Chennai Hotels

Chennai is the capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu in India, and is the country's fourth-largest city. It is on the Coromandel coast of the Bay of Bengal. With an estimated population of 7.45 million (2005), the 367 year old city is the 34th largest metropolitan area in the world. Its has the 2nd longest seashore in the world. Chennai has neither the cosmopolitan, prosperous air of Mumbai (Bombay), the optimistic buzz of Bengaluru (Bangalore) or the historical drama of Delhi. It's muggy, polluted, hot as hell and difficult to get around. Traditional tourist attractions are few. Even the movie stars are, as one Chennaiker put it, ‘not that hot'. But the locals are a little friendlier than average here, the streets a little wider and, in spite of its booming IT, business-outsourcing and auto industries, the pace much slower than in most Indian cities half its size. Chennai is so modest you wouldn't even know it's an economic powerhouse, much less a queen of showbiz: India's fourth-largest city is also its most humble.Chennai (formerly Madras) prefers to quietly hold onto tradition, thank you very much. Even its tendency to spread out – the city sprawls over 70 sq km with no real centre – seems like an attachment to the small coastal villages from which it descends. And it remains deeply conservative – the lungi (a type of sarong) is very much in fashion, alcohol is frowned upon and religious devotion is going strong.With only a handful of tourist sights, Chennai doesn't demand too much of your time. But poke around the markets of George Town or Theagaraya Nagar, take a stroll along Marina Beach at sunset, and get a little taste of village life in the city.