A 2-day itinerary.

Two days in Thanjavur is the right amount of time for the city itself. Less is hurried. More is leisure rather than sightseeing. The itinerary below assumes two nights in a city hotel, an interest in seeing the temple in both its morning and its evening guises, and a willingness to walk between the temple and the palace at least once.

The pace is unhurried. Most travellers try to compress Thanjavur into a half-day stopover between Madurai and Pondicherry, and most of those travellers come away thinking the temple is impressive but small. It is neither small nor merely impressive. It rewards the time you give it.

Before you arrive.

Book a hotel walkable to the temple (Svatma or Gnanam) or arrange a hotel taxi for the dawn run if you stay further out (Sangam, Ideal River View). Confirm the temple opens at six. Bring a long-sleeved shirt or shawl for the inner shrines. Eat a light breakfast on day one; the morning programme is long.

Day 1, morning.

Up by five-thirty. Tuk-tuk or walk to the temple for the six o'clock opening. Two hours inside the prakara — the eastern gopuram first, then the Nandi pavilion, then the main shrine. Read the plinth inscriptions on the south side; sit for a moment in the eastern colonnade. Photographers will start to arrive by half-past seven; the best light is the first ninety minutes.

Breakfast at Sri Krishna Bhavan on the bazaar road — idli, vada, filter coffee. Walk back to the hotel by half-past nine for a short rest. The Kaveri delta heats up quickly and the midday hours are best spent indoors.

Day 1, afternoon.

Tuk-tuk to the Maratha palace at half-past two. The durbar hall first, then the bell tower (climb if the heat permits; otherwise leave for the morning of day two), then the art gallery upstairs. Two hours covers the palace properly. Walk back through the bazaar quarter to the hotel; lunch was the meal you should have eaten before the palace, not after.

Back to the temple at half-past five for the evening session. The light at sunset on the west face of the vimana is the photograph everyone goes to Thanjavur for. The evening pooja begins at half-past six; stay for it if your hotel dinner can wait until half-past eight.

Day 2, morning.

A slower start. Breakfast at the hotel. Back to the palace by ten for the Saraswathi Mahal Library museum and the bronze gallery — the two sections you almost certainly did not finish on day one. An hour each. The library museum is most rewarding in the cool of the late morning; the bronze gallery in the better light of midday.

Lunch at Vasantha Bhavan on the bazaar road. The thali is the meal; the room is functional and the pace is brisk. Coffee at Sri Krishna afterwards. Walk back to the hotel through the bazaar quarter — brass vessels, sari shops, the morning vegetable market if you arrive before noon.

Day 2, afternoon and evening.

Choose one. Either a Thanjavur painting workshop visit — arrange it through the hotel — which takes ninety minutes and may end with a small commission. Or a tuk-tuk to Tiruvaiyaru, the village of the saint-composer Tyagaraja, twelve kilometres up the river: the small shrine, the riverbank, an hour at the bathing ghats.

Back to the city by half-past five for a last walk through the temple precinct at the evening session. The sunset light on the eastern gopuram is the second-best light of the visit. Dinner at Svatma if you have not already eaten there; book ahead.

Logistics.

Tuk-tuks within the city run between sixty and a hundred and fifty rupees per ride. Ride-hailing apps work but the older drivers do not use them. The temple has free secure parking but the lanes around it are narrow; a taxi is faster than a car you drive yourself. The palace has its own parking. Eat breakfast and dinner at the hotel if you stay at Svatma or Sangam; lunch on the bazaar road for the local food.

Variants and extensions.

Add a third day for the Chola circuit — see our 3-day itinerary. Skip the Tiruvaiyaru detour on day two if you are tight on time. Replace the painting workshop with the bronze gallery if you ran out of time on day one. The itinerary is a starting point; it is meant to be edited.