Kanchipuram Archives

Bangalore to Kanchipuram Road trip of 570 kms (with route map)

Renu on November 17, 2020

Just two days back we returned from ‘Bangalore to Kanchipuram road trip’ by our #AllNewCreta 2020. This one day road trip from Bangalore was on 14th November 2020 for the occasion of Diwali celebrations.

We went to Kanchipuram from Bangalore, and it was a total of 570 kms drive in just One day.

Here is the route map to reach Kanchipuram by Car

Bangalore to Kanchipuram Road trip – Overview

Unlike our last week’s one day trip to Tiruvannamalai, we didn’t start our trip as early as 5am.

We took it slow this time, we leisurely started by 7.30 am.

Distance : The Bangalore to Kanchipuram distance is 280 Kms and we had plans to reach the destination only post lunch at Vellore.

Since we had plans to eat breakfast in our all time favourite restaurant in Bangalore highways called Krishna Inn, we each had half croissants with a cup of black tea just before we started. We had packed this butter croissant and a few baked buns for the trip a day before itself from our favourite baker.

Where we ate:

So Breakfast cum pitstop at Shoolagiri – Krishna Inn, followed by Lunch pit stop at Vellore – Khanna Fiesta.

The food quality of Khanna fiesta has come down and we felt guilty about driving all the way inside the city for this food diverting from the Highways.

So while returning to Bangalore from Kanchipuram, we made a wise decision of eating on the highways, a restaurant with a good rating called Darling Namma veedu in Vellore.

(This restaurant is right across Hotel Aryaas on the highways, also you have many other restaurant choices like Vellore kitchen, Saravana bhavan atc., But all are overpriced food items but scores okay in quality, thankfully).

We never ate anything in Kanchipuram because we don’t like to eat or stay here in the over hyped commercial town.

That’s the reason we chose to stay in Vellore, in our last 2 days trip to Kanchipuram for Athi varadar Raise once in 40 years.

Where we went:

Post lunch in Vellore, after a leisure drive to Kanchipuram, headed straight to Varadaraja Perumal temple for darshan (Must see golden and silver lizard).

Route Map – Why We Loved this Chennai Highways

Here is the route map for both 2 ways journey for Bangalore to Kanchipuram road trip.

Bangalore to Kanchipuram Road trip route map

For the onward journey, we had seamless driving experience in NH 48 Chennai Highways, the only best road that beats all the other highways from Bangalore.

Though Tirupati and Hyderabad highways are also best, we personally like Chennai highways because of the tight barricade on both the sides blocking the localities criss crossing on highways.

If you are a regular rider / road tripper, you would know how important this barricade is for better driving experience. Since these days its most common sight in the highways to see the vehicles come in one way (facing you) giving you a heart attack. As if people criss crossing on the highways are not enough.

From where we stay in Bangalore, google maps automatically highlighted the Vellore route on the Chennai Highways. It also happens to be the best route to reach Kanchipuram by Car.

Click the above link to know about our train trip experience and to know famous temples in Kanchipuram.

Route map – Return Journey

We were profoundly delayed by choosing auto suggestions from google maps.

It is not necessarily to choose the auto-suggestion (highlighted route) in google maps. You should analyse and choose the best route for your choice.

Sometimes google suggests bad roads since it’s the fastest and most people use it.

So, it is wise to choose better roads (yellow roads with NH mark) rather than just any roads (white roads) google suggests.

Again when you are suggested 2 yellow roads, choose the NH with better numbers (NH 77 are country side narrow roads – So its a NO- NO).

Even Though we knew these safety rules all along being regular road trippers, we were careless this time. Because of that, we were delayed by 45 mins before we diverted us back to Vellore highways from a small route google maps auto-suggested.

So for the return journey, choose the same onward route map. But gotta be careful to notice that the route takes you via Kanchipuram bus stand.

Road trip Destination

Why did we choose Kanchipuram for one day road trip from bangalore?. Why go all the way to Kanchipuram instead of stopping at Vellore?.

I for one strongly believe that there has to be a purpose in going on any road trip. That’s called a road trip theme or a goal. You choose your destination based on that theme.

For example, if your theme is ‘leisure’ you would choose places like Coorg or Wayanad or Goa.

I design my travel plans based on that theme.

Well, this time we just wanted to stretch our boundaries. Since it was our new car, we wanted to push ourselves to maximum kms in one day.

Last weekend, when we went on a One Day Road Trip To Tiruvannamalai from Bangalore. In that one day road trip, we covered a total of 400 kms in one day. And before that we went on just 300 kms of total in one day’s long drive to Mysore.

