📍 Museum📍 Cultural📍 Heritage

DakshinaChitra

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

4.5 (0)

Overview

A living museum of South Indian life on the ECR — 18 relocated heritage homes from four states, craft demos and folk performances.

Why visit: Walk through Tamil, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra homes in one lane.

Things to do

›Chettinad and Kerala houses
›Pottery and weaving demos
›Folk dances

Heritage WalkCraft Workshops

Location & MapDirections

Reviews (0)

No reviews yet. Be the first to review!

Travel Information

Best time

Nov–Feb

Entry fee

~₹175

Hours

10:00 AM – 6:00 PM (closed Tue)

Est. budget

₹300–600

Duration

Half day

Nearby attractions

Within

9.2 km

🐅 Wildlife

4.4

Madras Crocodile Bank

Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Romulus Whitaker's famous croc conservation centre on the ECR — 2,000 crocodilians of 14 species, night safaris and venom demos.

Nov–Feb2 hrsExplore

18.3 km

📍 Zoo

4.3

Arignar Anna Zoological Park

Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Vandalur Zoo — India's largest (1,265 acres), with lion and deer safaris, a nocturnal house and 170 species in forest-scale enclosures.

Nov–FebHalf–1 dayExplore

19.5 km

🏖️ Beach

4.3

Elliot's Beach Besant Nagar

Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Marina's mellow southern sister — 'Bessie' beach with the Karl Schmidt memorial, café rows and the Ashtalakshmi temple on the shore.

Nov–Feb (evenings)2–3 hrsExplore

19.8 km

💎 Hidden Gem📍 Heritage

4.2

Tiger Cave Saluvankuppam

Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu

A rock-cut shrine ringed by eleven carved yali heads in a casuarina grove by the sea — with a buried Subrahmanya temple excavated beside it.

Nov–Feb1 hrExplore

20.3 km

🦌 National Park

4.2

Guindy National Park

Chennai, Tamil Nadu

One of the world's few national parks inside a metro — blackbuck and chital in tropical dry evergreen behind Raj Bhavan, with a snake park at the gate.

Nov–Feb2–3 hrsExplore

20.5 km

💎 Hidden Gem📍 Garden

4.4

Theosophical Society Adyar

Chennai, Tamil Nadu

260 riverside acres of world-faith shrines and one of the world's largest banyan trees — the global headquarters of the Theosophists since 1882.

Nov–Feb1–2 hrsExplore

23.4 km

📍 Temple

4.7

Kapaleeshwarar Temple

Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Mylapore's 7th-century Shiva temple with a 37-m rainbow gopuram — the beating heart of old Madras, ringed by classical music and jasmine lanes.

Nov–Mar; Panguni festival (Mar–Apr)1–2 hrsExplore

23.5 km

📍 Landmark

4.4

Krishna's Butter Ball

Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu

A 250-tonne granite sphere balanced impossibly on a slope for 1,200 years — kings' elephants failed to budge it.

Nov–Feb30 minExplore

23.5 km

📍 Church

4.6

San Thome Basilica

Chennai, Tamil Nadu

A neo-Gothic basilica built over the tomb of St. Thomas the Apostle — one of only three churches in the world raised on an apostle's grave.

Nov–Feb; Christmas1 hrExplore

23.7 km

📍 Temple

4.6

A granite poem facing the dawn sea — the Pallavas' 8th-century twin-spired shrine has met every sunrise for 1,300 years, sole survivor of the fabled Seven Pagodas, ringed by surf, salt spray and the UNESCO monuments of Mamallapuram.

Nov–FebHalf dayExplore

23.8 km

📍 Heritage

4.7

Arjuna's Penance

Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu

The world's largest bas-relief — a whale-back of granite alive with gods, nagas, elephants and ascetics descending with the Ganga.

Nov–Feb1 hrExplore

24.4 km

📍 Garden

4.2

Semmozhi Poonga

Chennai, Tamil Nadu

A 20-acre botanical garden in the heart of Cathedral Road — themed flora, a century-old heritage tree and bonsai courts.

Nov–Feb1–2 hrsExplore