The madurai junction railway station and the express bus stand are around 10 minutes walk apart. The cheaper lodges between the railway station and bus terminal can all be reached on foot, or by rickshaw. The rickshaw drivers always like to charge western tourists commission. If you arrive at the anna bus station on the outskirts of the city, a scooter to the city centre will cost around 15rs, or you can catch a bus.
Related Travel Information
Indian airlines/air india have flights from madurai to:
Bangalore, wed, thurs & sat - us$39; madras, daily - us$46.
Vayudoot have flights to:
Cochin, mon, wed & fri - 28ors; madras, mon, wed & fri - 425.KS;
Nayveli, mon. Wed & fri - no price available;
Tanjore, mon, wed & fri - 145rs.
Usually they cover the following:
Thirrupparankundram temple, perumal temple, sree meenakshi temple, thirumalai nayak palace, gandhi museum and the vishnu temple alagar koil, 21km 13 miles) to the north-east.
Standard
Madurai ashok, alagarkoil road, ph 42531, 43 rooms, singles 57ors, doubles 945rs, restaurant and bar.
Pandyan hotel, race course, ph 42470, 57 rooms, singales 400rs, doubles 700rs.
Hotels between the railway station and the sree meenakshi temple.
Saraswathi lodge, town hall road, ph 25 873, singles 3ors, doubles 4ors.
Hotelragu, ph 34 566,23 town hall road, singles 35rs, doubles 555rs all rooms with bath. Good value. :-"'.;
Uma lodge, west perumal maistry street (street albng the side of the town hall), ph 26 621, singles 25rs and doubles 45rs.
The air conditioned aradana restaurant next to uma lodge, which has meals with 13 side dishes for lors, is good. The amutham restaurant, 30 town hall road, is also recommended. Apart from those, there are numerous inexpensive restaurants, or you can buy food from the numerous street vendors in town hall road at any time of the day or night.
Tamil hadu 349
Connections rail
To madras egmore: six or 7 services daily.
To pondicherry: awkward - it's better to take a bus.
To rameswaram: 4 services daily - 164km (102 miles).
To coimbatore: daily at 10.10pm.
To quilon: daily at 6.20am and 10.25pm.
