai in 1 day
There is more to do in Madurai in 1 day, than just the Meenakshi Amman temple. I highly recommend this food walking tour where you get to try some authentic Madurai flavours and unforeseen food combinations..
Reaching Madurai
Madurai is very well connected by the road and rail network. Chennai is the closest airport (460 kms and 8 hours by road). We did not particularly face any issues in the TN roads and our Revv car did not give us any issues. We were on a road trip starting from Coimbatore, to Ooty, Kodaikanal and Madurai to visit the Meenakshi temple.
What to see and do in 24hrs in Madurai
Meenakshi Amman temple
Also known as the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple , this 2000yr old temple complex is literally a city within the city of Madurai. It is one of the oldest and the largest temple complexes in India, dedicated to Lord Shiva and his wife Parvati also known as Meenakshi.
What should you know when visiting it:
It is an old and a very sacred temple and hence no leather goods, hand bags, phones are allowed. Make sure to cover your legs and shoulders and dress modestly.
Thirumalai Nayakar palace sightseeing and light and sound show: Thirumalai Nayakar palace was built in 1523, at 4 times of its current size. Its an Indo Saracenic palace with a remarkable audience halls which rises upto 20mtrs without any support.
Madurai Food tour with Foodie’s Day Out: We found this one on Tripadvisor and just decided to go for it. It was super kid friendly as our kids tried a lot of different dishes too and did not insist on just eating things they know or like. We took the Foodies Day Out tour which was around 3.5-4hrs long. Our food and tour guide was a local college student who had stayed and roamed around in Madurai since he was a kid. He knew these hidden gems sort of places which never appear in Tripadvisor and Zomato.
India is a land of street food and this guy took us around Madurai making us try these amazing street food places – from amongst the things we tried, the most notable was Paruthipaal (cotton seed milk) and a desert they famously call Jigarthanda. You get the drift.
By the way did you know that restaurant dosa is called roast in many parts of Tamil Nadu. This is to differentiate from the home made dosai. Roast is basically dosa almost shallow fried in ghee – crispy and yummy.
In terms of logistics, our tour guide brought his car and picked us up from our hotel. We walked a fair bit and also went around the city in the car. Recommended if you have kids older than 3yrs of age, are willing to try different food and also ok to walk around the city.
This was something that I really wanted to do and everyone played along :). Saurabh almost hates desserts and hence when I asked him to try and pose with one of the desserts we were trying, he gave me the look!!
Getting around
Apart from the local public transport like cycle rikshaws and autos, there is also Ola cabs (the Uber equivalent in smaller cities of India). Do note it is close to impossible to find parking near the Meenakshi Amman Temple so you have to resort to public transport
Where to Stay
Hands down at The Taj Gateway, Pasumalai. I can’t say enough about how much we loved our stay here and our kids more than us. You can check out this post for a more detailed review of this property.
