Pondicherry was my home for last 6 months or so. The place will always a special place in my heart. The Pondicherry tourism tag line , give time a break is quite, coz somehow, for city and a state capital it is pretty laid back.
Coming to the tourism point of view, if you are looking for a family vacation with kids, with lot if sightseeing and photo ops, this is not the place. This is a place to lay back and relax and have break from a busy life. The ambience of the whole place, especially the French quarters suits that.
The main attraction in Pondicherry is the city itself with its French architecture and beautiful streets. It also houses the aurbindo ashram, which in itself is an attraction drawing a lot of visitors on its own. It adds to the calm nature of Pondy. A stroll through the streets at evenings is quite soothing.
Other major attraction are the beaches, there are four main ones, the one in the city is called promenade beach, it is part and parcel of the city itself. You cannot take a dip here as the beach front is raised with boulders to avoid soil erosion.
If you need to take a dip paradise beach would be the best bet. But it has a lot if inhereent flaws. One is transportation, its about 7 km outside the city and autowallas will charge 2-300 ( autowaalas are the biggest menace in Pondy) for getting there, public tranaport in Pondy is not that well established. Once you reach there you have to take a boat to actual beach front. The queue to tickets is known to leaf upto hours. And they charge 200 per head for 10 min ride. Once you reach the actual beach is quite enjoyable. But here is another major flaw, the boat timings is from 9-6 and after 4 there is no boat to the beach. The problem here is that after 10 and before 4 the beach is hot as hell especially from Feb till Sep and you have to be really commited to enjoy the beach.
Another major beach is serenity on the other side of city.
Another major attraction is auroville. Which is quite far and even once you reach there entry to maithri mandir the major attraction there is restricted. The only way to enjoy auroville is to enroll and stay there for couple of weeks but I've heard they are a bit partial to foreigners
That's about it in Pondy, the food in the up market restaurants in French quarter are good, other than that there is nothing mebtionable.
Then there is booze. And lots of it.
This isn't much of a review and I'm not a reviewer, Was bored and had nothing else to do. If this is been helpful. Thanks for reading .