This time, in our Bangalore to Kanchipuram road trip, we covered a total of 570 kms in a day.

Speaking of which, this is not the first time we have touched 500 kms mark in one day. We rode 570 kms in day – 1 of our Tirunelveli for a 5 days trip. And 405 kms in day -1 by bike trip to Kumbakonam in the year 2017.

Successful Road trip to Kanchipuram

So, this time, we were successful in stretching our boundaries in our new car – Creta 2020. We will continue to do the same until we become comfortable doing great numbers in one day.

Read Related – Two Day Trip From Bangalore to Vellore and Kanchipuram (Best 2 Day Trip by Car)

And yes, we did visit the very famous Varada Raja Perumal Temple while we were there. Though we did not have plans to visit any temples initially, since the time matched and we just made it happen. After spending about an hr of blessed darshan in the temple, we returned Bangalore in the late night.

Overall happy with our One day road trip from Bangalore, covering total of 570 kms.

From Bangalore to Kanchipuram Road trip or Train trip?

Renu on July 12, 2020

We are frequent travelers from Bangalore to Kanchipuram since 2017.

And we have experience of travelling by both car and train to this Famous Temple city in Tamil Nadu,

I am sharing our travel story here and giving you the best route with distances for you to choose.

Also suggestions on places to see in and around Kanchipuram.

Since it is a temple city, I have also given a list of famous temples in Kanchipuram to visit.

ImageCredit – Indianrailinfo

Distance From Bangalore To Kanchipuram

Distance from Bangalore to Kanchipuram via Vellore is 280 kms (which is the only best route by car).

We traveled regularly to this famous temple city Kanchipuram (also called Kancheepuram). Just how we well know Tiruvannamalai and Kumbakonam, same way we know Kanchipuram city in and out.

The name “Kanchipuram silk sarees”, for the silk sarees weaved in this temple city made it popular worldwide.

Many people travel exclusively for Temple trip and many for just shopping silk sarees in Kanchipuram.

Whichever are the reasons you are planning a trip to Kanchipuram, I have a best route for you.

And travel guide for both car and train.

Best Route – From Bangalore to Kanchipuram By Car

In July 2019, we went on a road trip from Bangalore to Kanchipuram, via Vellore.

Trust me if we had known this route earlier, we would have saved lots of pain going by train.

Bangalore to Chennai Highways is the route we took to reach our destination.

Bangalore to Kanchipuram Best route by Car

Home (Bangalore) – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Ambur – Vellore – Kanchipuram.

And this is the fastest route to reach your destination by road. Also it has many advantages, here is the list.

Advantages of Taking Chennai Highways

From our recent road trip from Bangalore to Kanchipuram, here are the major advantages of taking the Chennai highways.

Fastest and Best Roads – From Bangalore to Kanchipuram NH 48

Well paved route and seamless National Highways (Chennai / Mumbai Highway) connecting non stop from Bangalore to Kanchipuram with 280Kms.

If you compare the other alternate routes’ distance from Bangalore to Kanchipuram via Kolar and Chittoor, this route is the longest. Yet the fastest route with well planned bridges, tunnels and fastest toll booths with Fast tag facilities.

Best Restaurants Choices

Many good restaurants with toilet facilities just like in Bangalore – Salem Highways.

You could reach your destination in 6hrs driving non – stop from Bangalore, provided you have started early to avoid the traffic.

But if you ask me, you could stop at these following places for refreshment.

Here is the list of best restaurant from Bangalore to Kanchiputam

Hotel Krishna Inn – Shoolagiri (Before Krishnagiri)

For the best South Indian breakfast. I have talked more about this place. This place is famous for awesome food and a pit stop for hundreds of bike riders. You could see hundreds of them at the same time between 6.30 am to 9 am.

We never miss stopping here for breakfast at Krishna and coffee from nearby CCD or McD.

Here I am sharing some of our favourite south Indian dishes we try regularly here.

This is the google map location – https://goo.gl/maps/PHZGkqpGUA7g6AVa6.

From bangalore to kanchipuram road trip — Ghee Dosa from Krishna Inn, Bangalore – Salem Highways restaurant

restaurants in Bangalore highways — Pongal and vada from Krishna Inn, Bangalore – Salem Highways restaurant

I would not suggest any restaurants in Hosur, the most crowded place no good for any kinds of restaurants.

Otherwise there are many other options in Bangalore – Chennai Highways.

From Bangalore to Kanchipuram – the List of other Famous Restaurants

Adyar Ananda Bhavan
Hotel Krishna Inn
Murugan Idly shop
Sai Anandha Bhavan
Hotel Sai Sangeeth restaurant in Vaniyambadi (just before Vellore)
and plenty other good options in Vellore.

