Capital: Chennai
Topslip — lion-tailed macaques, bamboo rafting, and the Anamalai Hills
Nilgiri tea capital — quieter than Ooty, on the UNESCO toy train route
Princess of Hill Stations — star-shaped lake, Coaker's Walk cliff promenade, and the 12-year Kurinji bloom
The OLDEST Nilgiri hill station — Ooty without the crowds
Nilgiri Biosphere — elephant safaris where Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu meet
Queen of the Nilgiris — tea estates, toy train (UNESCO), and Doddabetta Peak
Poor Man's Ooty — Eastern Ghats hill station with coffee, oranges, and zero pretension
Cloud forest with zero tourism — advance estate booking required
40 hairpin bends to an untouched hill station — lion-tailed macaques and cloud forests
Adiyogi statue (112ft Guinness record) and the gateway to the Nilgiris
Spa of South India — 9 herb-infused waterfalls with natural healing properties
India's Niagara — coracle rides through waterfalls and a 2,000-year-old oil massage tradition
Marina Beach, Fort St. George, Carnatic music — South India's cultural capital
India's spiciest cuisine and 10,000 palatial mansions with Burma teak and Italian marble
Nataraja Temple — Shiva as Cosmic Dancer, the Pancha Bhuta Stala of Space
India's only ghost town — 1964 cyclone ruins at the absolute tip of India
City of 1,000 Temples — sacred for both Shaivites and Vaishnavites, and home to India's finest silk
India's southernmost tip — the only place where you watch sunrise AND sunset over the sea
Temple City — 188 temples, Airavatesvara (UNESCO), and the Mahamaham tank
The Lotus City — Meenakshi Temple with 33,000 sculptures and a midnight closing ritual
UNESCO Pallava rock-cut temples on the Coromandel Coast — beach + heritage in one
30,000 flamingos, blackbuck antelope, and Ramsar Wetland where the coast turns
French Quarter, Auroville, and the only place in India where crepes meet dosas
India's Varanasi of the South — Char Dham, longest temple corridor, and Pamban Bridge
The LARGEST functioning Hindu temple in the world — 156 acres, 7 walls, 21 gopurams
Brihadeeswara Temple — the UNESCO Chola masterpiece whose vimana casts no shadow at noon
India's only Danish colonial town — Fort Dansborg (1620) and India's oldest Protestant church
Rock Fort Temple on an 83m rock — one of India's most dramatic urban temple settings
India's oldest bird sanctuary (1798) — 40,000 nesting waterbirds, 75km from Chennai
