Rajarajan Manimandapam

A city-centre hotel within walking distance of the Big Temple, the palace and the central bus stand, with the railway station close by. Rooms and suites are done in a classic style with modern fittings, breakfast is complimentary, and the hotel runs high-specification function halls for weddings and conferences alongside its own kitchen.

The Thanjavur silk house of Maharaja Textile, a family firm founded in 1936 that calls this the biggest showroom in the district. Wedding silks are the mainstay, but the range runs from fifty-rupee pieces to fifty-thousand-rupee sarees, with kurtis, bottom wear, menswear and a dedicated newborn-to-ten-years kids' floor. Open every day, 9.30 am to 9.30 pm.

A four-star hotel on Trichy Road at Parisutham Nagar with more than fifty rooms across four categories, a multi-cuisine restaurant called Thillana and the Layam bar. There are two function halls with projectors and high-speed internet, a lawn beside the swimming pool for informal gatherings, and round-the-clock room service. The group books direct at a five per cent saving.

A long-established hotel on G. A. Canal Road with a swimming pool, a conference hall, a travel desk, mini bars and express laundry. Its restaurant serves Indian, Continental and Chinese, and dinner can be taken out on the lawn alongside traditional cultural programmes. The hotel publishes a 360-degree virtual tour of the property on its own site.

A fifty-room three-star hotel at Kalanchiyam Garden on the Trichy main road near the New Bus Stand, with four room types including a honeymoon suite with a bathtub. The Lantern multi-cuisine restaurant and the Moonwalk bar are on site, and the hotel runs a travel desk, cab hire, a doctor on call and wheelchair access.

A sweets and bakery house at Mary's Corner, trading since 1998 and now with outlets at South Rampart, Pudukottai Road, Medical College Road and opposite Serfoji College as well. Traditional Indian sweets are the core of it, with a bakery counter alongside, and the shop takes orders by phone.

Kalyan Jewellers' Thanjavur showroom, on East Rampart Road facing the south side of the old bus stand, one of four the group runs in the district alongside Papanasam, Aduthurai and Cholapuram. Gold, diamond and bridal ranges, with appointments bookable in advance. Open 11 am to 8.30 pm.

The Alukkas group's Thanjavur showroom on South East Rampart, opposite the municipal high school. Every gold ornament carries BIS hallmarking and HUID verification, and the group holds the distinction of being the first jewellery house certified to ISO 9001:2000. Bridal harams and necklace sets are the strength of this branch.

The Titan group's Thanjavur showroom, store code TNJ, open since October 2017 on Gandhiji Road by the old bus stand. It carries the full Tanishq range in BIS-hallmarked gold and diamond, and takes appointments for bridal buying. Doors are 10.30 am to 8 pm.

The Thanjavur branch of the Kongu-cuisine chain founded in 1960 by Kuppusamy and Rukmini Amma, now some forty restaurants across the south. The kitchen is known for its mutton — nalli, bheja fry, biryanis — cooked in the Kongunadu manner rather than the delta one, which is what makes it worth the trip out of the centre.

A vegetarian cafe and restaurant with two Thanjavur branches, the original at Selvam Nagar on Medical College Road and a second at Ever Gold Tower by the New Bus Stand. The menu runs to specialty coffees, smoothies, cakes, pizzas, burgers and sandwiches rather than tiffin, which makes it the town's answer to somewhere to sit for an hour.

The Thanjavur branch of the Chettinad kitchen the Kannappa family have run since 2002 out of Trichy, now also in Coimbatore. The cooking is built on hand-ground spices and slow methods: dum biryani, nattukozhi country chicken, seafood and the fiercer Chettinad gravies, with Chinese dishes alongside. The kitchen is halal.

A newer hotel on Abraham Pandithar Road, a short walk from the Thiruvaiyaru bus stand and a few minutes by car from the Maratha palace and the Big Temple. The hotel presents itself on the comfort of its rooms and its in-house dining, and takes bookings through a form on its own site as well as by phone.

The Thanjavur showroom of The Chennai Silks, at Daniel Thomas Nagar near the Old Housing Unit, with the group's Sree Kumaran Thangamaligai jewellery showroom sharing the same building. Silks, readymades and family apparel across several floors; the group keeps the same 9.30 am to 9.30 pm hours at every branch.

The Thanjavur outlets of the vegetarian restaurant and sweet-shop chain founded in Rajapalayam in the 1970s and now headquartered at Adyar in Chennai. There are two in the town — one at Chozhan Nagar on the Tanjore-Trichy highway opposite the RTO office, one at Daniel Thomas Nagar on the Trichy main road — both doing tiffin, meals and a long sweet counter.

A restored 1920s merchant mansion on East Main Street, immediately beside the Maratha palace, run by the Dune Eco Group. Fourteen contemporary rooms are each hung with large-format photography by Frederic Delangle, and there is a rooftop restaurant serving continental and Indian food with Ayurvedic, low-carb, vegan and gluten-free options. Trichy airport is 55 km away.

A 34-room luxury heritage house at M. Chavadi in the old city, built around the arts rather than around a lobby. The property runs a spa, a sound-therapy room, a pool and a yoga deck, and its kitchen is wholly vegetarian and organic; laundry and concierge come with the room. Its own description of itself is a voyage of discovery of the self, with verandas, hallways and secluded corners rather than corridors.

A riverside resort on the Vennar bank at Palli Agraharam, run by GRT Hotels, with rooms and cottages that look onto the river over wooden floors and private verandahs. There is a swimming pool, a lawn, a volleyball court and bicycles, a restaurant that leans on delta South Indian cooking, and the Bodhi Prana spa. This is the property formerly trading as Ideal River View Resort.

A family-run budget hotel on Srinivasam Pillai Road at Railady, two minutes from Thanjavur railway station and about ten from the Big Temple. Rooms have been renovated recently, and the hotel keeps its own pure-vegetarian restaurant serving Thanjavur cooking rather than a generic buffet.

A boutique hotel at Mary's Corner on the Trichy main road, with superior and suite rooms of 380 and 440 square feet, a rooftop pool and terrace, and 24-hour reception. Dining runs to the Nalabagam multi-cuisine restaurant with a breakfast buffet served until 10.30 am, the Somapanam lounge bar and a rooftop kitchen; conference and banquet halls are on site.

A Thanjavur institution that began in 1949 as a small tuck shop beside the railway station, founded by Gurudhayal Sharma, and now runs fourteen branches across Tanjore and Pattukottai. It is known for its Chandrakala, its dry jamuns filled with milk koya, the Kaju Beda and the Thanjavur mixture, and it ships sweets across India from its own site.

A sweets and bakery house at Tholkappier Square on Nagai Road, selling gram-flour namkeens, hand-made biscuits, dry fruits and its own line of home-made health products alongside the usual cakes and pups. Orders are taken over WhatsApp and shipped within Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

A silk saree showroom on Pudukottai Road at Arulananda Nagar West Extension, a short way from the Rajarajan Manimandapam. The shop says many of its own saree designs are drawn from Tanjore painting motifs and the architecture of the city, and it stocks soft silks, jute silks and cottons across a wide price range. Open 10 am to 8.30 pm.

The Thanjavur branch of Poompuhar, the retail arm of the Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation, a state body set up in 1973. It stands on Gandhiji Road near the railway station and sells the crafts the corporation buys from artisans directly — Thanjavur art plates among them, which its own production centre in the town makes.