Explore India
Chennai and Puducherry
Chennai; city in south of India specially known for their culture and of course the delicious South Indian Food.
Puducherry is a very beautiful and scenic place in the south of India and has beautiful beaches around. It was ruled by the French governor till 1954 and then became union territory of India. So can find French colonial style buildings and streets there.
Puducherry is 3 and a half hour drive from Chennai airport, so both the places can be visited together. So I would first discuss the places to be visited in Chennai.
Chennai
So I would discuss the following points further:
Hotels to stay
Restaurants
Shopping
Sight Seeing Places
Luxurious hotels in Chennai (expensive ones):
ITC GRAND CHOLA A LUXURY COLLECTION HOTEL
The Leela Palace Chennai
Park Hyatt Chennai
Taj Coromondel
The Raintree Annaserai
Semi Luxurious Hotels in Chennai (not so expensive ones):
E hotel (connected to express avenue mall) (recommended)
Radisson Blu Hotel Chennai City Centre
IBIS Hotel Chennai City Centre
Ramada Chennai Egmore
Restaurants
Annalakshmi Restaurant Egmore (authentic South Indian food)
Murugan Idli Shop(recommended) (has branches all over Chennai)
Saravana Bhavan(recommended) (has outlets all over chennai)
Shopping
T Nagar: a local market in Chennai; also there is Saravana stores which is a big retail store
Spencer Plaza mall : this is a very old mall in chennai, has lot of local shops here.
Pondy Bazar: this is a place near T nagar for street shopping, you get footwear and clothing and may be some other junk stuff here
Places to visit
Marina Beach
Personally for me I don’t find any interesting sight seeing places here, so can just do local shopping and try some south Indian cuisines here
I recommend staying in E hotel as it is connected to the mall, can enjoy shopping there and also can eat there.
PUDUCHERRY
So I would discuss the following points further:
How to Reach
Hotels to stay
Restaurants
Shopping
Sight Seeing Places
How to Reach
Puducherry is 3 and a half hour drive from Chennai. Can catch a cab from Chennai airport but if that seems expensive try other way out. There are also airport pickups from Pondicherry. Also five star hotels in Pondicherry arrange for taxis. Can also take a bus to Pondicherry from Chennai.
Luxurious Hotels to stay
Accord Hotels
Shenbaga Hotel and convention centre: this hotel is in the city centre. It is in close proximity to all the sight seeing places; luxurious but could be pocket freindly
The Promenade (recommended): Awesome sea facing rooms and lounge
Le Pondy Beach Resort (Sea facing rooms)
Le Dupleix: This is a boutique property set in an ancient villa located in the heart of the colonial white town.
Budgeted Hotels
St. James Court Beach Resort (Beach facing Rooms): Recommended for beach front hotel
Restaurants
Auroville bakery Timings 6:30 am to 5:30 pm : recommended to go early as they get sold out pretty early
Farm Fresh (café in auroville)
Surguru: famous for south Indian food (idli, dosa wada, uttappams), they have 4 to 5 outlets in Puducherry
Café xtasi: famous for pizzas, they have 3 outlets in Puducherry.
Shopping
Hidesign: this is a 3 storey flagship store and a must visit place for shopping in pondicherry.
Mission Street: this street has many shops and boutiques around, there are also many cafes and restaurants in the street. Kalki is a good departmental store which can be recommended for buying miscellaneous stuff; HIDESIGN is also located somewhere nearby.
Places to visit
The Promenade: Can take a stroll around and enjoy the beach; lots of cafeterias and restaurants around.
Auroville: this is an experimental township; can visit and explore the place by strolling around; people do visit the matrimandir when they visit auroville; lots of cafes inside; do visit auroville bakery(should visit early morning if possible). One thing to keep in mind is that you have to come early in the morning to explore this place as the temple gets closed very early.
khushbu
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