Andhra Pradesh

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South India

Vijayanagara murals at Lepakshi, a fort above the Penna gorge, coffee hills by train, and no queues.

Temple towns, a long Coromandel coastline, and hills hiding waterfalls and coffee slopes.

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Visakhapatnam

What Andhra Pradesh is known for

TemplesCoastEastern GhatsFoodHeritage

Andhra Pradesh has no inscribed UNESCO World Heritage site, and that is the useful thing to know about it. Almost everything here is visited by Indians and by nobody else. Tirumala is the most visited temple in the country and the crowd in it is entirely domestic. The same holds for the caves, the coast and the hills. Two trips work better than one. In the south: Tirupati, then Lepakshi for the Vijayanagara ceiling murals, the hanging pillar and the monolithic Nandi, then Gandikota on the Penna river gorge, then Belum, the second longest cave in India. In the north: Visakhapatnam and the train up to Araku through the tunnels, with Borra Caves on the way. Joining the two is a thousand kilometres of driving for nothing. Lepakshi is the one to make time for. The painted ceiling is among the best surviving Vijayanagara work anywhere, it is dim inside, and you will probably have it to yourself. November to February. The interior around Kurnool and Kadapa is brutal from March onward.

Best time to visit

November to February is the window. The north-east monsoon brings the coast its rain from October to December, unlike most of India, so leave Visakhapatnam and Araku until it clears. Sankranti falls in January; avoid April and May, when the interior bakes.

Browse Andhra Pradesh by theme

Hill temples that draw pilgrims in their millions, a long Coromandel coast, and coffee slopes folded into the Eastern Ghats.

Heritage Spiritual & Pilgrimage Beaches Wildlife & Safari Hidden Gems

Heritage

Forts, temples and old towns.

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Amararama (Amaravati)

Amararama at Amaravati is the foremost of the Pancharama Kshetras — five ancient Shiva temples of coastal Andhra said to enshrine pieces of a single sacred lingam. Set on the Krishna River beside t…

Bavikonda

A bone fragment kept in an urn, recovered on this hill and taken to be a relic of the Buddha himself, is why the site matters more than its modest ruins suggest. Bavikonda means hill of wells, and …

Chandragiri Fort

Chandragiri was the last capital of the Vijayanagara empire — the Aravidu kings ruled from here after the fall of Hampi, and it was in the Raja Mahal that the grant for Fort St. George, the foundin…

Eluru

A district headquarters on the Tammileru, and a working town rather than a sightseeing one — worth an hour if you are already crossing this part of southeastern Andhra Pradesh, not a detour on its …

Kondapalli Fort

Kondapalli Fort sits in the Kondapalli hill range west of Vijayawada, in NTR district, Andhra Pradesh, featuring three successive gateways, fortified walls with towers, and the hilltop Tanisha Maha…

Mogalrajapuram Caves

Five groups of rock-cut caves, scattered across different parts of Vijayawada rather than gathered at one site, which is the main practical difficulty in seeing them. They are Shiva caves, cut arou…

Pavurallakonda

What survives up here is mostly floor plan: foundations of viharas, circular chaityas, votive stupas and hall outlines, two Brahmi label inscriptions, and about sixteen cisterns cut into the rock t…

Shilparamam Jathara

This is a made place rather than an old one, a crafts village the state government laid out in 2009 across 28 acres at Madhurawada, a few kilometres out of Visakhapatnam. Knowing that helps, becaus…

Srikalahasti

Srikalahasti, near Tirupati, is one of the Pancha Bhoota Sthalams of Lord Shiva, representing the element of wind (Vayu). Its ancient Dravidian temple is famed for the Rahu-Ketu rituals and a lamp …

Thotlakonda

The name means hill of cisterns, and the cisterns are what to look for: rock-cut tanks hewn straight into the bedrock to hold rainwater for the monks who lived up here. The complex stands about 128…

Vijayawada

Vijayawada works for a living. It is the second largest city in Andhra Pradesh and its main commercial hub, sitting on the Krishna River with the Eastern Ghats and the Indrakeeladri Hills on…

Spiritual & Pilgrimage

Places people come to pray.

