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Here are some of the Homestays in Chennai where you can stay:

Image	Homestay	Tariff	Address
	The Cocoon Serviced Residence Unwind in the essence of your being. Space out to the extent of being nothing but yourself, in the pleasure of your very own personalized home, catering to your every need and spoiling you b…	Please contact us	No.88, A/C Block, 2nd Street, Shanti Colony, Anna Nagar, Chennai, India

Chennai, also known as Madras, is the capital of Tamil Nadu, and the country’s fourth largest city. Owing to the beauty of the city tourists are thronging the city to get a piece of its history and charm. But with a dearth of hotels, travelers are opting for the beautiful and affordable Chennai homestays which apart from offering just accommodation also give a local touch to one’s stay.

Compared to the other major metros of India, it is far less congested and polluted. Chennai was the site of the first settlement of the East India Company. It was founded in 1639, on a piece of land given by the Raja of Chandragiri, the last representative of the Vijayanagar rulers of Hampi.

The city grew up around the English settlement of Fort Saint George and gradually absorbed the surrounding towns and villages. However, despite the strong British influence, Chennai has retained its traditional Tamil Hindu culture and effectively blended it with the foreign influence.

Chennai, the gracious capital city of Tamil Nadu is the fourth largest metropolis in India. Located on a 17 km stretch of the Coramandel coast, the city is trisected by the waterways of Cooum and Adyar and the Buckingham Canal. The city is widely spread in about 180 sq. km. It is a major trade center, being well linked by road, rail and air to important cities besides being a sea port.

Chennai, is a journey into timeless India, a kaleidoscope of moods. rich in the treasures of history, from temples and shrines to forts and palaces, the landscape of the past lives easily with the present. Retaining much of its traditional charm, this 350 year old city is the gateway to the south, providing many a fascinating vignette of southern heritage.

With a population of 6 million people, Chennai is a vibrant city ever growing, expanding and changing every year. Popularly regarded as the “Gateway to the South”, Chennai presents culture that is distinctly different from that of northern India. Music, dance and all other art forms of the South are cherished and nurtured in this city which, though industrialized, continues to be traditional and conventional in many ways.

The region of Chennai was called Tondaimandalm in those days and had its military headquarters at Puzhal, which is now a small and rather insignificant village on the outskirts of the city.

Modern Chennai grew out of a small village when in 1639 a fishing hamlet called Madraspatnam was selected by early English merchants of the East India Company as a site for the settlement.

Chennai is marked by a clear skyline, long sandy beaches, parks, historic landmarks and tourist infrastructural facilities which make it a convenient entry point or base to start your tour of Tamil Nadu and South India.

There are a number of churches in Chennai that are connected with the life and times of this apostle. There are also several ancient temples around Chennai and within the city itself are two magnificent temples - a temple in Triplicane and another in Mylapore.

CERTAIN FACTS ABOUT CHENNAI:

AREA: 174 Sq.Km.
ALTITUDE: Sea level
TEMPERATURE: Max- 37 C and Min-21 C in Summer, Max-32C and Min-20C in Winter.
RAINFALL: 1,272 Mm ( June to Sept ) BEST SEASON: Throughout the Year.
CLOTHING: Summer-cottons, Winter- Woolen,
STD CODE: 044

REACHING CHENNAI:
By air: Kamraj National and Anna International Airports are situated at Tirusulam about 20 Km from city.
By rail: Chennai is connected by rail with all major towns and cities in India. Main Railway Stations: Central and Egmore.
By road: Chennai is connected by good network of roads with all important places in Tamil Nadu and other parts of India.

Nearby Cities:
Kancheepuram (75 km), Bangalore (334 km), Pondicherry (162 km), Tirupati (154 km), Mamallapuram (58 km), Vellore (145 km), Thirukkazhukundram (74km), Vedanthangal (85 km).

So next time you are on a trip to Chennai, make sure you opt for a homestay. Take my word you will not be disappointed.

