Experience the best of Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam sits on India's east coast, squeezed between the Bay of Bengal and the Eastern Ghats, with a deep natural harbour that makes it a major port and the base of the Indian Navy's Eastern Naval Command. RK Beach is the city's seafront promenade, with a decommissioned submarine opened as a museum, and Kailasagiri, a hilltop park with a large statue of Shiva and Parvati, is reached by cable car or road.

Simhachalam temple stands on a hill north of the city, and the Buddhist ruins of Thotlakonda and Bavikonda overlook the sea. Bheemunipatnam, a former Dutch trading post, keeps an old cemetery. In the Eastern Ghats, the Borra Caves, limestone caverns full of stalactites, and the Araku Valley, with its coffee plantations and a tribal museum, can be reached by the scenic train line through tunnels and over bridges.

Andhra cooking is among the spiciest in India: seafood curries soured with tamarind, gongura leaf pickles, biryani, and bamboo chicken from the Araku area, cooked in a hollow bamboo tube. Araku coffee is a local pride. The cooler months from November to February are the pleasant time, and the monsoon rains arrive between June and September.