Free walking tours in Madurai

Dhanabalan was a great host. He shared a vast amount of knowledge of Tamil culture, religion and Madurai. He English was excellent and he checked regularly that I understood the information & answers lots of questions. Great guide, great tour to see parts of Madurai that are not obvious for a tourist. 100% recommend

We had a nice experience with the ceremony in the Meenakshi Amman Temple. Dhanabalan is friendly and enthusiastic in his storytelling. It is clear that he has a passion for his city, state and language. He introduces what the ceremony is about, and explains the steps, before you witness it yourself. That is good, because during the ceremony itself there's not really the occasion to talk about it. The ceremony feels a bit chaotic, with many people around, some movements from one place to another, and sometimes it's difficult to see exactly what is happening if other people are blocking the view. Afterwards Dhanabalan answers any leftover questions, regarding the ceremony, things to do in Madurai or any other questions. He also gives some nice recommendations, which is really valuable.

We enjoyed and learned a lot from Dhabalan in the ceremony tour. It was super interesting, super proffessional and realy good experiance. We also got great tips for our other trips. We highly recommend !!

Fantastic and unique experience! I really felt blessed to have experienced the night ceremony and had such a great guide to explain it all. Dhanabalan knew the best spots to witness the ceremony first hand and gave so much valuable information. Simple excellent. Don't miss the experience with Dhanabalan when you are in Madurai. Then you can go the next day to visit the temple and the thousands pillars at your own pace, it is unmissable while in Tamil Nadu.

Dhanabalan is a professional experienced & informative guide We spent a very pleasant & entertaining 4 hours with him We had a lot of questions for him about the Madurai temple and sites but also about Indian religion and life and he was able to answer at level we could understand and in perfect English We can strongly recommend Dhanabalan as a guide

Balan gave us a totally personalized tour with plenty of information about everything we wanted to know, like Hinduism, culture, society, architecture and the history of the places :) we can only recommend him as a tour guide

Fabulous way to visit the temple. Beware of traffic woes and start early to avoid large crowds. The tour was great and our guide was excellent with their knowledge of the temple and history. Enjoyed it immensely

The tour guide Dhanabalan Perumal made our walking city tour very interesting. Amazing attention to detail and knowledge. I would recommend him

It was good to have a local person as a guide

The tour ha been a wonderful experience and very interesting tour. Dhanabalan has been very kind and he answered all our questions. Thanks

Perfect Tour - Tour Guide was friendly, he explained me a lot and his English was very good. I am very happy about my Tour!

It was an interesting tour with Mr. Dhanabalan Perumal with a lot of historical informations.👍

Mr. Dhanabalan does an excellent job of describing the place history , etymology, literary mentions about the temple. He is more than happy to answer your queries and share with you the photos and literature about the temple

Dhanabalan gave an excellent guided tour. He really knows his history of the Palace and Temple, and he told many stories in an engaging and enthusiastic way, I thoroughly recommend!

Great experience with very interesting explanations

Mr Bala is very patient and able to answer the questions which we have. He has a wealth of information not only on Madurai temple but the dynasty ruled madurai and Tamilnadu. He is a treasure of information and I am extremely satisfied the 2 hours of tour which he did for us and Thank you Bala.i strongly recommend people looking to use his services

One of the best tours on our trip to India. Very well explained, we learned a lot, and the English was excellent. We are very grateful and highly recommend it.

One of the best tours on our trip to India. Very well explained, we learned a lot, and the English was excellent. We are very grateful and highly recommend it.

Great tour from Dhanabalan. Very knowledgeable of Madurai, always prepared to answer questions. The tour is enriched by his view of the local cultural and historical events.

Tour muy recomendable!! Volveremos a hacer otro tour con el mismo guia. Ameno, muy flexible y la información que te cuenta es muy interesante. Muy agradable

Experience 100% recommended. Magnificent guide passionate about his work. Great control of the history of the city and India. Very attentive to details, friendly and willing to teach everything about the historical sites. Thank you very much Dhanabalan for your wonderful tour!!

Amazing tour guide! His tour was really essential for our understanding of the temple, Culture in Tamil Nadu and India in general. Highly highly recommend this tour to everyone The tour guide speaks very well and clear and could answer all of our questions while also sharing with us nice stories and insider information

Dit is een top guru gids. We hielden van zijn passie en kennis waarmee hij 3 Belgische toeristen meedroeg in het verhaal van deze ceremonie van 'het naar bed brengen van de goden' tijdens het bezoek aan de Meenakschi tempel in Madurai. Hij contacteerde ons ook om de afspraak praktische vast te leggen en begeleide ons vanaf het hotel en weer terug. Moe maar voldaan, deze uitstap is zeker een aanrader. Grtz 3 toeristen van België

I highly suggest a walking tour with Mr. Dhanpal. He is a storehouse of knowledge. I got vast insights into the history of not only the temple town of Madurai but also the Tamil language and literature including Thirukkural. There are minute intricacies and stories behind the sculptures of Ayiramkal Mandapam and the temple architecture which I would’ve definitely missed if he wasn’t with me. I was taken through the snaking alleys of town where I visited the banana market and was surprised to see the smoking chambers of the fruit! A normal visit to the temple on my own would not have taken me to the Summer palace built by Thirumalai Naykkar which is in another part outside of the temple. I drank Jigarthanda from the original shop too. The walking tour takes you through puthu mandapam and wholesale and retail markets so I recommend shopping from these areas which I found way too economical than from around the temple. The palace is undergoing renovation but you can take a few pics here. I am eagerly awaiting to avail his services very shortly for my family and friends. Dhanapal gave me three viewpoints on most of the things - from the mythology, that of the Archeological Survey of India, and his own as a native of Madurai. I have been traveling far and wide, taking services of guides wherever I go to delve deep into the background but this has been the most satisfying one so far. He is ready to clear your doubts and I realized that he is well read. I highly recommend Dhanapal and Guruwalk.

As you can read in the other reviews, it was truly a very interesting tour ! Dhanabalan is very caring, nice and fun. He explained us a lot of things about the places we visited but also shared a lot about Indian history and culture. He gave us a lot of recommendations (things to do after the tour, places to eat, to see…). We also made a few stops during the tour to taste some drinks and food, this was highly appreciated ! Thanks a lot!