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Bhavanarayana Temple, Sarpavaram

Inscriptions are the reason to slow down here. The earliest is dated 1073 CE, which tells you the temple was already standing by then, and the run of later ones records the repairs and rebuilds tha…

Bhramaramba (Mallikarjuna) Temple

Bhramaramba (Mallikarjuna) Temple in Srisailam, Andhra Pradesh is one of the Shakti Peethas, the sacred shrines of the Divine Mother in the Shakta tradition of Hinduism. According to tradition, thi…

Kodandarama Temple, Vontimitta

Twenty-five kilometres out of Kadapa, near Rajampet, stands one of the finest surviving pieces of Vijayanagara building in Rayalaseema: a 16th-century Rama temple with carved mandapas, monumental g…

Kotipalli

Chandra lost his glow, the story goes, and was told to install a Shiva Linga here alongside Rajarajeswari to win it back — which is why the lingam in the inner sanctum is called Chaya Someswara. Th…

Manikyamba (Bhimeswara) Temple

Manikyamba (Bhimeswara) Temple in Draksharamam, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh is one of the Shakti Peethas, the sacred shrines of the Divine Mother in the Shakta tradition of Hinduism. According to trad…

Puruhutika (Kukkuteswara) Temple

Puruhutika (Kukkuteswara) Temple in Pithapuram, Andhra Pradesh is one of the Shakti Peethas, the sacred shrines of the Divine Mother in the Shakta tradition of Hinduism. According to tradition, thi…

Sri Talpagiri Ranganadha Swamy Temple, Nellore

Before you reach the main entrance there is a tower to get past: the Gaaligopuram, the wind tower, some seventy feet of it with ten feet of gold-plated kalashams sitting on top. Yeragudipati Venkat…

Srisailam (Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga)

Srisailam, set amid the forested Nallamala Hills above the Krishna River, is home to the Bhramaramba Mallikarjuna Temple, a rare site that is at once one of the twelve Jyotirlingas of Shiva (as Mal…

Veerabhadra Temple, Lepakshi

Look up. The paintings are the reason to come, bright and closely detailed frescoes of Rama and Krishna drawn from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas, and unusually well preserved…

Beaches

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Rishikonda Beach (Vizag)

A golden crescent near Visakhapatnam backed by green hills, Rishikonda is Andhra's water-sports beach with surfing, jet-skiing and clean sands. The best months to visit are roughly November to Feb…

Yarada Beach (Vizag)

Tucked between hills south of Visakhapatnam, Yarada is a secluded, clean golden beach with an end-of-the-road feel and panoramic hilltop views. The best months to visit are roughly November to Feb…

Wildlife & Safari

Parks and reserves.

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Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary

The tide runs this place. The forest floods at least twice a day, and the mangroves hold themselves clear of the water on a tangle of stilt-like prop roots that slows the current, drops sediment an…

Hidden Gems

Quieter than the rest.

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Indira Gandhi Zoological Park

Six hundred and twenty-five acres is a great deal of zoo to walk, and the setting does much of the work: this one sits inside the Kambalakonda Reserve Forest with the Eastern Ghats on three sides a…

Kolleru Lake

Winter is the whole point. Kolleru is the largest shallow freshwater lake in Asia, lying between the Krishna and Godavari deltas about 15 km from Eluru, and what brings people out are the birds tha…

Srisailam Dam

Concrete across a gorge is not usually a reason to travel, and this one earns its stop mostly for where it stands: deep in the Nallamala Hills, at the point where the Tungabhadra runs into the Kris…

Food & cuisine

Chilli-forward, tamarind-sharp, and unapologetic about it.

5 dishes

Gongura Pachadi

A tangy chutney made from sorrel (gongura) leaves, ground with garlic and chillies — the defining sour flavour of Andhra cooking.

Andhra Chicken Curry (Kodi Kura)

A fiery chicken curry loaded with red chillies and onions, a staple of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema households.

Pulihora

Tangy tamarind rice tempered with peanuts, curry leaves and mustard seeds, eaten at festivals and everyday meals alike.

Bobbatlu (Boorelu)

A sweet flatbread stuffed with jaggery and lentils, rolled thin and cooked on a griddle — a festival classic.

Pesarattu

A green-gram dosa, usually with upma inside and ginger chutney alongside. Breakfast food.

Festivals in Andhra Pradesh

Dates move each year with the calendar — check before you book.

All festivals

October

Atla Tadde

cultural

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October

Bathukamma

regional

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October

Tirupati Brahmotsavam

religious

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December

Visakha Utsav

cultural

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February

Yanam Venkanna Babu Kalyanotsavam

religious

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March

Ugadi / Gudi Padwa

regional

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April

Hanuman Jayanti

religious

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September

Ganesh Chaturthi

religious

Over 12 million devotees visit Mumbai's public pandals annually during the 10-day window, according to Maharashtra Tourism.

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Road trips in Andhra Pradesh

Coast in the east, gorges and hill temples inland.

All road trips

Visakhapatnam to Araku

Up through the Ghats — the train is slower and better, but the road is fine.

Tirupati to Srikalahasti

Forty minutes between two very different temples.

Kurnool to Gandikota

Out to the gorge above the Penna, worth timing for sunrise.

Hyderabad to Srisailam

South through the Nallamala forest to a Jyotirlinga above the Krishna.