Bed and breakfast accommodation is not a new phenomenon in the West. People offer their houses for guests to stay in. Breakfast is served in the morning, either in the bedroom or more commonly, in a dining room or the host’s kitchen. And bathrooms are, in most cases, private. This kind of accommodation is also simply referred to as Bed and Breakfast (B&B).

Usually bed and breakfast facilities serve as either the primary occupation or as a secondary source of income for the owners. The staff often consists of the host and members of the family who live there.

Bed and breakfast facilities usually offer better access to popular tourist spots which otherwise may not be located at a convenient distance from the city centre where most other lodgings may be situated. Bed and breakfast facilities are usually to be found closer to places where most large lodging competitors do not establish a guest accommodation. But in large cities where hotels can be very expensive and rooms scanty, bed and breakfast facilities are available within city limits too.

Bed and breakfast facilities and India:

India is now slowly catching up with this novel concept of bed and breakfast due to several reasons. With lakhs of tourists coming to the country for different reasons like holidaying, medical treatment, business, etc., hotels are finding it difficult to cope up with the pressure. Moreover, there are many beautiful and exquisite tourists spots where building hotels and other forms of lodging options may not be permitted or economically viable.

This is where bed and breakfast facilities come to the rescue! So bed and breakfast facilities are perhaps the best option that travellers and tourists can opt for. Not only do they provide one with affordable accommodation, but also offer a unique opportunity to experience Indian culture first hand in all its glory.

Despite the rising demand of tourists and visiting business executives opting for bed and breakfast facilities, a year ago there was a lack of a proper platform where the right guest could meet the host of his choice or vice versa. There were many attempts to connect them, but all these efforts, both online and offline, failed to create much response.

However portals like Bharat Homestay Dotcom have successfully capitalized on this idea and are doing brisk business.

Bharat Homestay is the first India bed and breakfast portal where anyone - both guests and hosts - can come and post their bed and breakfast requirements. And all for FREE. Bharat Homestay is a free meeting place for guests and hosts of India bed and breakfast facilities.

So guest looking for bed and breakfast accommodation, rent apartment, budget bed and breakfast or house in India can search and host their apartment, house information if they want to rent and earn money.

The advantages of staying in a bed and breakfast facility are many. One can get an actual feel of the local way of life. It is a very cheap holiday package that pays rich dividends. One may travel to India for just a week or two but carries back fond memories for a lifetime. After one’s bed and breakfast travel to India, one makes lifelong friends from a country that one comes to love. Without doubt bed and breakfast facilities give a personal touch to your holiday in India.

Bed and breakfast facilities can be a comfortable, affordable option for not just tourists, but also for visiting businessmen as they provide a unique opportunity to mingle with the local populace, which could be beneficial in enhancing one’s business and clientele. Moreover, with strict norms for bed and breakfast facilities operating in India, security is never a problem.

Indeed, with India turning into a tourists’ paradise, the country’s tourism market has great potential and several policies and programmes have been framed for the development of the sector. And with hotels finding it difficult to cope up with the pressure, bed and breakfast facilities can emerge a winner!

Here are some of the best bed and breakfast facilities in India to choose from:

Today India is witnessing a steady and ever-increasing inflow of tourists to the country. In addition, domestic tourists’ volume is also increasing by the day as Indians are traveling all across the country. With these increasing number of tourists, hotels are falling short of rooms.

This gives the opportunity to people with spare rooms to open their doors to tourists - to stay with them and learn the ways of the local.

However to get guests, the host of the homestay needs to have online presence. Just registering with the government’s bed and breakfast scheme is not enough. Before a guest contacts you, he would like to see the images of your homestay and the facilities you are offering.

This is where Bharat Homestay comes to the rescue. So if you have a spare room or is a registered bed and breakfast or homestay, come and post your homestay details in bharathomestay.com and we assure you that you will get more visitors/ tourists than you can imagine. And what’s more…Registration is absolutely free.

