Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh runs for roughly 975 kilometres along the Bay of Bengal, from the Godavari and Krishna deltas down to the dry boulder country of Rayalaseema. Its past is layered: Satavahana traders, the great Buddhist stupa at Amaravati whose carved railings now sit in museums in Chennai and London, Vijayanagara governors who raised Lepakshi with its hanging pillar and monolithic Nandi, and the Telugu poets of Rajahmundry. Most travellers arrive for Tirumala, where the Venkateswara temple receives tens of thousands of pilgrims a day and the queue moves all night. Beyond it the state rewards slower travel: the Araku Valley reached by the Kirandul passenger train through tunnel after tunnel, the limestone chambers of Borra Caves, Gandikota where the Penna river cuts a red gorge below a Kakatiya fort, and the Papikondalu boat run between forested hills on the Godavari. Visakhapatnam adds beaches, a submarine museum and fish thalis. Signature journeys pair Tirupati and Lepakshi with Araku, or the deltas with the coconut canals of Konaseema.