Two people at Marina beach

Getty Images/Flickr RF

Marina Beach

Chennai (Madras)


Take an early morning or evening stroll (you don’t want to roast here at any other time) along the 3km-long main stretch of Marina Beach and you’ll pass cricket matches, flying kites, fortune-tellers, fish markets, corn-roasters and families enjoying the sea breeze. But don’t swim: strong rips make it dangerous. At the southern end, the ridiculously popular Madras Lighthouse is India's only lighthouse with a lift; the panoramic city and beach views are fabulous.

Kamarajar Salai, flanking the beach, is lined with particularly fine Indo-Saracenic buildings, among them Presidency College and the University of Madras' Senate House.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Chennai (Madras) attractions

1. Vivekananda House

0.24 MILES

The marshmallow-pink Vivekananda House is interesting not only for its displays on the famous ‘wandering monk’, Swami Vivekananda, but also for its…

2. Parthasarathy Temple

0.45 MILES

Built under the 8th-century Pallavas and unusually dedicated to Krishna (a form of Vishnu) as the charioteer Parthasarathy, this is one of Chennai's…

3. Madras Lighthouse

0.88 MILES

At the southern end of Marina Beach, the fourth-incarnation Madras Lighthouse is India's only one with a lift; it's ridiculously popular, but the…

4. Wallajah Big Mosque

1.1 MILES

Built entirely of granite in 1795 by the Nawab of the Carnatic, and generally known simply as the Big Mosque.

6. San Thome Cathedral

1.3 MILES

This soaring Roman Catholic cathedral, a stone's throw from the beach, was founded by the Portuguese in 1523, then rebuilt by the British in neo-Gothic…

7. Kapaleeshwarar Temple

1.53 MILES

Mylapore is one of Chennai's most characterful and traditional neighbourhoods; it predated colonial Madras by several centuries. Its Kapaleeshwarar Temple…

8. Luz Church

1.67 MILES

Styled with blue-and-white baroque elegance, pretty little palm-fringed Luz Church is Chennai's oldest European building, dating to 1516 – which also…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting:
    {
      "url": "india/tamil-nadu/chennai-madras/attractions/marina-beach/a/poi-sig/460363/356488",
      "destination": "Chennai-(Madras)",
      "continent": "Asia",
      "country": "India",
      "city": "Chennai-(Madras)",
      "position": "superzone"
    }