Chennai
Colombo
South Asia · Multi-city itinerary
India & Sri Lanka itinerary — March 2027
By Tripsapien Research · Updated May 20, 2026
March 2027 is a good time for the India & Sri Lanka trip (Chennai & Colombo). Daytime highs run from about 33°C / 91°F to 34°C / 93°F across the stops. Plan around 5–7 days for the full Chennai & Colombo loop. Tripsapien checks every place on your list against your exact dates — hours, closures and booking pressure at each stop.
The route
About 5–7 days · 2 cities
South India and the island across the Palk Strait: Chennai, the Tamil capital on the Coromandel coast, a centre of temples, Carnatic music and Marina Beach, and Colombo, Sri Lanka's seafront commercial capital and the gateway to its tea hills and ancient cities. An hour links them by air.
Chennai
Chennai in March
Temperature
94°F / 74°F
34.2°C / 23.6°C
Precipitation
1d
0.6in · 15mm
Daylight
11.9h
Sea
85.8°F
29.9°C
March turns hot, so put Government Museum or Kalakshetra in the afternoon.
March turns hot, so put Government Museum or Kalakshetra in the afternoon.
City overview
Chennai is the Bay of Bengal capital where colonial Fort St George, Mylapore temple streets, Carnatic music halls, and IT corridors stretch along a hot, humid coast. The visitor map centers on George Town, Mylapore, Egmore, T Nagar, Besant Nagar, and the ECR/OMR edge south of the Adyar River.
Food & drink
Chennai food is built on idli, dosa, sambar, pongal, vada, filter coffee, Chettinad chicken, biryani, sundal, and seafood from the coast. Mylapore, T Nagar, Sowcarpet, Marina Beach stalls, and Buhari-style biryani houses are practical food anchors. Prices stay moderate outside luxury hotels, and December music-season canteen meals are a real cultural draw.
Top sights
Ranked for March suitability using weather, setting, ratings, and review volume.
- 1Marina Beach
- 2Guindy National Park
- 3Kapaleeshwarar Temple
- 4San Thome Basilica
- 5Parthasarathy Temple
- 6Kalakshetra Foundation
- 7DakshinaChitra
- 8Government Museum, Egmore
- 9T Nagar shopping district
- 10Fort St George
1Marina Beach
4.3★ · 65,573outdoorLong urban beach running along the Bay of Bengal from Fort St George toward Mylapore. It is for walking, snacks, and people-watching rather than safe swimming.
Wikipedia
2Guindy National Park
4.1★ · 28,067outdoorClosed TueSmall protected forest inside the city, with blackbuck, deer, and the adjacent Children's Park and snake park. It is close to IIT Madras and Raj Bhavan.
Wikipedia
3Kapaleeshwarar Temple
4.8★ · 12,335indoorOpen dailyMylapore Shiva temple with a tall gopuram, tank, flower stalls, and festival streets. The present structure is usually dated to the 16th century after earlier coastal temples were lost.
Wikipedia
Show 7 more sights
- 4San Thome Basilica
- 5Parthasarathy Temple
- 6Kalakshetra Foundation
- 7DakshinaChitra
- 8Government Museum, Egmore
- 9T Nagar shopping district
- 10Fort St George
Neighborhoods
1Mylapore
Temple-and-culture district with Kapaleeshwarar Temple, Luz, San Thome, music sabhas, and old vegetarian restaurants. December music season makes it especially busy.
2George Town and Parry's Corner
Old trading district north of Fort St George, with wholesale lanes, Armenian Church, High Court buildings, and dense market traffic.
3Egmore and Nungambakkam
Museum, rail, college, restaurant, and hotel belt with Government Museum, consulates, cafes, and central access.
4T Nagar
Shopping district of sari stores, jewelry houses, Pondy Bazaar, and Ranganathan Street crowds. It is practical but intense before festivals.
5Adyar, Besant Nagar, and Thiruvanmiyur
South Chennai coast with Elliot's Beach, Theosophical Society, Kalakshetra, cafes, and quieter residential lanes.
6OMR and ECR
Southern technology and beach-road corridor, with IT parks on Old Mahabalipuram Road and day-trip resorts along East Coast Road.
Getting around
Chennai Metro Blue and Green lines connect airport, Central, Egmore, T Nagar approaches, and parts of the south, while suburban rail is useful for beach and outer-corridor trips. Use a CMRL travel card or QR ticket, then rely on autos, taxis, and MTC buses for temple-neighborhood last miles.
Colombo
Colombo in March
Temperature
91°F / 76°F
32.8°C / 24.5°C
Precipitation
7d
4in · 101mm
Daylight
12h
Sea
85.6°F
29.8°C
March is very hot and increasingly humid, so use museums and shaded temple stops midday.
March is very hot and increasingly humid, so use museums and shaded temple stops midday.
