Brihadeeswarar Temple Thanjavur | An architectural marvel & one of the largest temples of the world

Brihadeeshwara Temple is probably the most beautiful & clean temples I have visited.

Some key facts about this architectural marvel.

• 198 feet high sanctum tower - One of the tallest in the world
• 1000+ year old
• Dravidian temple architecture (one of 3 temple architectures in India)
• 12+ feet tall gigantic Shiva Lingam, the biggest afaik
• 16 feet long & 13 feet high Nandi, second biggest after Lepakshi Nandi
• UNESCO world heritage site

A must do

Roam around every part of the temple to witness rare beauty of temple architecture. Here is the video of my visit

How to reach

Thanjavur is the district headquarter of Thanjavur district & approximately 60 kms from Thiruchirapalli aka Trichy & 340 kilometers from Chennai, major cities near by.

By Air: Thiruchiralapalli/Trichy is the closest airport. Other major & international airport is Chennai.

By Train: Thanjavur has railway station and is well connected by train from Trichy & chennai. It falls on the Chennai-Trichy route.

By Road: Being the district headquarters, it is well connected by road and NH36 & NH83 passes through it. Though air-conditioned intercity bus service is not much available by State RTC, due to presence of cab-aggregrators like Uber, Ola & local taxi servies, you can have hassle free travel. 

Time

Indian winter (October to February) is the best time to visit Thanjavur as climate is hot & humid. Day in the winter can be hot & harsh (I visited it in September and got sun burn), hence avoid afteroon. The following is the climate data from Wikipedia.

Stay

I have not explored hotels here as I stayed in Kumbakonam and visited Thanjavur on the way to Thiruchirapalli/Trichy. But there should be good hotels, as its a district headquarters.

Near by

• Maratha palace, official residence of the Bhonsle family who ruled Thanjavur region.
• Kumbakonam, city of temples
• Trichy/Thiruchirapalli
• Srirangam

Must visit Kovalam

Howmany times you visit Kovalam, you will never get bored, thats the beauty of the Kovalam. I visited Kovalam twice, so i felt its time to share my memorable experience.

To make most of our your visit to Kovalam, you should do the following

Time

Winter (October to February)is best time to visit Kovalam or Kerala. Many foreign visitors visit Kerala for Christmas & 1st January. You will see many foreigners from 3rd week of December to 1st or 2nd week of January. Rainy season also gives different experience, many people prefer that time.

Hotel

Stay close to the beach to make most of out of your stay. Hotel Samudra KTDC beach resort is one of very few hotels in Kovalam that are just few feet away from the beach. Despite off-season, I could not get the reservation for September 1st week initially, but ultimately got it after a week due to cancellation by someone. 

you can see the following map to observe how close is Hotel Samudra from the beach.
Some shots & video from my visit are below.

How to reach

Kovalam beach roughly 12 kilometers from Thiruvananthapuram aka Trivandrum, the capital of the state of Kerala. Thankfully I found Ola & Uber in my second visit to reach Kovalam.

By Air: Thiruvananthapuram has an International Airport is well connected by Air with most of Indian cities and some of Gulf countries.

By Train: Though Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum Central & Kochuveli stations) is well connected by Train, getting reserved tickets for next 3 weeks is bit difficult and varies with season. Though nearest railway station to Kovalam beach is Neyyattinkara, but NEVER get down here. You hardly find people & vehicles here. 1st time I did this mistake while coming from Kanyakumari, found a deserted station.

By Road: Kovalam is well connected by road and falls on Thiruvananthapuram & Kanyakumari highway.

Near by

• Padmanabhaswamy temple, the Richest temple in the world.
• Vizhinjam Light House & beach