Pondicherry Reviews

Food, sight-seeing and shopping
Dining can be interesting many restaurants in white town for different reasons. Special are seagull (for beer, fish fingers and the view), ajanta (same as above), satsanga (for food, but not the attitude), la terrasse (good snacks) among others. Auroville boutique on JN street has great souveniers, while Titanic has good clothes and Kalki has great merchandise though priced well beyond reach. Sight seeing in town is the Aurobindo Ashram, promenade, markets, french town etc. Include a trip to Auroville to the 'matre-mandir', tourist centre and bakeries. The beach closest is repo, where the aurovillians hang out. Public is not encouraged here and there are better beaches down the road.

Activities & things to do
For the kind of tourism that Pondicherry sees, there are unfortunately no water sports here. Visit the hand-made paper factory and walk along the promenade road. For the evenings, look out for perfomances at the Alliance Francias and try to catch some events.

Travel tips, How to reach, travel warnings etc.
Pondicherry is easiest reached from Chennai as that is the closest intercity rail junction and airport. From there, taxi or bus it down the incredibly gorgeous east coast road through Mahabalipuram. There is also news of direct flights soon. There are enough shacks and resorts along the way that will provide essentials and decent snacks. Look out for Ideal Beach Resort, 1 km short of Mahabalipuram. Ensure that you are always armed with shady hats, sunglasses, sun-screen and water bottles. Its easy to get dehydrated. Its also important to mention that the streets are not too safe late at nights.