Dhanushkodi Rameshwaram 3-Day Itinerary – Visit to an engineering marvel

Rameshwaram (also called as Rameswaram), is one of India’s southernmost cities. A city known for its beautiful ancient temples and mythology, this is slowly becoming an offbeat destination for many travellers. Rameshwaram is a city revered by Hindus, being the birthplace of the famous Ramayana epic. Every temple in this city and its surrounding areas have an interesting story behind it and the various mythological events that took place . It’s incidentally one of the two places in  India where you let go of your sins and desires, the other being Kashi.Hence a post on Dhanushkodi Rameshwaram 3-Day Itinerary 🙂

If you’re wondering that Rameshwaram is just a city of just temples, you are so wrong. In fact, Rameshwaram is famous  for several other things:

• The amazing Architectures and sculptures inside temples,
• 1000+ pillars inside RamanathaSwamy Temple
• The mighty Pamban Bridge
• Surfing(Yes you heard that right) in Ariyaman Beach
• Danushkodi(the tip of the Indian Peninsula) & Adam’s Bridge

So if you have a planned visit to South India, this is a must visit place you should definitely try. Here’s a short 3-day itinerary that should work out perfectly for your trip.

Travel to Rameshwaram

Rameshwaram is connected from the Indian Mainland by the Pamban Bridge. The Pamban Bridge is definitely an engineering marvel that one should never miss and definitely a crown jewel in India’s architectural and engineering talents. In order to witness in different ways, take any train that goes from Madurai to Rameshwaram. This train goes through the bridge that’s built on top of the sea between mainland and Rameshwaram. The stunning views from the window can blow your breath away and something you can never witness anywhere else. On your way back, hire a cab to drop you back to Madurai. This allows you to stop in the middle of the bridge and click yourself some beautiful pictures with the sea and the train bridge as background.

There are two passenger trains from depart Madurai to Rameshwaram at  6.50 AM and 12.40PM, and this should be ideal for your onward trip(Roughly 4 hours journey). Requires no seat reservation and costs just 35 Rs (0.5$) for a 1-way ticket, available directly at the station.

Dhanushkodi Rameshwaram 3-Day Itinerary

Day 1 – RamanathaSwamy Temple & Surroundings

Towards afternoon, head to the famous RamanathaSwamy temple. The temple has 1212 pillars and innumerable sculptures, ancient architectures and paintings adorned in walls. These paintings describe the events that took place in the Ramayana era and the significance of this city. (Min time required is 2-3 hours) though some spend even an entire day to revel in this beauty and study about it.

Spend your evenings walking around this beautiful city, purchase some souvenirs and even visit a nearby beach.

Day 2 – Dhanushkodi & Adam’s Bridge

A trip to Rameshwaram doesn’t end without a trip to this once beautiful village called Dhanushkodi. Being at the tip of India, this village was completely swept by a Tsunami several decades back and all’s left is the remains of an ancient city. Nevertheless, it’s a must visit place, to travel to the tip of Southern India, literally a few nautical miles away from the country of Sri Lanka. A short 20 min bus ride from Rameshwaram to the starting point of Dhanushkodi.

From here, just get it in one of those mini vans and they’d drop you right in the epicenter of the town. You can witness a beautiful island, where once stood an ancient village. A few broken walls, ruins and a temple is all is left. Just meters away is Adam’s bridge(Ramar Sethu Palam), a bridge that once connected Pamban island to Sri Lanka. Mythologists believe that this was built by Lord Rama himself during the times of Ramayana, while some scientists strive to dispel this as myth (I still prefer to believe the former). You can spend roughly half a day here.

Day 3: For the Temple Seekers

For those religious people, go for the 1 day Rameshwaram Ramayana tour from a nearby travel agency. A tour that covers several temples in surrounding villages. This includes:

Devipattnam, Uttrakosai, Thirupullani, Thiruvadanai, Kilakarai,Sethukarai, Uthirakosamangai,Villuvandi Theertham, Vivekandakendram and Ekanthiramar Temple.

Or for the adventure seekers, head to Ariyaman beach and try your hand at Wind surfing and other water sports available there

Head to Madurai directly from here and catch your return train/flight.

Hope you liked this Dhanushkodi Rameshwaram 3-Day itinerary. Feel free to drop in your suggestions or any questions on the same.