Bangalore to Mahabalipuram – 2 Day Mahabalipuram itinerary | Places to visit in mahabalipuram

Places to visit in mahabalipuram : Friends we recently visited Mahabalipuram and in this blog post I am going to share the 2 day itinerary which I have followed during my 2 day trip to Mahabalipuram. This trip was from Bangalore to Mahabalipuram and I will share all the Mahabalipuram tourist places which I visited in these 2 days. Welcome friends to my 2 Day Mahabalipuram itinerary !

Quick facts – Mahabalipuram trip

• Distance from Bangalore to Mahabalipuram – Approx 350 Kms one way
• Road conditions – Very good trhough out
• Food options on the way – Many good options
• What to expect – Beaches, Rock cut monuments, Temple , Crocodile bank

Must visit Mahabalipuram tourist places

Our target was to reach mahabailuram by 11.00 AM on saturday and leave mahabalipuram by 4.0 PM on sunday..
And between this 11.00 AM to 4.00 PM, I will share with you how to manage your day so that you can cover maximum spots.

So below are must see places to visit in mahabalipuram !

1. Shore temple & Beach
2. Shtalasyana perumal temple
3. Rock cut cave temple and other monuments which includes Butter ball, Raya Gopuram, Arjuna pennance, Krishna mandapa etc
4. Tigers cave temple
5. Crocodile Bank
6. Sea Shell Measuem
7. Covelong Beach / Fishermans beach

Then there are few others, but not very much mandatory.

In a hurry, watch this video:

Travel tips – Bangalore to Mahabalipuram

So how to reach Mahabalipuram by 11.00 AM??

For that you need to leave atleast by 5.00 AM from Bangalore! The other option is to leave Bangalore by 6.00 PM firday evening and stay in Vellore. This way you can cover half way on Friday and then leave vellore by 7.0 AM to 8 AM and reach Mahabalipura by 11.00 AM

So took second option.. it was more relaxing .. but since I was able to close my office by 6.00 on friday I was able to do that.

If it is not possible , atleast start early morning on saturday.

While returning I left Mahabalipuram by 4.00 and reached back Bengaluru by 11.00 PM on Sunday ..
As I mentioned before, roads are all good throughout .. just note that when you are crossing kanchipuram .. you travel through the city and hence expect some jam.

Mahabalipuram itinerary

So now I will share the itinerary which I followed and the tourist places I visited along with the time I spent at each place. Hope this will be helpful.

Mahabalipuram tourist places Day 1 itinerary

We reached Mahabalipuram by 11.00 AM and went directly to shore temple. Remember all these monuents are ASI maintained and hence you need to take the ticket.. you can take the ticket there itself or online ( The link is at the end of this post ).

Once you reach shore temple, you will find a small parking on left hand side . We parked there, but there is actually a big parking on right hand side. I recomend you to use that.

We took around an hour to visit shore temple . Its quite impressive!
Then we came out and from left hand side the way leads to beach and then we spent some good 1 hr at the beach.

Don’t spend much time there now becuase you will come back in the evening.. That is what we did!

Please note that you would have taken a left towrds shore tempe . The place where you took left is bus stand and just behind bust stand is sthalasayana perumal temple and behind that are other monuments!

So bus stand is the center point from which all the places are near by!

So by 1.00 we left the shore temple beach and reached hotel by 1.15 and checked in.

So why went to shore temple first becuase it had adjacent beach and beach after long drive is very relaxing.

Note that wherevever your hotel is, it will not take more than 30 mins to reach the hotel from shore temple.

Our hotel was near the bust stand . So we took some rest and by 2.30 were out for lunch.

Lots of places to eat near the bus stand.. there is VOK resturant, there is A2B and many others . We went to VOK and it was quite good.

We finished our lunch by 3.30 and walked down to bus stand.

I recommend that you leave your car in hotel and take a rickshwa or walk as all of these monuments are next to each other. Rickshaw generally charge Rs20 per person.

Just behind bus stand is the Sthala sayana perumal temple . It is one of the 108 divya desam temples . Very hsitoric and ancient temple and just behind this temple is other famous mahabalipuram rock cut monuments.

Now temple opens by 4.00 and remain open till 8.00 PM. So you can visit temple first and then other monuments are vice versa.

We actually waited for the temple to open and visited the temple first and after the darshan of the lord we moved to other monuments. So all together visited :

• Stahlaysayana temple,
• Krishna mandapa,
• Arjuna penance,
• butter ball ,
• Five rathas,
• Varaha cave temple,
• Raya Gopram,
• Triumrthi cave temple etc..

So total we took 3 hrs visiting the temple and the monuments.

By 7.00 , we walked down to shore temple and went to the beach.

We really liked the beach in the evening time. Very lively and we enjoyed some good time there. You will find lot of rush on the beach in the evening ..

We stayed there till 9.00 .. came back on the main road and had our dinner and went back to hotel!

Mahabalipuram tourist places Day 2 itinerary

On day 2 we got ready a bit early . Infact I went for an early morning walk and it was amazing. By 8.00 we were out.

First we went straight to A2B which is not very far from bust stop. Hardly a km towards ECR ( east coast road). We had quick breakfast and by 9.00 we started for tigers cave ..

From A2B to tigers cave is just 20 mins drive. We reached there by 9.25 or so and spent some 30 mins. Not much to see. But kids will like it.

We left tigers cave area by 10.00 and reached crocodile bank by 10.15. We took the ticket which is 100rs per person ( and for kids 12+ years ). You need atleast 1 hr there, but we stayed there for 2 hrs as we found it very interesting and impressive!

Have a look at the crocodile bank video!

So we left Crocodile bank by 12.00 and by 12.30 we reached Sea shell measuem.

Shell measuem is quite interesting. Nothing much to see though.

So we came out by 1.00 PM and again headed to A2B for lunch. While there are many other good resturants. But we choose A2B as we took thali there which was quick so we were able to complete out luch by maximum 2.30.

We had already checked out by 8.00AM so from here we directly went to Covelong beach.

We spent some good 2 hours there and by 4.30 PM we were on the road back to Bangalore.

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So this was the 2 day itineary which we followed. Mahabalipuram is also fmaous for some good beach resorts so in case you want to spoend some good 3 / 4 days there you can book some good beach resorts there. It all depends on what you want to do there. But these are some mandatory places to visit in mahabalipuram !

Hope this 2 Day Mahabalipuram itinerary & list of places to visit in mahabalipuram was helpful!