Today, we bring you a perfect Rameswaram 2 days itinerary!! Year end 2021, we made a plan to visit Rameswaram along with exploring the temples of Madurai, the Chettinad Tourist places including the Karaikudi houses and the Thanjavur Big Temple. It was a compact 5 days trip from Bangalore. So, we only spent a day in Rameswaram. And could only visit the Ramalingeshwara Temple there. But there were so many other places to visit in Rameswaram that we couldn’t, including a trip to Dhanushkodi.
Luckily, just over a year after that, we got a chance to make another trip to Rameswaram. So, this time, we decided to make it a Rameswaram 2 days itinerary. Thus exploring most of the places to visit in Rameswaram over these two days. So, here’s our Rameswaram 2 days itinerary, with the places to visit in the order mentioned. Assuming you will be visiting Rameswaram from Madurai like we did.
Day 1 of Rameswaram 2 days Itinerary
Madurai to Rameswaram trip
We took a road trip from Bangalore to Madurai the day before. Upon reaching Madurai, we visited the Meenakshi Amman Temple. And stayed overnight at Kfour Apartments and Hotel which was very near to the highway. The next day we took a road trip from Madurai to Rameswaram which is throughout on NH 87.
The road condition is good. Half of the NH 87 from Madurai to Rameswaram is 4 lane while the other half is 2 lane. Overall , it takes around 3 hours to reach Rameswaram from Madurai. Around 15 kilometers before the bridge to Rameswaram, we stopped at this hotel for lunch.
Post lunch, we drove to the bridge. And stopped on the bridge for some beautiful snaps of the Pamban Island from here.
There after we crossed the bridge to enter the Pamban Island and continued on NH 87. The town of Rameswaram is around 8km inside the Pamban Island. And our hotel, S S Grand hotel , is located on the NH 87 itself. So, we first checked in into the hotel. By around 3:30 pm, we had settled in our room, freshened up and ready to start our trip of Rameswaram.
Exploring Dhanushkodi
We decided to explore Dhanushkodi for the rest of the day today. The ghost town of Dhanushkodi is located on the extension of NH 87, also called Rameswaram – Dhanushkodi road. A cyclone in the year 1964 destroyed this town and submerged major parts of it. The ruins of the old town buildings can be seen here. Moreover, driving through that last stretch of road with the Indian ocean flocking on one side and the Bay of Bengal on the other is an experience of it’s own. Further, 5km from the town of Dhanushkodi you reach the end of land in India – the Dhanushkodi beach.
There are several things to do on a trip to Dhanushkodi. Including excellent photography, enjoying seafood, spending quality time on the Dhanushkodi beach, exploring the ruins of the ghost town of Dhanushkodi, and much more. Here’s our complete blog post on our trip to Dhanushkodi.
After a wonderful trip to Dhanushkodi from Rameswaram, we returned back to our hotel by evening. Thereafter we had an early dinner and called it a day. As we planned to start our day early to explore rest of the places to visit in Rameswaram.
Day 2 of Rameswaram 2 days Itinerary
Day 2 of our Rameswaram 2 days itinerary was the day when we decided to explore most of the places to visit in Rameswaram. And this is how we planned our day.
Ramanathaswamy Temple Rameswaram
The first and foremost place to visit in Rameswaram is definitely Ramanasthawamy Temple in Rameswaram. Ramanathaswamy Temple is one of the most important temples of the Hindus. As it is considered one of the 4 most important pilgrimage destinations, the “Char Dham“. And it is believed that a Hindu who visits all 4 dhamas in his or her life attains to salvation. But apart from being one of the 4 dhams, the Ramanathaswamy temple is also one of the jyotirlingas of Shiva. So, that makes it all the more important.
As a result, the temple sees a lot of rush all through the year. Visiting in early morning hours gives one the benefit of less crowd. So, we visited here early in the morning. We started from our hotel at around 6:30am. And we were able to complete our temple visit and be back to our hotel by 8:30am. So, it really paid off to wake up early and visit this temple.
Ramalingeshwara Temple timing : 6:00am to 12:00pm , 4:00pm to 8:00pm
Agniteertham
Right besides Ramanathaswamy temple lies the Agniteertham, on the banks of the ocean. Taking a dip into the water here is believed to relieve one of their sins.
After visiting the temple and Agniteertham, we had breakfast at our hotel. Post breakfast, we visited rest of the places, except Villoondi Teertham on foot. As they were all at walking distance from the hotel.
Visiting Lakshmana Theertham
The first site that we visited from our hotel post breakfast was Lakshmana Teertham. In Rameswaram and around it, there are around 64 holy theerthas out of which 22 are located in the complex of Sri Ramanathaswamy temple. Lakshmana Theertham is one of the few which is located outside the main temple complex. This temple is located to Lord Lakshmana, the brother of Lord Rama.
