Chennai Sightseeing and Tourist Places | Top Things to Do in Chennai

ISKCON Temple - 12 KM

ISKCON Temple Chennai is a Vaishnava temple dedicated to Lord Krishna. It is located on the East Coast Road in Akkarai, Sholinganallur, in southern Chennai. Built on 1.5 acres of land, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Chennai is the largest Radha Krishna temple in Tamil Nadu. It was formally inaugurated on April 26, 2012.

Muttukadu Boat House - 12 KM

Muttukadu Boat House is a water sports facility on the East Coast Road in Muttukadu, Chennai, India, offering rowing, windsurfing, water skiing, and speedboat riding. It is a backwater area of the Bay of Bengal, located 36 km from the city centre and 23 km from Adyar on the way to Mamallapuram. The water depth varies between 3 feet and 6 feet. It is owned and operated by the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC). The boating spot receives more than 4,000 visitors every weekend.

Crocodile Bank - 14 KM

The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Centre for Herpetology is one of the largest reptile zoos in the world. It is spread over eight and a half acres of land and is home to over 2500 reptiles. The zoo gives you an opportunity to have an interactive experience with the various denizens. Apart from guided tours, it also has a wide variety of other activities for all ages that are both informative and fun. For outdoor nature enthusiasts, the spacious Bank grounds are covered by luxuriant coastal dune forest and provide a haven for native wildlife, including large breeding colonies of water birds and a secure nesting beach for Olive Ridley Sea Turtles.

Dakshina Chitra Heritage Museum - 15 KM

Dakshina Chitra (a picture of the south) is a living-history museum in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, dedicated to South Indian heritage and culture. It is located 25 kilometers to the south of Chennai. Opened to the public on December 14, 1996, the museum was founded and is being managed by the Madras Craft Foundation (MCF). The MCF was established in 1984. Deborah Thiagarajan, an Indian art historian of American origin, governs the museum. The museum is built on 10 acres of land taken on a 33-year lease from the Government of Tamil Nadu. Located at Muttukadu, on the East Coast Road connecting Chennai and Pondicherry, the site overlooks the Bay of Bengal.

Shri Ashtalakshmi Temple - 23 KM

Shri Ashtalakshmi Temple is located in Besant Nagar, a few metres away from the Besant beach on the coast of the gorgeous Bay of Bengal. Ashtalakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth and Knowledge, resides here and blesses everyone who visits the temple to offer their prayers with a clean soul. The continuous sound of the ocean waves echos in the temple complex and instantly inculcates an aura of peace. The grandiosity of the place can be estimated from the fact that nearly 7 million rupees were spent on the renovation of the temple and over 1.6 million rupees on conducting a religiously important Hindu ceremony named Jeernodharana Ashtabandhana Mahakumbhabhishekam.

Arignar Anna Zoological Park - 24 KM

Arignar Anna Zoological Park, also known as the Vandalur Zoo, is a zoological garden located in Vandalur, in the southwestern part of Chennai. Established in 1855, it is the first public zoo in India. The zoo houses 2,553 species of flora and fauna across 1,265 acres. As of 2012, the park houses around 1,500 wild species, including 46 endangered species, in its 160 enclosures. As of 2010, there were about 47 species of mammals, 63 species of birds, 31 species of reptiles, 5 species of amphibians, 28 species of fish, and 10 species of insects in the park.

Marina Beach - 28 KM

Famous as the longest beach in India and the second-longest of its kind in the world, Marina Beach is one of the most famous beach holiday destinations in the country. Named so after the Italian word 'marina’ by the then Governor-General, the beach has been a popular location in Chennai since 1881.
Stretched over 13 km, the glistening sands of the beach areas are as rejuvenating as they are picturesque. Keeping in mind the popularity of the place, there have been a huge number of significant buildings and monuments built across the promenade since the beginning of the 19th century.

Mahabalipuram - 29 KM

Mahabalipuram, also known by other names such as Mamallapattana and Mamallapuram, is best known for the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the 7th- and 8th-century Hindu Group of Monuments at Mamallapuram. Mamallapuram was one of two major port cities by the 7th century within the Pallava kingdom. The town was named after Pallava king Narasimhavarman I, who was also known as Mahamalla. Along with economic prosperity, it became the site of a group of royal monuments, many carved out of the living rock. These are dated to the 7th and 8th centuries: rathas (temples in the form of chariots), mandapas (cave sanctuaries), the giant open-air rock relief of the Descent of the Ganges, and the Shore Temple dedicated to Shiva, Durga, Vishnu, Krishna, and others.