The most famous attraction of Mamallapuram is the wind-tossed sea shore temple

Mamallapuram is a quiet and interesting place and definitely worth a couple of days. Like nearly all places on the east coast of India, is not so much of a beach-place. Swimming in the sea is dangerous and uncommon. But nevertheless: If children aren't too little you can find a lot of things to please them.
Mamallapuram is famous for it's ancient rock carvings, and you will still nowadays see armies of stone-masons at work, some of them operating with hammer and chisel, others with electrical concrete saws. The little village is listed as a world heritage site, mostly because of it's famous Shore Temple, situated directly on the shore, and because of the stunning relief of Arjuna's Penance.

Even though Mamallapuram is not the right place to go swimming, there are a lot of interesting things to do with children - if they are not too small.

Time and sand have softened the Shore Temple

Shore Temple: The Shore Temple is considered to be the oldest stone-built temple in south India, dating back to the eighth century. Sand, wind, salt and time have eroded much of the formerly fine carving - giving the temple now a soft and rounded appearance. The temple contains two shrines for Shiva and one to the reclining Vishnu. The temple is fenced and protected from further erosion by a big wall towards the sea. As all temples, it might be of little interest for small children - but they may play freely on the huge fenced lawn. map

Open: 6:30am to 6pm
Price: $5 (foreigners), 10Rs (indians)

Impressive even for children: Arjuna's Penance

Arjuna's Penance: Situated centrally in the town, Arjuna's Penance is one of the most impressive bas-reliefs in India. Amidst a crowd of devas and semi-devas, next to a peaceful family of elephants, the emaciated warrior Arjuna is standing on one leg, meditating on Shiva. He is doing penance in the hope Shiva would part him his favourite weapon. A huge vertical fissure represents Ganga and is said to have been traversed by water, originally. The relief gives an interesting sight for children as well. You can easily feed your story-telling imagination there. map

Open: always

Places to sleep in Mamallpuram are easy to find, and most of them are suitable for a stay with children: Courtyards are common and pleasant balconies, too. Nearly all the hotels in town concentrate around two streets: Othavadai Street and Othavadai Cross Street. Many of them are suitable for a longer stay with children.

A friendly place with a nice first-story-terrace: Green Woods Beach Resort

Green Woods Beach Resort: Set around a green courtyard, this hotel offers some rooms that are fine for travelling parents. Especially the upper rooms a well suited: They open to a large balcony and provide shade as well as air. map

Address: 7, Othavadai Cross Street
Tel: 044 27442212, 27443318
Email: greenwoods_resort@yahoo.com
Price: 500 to 1000 Rs

Cleanliness and balconies to the courtyard

Shiva Guest House: Shiva Guest House is known for being clean and has small balconies at all the rooms. map

Address: 2, Othavadai Cross Street
Tel: 044 27443234
Email: shivaguesthouse@hotmail.com
Price: 500 to 1200

Ramakrishna Lodge: A large place on three storeys around a central parking courtyard, filled with pot plants. The simple rooms all have bathrooms and are clean. Nothing special, but huge - so they often have vacancies. map

Address: 8, Othavadai Street
Tel: 044 27442331

Being a tourist enclave, Mamallapuram offers a lot of food places. The village is well known for serving excellent fish, and nearly all or the food places are really easy-going. Finding less spicy food for children is also no problem. Most of the places concentrate around Othavadai Street and the beach.

Namaste Restaurant: This nice rooftop place offers a shady space to play, friendly staff and German Bakery items - aside from the usual multicuisine food. map

Address: 7, Othavadai St
Tel: 9941371640

No fish, but speedy service and low prices

Mamalla Bhavan: Mamalla Bhavan is one of the few indian places in town. They serve the normal indian dishes and it's mostly visited by indians, though at times, there is also a noticeable influx of tourists. map

Address: opposite Busstand

Mamallapuram is well connected by bus. The excellent East Coast Road (ECR) just goes two kilometres past the village and connects Mamallapuram to Chennai in the north and to Pondicherry in the south.

From the busy busstand, every 30 minutes, there is an ECR-bus to Chennai.

To got to Pondicherry, thought, you have to take a rickshaw to the main road first. There, buses to Pondicherry pass every 10 minutes.

To go from Mamallapuram to Chennai Airport you can take bus 108b. It starts 5:50am, 9am, 4:30pm and 8pm, needs approximately two hours to reach the airport (depending on the traffic) and costs 25Rs - by far the cheapest possibility to get to the airport.