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Madurai Heritage Tour: Meenakshi Temple & More
4.9
14 Ratings
Madurai
Discover Madurai’s 2500-year heritage with a private tour. Explore Meenakshi Temple, Thirumalai Nayakar Palace, and more. Support local communities.
Discover Madurai’s 2500-year heritage with a private tour. Explore Meenakshi Temple, Thirumalai Nayakar Palace, and more. Support local communities.
Duration:
8 hours
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
- Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple - We visit the Madurai Meenakshi Temple, one of the largest Temples of the World and an Architectural marvel. Over the last 2500 years Madurai Meenakshi Temple has been the lifeline of the City of Madurai. Madurai Meenakshi Temple has played a crucial role in promoting Tamil Art, Music, Dance & Culture. In fact,…
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Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple - We visit the Madurai Meenakshi Temple, one of the largest Temples of the World and an Architectural marvel. Over the last 2500 years Madurai Meenakshi Temple has been the lifeline of the City of Madurai. Madurai Meenakshi Temple has played a crucial role in promoting Tamil Art, Music, Dance & Culture. In fact, Madurai Meenakshi Temple is supposed to have been the host of the third assembly of Tamil Sangam, the ancient Literature Meet. As many as 30000 sculptures can be found in the Madurai Meenakshi Note that the following items are not allowed inside the Meenakshi temple. You can leave these either in the hotel itself or in the car.
Mobiles, sharp metallic objects, perfume/sprays and lip sticks. -
Thirumalai Nayakar Mahal - We visit the magnificent Thirumala Nayakar Palace. This was build by the Nayak Kings in 1636. The building we see today was the main Palace where the King lived. The original Palace Complex was four times bigger than the present structure and had a royal residence, theatre, shrine, apartments, armoury, palanquin place, royal bandstand, quarters, ponds and gardens.
Its architecture inspired a whole genre of Indo-Saracenic style of buildings during British India. -
Gandhi Memorial Museum - Gandhi Museum is located the old palace of Rani Mangammal. The museum brings alive the freedom struggle. The Gandhian movement is well depicted as a picture gallery.
Madurai was chosen for this museum as Gandhiji took important decisions during his visits to Madurai. in 1921 he decided to give up his rich dressing pattern when he was visiting Madurai. The doors of Meenakshi Amman temple were thrown open to Harijans in Madurai and the battle against untouchability had a win. Gandhiji visited the temple in 1946 along with the Harijans and that was a defining moment in this struggle. - Vilacheri - Vilachery is a potters village near Madurai. Over 200 families live here and most are into pottery. They make dolls for scores of festivals round the year. The paper mache dolls made here adorn South Indian homes during the 9 day festival of Navratri.
- Banana market - We end the Madurai tour with a bazaar walk. Madurai has a famous wholesale market for bananas. We will walk past many different varieties of Bananas. The tour ends with a sip of Jigarthanda , the most famous local cold beverage of Madurai!
What's Included
- Lunch
- Private car
- Entrance charges
- Guide
- Lunch
- Private car
- Entrance charges
- Guide
Additional Information
Experience cultural immersion in Madurai with its 2500 year old heritage at Meenakshi Temple, architectural marvel of Thirumalai Nayakar Palace, the charm of a Potters village, Gandhi museum and a local bazaar walk with a sip of Jigarthanda, the local cold beverage!
Our company is committed to strengthening local communities. We help train and employ…
Experience cultural immersion in Madurai with its 2500 year old heritage at Meenakshi Temple, architectural marvel of Thirumalai Nayakar Palace, the charm of a Potters village, Gandhi museum and a local bazaar walk with a sip of Jigarthanda, the local cold beverage!
Our company is committed to strengthening local communities. We help train and employ local guides and support local businesses to ensure travel dollars stay where they are spent.
Location
Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple
Venmani Rd, Sellur
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
4.9
(14 Ratings)
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Martisilver98
Jul 31, 2024
Lovely and comprehensive experience - Me and my friend had a really good experience with this tour and our guide: the driver came pick us up at the hotel on time, water was available and he was very welcoming and helpful when we asked questions about the city. Our tour guide was extremely prepared and gave us a lot of information both from the mythology and religion and from the historical and anthropological perspective which we really appreciated. He was also available to guide us to gift shopping when we asked.
The tour comprised two main temple sights in Madurai, the raja palace and Gandhi museum, but also few quick stops at the fruit and banana market and the terra cotta artigianal shops in the outskirts of the city.
Lovely experience!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
920katim
Jul 30, 2024
A nice day in Madurai - My guide, Muthu was a very kind man with a deep knowledge about the history of Madurai. We started by the visit of the main temple, the Meenakshi Amman temple, later we were in the Nayakar Mahal palace, water tank, etc. We tasted local specialities like jugarthanda, ref bananas in the local banana market, and had a good vegetarian thali for lunch. It was a highly interesting visit, thank you!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Galerachael
Feb 28, 2024
An absolute must for a cultural experience with a knowledgeable and relaxed guide - Just back from a wonderful tour of Meenakshi Temple & Thirumalai Nayak Palace with our guide Mutha. Mutha was punctual, well organised, knowledgeable and friendly. We were picked up from our hotel in an A/C taxi at 8am taken on a well planned and informative tour of Meenakshi Temple. Mutha arranged for safekeeping of our valuables such as phone & smart watches during our visit as they are not permitted inside the temple. From there we went to the Palace. Again Mutha was knowledgeable about the history. Next we visited the Gandhi Museum (housed in a temporary building during renovation) and purchased Gandhi's autobiography for rs. 80. The stop at the market selling bananas was enjoyable, tasty & great photo opps. After that we ate a thali for lunch at Amman restaurant which was delicious and patiently explained to us by Muthu. The staff were efficient and polite and the restaurant & washroom were clean.
