Mahabalipuram Tour: Ancient Rock Monuments

Immerse yourself in the 7th century world of the Pallavas with this guided tour of Mahabalipuram. Explore rock cut monuments, temples, and open-air reliefs that transport you back in time.

Duration: 3 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Pancha Rathas - We reach the World Heritage Site of Mahabalipuram. Panch Rathas, or the 5 chariots is our first destination. These are rock cut monolith structures, where of the chariots are dedicated to the lead cast of the Mahabharata epic- Draupadi, Arjuna, Nakul-Sahadeva, Bhima and Yudhister. There is also a sculpture of an elephant next to the ratha of Nakul-Sahadeva.
What's Included
  • Professional guide
  • Entrance charges
Additional Information

Over the course of three hours, the Mahabalipuram walking tour will transport participants to the 7th century, showcasing incredible rock-cut monuments. This tour is organized by a company approved by the Ministry of Tourism and is a member of the Indian Tour Operators Association.
Participants can enjoy the tour on foot or in their own vehicle….

Location
Shore Temple
Beach Road
Our guide will meet you at the entrance of the Shore Temple.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
5.0
(73 Ratings)
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F7143ysgabrielm
Mar 22, 2025
Beautiful carvings and stories - Excellent tour to take! The carvings are very impressive to see and the tour guide was extremely knowledgeable! If you have a driver with you, it makes a massive difference. It can be very hot and humid, it’s a decently long walk between the stops, so I recommend doing the tour with a car!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Pawel
Mar 19, 2025
Perfectly organized tour with very knowledgeable guide for leadership team - Tour was very well designed, adjusted „on the go” to meet our needs, with easy contact and great responsiveness. The guide was superb and extremely knowledgeable. As a leadership team we were extremely pleased with the trip and recommend 5 Senses to others, travelling on business or individually.
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Netiu_pl
Mar 13, 2025
Highly recommended guided trip - The trip was realy nice. The guide was super engaged and helped us to plan the visit. Even if we were late, he was able to accomodate that. Highly recommend!
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Roving62960223310
Mar 13, 2025
Fantastic trip - Amazing trip, very knowledgeable guides and well organized event. Guides were very well prepared and flexible to adapt to our needs.
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Manishbaghla
Mar 12, 2025
Excellent experience - Excellent navigation. Ensure that we stick to time. Explained and handheld very well. Parking to visiting each spot was excellent. Mr Gopal narrated in simple and crispy language. Will certainly highly recommend the team.
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Gl0betr0ttingfamily
Mar 4, 2025
Memorable private tour of Mahabalipuram - highly recommend - Outstanding tour experience from Five Senses. Guide Ramesh was very knowledgeable and took the time to explain the sights and make sure that the tour was a memorable one. Everything about the tour was very well designed and executed, and exactly as advertised on the website. Pickup and dropoff at our Chennai hotel were exactly on time. The included traditional lunch was very tasty. I would definitely do this tour again and recommend it to anyone as a first time experience of Mahabalipuram. One thing to be aware of. At the end of the tour you will have the opportunity to visit some shops and meet some of the artists who make the granite sculptures so characteristic of the region. You will not feel pressured to buy, but once you are in that situation it is difficult not to. However these are not mass produced imitations; the sculptures are hand made and of high quality - you will not easily get them elsewhere. Be prepared to bargain, but also to pay more than you might have budgeted for. Take it all in stride as part of the experience, and a way to support the artists for whom this is a livelihood.
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Escape09998106113
Feb 27, 2025
Great tour with Ramesh - Ramesh was great! We enjoyed our tour with him - he was very knowledgeable on the history and artistry of the temples and sights. He was also very accommodating of our 2 little children throughout the tour, to keep them motivated to keep going. We appreciated his professionalism and informative stories of history.
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Aherne18
Feb 25, 2025
Great guide and driver, amazing monuments - The guide Ramesh was knowledgeable and friendly. I was even able to attend a hindu ceremony with him in the inner sancyum, something reserved to hindus only. The driver Bilal was also calm and friendly... The monuments and the scenery around Mahabalipuram are amazing. A dream come true after 7 years in a wishlist.
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Rick
Feb 15, 2025
Highly recommended - Quickly arranged. Booked the night before. Quickly confirmed and driver was at the location at agreed time. The sites were unique and very beautiful. Clear explanation by a friendly guide. Driver was also great class and returned safely
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Northernveggiemonkey
Feb 10, 2025
Outstanding architecture and history, be wary of the upsell after - You only appreciate the scale of this tour and information when the tidbits are provided gradually. Carved thousands of years ago from single pieces of rock or quarried and then transported kilometres to their finally resting spots. Whilst I must say Ramesh our guide was scripted hearing other guides there; he is the main guy who is reviewed positively by many. Be wary of the stone statue upsell; it's said that students make them, but on closer review there were far too many boxes behind the counter and we saw the occasional price tag suggestive of it being bought in. If you do decide to buy some a medium siZed one was around £50 each after haggling down. In honesty I think I could have got it cheaper.
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up to 15 guests
1 Adult
April 2025
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