Travellers find Pondicherry a cosmopolitan travel destination. While Auroville, Rishi Aurobindo Ashram brings spiritual peace, the beaches bring one close to nature and ayurvedic spa relaxes the bodies.

The experience in Auroville, Pondicherry is marvelous. It is a lifetime experience to visit Auroville in Pondicherry. It is a kind of Ashram created under the dreams of Rishi Aurobindo Ghosh. It was founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa, also called Mother.

Auroville in French means city of dawn. After inauguration in 1968, the vision of Auroville included the following that is the service of Auroville is for the humanity as a whole, there will be constant education in the place, it will also be a place of spiritual research.

There is Matrimandir at the middle of the Ashram. It is filled with solar power plant and is surrounded by manicured gardens.

Peace is maintained near the Matrimandir. Entry within the Ashram is allowed between 8 am to 12 noon and 2 pm to 6 pm.

At the beginning the township was built to house around 50000 residents. At present around 2, 500 residents from 49 countries stay in the township.

Those who enter the Auroville can do a lot of activities. Foreign films are screened in the town hall, eco movies are screened at the Sadhna forest. There are yoga classes held in different parts of Auroville.

After spending time in the Auroville visitors can go to visit the Rishi Aurobindo Ashram. The Ashram has Samadhi of both Rishi Aurobindo Ghosh and Mother. The library and crafts centre in the Aurobindo Ashram is marvelous. Travellers read the life of Rishi Aurobindo Ghosh and know his philosophy which is very rich.

There is a beautiful place in the Ashram dealing with Ayurvedic medicines.

After visiting the brilliant Auroville followed by the Rishi Aurobindo Ashram travellers can spend time in the beaches. The Pondicherry beach is an outstanding beach. The manmade constructions within the Pondicherry beach resemble France. France ruled Pondicherry for a long period. So in the architecture of buildings in Pondicherry there is French touch. The white colour of most buildings take the travellers to little France. The large pavements across the beach also show French touch.

The evenings are very romantic in Auroville. The beautiful waves lashing against the shore takes the travellers to paradise. It is a beautiful experience to see the sun set in Auroville.

The Promenade beach in Pondicherry is another beautiful beach. It is really beautiful. There are rocks on the borders of the beaches. The sea waters in this part of Pondicherry hit the rocks and not the sands. The rocks look like a protection not to allow the sea water to encroach further and damage the adjoining lands.

Paradise beach is another brilliant beach in Pondicherry. It is used by honeymoon couples. Many travellers travel in speed boats, cover the rivers and enter Paradise beach. The beach has clean yellow sands. It is a bit secluded. But it is very beautiful. John Abraham and Bipasha Basu’s film Jism was shot extensively in Paradise beach.  There are beautiful palm trees on the border of the sands of Paradise beach.

Travelling to Pondicherry is quite easy. It is well connected to other parts of India. Travellers from Kolkata come by flight to Chennai. There are many affordable flights like Spice Jet, Go Air, Indigo, Air India which regularly come from Kolkata to Chennai. From Chennai travellers use the roadways to come to Pondicherry. The roadways journey is beautiful. Many travellers stop at Kanchipuram to see the great Mahadeva temple. Many travellers go to Mahavalipuram to visit the rock cut temples which are called Shoras and Rathas.

As Pondicherry is a cosmopolitan place, there are very good eateries at every place. The food in these eateries include French food, Italian food, British food and Indian food as well.

There are many beautiful hotels in Pondicherry. The Anandha Inn is a beautiful hotel in Pondicherry. It is a white hotel which is painted white from outside. The entire planning of the hotel has been made in French style.

The rooms inside the hotel are very beautiful. The ceilings are high and the rooms are very airy. The hotel has beautiful swimming pool. As Pondicherry is situated adjacent to Bay of Bengal it rains in short intervals. It is a lifetime experience to swim in the mild waters of swimming pool when it is raining outside. The water is clean and not too much chlorine is poured in which creates discomfort for the eyes.

There is complimentary breakfast in the hotel. The range of food includes tea, coffee, milk, cereal flake, omelettes, chicken sausage, fruits like apples, bananas, dry fruits like raisins, cashew nuts and brilliant juices. Food is in the form of buffet, and it is a beautiful experience to eat without being served and compelled to have those food items which one is disinclined to eat.

There are different lunch offered to tourists. Some of the tourists go for chicken curry with rice. Many tourists have chicken curry or fish curry in the evening with chapatis.

The weather of Pondicherry is very pleasant. It is never cold. Novembers and December is the best time to come to Pondicherry. There is one more beauty of the place. Travellers use up Ayurvedic spa in the place. Pondicherry is very famous for that.

Travellers pay for taking steam bath, taking ayurvedic spa and other forms of spa. Herbal oils are applied on the bodies of the travellers and trained persons do the spa. They have certificate showing the years of experience and the spa session really benefit the travellers. There are herbal bath also provided in the ayurvedic spa centres. The oils used are all ayurvedic. Leaves and roots of ayurvedic plants are burned to get the steam during the steam bath.

There are some groups of tourists who go to Pichavaram to see the mangrove forests there. There are marshy lands around the mangrove forests. Visiting those places in boats is a good experience.

In a nutshell the tour program of Auroville and travel spots in Pondicherry has huge amount of diversity, travellers can not forget the peaceful experience, the religious experience and the beautiful natural tour in the same area.

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