Bangalore to Madurai Roadtrip & A visit to Meenakshi Temple

How it started

Last year when my parents came down to Bangalore, we planned a long 1week trip to South India. First stop of this tour was Madurai.

Because my mother prefers to visit religious places first before any tourist place, we thought of starting with religious place.

Head & Tyre count 

Linea's 500lts boot filled to brim(1 week prep). Notice the gears on my dad's body(2 specs and 1 camera)

Travelers were my dad, mom, Anjana and me and of course our great Linea. I got new set of stock tyres replaced on my car just before trip. Got Good Year(comes with new car also) for about 20k. Along with that I had also increased the car ground clearance by installing new GC Kit from Fiat. So me and my car both were set to rock it.

To Madurai

We left Bangalore at around 11.30 am(from my house in Banaswadi) in the morning as my dad came to Bangalore just last night. Route from Bangalore to Madurai is awesome with 4-6 lane highway throughout (about 450 kms run) . The pain part is Hosur and Krishnagiri for the crazy truck & lorry traffic. Once you are through with these places, remaining distance is like breeze. We crossed Salem by 2 and my car clocked average of 19 km/l maintaining an average speed of 85-90 kmph. 

We found this chap outside our hotel early morning so took his service. He was happy he earned early morning

After Salem, we stopped under a tree off the main road. We were carrying very tasty home cooked food with us. Already late for lunch, we finished our food in minutes and dozed off for some 20 mins enjoying breeze under the tree.

Notice wires above head

My Dad loves driving

We were ready to start again when my dad took to steering. My dad closing 60 still loves driving for long stretches and he dreams of driving bigger car in future. I admire his stamina and wishes I also stay as fit as him when I turn his age. At an impressive speed, he raced past through the Kanyakumari highway which will suddenly turn empty with hardly any vehicle on the highway. So this means my dad had a free hand to zoom past and he exploited it to the best by clocking speeds upto 130-140 km/hr at times.

You have to take slip road (at Checkanurani) for the left turn to Madurai town. There are enough markers to make sure that you don't miss the turn. Once you have taken turn, it will take at least another 30-45 minutes to actually reach the place where you want to stay. Now be careful on these divider less roads as the mood will be of highway drive so car automatically clocks speed upwards of 100km/hr with no divider and stray vehicles all around. 

At Kathir Palace, Madurai

I had booked a family room in Hotel Kathir Palace (from yatra.com) which is a 5 minutes walk from Main temple. We reached Hotel by 7.00PM. Hotel was decent with restaurant serving good north Indian food. The room was very spacious with four beds in the family room. Mom and Anjana took to some rest while Dad and me went for some shopping (we had forgot to bring our electric Kettle this time). The market (all around temple) is really vibrant and crowded like any other Indian market.

I find it very sad about Indian tourism. We have some unimaginable heritage like Madurai Temple but it is completely surrounded by dirty and unmanaged shops and vendors, wires hanging around the gopurams(towers) and bad roads to access. 

Best time to visit Meenakshi Amman Temple, Madurai

Most of the crowd in the temple builds after 9.00AM in the morning. I had read it at a few places and so we decided to give an early morning visit to temple. Next day we left our room by 6.00 AM to visit temple. It was a pleasant morning perfect to venture out in a hot and humid place like Madurai.

As soon as we reached temple we were approached by a temple guide who asked Rs 250 to take us for a temple tour. We accepted and he made our journey through temple very very easy. I have found out that it is better to get hold of some such person in a place like Meenakshi Temple which is so humongous you will always be lost and trying to understand where to go next. We did darshan, puja and also fed the elephant in the temple. 

You must buy some prasad from the shop towards the end of the tour where they sell halwa, laddos, etc stuff at very reasonable price. So if you want to pack something for back home, pack here but keeping it fresh could be challenge.

Madurai has hot to very hot weather throughout the year. So always be ready to face extreme burst of heat during daytime. November to January should be little better. AC rooms are expected always if you are not used to extreme heat. 

There are numerous eateries outside the temple where you can enjoy delicious breakfast. There are many places which serve tasty and authentic Tamil Nadu non-veg food in lunch and dinner.

There is one more place to visit in Madurai called Raja’s Palace which we were not very keen as Anjana and I had seen that in our previous trip and my parents were keen to proceed to our next pilgrimage centre Rameswaram. 

Quick Facts - 

Bangalore to Madurai - 450kms

Time - 6-7 hours 

Road - Excellent, careful about lorry traffic near Hosur

Ideal number of days - 1.5 days at max

Hotel Budget - You will easily get decent AC rooms upwards of Rs 1,200

Best places to see - Meenakshi Temple, Raja’s palace, local market

Best time - Mornings on any day of the year 

Tips - Get hold of Temple guides. They have government approved rate card so no cheating