SaiSangeeth restaurant in Bangalore to Chennai Highways

Many good choices to Stay in Vellore

From our couple of trips to Kanchipuram by train and car, I suggest staying in Vellore for 2 main reasons – Food and Accomodation. In Kanchipuram, We had stayed once in GRT hotels and once in Pine tree hotels, those two were the only good choices in this crowded temple city. And for food, there were only Shree Saravana Bhavan hotels with a couple of branches in the city, a monopoly player with a very poor ambiance and service. Therefore we didn’t prefer that restaurant.

So, stay in Vellore where you will be spoilt for choices for boarding and lodging. And couples of famous sightseeing places that makes your stay even more memorable. Next best place would be Chennai, if you are en-route Chennai.

Read Related – Two Day Trip From Bangalore to Vellore and Kanchipuram (Best 2 Day Trip by Car)

Bangalore to Kanchipuram By Train

Distance from Bangalore to Kanchipuram by train is the same as road trip distance. Certainly there are no direct interstate trains to Kanchipuram Railway Junction.

You need to get off at Arakkonam Junction, which is the nearest Kanchipuram Railway station. Furthermore, you need to take a local train or bus to Kanchipuram town.

Though you have plenty of choices for local trains and local buses, all are unnaturally crowded at those early hours.

If you are planning to travel by train, I suggest travelling by A/c compartment. Otherwise, the whole journey will be an upsetting experience. This is why.

When we went to Kanchipuram from Bangalore by train, we had the worst experience of life.

In the General Sleeper we have booked, the entire compartment was outnumbered by the illegal passengers.

It was a total nightmare dealing with illegal passengers throughout the journey. Not a teeny tiny guilt of disturbing the sleeping passengers with their loud voice. Adding more spice, they occupy the little space left at the end of the berths giving no room for passengers to stretch their legs.

Above all, some using their small babies as a innocent image to pick pockets from the sleeping passengers.

Also, the big goons of locals adamantly blocking the way to the toilets and exit doors etc.,

Hence, We stayed alert every single minute safeguarding wallets and baggage. And ended grumpy whole next day.

How to Reach from Arakkonam to Kanchipuram

The train reached Arakkonam station around 5am, we exited with a pounding headache and sleepy eyes.

We then hired a local auto to the nearest bus station. From there we took the local town bus to Kanchipuram.

Otherwise one could take local metro train from Arakkonam to reach Kanchipuram.

We traveled for about 1.15 hrs by bus to finally reach our Hotel room.

That was the very last trip from Bangalore to Kanchipuram by Train.

List of Must See Kanchipuram Temples

These are the list of must see temples in Kanchipuram.

Kanchi Kamakshi Temple: The temple dedicated to Goddess Parvathi, one of the Sakthi Peedam temples in Tamil Nadu. It is important to first darshan Kamakshi Amman before any other temples in this holy city. Google map link – https://goo.gl/maps/vEr2RKARgG9Zj7C3A
Ekambareswarar Temple: Lord Shiva is said to have manifested himself in the form of Prithvi Lingam. This lingam represents one of the five elements “earth”. Since mother Kamakshi is the common Ambica for all the temples in Kanchipuram, hence Shiva temples in Kanchipuram does not have any goddess shrine. I mean most of the temples in and around Kanchipuram. Google map link – https://goo.gl/maps/Am3yv7WPpvPsmr9u8 .
Varadharaja Perumal Temple: The temple along with Ekambareswarar Temple and Kamakshi Amman Temple in Kanchipuram is popularly known as Mumurtivasam (Credit – Wikipedia). Being one of the 108 Divya Desams, a most popular temples for vaishnavites. This “Vishnu Kanchi” is a must visit in kanchipuram temples.

Places to Visit near Kanchipuram

Kanchipuram city is one of the best weekend getaways from Bangalore for temple visit or silk saree shopping.

Yet you cannot spend more than 2 days as Kanchipuram visiting places are limited.

If you have more time in your Bangalore to Kanchipuram road trip, you could rather go nearby places. The nearest, famous tourist places like Pondicherry and Mahabalipuram.

Or you could plan a round trip to Chennai. You could start from Bangalore to Kanchipuram, then Chennai before returning back home.

Likewise, you could also make a round trip to vellore, stay in Vellore to look around the places.

Hope our experience would help you plan the trip schedule from Bangalore to Kanchipuram. Plan on the places to stay and explore the holy silk city.

