Explore Chennai City Tour with Guide, Lunch, and Local Highlights

Highlights

Inclusions

Itinerary

1. We visit a unique monastic organization called Ramakrishna Math, dedicated to Sri Ramakrishna the 19th century saint. Guests will get to see the universal temple, the shrine, a beautiful Mantapam, a multimedia museum and an enchanting library.

   45 minAdmission included

2. We head towards Mylapore an ancient residential neighborhood of Chennai whose history goes back to Roman times when it used to trade pepper and fine cloth with Rome for Gold! We visit the magnificent Kapaleeshwar temple. Built in the 7th century this temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva. Built in Dravidian style architecture it has a towering “Gopuram”. Guests can expect a mesmerizing experience of rituals and serenity inside the temple. Our cultural evangelist will demystify the happenings in the temple!

   1 hAdmission included

3. Walk on the Marina Beach, along the 3km-long main stretch of Marina Beach and you’ll pass cricket matches, flying kites, fortune-tellers, fish markets, corn-roasters and families enjoying the sea breeze.

   45 min

4. This is a temple dedicated to Sai Baba, the great mystic who united Hindus and Muslims and preached about universal love and brotherhood. The temple is built with white marble and has a lamp which has been lit for more than a 100 years

   45 minAdmission included

5. Fort St George is the first English Fortress built in 1644 by the East India Company. We will visit St Mary’s Church, the oldest Anglican Church of India. Our cultural evangelist will take you to a quaint museum rich with relics of the colonial times and retell the story of how the East Indian company morphed from a trading company into the ruler of India!

   1 hAdmission included

6. We will explore the memorial for Swami Vivekananda who was a great philosopher. His speeches at the World’s Parliament of Religions held in September 1893 made him famous as an orator by divine right and as a messenger of Indian wisdom to the western world. On Mondays it is closed and we will visit the Egmore Museum instead.

   45 minAdmission included

7. We visit the famous San Thome Basilica, the principal church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madras and Mylapore. We can see relics of St Thomas here. It is one of only three churches in the world that has been constructed on the tomb of an apostle. The other two are St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, and Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Spain.

   45 minAdmission included

Cancellation

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the experience starts, for a full refund.

Reviews

Ratings come from 11 reviews collected by our booking partner. They are travellers' own words, in the order they were written — never reordered to flatter the experience.

Know before you go

How it compares in Chennai

• Its from-price is 40% below the median of the 321 experiences we list in Chennai.
• Its length is typical for the group.
• By number of reviews it ranks 56 of 321.
• The operator lists free cancellation on it.

About Chennai

Chennai is the capital of Tamil Nadu on the Bay of Bengal, a city of temples, classical music, a very long beach and a colonial fort.

Chennai, formerly Madras, grew from Fort St George, which the British East India Company built in 1644 on the Coromandel coast and which now houses the state government. The city is spread along the Bay of Bengal beside Marina Beach, one of the longest urban beaches in the world. San Thome Basilica stands near the shore, built over what is believed to be the tomb of St Thomas the Apostle.

Top-ranked sights in Chennai: Mahabalipuram (Mamallapuram), Fort St. George, Kapaleeshwarar Temple.

See all 321 experiences in Chennai