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Mark Moxon's Travel Writing

Great Journeys: India: East Coast

The east coast of India is relatively off the tourist trail, but it has some gems for the more adventurous traveller.

Map of the east coast of India

Click on the links below to find out more about individual destinations.

Journey Summary

Starting off in the calamity of humanity that is Calcutta, we head south by rail to the laid-back pilgrim town of Puri, from where a day trip to the Kama Sutra temples of Konark is a must. An overnight journey south on the train brings us to Hyderabad, with its brilliant temples, wonderful food and the nearby fortress of Golconda, and we reach our journey's end in Chennai after another easy train ride.

Suggested Itinerary

The following is only a suggested itinerary – one of the things about India is how it manages to make all carefully laid plans irrelevant after just a few hours. In India planning as you go is pretty much the only thing to do, and bear in mind that transit days are often just as fascinating as days spent exploring, especially if you're taking the train...

Day Suggested Itinerary
1 Fly to Calcutta
2-3 Two days in Calcutta
4 Calcutta to Puri
5-6 Two days in Puri
7 Day trip to Konark
8-9 Two days in Puri
10 Puri to Hyderabad
11 One day in Hyderabad
12 Day trip to Golconda
13-14 Two days in Hyderabad
15 Hyderabad to Chennai
16-17 Two days in Chennai
18 Fly from Chennai