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Tiruvannamalai
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Photo by Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Best time to visit Tiruvannamalai

India · South Asia

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in Tiruvannamalai

Tap a month for its page

  1. Tiruvannamalai in January: sweet spot, busy
  2. Tiruvannamalai in February: sweet spot, busy
  3. Tiruvannamalai in March: avoid
  4. Tiruvannamalai in April: avoid
  5. Tiruvannamalai in May: avoid
  6. Tiruvannamalai in June: avoid
  7. Tiruvannamalai in July: avoid
  8. Tiruvannamalai in August: avoid
  9. Tiruvannamalai in September: avoid
  10. Tiruvannamalai in October: avoid
  11. Tiruvannamalai in November: ok, busy
  12. Tiruvannamalai in December: sweet spot, busy
  • Sweet spot
  • Good
  • OK
  • Avoid
  • Busy
Go in Dec–Feb — these months score within a whisker of each other; 29C max, 2 rainy days. Nov is the next best.

Dry season: Dec–Jul, 6 or fewer rainy days a month.

Month by month

No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.

MonthMax °CRain days HumiditySun h/day VerdictWhy
Jan 29° 2d 74% 9.8h sweet spot busy busier than usual
Feb 32° 0d 67% 11.2h sweet spot busy busier than usual
Mar 35° 1d 64% 11.5h avoid extreme heat: 15 days over 35C
Apr 37° 1d 62% 11.6h avoid extreme heat: 27 days over 35C
May 37° 4d 61% 10.5h avoid extreme heat: 24 days over 35C
Jun 36° 5d 59% 9.8h avoid extreme heat: 21 days over 35C
Jul 35° 6d 60% 8.5h avoid extreme heat: 17 days over 35C
Aug 34° 8d 64% 9.1h avoid extreme heat: 14 days over 35C
Sep 33° 10d 70% 9.3h avoid 33C max, 10 rainy days
Oct 31° 16d 79% 8.8h avoid monsoon: 16 rainy days, 271mm
Nov 29° 13d 82% 7.8h okbusy busier than usual
Dec 28° 6d 79% 9.0h sweet spot busy busier than usual

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at the Arunachaleswarar temple: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest from November to February; quietest from April to September.

Then and now

Tiruvannamalai's January days now average 29.3°C, 0.8°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 2 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
1981–9028.5°31.7°34.7°37.3°38.2°36.3°34.9°34.1°33.3°31.0°28.8°27.7°
2017–2629.3°32.1°34.9°37.3°37.0°35.9°34.9°34.4°33.4°31.2°29.0°28.3°
Change+0.8°+0.3°+0.2°-0.0°-1.2°-0.4°+0.0°+0.3°+0.1°+0.1°+0.2°+0.6°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

Fly into Chennai (MAA), then drive. The flights under Where to book are to Chennai.

The drive from each airport is the road's, from openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT: typical, not a schedule.

How far Tiruvannamalai is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Type C and D plugs at 230 V. Drives on the left. The currency is the Indian rupee. UK Foreign Office: avoid all travel to parts. Everything for India: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.

Being there

On arrival

  • Paying — Cards are taken at larger hotels, chain stores and many restaurants; small shops and family-run businesses rarely take them, so carry some cash.
  • Tipping — Not traditional; up to 10% is usual only in smarter restaurants. Taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers do not expect a tip.

Getting around Tiruvannamalai

  • Apps — Rides: Ola, Rapido, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: WhatsApp. The apps also book auto-rickshaws, and bike taxis where these are allowed.

Lots of autorickshaws are posted on spots along the main roads waiting for hire. The next major form of public transfer would be bus if you weren't able to rent a scooter. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Tiruvannamalai, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Help

  • Emergency — 112 (any emergency).
    TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 3 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (29)

Tiruvannamalai in pictures

Thiruvannamalai, Arunachalesvara Temple, City, India
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Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Tiruvannamalai
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Balu 606902, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Tiruvannamalai, Arunachala Hill, Annamalai Hill, Slopes, India
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Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Tiruvannamalai Montage
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my own creation, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Tiruvannamalai is like

Tiruvannamalai, also known as Arunachala, is one of the greatest Saivite shrines in Tamil Nadu, India, on a sprawling 24 acre temple campus, drawing hundreds of thousands of pilgrims every full moon. The hill here is considered to be a manifestation of Shiva. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing
Arunachaleswara Temple. The major tourist and religious destination of the town. The temple has several tall towers in a symmetric arrangement. More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing
Auspicious Days. Pournami (Full Moon) Day and Karthigai Deepam Festival Girivalam (கிரிவலம்). The most popular activity in Tiruvannamalai is "Girivalam", which is walking barefoot around the Tiruvannamalai hill. More on Wikivoyage
Getting in
Town is well connected to many cities and towns in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh by road. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Tiruvannamalai, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Around Tiruvannamalai

Also in India

Nearby

Kind of place

Tiruvannamalai is in India, South Asia. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

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