The Lakshmana Theertham is built in Dravidian style of architecture. It has a beautiful, colorful corridor, which feels like a mini version of the largest corridor of Ramanathaswamy Temple. Inside, there are idols of Lord Rama, Lord Lakshmana, and Goddess Sita. Also, the temple has a pond besides it, with a mandapa in the center. Overall it is a beautiful and significant temple to include in the list of places to visit in Rameswaram on your Rameswaram 2 days itinerary.
Lakshmana Theertham Temple timing : 6:00am to 12:00pm , 4:00pm to 8:00pm
Panchmukhi Hanuman Temple
Barely 200 meters from Lakshmana Temple lies the temple of Panchmukhi Hanuman, which has a tall idol of Lord Hanuman. The word “Panchmukhi” literally means “five faced” and this idol of Lord Hanuman contains 5 faces, hence the Temple name. Overall, Rameswaram is all about Ramayana and it’s characters. So, no wonder there are temples dedicated to Lakshmana, Hanumana, Sita and other important Ramayana Gods and Goddess apart from Sri Rama.
House of A P J Abdul Kalam
A significant person whose homeland was Rameswaram was India’s famous scientist and president, Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam. There is a memorial on NH 87 built in the memory and honour of Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, right when you enter Rameswaram. Also, you can visit his house, which is hardly 500 meters from the Panchmukhi Hanuman Temple. And if time permits, you can also visit his burial ground.
Villoondi Teertham
A very special place to include in your Rameswaram 2 days itinerary is Villoondi Teertham – a sweet water lake that sprouts right in the middle of the ocean from nowhere like a mystery unresolved!! Legends say that Lord Rama created this lake for his army to drink water while they were working on building the Ram Setu. The Ram Setu being the bridge connecting the Pamban Island to Sri Lanka, where his wife Sita was kept captive by Ravana.
Villoondi Teertham is located around 6 km from the above attractions. And you can easily hire an autorickshaw which will take you to the spot.
Overall, we completed a visit to all these places in a couple of hours. And then came back to our hotel. The hotel checkout time was around 12pm. So, around this time, we checked out and started our trip back to Madurai. Because we wanted to halt for the night at Madurai. And continue our journey from Madurai to Bangalore the next day. In case you can spend one more night in Rameswaram, you can take a lot more time to explore all the above destinations all through the day. And also, visit some more places like the Seetha Theertham, The Olaikuda beach, Ariyaman beach and several other temples.
General information on visiting Rameswaram
Where to stay in Rameswaram
Rameswaram has several hotels, most of them are in the mid to small budget range. Then there are also Oyo rooms and hostels available at very cheap prices. We have stayed at Daiwik Hotel on our first trip to Rameswaram and in S S Grand hotel on our second trip to Rameswaram. Both these hotels are located right on NH 87 which makes getting into the town and moving out easy. Also, since we have travelled in our own vehicle both the times, these hotels had ample parking space, which was one of our requirements. Here’s a list of hotels in Rameswaram from our partner site that you can browse to book one.
How to reach Rameswaram
One can conveniently reach Rameswaram from Madurai via NH 87. One can also reach Rameswaram from Chettinad Region and Karaikudi , the roads are in excellent condition. Since Madurai is a major town of Tamil Nadu, it is well connected to the rest of India via road, rail and air network. So, one can conveniently reach Madurai. And then either drive to Rameswaram or take a train to Rameswaram via the famous Pamban Bridge. We drove from Bangalore to Madurai on NH 44 and then further drove from Madurai to Rameswaram on NH 87.
A trip to Rameswaram via the railways is also one of the most famous ways of reaching Rameswaram. Since it is an experience in itself to travel over the Pamban Bridge which is the only rail bridge in India built over an ocean – a marvel of the engineering excellence in India.
What is the best season to visit Rameswaram
The winter season is the best time to visit Rameswaram. As the temperature in Rameswaram remains moderately hot in this time, ranging from 25 degree to 30 degree celcius. In rainy season, when it rains heavily, you might be able to visit Dhanushkodi. Same is the case if there are predictions of cyclone, which often happen to arrive in this area around the year end time. So, check the weather predictions before visiting. The summer months of March onwards might see slight rise in the mercury, making it uncomfortable to explore around during the day.
With this, we conclude our Rameswaram 2 days itinerary details and the list of places to visit in Rameswaram. Hope it helps you plan your trip to Rameswaram. If you will like to explore the region further, here are some more articles about places to visit and things to see in this region of Tamil Nadu:
The Thirumalai Nayakar Palace Madurai
Things to do in Madurai in a day
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