Great place to experience a canoe ride in between the mangroves. A few movies were shot here and is the 2nd largest after Sunderbans. This is couple of hours for pondicherry and will have to set aside a day. You may also experience lunch here at 2 homely places with fish, crab and prawns. Overall a good place for family.

This is a must visit place to experience back waters like kerala. But be ready to pay in extra cash to driver to take you inside the channels. Take one hour as it's not worth more than that. Near by Light house is a waste. Take a row boat only to enjoy. Motor boat will not take you inside the channels. It take 2-3 hrs to reach this place and the road is really bad.

On the way back from Tranquebar to Chennai, we stopped over for our much awaited first experience with mangroves. Location: Google Maps is spot on and will take you to the Tourist Information Centre. Tickets: Row Boats (prices vary from INR 400 per person) to Speed Boats (INR 1800 per boat, up to a max of 8 passengers, 2km, 40 minutes). Facilities: There are some food stalls. Rest rooms are reasonably clean. Weekends are crowded. Overall, the whole thing is slightly disorganized, but ultimately you get a boat number and a departure time. You can see mangroves all along the water body, with roots hanging down into the waters. It is quite a beautiful area. If you tip the boatman, he will take you deeper inside, where the mangroves become tunnels or caves. That is an experience. You will need to be careful and duck low to avoid being hit by the low hanging roots. The overall ride was for about an hour and it was truly exciting to go through the mangroves. As a bird photographer, captured a Striated Heron (see photograph), but did not have the right settings for eagles in flight, just as we emerged from the dark tunnels! But such is life for a bird photographer.

No need to travel foreign land outside India to have a look of mangrove forest. It's best here. And it gave me a experience which is unimaginable. I had to made some effort to reach that place and it was totally worth it.

Breathtaking views of the mangroves. Enjoy a 40 minute boat ride, gentle splash of the water along the boat side, absorb the serenity of these silent sentinels of the sea coast. The State Tourism board has a streamlined efficient system. Enjoy a scrumptious meal at Hotel Mangrove 2 km away.