Travel Note
Most non-Indian visitors need a tourist visa to travel to India! Luckily, this can be completed online before traveling. We strongly recommend applying for a 30 day e-tourist visa via the link below instead of visiting an Indian consulate. The earliest you can apply for this visa is 30 days BEFORE your travel. Typically, it takes 1-7 business days to receive an email with a confirmation once your visa is approved. We recommend applying for this e-visa at least 2-3 weeks before your travel. You will need to PRINT OUT a PAPER copy of this email confirmation and bring it with you along with your passport. Airlines will request this when you're checking in for your flight to India and you'll need it at Indian immigration. The Indian e-visa website can be flaky at times. If your credit card payment doesn't go through, Paypal tends to do the trick. Additionally, you may need to compress your passport photo significantly to fit within their size limit. Click the VIEW button below to go to the official Indian government visa website!
Flight
Flying from the US for the wedding: You will want to fly into Chennai international airport: MAA. Note that when flying to India from the US especially the west coast that you will likely be crossing the international date line on the way there. i.e. if you depart for India on Wednesday and fly 14+ hours you'll be arriving FRIDAY not Thursday. Plan your arrival accordingly. For the return flight though, you will be arriving in the US on the same day of the week that you leave. So if you fly out on Sunday afternoon, you'll arrive back on Sunday evening barring any delays.
Travel Note
To get around in Chennai, you can use the Uber app to book a car just as you would in the US without having to update anything. You might be asked to provide a code that pops up in the Uber app to verify that you ordered the ride. While auto rickshaws are an option in the app, we suggest using air-conditioned cars since Chennai tends to be warm and humid. We do not recommend ANY of our international guests to rent a car or drive themselves. You do so at your own risk. Traffic rules and customs in India are very different than western driving and are not for the faint of heart. For arrivals into Chennai airport! If you’re coming in close to the wedding & heading straight to the Welcome ITC kenses we’ll be sending around a sheet closer to the wedding to coordinate airport shuttles. If you’re coming in much earlier than the wedding also put that in the survey we send around & we can link you to a driver service we’ve used so that you can have guaranteed pick up from the airport for late night flights
Travel Note
India will be 12.5 hrs ahead of San Francisco 10.5 hrs ahead of Chicago and 9.5 hrs ahead of east coast. The whole country of India is in one time zone hence the .5 difference. If your schedule allows, you might want to allow a little bit of buffer time for your arrival before the wedding to adjust to the time zones or look up jet lag hacks to optimize your airplane sleep.
Hotel
This hotel is where we’re staying & having mehendi !! Can say Em & the fam have visited & it’s very nice :) . It’s a 5 star hotel with pool, beach access & a nice restaurant plus gym & spa amenities & breakfast included. It’s 10 minutes from the venue. hotel blocks & booking links aren’t a thing in India but if you do book here & want to be in the same area of the hotel as us reach out . Shuttles from here to the venue will be arranged
Hotel
About 5-10 minutes from venue, this hotel has breakfast included as well as other amenities
Hotel
Right next door to venue. NOTE! To book this hotel the website takes you to a generic IHC page and you'll need to search for Mahabalipuram, India instead of Chennai, India for it to appear as an option. This location has breakfast included and other amenities. It is < 5 minutes from our venue . However this & the Sheraton are the more expensive options