After lunch we drove out to the pottery village about 7 km outside of Madurai. We heard from some of the women working there and found it interesting. Overall I would totally recommend this immersive cultural tour.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Ramcho
Dec 28, 2023
Madurai a real Authentic and cultural experience - Our Madurai tour took us to experience some truly amazing places from the grandeur Meenakshi temple to the Gandhi museum . Our tour Guide Kannan enabled us to appreciate the true glory and bask ourselves in traditional architecture, religion and Indian culture . We also got to sample some local delicacies of Madurai . It’s a foodies heaven and Kannan helped guide us through authentic resteraunts.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Anonymous925
Oct 16, 2023
Excellent Tour Company - So when you're in a foreign country searching TripAdvisor for tours in south India, or any place in India for that matter, the tour guides such as Five Senses, will literally provide you with anything and customize any package for you. Don't just think about the tour as described, think about the tour you would want to have and have them customize that for you. I would say the itinerary for me, for this particular tour was almost perfect. It had a good mix of the Meenakshi Temple which is a must-see and interaction with the local community via markets, villages and schools which is my personal favorite. We did two tours with Five Senses and they worked to get to know us and improved based on our personal preferences, providing not only an excellent tour but also on-demand ground transportation. Guides Misters Kannan, Meenakshi and our driver Mr. Bhasker were all excellent. I highly recommend them.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Poojakush
May 28, 2023
Private Tour of Madurai City, Rameshwaram and Dhanushkodi. - Madurai is famous for Meenakshi Temple. It's huge and has beautiful architecture. Expect a minimum waiting line of 2-3 hours to visit the main sanctum but we were lucky enough to visit it in the fast lane. Our darshan was very good.
Our guide : Mr. Meenakshi explained in detail about the Temple. He also took us for a good south Indian meal. The food was served in banana leaf and the good part of that restraunt was to sit and interact with locals at one table. They explained us the way a South Indian meal should be had. We also had madurai famous drink called jigar thanda which you get in a local shop.
But anyone visiting south India, pls have rose milk and their paneer soda (recommended to us by our Tanjore guide- Mr.Kannan). It is really good for digestion and cools down the body system in scorching heat.
We visited this beautiful palace called Thirumala Nayakkar Palace. The stuco architecture is inspired by Italy.
The best part of this trip was visiting Rameshwaram Temple and Danushkodi. When visiting Rameshwaram, we visited important sites such as Arichalmunai which is the last point jutting out of India and afte 15 kms is the starting point of Srilanka. It is the confluence of a sea and an Ocean - Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean. The green and blue colours of water can be seen distinctly apart.
Our guide- Mr. Meenakshi informed us about main temple in Rameshwarm called Sri Ramanathswamy Temple.
The corridors of this temple were huge and carvings were beautiful. The best part of the tour was to stand in the place where Ram Setu( Adam's Bridge) was built. The coral stone which was approx 92 kgs was floating in the water and we could take photographs with it.
We visited Vilundi Teertham. It's a walkway in the middle of ocean where the water was drinkable and has a mythological significance to it.
All these were explained well by our guide - Mr.Meenakshi.
We thank 5 Senses and their team for the
wonderful tour.
Thanks,
Pooja & Kush Bajaj
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Dylanc419
Feb 4, 2023
Great tour with great guide - Brilliant tour that was very kindly split over 2 days due to the main temple of Madurai being closed on the day that we booked. Our guide Meenakshi was great company and very knowledgeable and ensured that we got to see everything from temples and palaces to local villages and markets and a final stop at the Gandhi Museum. A fantastic evening and day and well worth it to check out all of the must-see sights of Madurai.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Christopher
Feb 4, 2023
Excellent and varied tour of Madurai - An excellent and fascinating tour. The Meenakshi Temple site was of course the highlight, but other parts of the tour delved into everyday life in the city, the banana and vegetable markets, the Sanskrit school were all really interesting too.
My guide, Meenakshi Sundaram, was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic and spoke excellent English. He was a real gentleman. Special mention too to our patient and careful driver.
Highly recommend the tour
Review provided by Tripadvisor
H8341wptimom
Jul 8, 2024
Enjoyable tour, some reservations - This enjoyable, informative tour introduced us to many facets of Madurai, ranging from its ancient temples to its vibrant banana markets. Our guide - Meenakshi - was kind, knowledgeable and tuned into our needs. I did have a couple of reservations, however. Meenakshi’s storytelling style wasn’t always the clearest, and the Gandhi memorial museum was closed for renovations, weakening the second half of the tour. That said, it was still a very positive experience!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Mohans69
Feb 14, 2024
Madurai - Offbeat - Experienced the culinary delights of Madurai.
Took the Bazaars of Madurai walk.
Visited the church and palace. Overall a great trip.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
