Chennai in 3 Days: A Practical Itinerary

Chennai — the city the British called Madras — is the capital of Tamil Nadu and the gateway to the south, spread along the Coromandel Coast where the Bay of Bengal meets a flat, hot plain. It is a big, working city rather than a postcard one, and three days is enough to read its layers: a British fort by the sea, a Chola-bronze museum, a thousand-year-old temple quarter, and, a short drive south, the Pallava stone temples of Mahabalipuram. This itinerary keeps each day compact and geographically sensible, so you spend your time seeing things rather than stuck in traffic.

Getting around

Chennai is spread out, so plan for some distance. The modern Chennai Metro is the fastest, cheapest way to cross the city and links the airport, Egmore, the central stations and the arts district. For everything the metro does not reach, use app-based cabs (Uber and Ola both work well here) or the ubiquitous yellow-and-black autorickshaws — agree the app fare or insist on the meter, as street quotes run high for visitors. Traffic peaks 8.30–10.30 in the morning and 5–8 in the evening, so front-load your sightseeing. For the day-three trip down the East Coast Road, hire a car with a driver: it is far more comfortable than piecing together buses, and lets you stop where you like along the coast.

Day 1: The historic core

Begin where the city itself began. Fort St George, built by the English East India Company from 1640, was the first English fortress in India and the seed from which Madras grew. It is still very much alive — it houses the Tamil Nadu Secretariat and Legislative Assembly — so parts are working government offices, but you can visit St Mary’s Church (the oldest Anglican church east of Suez) and the Fort Museum, with its colonial-era portraits, coins and weapons. Give it a couple of hours in the cool of the morning.

From the fort, head to the Government Museum at Egmore, established in 1851 and among the oldest museums in India. Its unmissable draw is the bronze gallery, one of the finest collections of Chola bronzes anywhere — the sinuous Nataraja figures alone justify the visit. The red-brick Indo-Saracenic buildings and the old Connemara Library share the campus, so allow time to wander. In between, walk George Town, the dense old commercial grid north of the fort where wholesale bazaars, colonial banks and the High Court sit cheek by jowl.

End the day on Marina Beach, one of the longest urban beaches in the world, running for kilometres along the Bay of Bengal. The Marina is best in the late afternoon, when the heat drops and the city comes out — cricket games, sundal and bhajji stalls, kite-sellers and families paddling at the edge. The sea here has strong currents and is not for swimming, but the sunrise and sunset light on the sand is the point.

Day 2: Mylapore and the arts

Mylapore is the oldest quarter of the city, a temple town that Chennai grew around, and it is the soul of the second day. Its heart is the Kapaleeswarar Temple, a Shaivite temple whose towering, riotously painted gopuram rises over the neighbourhood. According to legend the goddess Parvati worshipped Shiva here in the form of a peacock — mayil, which gives Mylapore its name. Go early, wander the four Mada streets around the tank, and note that the inner sanctum is generally open to Hindus only; the surrounding courtyards and the market lanes are open to all and are half the pleasure.

A short walk away stands San Thome Basilica, a neo-Gothic Roman Catholic church built over what is traditionally held to be the tomb of the Apostle Thomas — one of only a handful of churches in the world said to be built over an apostle’s grave. From Mylapore it is a quick hop to Triplicane and the Sri Parthasarathy Temple, an ancient Vaishnavite temple dedicated to Krishna as the charioteer of the Mahabharata, and one of the 108 Divya Desams. With an hour to spare, the Valluvar Kottam memorial to the poet Thiruvalluvar, shaped like a temple chariot, is worth a look across town.

Close the afternoon by the sea again, but a gentler stretch than the Marina: Elliot’s Beach at Besant Nagar, known locally as Bessie, is a relaxed, café-lined beach popular with students and families. If temples still call, the busy Vadapalani Murugan Temple makes an easy detour, and green-minded travellers can trade a temple for Guindy National Park, a rare pocket of protected forest right inside the city.

Day 3: The East Coast Road

On the third day, leave the city behind and drive south down the East Coast Road (ECR), the palm-fringed highway that hugs the Bay of Bengal. Mahabalipuram — properly Mamallapuram — lies about 55 km from central Chennai, roughly an hour and a half depending on traffic. Break the drive at DakshinaChitra, a living-history museum of South Indian art, crafts and architecture where heritage houses from the four southern states have been re-erected; artisans demonstrate weaving, pottery and folk art on site.

Mahabalipuram itself is a UNESCO World Heritage complex of 7th- and 8th-century Pallava monuments carved from the living granite. The star is the Shore Temple, a slender pair of towers standing right at the sea’s edge — the earliest significant stone temple in the south and, weathered by centuries of salt wind, unforgettable at sunrise or sunset. Nearby are Arjuna’s Penance, one of the largest open-air rock reliefs in the world, the Five Rathas (monolithic temple-chariots), and the famous balancing boulder known as Krishna’s Butter Ball. The village is small and walkable, so give the monuments the whole afternoon, eat a seafood lunch, then drive back up the ECR in the evening.

When to go

Chennai is hot and humid for most of the year, so timing matters. The best window is November to February, when the north-east monsoon has passed and the days are warm rather than punishing — ideal for temples, beaches and the ECR. March to June is fiercely hot, with May the peak; if you travel then, sightsee early and rest through the middle of the day. The main rains fall between roughly October and December, and heavy spells can flood low-lying streets, so keep the day-three drive flexible. Whenever you come, carry water, dress modestly, and remember that shoes come off before you enter any temple or the basilica.

To go deeper, pair this itinerary with our wider planning guide at /india/tamil-nadu/guides/chennai-city-guide and, for more ideas beyond the ECR, /india/tamil-nadu/guides/day-trips-from-chennai.