We reached Pondicherry after two flights and one road trip. We flew from Delhi to Bangalore to Chennai where a car was waiting for us at the airport. Our flight tickets were INR 8000 return and the car costed us INR 8000 for three people (Tata Nixon Semi Automatic)
We booked the Shenbaga Hotel in Pondicherry for 3 nights. It costed us INR 3000 per night for two people including breakfast
The best places to visit in Pondicherry are
- White Town
- Auroville
White Town
White town is the most beautiful, peaceful, people-friendly place in Pondicherry. The place is surrounded by cute looking doors, street lights and colourful street art on every corner.
There is a place called paradise beach here but this place literally is a paradise for people like us who love nature.
If you love walking, White town in Pondicherry is the place for you. You can spend an entire day walking and still have a few places left to visit.
List of things to do in Pondicherry
We started with Domus Street. It is full of cafes, street art and a lot of walking by the beach. Our first stop was
Cafe de Arts
Known for its ambience and the boutique look to it. Cafe de arts is surrounded by street art and is best for book lovers and shopaholics. It is a mix of cafe, shopping and book reading which adds character to the cafe. A must visit but pre-book your table and go as we had to wait 40 minutes for a table.
Cuisines: Continental, Indian, and Seafood
Cost: INR 2000 for 3 people
Location: White Town Pondicherry
Le Dupleix
A villa of sorts where you can even choose to stay as it was super clean and had an earthy feel to it.
We had lunch here. The service was superb and the food was heavenly. One of us is a vegan so they even helped us out by respecting our choices and giving us what we wanted.
Cuisines: Continental, Indian, and Seafood
Cost: INR 2200 for 3 people
Location: White Town Pondicherry
Paradise beach in Pondicherry
As the name suggests, it is a paradise that one must explore. The best part is you will hop on a boat go through the Pondicherry backwaters to enter the paradise. The backwater experience is an experience one must not miss.
To visit the beach, you would need to go to Chunnambar Boat House where you will see a counter to buy tickets just to the enter boat house. Once you enter the boat house, you will see a long line for the boat, go past it to the ticket counter and buy your boat tickets.
Cost of entry into the Boat House: INR 10 per person.
Ferry ride: INR 300 per person
Speed Boat: INR 2400 for 3 people.
Closing time : 6:30 pm
Then you go in and stand in another line to buy a ticket for a boat ride to the beach.
Cost of Backwater ride: INR 240 per person
Cost of speed boat for 3: INR 2400
We took the speed boat as we reached at 4 pm and wanted to be back by 6 pm
Honestly, the speed boat was a much better experience as it was faster and our speed boat driver made sure we had fun. He was creative in water by giving us a circle with the speed boat in the water and even asked us to stand in front to have a good experience. It also helped us skip the queue and saved us a lot of time.
You can also refer to Lonely Planet India to gain more information about Pondicherry.
Things to do in Auroville in one day
The beauty of Auroville is mostly captured in its greenery. The tall trees that surround the roads are its best part. We did not realise it until we visited Auroville’s best places that we could in one day.
Solitude farm
The first place we visited was the SOLITUDE FARM. Auroville is famous for its organic, outdoor farming.
Put on Google Maps for Solitude farm and you will reach a gate where the guard will ask you to call the farm and confirm to let you in.
Don’t forget to call them in advance.
It’s a beautiful walk from the parking lot to the farm with beautiful trees all around and nature giving you its best. On entering the farm, you’ll see some awesome quotes/messages written on stones. Don’t forget to read.
You’ll also notice a lot of treehouses inside where you can get some pictures clicked or climb up maybe. You may take a look at our Vlog for Auroville on the right
When you reach the actual farm, you will see some ladies in the kitchen with a menu displayed. Go on and order some delicious organic food freshly made from farmed vegetables. Everything about the place is organic. It is so healthy and light, unlike all the other food we eat. The thali of the day costed Rs 250 and the Salad Rs 150.
After eating, don’t forget to wash your plates with the organic soaps made from farmed goods. One of the best experiences we had. Check out our pictures below.
Timings: 9 am – 3 :30pm
La Boutique d’ Auroville
The best boutique in town with everything handmade and original. The boutique houses a vast range of products from home decor, women accessories, music equipment to candles, essence, fragrances, wall art and many more.
Note – If you’re at solitude farm, the boutique is just walking distance from here. We bought a couple of things like bags, essence, ear rings, table coasters and much more. There are a couple of more Boutiques around this one but this boutique is one of the best in town.
Sauce n toss
We were looking for some delicious food while roaming around in the city. Fortunately, we spotted this cafe in the centre of the city. We went up the lift to the second floor and to our surprise it was a very pretty place.
As the name suggests, it is a cricket themed cafe that specialises in Pizza’s. we ordered the veg master blaster, potato wedges and two drinks.
Cost for three : Rs 781
Cuisine: Fast Food
We wanted to visit the cheese farm as well but we were not aware of pre bookings. You have to write an email to them before going and once approved you may visit the cheese farm.
Photo by Anagh Sharma on Unsplash