You Know Athi Varadar Perumal Raise Once in 40 yrs Only? – We did Darshan on 21 July 2019

Renu on July 25, 2019

Athi varadar perumal darshan road trip to Vellore, Kanchipuram

Athi Varadar – Lord Vishnu made of Fig tree, has raised from the temple pond on July 1st 2019 after 40 long years.

Athi Varada Perumal, 9 feet tall fig wooden idol is kept immersed in “Kanchipuram Varadaraja temple” Pushkarini (the temple’s pond) for 350 yrs, he raises out of pond once in 40 yrs.

Sri Varadaraja Perumal Temple’s pond water was cleared to bring out the idol and placed in the temple mandapam for 48 days for devotees darshan.

There were footfall of lakhs of devotees every single day since day 1, to darshan Lord in the Sayana Kolam / Ranganathar Kolam (Lying posture). News is that the Lord will be placed in Nindra Kolam (Sri Venkatesa Perumal Kolam) in the last 10 days.

We were blessed to see him on Sunday 21st July 2019 in Sayana kolam, around 7pm, after waiting in que for 3.30 hrs, walked about 8kms from car parking to darshan.

We had planned for 2 days road trip from Bangalore to Vellore. On the first day we traveled from Bangalore, stayed in Vellore, traveled to Kanchipuram from Vellore for Athi Varadar Darshan. On the second day we visited Vellore Golden temple before we left to Bangalore.

Image Courtesy – Social Media

For Athi Varadar Darshan: How We Reached Kanchipuram From Bangalore

Bangalore to Vellore

We started on 21st July Sunday Morning by 5.45 am from our home by car. We had breakfast at our all time favourite Krishna Inn in Shoolagiri (Right next to McDonald’s in Bangalore to Salem highways).
Reached Vellore by 11am, had wonderful darshan in Vellore Shiva Temple – Jalakandeswarar Temple located inside the Vellore Fort.
We checked in at the hotel Khanna Fiesta around 12 noon, took a much needed break from long drive before we got ready to leave to Kanchipuram.
Then had a light lunch in the ground floor khanna Veg restaurant, before we started our travel to Kanchipuram.

Drive to Kancheepuram – Athi Varadar Darshan

We reached Kanchipuram before 4pm, parked our vehicle 1 km away from the Sri Varadaraja temple East gopuram. Left our footwears in the nearest shop, headed towards the gopuram entrance. We somehow had hope of getting special entrance for a fee, but we were told that there are no paid entrance, except for general que for all the devotees.
Joined the general que at 4.05 pm, walked among the flood of devotees, with the free biscuit pack and mini water bottle provided by the government service. There were lots of people running among the crowd testing our patience.
And some were pushing and elbowing the people for a quick getaway, some lost temper and got into fist fights. But we stood in queue calmly to save energy for a long walk.
We reached the darshan mandap in 3.5 hrs time, had wonderful darshan of Lord Athi Varadar in the Sayana Kolam.
There was also a special que from the temple entrance for family with elders and kids. Also there was a special que for devotees with VIP tickets, god knows how we couldn’t get one. For all of them it only took 45 mins to reach Darshan mandap.
There was a live telecast of the pooja being performed to the Lord AthiVaradar. It kept the audience engaged for those long hrs of painful queue.
There was also a team of doctors camp for first – aid just in case.

Returning back to Vellore – The Reason for stay in Vellore

After Lord Athi Varadar darshan, we got back energy all the energy we lost standing /slow walking in the que. We came out of the temple (don’t know exactly which side of temple), walked for about 3 kms to reach the east gopuram to collect our shoes. Then again walked for about 1km to reach our vehicle parking.

We have book marked the vehicle parking area in google maps, so it was no trouble getting to the vehicle in the pitch dark.

Started the car and headed straight to Vellore, reached the stay by 9.30, with the rumbling stomach. Soon after reaching the hotel, we had dinner in the in-house Veg restaurant Called Khanna Veg Restaurant.

We didn’t want to eat in Kancheepuram from our previous trip experience. Wonder where people eat in this most visited pilgrimage place with footfall of lakhs of devotees all year round.

This was one of the reason for not choosing to book room in Kancheepuram, but even if we had tried we would not have got it in these 48 days.

Kanchipuram town is world wide famous for its unique traditional silk sarees. Kanchipuram is house for hundreds of handlooms for authentic and exquisite silk sarees manufacturing and retail sales.

Well, in both the visits in the past we have bought silk sarees from a famous shop. This time we didn’t plan for any shopping, our only intention was to get at least the glimpse of Lord Athi Varadar.

We were more than blessed to visit him on 21st july 2019, Sunday 7pm, a moment of glory with Lord Athi Varada Perumal.