City overview
Colombo is Sri Lanka main city, where Fort offices, Pettah markets, Galle Face, Cinnamon Gardens, Buddhist temples, colonial buildings, and seafront hotels sit between airport and island rail routes. Treat it as Fort and Pettah for commerce, Galle Face and Kollupitiya for the coast, and Cinnamon Gardens or Borella for museums and parks.
Food & drink
Colombo food is hands-on and rice-based: hoppers are bowl-shaped fermented-rice pancakes, string hoppers are pressed rice-noodle nests, and kottu roti is chopped flatbread stir-fried with egg, vegetables, and meat. Pettah snacks, Galle Face carts, Kollupitiya restaurants, Dutch Hospital dining, and Mount Lavinia seafood add lamprais baked in a banana leaf, crab curry, isso vadai, short eats, and Ceylon tea.
Top sights
Ranked for March suitability using weather, setting, ratings, and review volume.
- 1Gangaramaya Temple
- 2Colombo National Museum
- 3Dutch Period Museum
- 4Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque
- 5Independence Memorial Hall
- 6Galle Face Green
- 7Lotus Tower
- 8Mount Lavinia Beach
- 9Viharamahadevi Park
- 10Pettah Market
1Gangaramaya Temple
4.6★ · 13,430indoorOpen dailyThe Buddhist temple near Beira Lake mixes shrine rooms, museum cases, statues, and processional material. It is one of central Colombo most visited religious sites.
Wikipedia
2Colombo National Museum
4.4★ · 6,487indoorClosed MonThe 19th-century museum building in Cinnamon Gardens holds royal regalia, sculpture, manuscripts, masks, weapons, and natural-history material nearby.
Wikipedia
3Dutch Period Museum
4★ · 514indoorClosed MonThe Pettah museum occupies an old Dutch governor residence and explains colonial trade, furniture, coins, and city history.
Show 7 more sights
- 4Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque
- 5Independence Memorial Hall
- 6Galle Face Green
- 7Lotus Tower
- 8Mount Lavinia Beach
- 9Viharamahadevi Park
- 10Pettah Market
Neighborhoods
1Fort
Fort is the old colonial and business core, with offices, hotels, port edges, rail station, restored buildings, and security-sensitive streets.
2Pettah
Pettah is crowded and commercial, with markets, mosques, kovils, bus stands, wholesale lanes, and constant street movement.
3Galle Face and Kollupitiya
The coast-facing belt has hotels, malls, embassies, the promenade, ocean views, and easier evening walks.
4Cinnamon Gardens
Cinnamon Gardens is leafy and institutional, with the National Museum, Independence Square, parks, embassies, and older villas.
5Slave Island and Beira Lake
This central zone mixes rail lines, temples, offices, hotels, apartment towers, and lake views around Gangaramaya.
6Mount Lavinia and Dehiwala
The southern suburbs add beaches, seafood restaurants, zoo access, guesthouses, and rail links down the coast.
Getting around
PickMe, Uber, tuk-tuks, buses, and suburban rail handle most movement; Fort station and the Pettah bus stands are the practical transport anchors. Traffic is slow, so group Fort-Pettah, Cinnamon Gardens, and Mount Lavinia as separate clusters.
Best time to do the India & Sri Lanka trip
In March, the India & Sri Lanka trip runs daytime highs from 33°C / 91°F to 34°C / 93°F, with nights down to about 24°C / 75°F at the coolest stop. Expect only a few wet days — up to 7 at the rainiest stop. Weighed across both stops, March is a good time to travel.
The most comfortable months across Chennai & Colombo are January, February and December, based on average daytime temperatures and rainfall at every stop. March 2027 is a good time to go.
Check this route against your dates
Tripsapien starts with the sights on this page or places you paste, then checks hours, closures, booking pressure and neighborhoods for your exact March dates — across every city on the India & Sri Lanka trip.
Plan this India & Sri Lanka tripCommon questions about the India & Sri Lanka trip
- When is the best time to do the India & Sri Lanka trip?
- The most comfortable months across Chennai, Colombo are January, February and December, based on average daytime temperatures and rainfall at each stop. March is a good time — see the per-stop weather below for the exact picture in March 2027.
- How many days do you need for the India & Sri Lanka trip?
- A comfortable India & Sri Lanka trip runs about 5–7 days, allowing roughly Chennai 2, Colombo 3 nights plus travel between stops. Add a day if you want a slower pace or extra day trips.
- What's the route for the India & Sri Lanka trip?
- The classic order is Chennai & Colombo. Each city below has its own March weather, events and top-sights list.
- Will the sights be open during my March India & Sri Lanka trip?
- Opening days and hours vary by weekday, season and public holiday, and they differ from city to city on a multi-stop trip. Paste your India & Sri Lanka list into Tripsapien and it checks every place in Chennai, Colombo against your exact dates, flagging closures and what needs booking ahead before you go.