Bharat Homestay is the only portal in India entirely dedicated to India Homestays and is the only portal in the country offering its services totally free of cost.

Now that you are aware of the benefits you will get by registering and posting your homestay with Bharat Homestay, here are the simple steps you need to follow to get your homestay listed in Bharathomestay:

Posting Guidelines:

Targeting investments of about Rs 25,000 crore during the next five years in the tourism sector, the Karnataka Government has recognized about 259 homestays in the state, said Mr K. Viswanatha Reddy, Tourism Director, in a event held in Bangalore recently

The State Government has targeted investments of about Rs 25,000 crore during the next five years in the tourism sector, according to the Director, Department of Tourism, Government of Karnataka.

“The new Tourism Policy 2009-14 of Karnataka targets Rs 25,000-crore investments during the policy period in tourism-related infrastructure development. To ensure this, we have categorized the State into zones according to priority of infrastructure development.”

Investment subsidies ranging from five per cent to 35 percent would be provided depending on the zone; land conversion fees would be according to the State Industrial Policy 2009-14; stamp duty exemption of 50-75 percent depending on investment and zones in which investment comes up. All benefits of the Industrial Policy would be extended to the Tourism Policy,” said Mr Reddy.

Emphasis would also be on development of mega projects that are destination creators, he added.

Assam (Asom, Axom) is a beautiful and diverse state with an incredible range of cultures and landscapes located in the northeast of India. It shares it’s borders in the North and East with the Kingdom of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh. Along the south lies Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram. Meghalaya lies to her South-West, Bengal and Bangladesh to her West.

Travelling to Assam (getting to Assam):
Assam is well connected by air, railways and road with the rest of the country.

By Air:
The Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport of Guwahati is well connected by air to most of the metros in the country. There are regular flights to Guwahati running all year long on daily basis. All the major carriers of the country like Air India, Jet Airways, Kingfisher Red, SpiceJet, Go Air Business, JetLite and IndiGo airlines connect Guwahati to most of the major cities of India.

Most of the carriers also operate flights connecting the other towns of Assam like Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Tezpur, North Lakhimpur and Silchar to Guwahati and to the other major cities in India.

By Rail:
A convenient Indian Railways network runs throughout the state connecting major Indian cities with Assam. There are train services connecting Assam to all corners of the country such as Kolkata, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Cochin and Trivandrum.

By Road:
Guwahati, the largest city in Northeast India, is the hub of the road network to the north eastern region. A good network of National Highways and other roads connect Assam to all the prime cities of India.

Traveling within Assam:
Assam State Transport Corporation and other tourist bus services run by private operators offer a good network of bus routes throughout the state covering all the cities and towns of Assam. These buses also ply to the capital cities of the neighboring northeastern states.

The Indian Railways network also connects the major towns of Assam to Guwahati and to the rest of India. There are several new and fast trains operating effectively these days.

Assam Tourism department has a fleet of luxury buses and cars, which are available for hire at reasonable prices. Private taxis and auto rickshaws are perfect for covering short distances within the towns.

Best time to visit Assam:
Assam has four well defined seasons in a year — summer, monsoon, winter and spring which present Assam in different moods.

October to April is considered the best time to visit Assam as these months offer a mild and moderate climate with pleasant and sunny days and cool nights.

Assam is never extremely cold or hot though during December and January night time temperatures may fall to single digit numbers.

Places of interest in Assam:
Assam, as a destination corresponds to a world of contrasts and excitement with each place of the state having something amazing to offer. Some people call it a magic land while others call it a green paradise.

The State of Assam is one of the most beautiful regions of India. There is hardly any other state which has greater variety and colour in its natural scenery and in the cultural treasures of the people that inhabit it.
More on Places of Interest in Assam…

Ancient History of Assam (Assam’s ancient history):
Assam’s history goes back to ancient times. The base of this history can be found in Tantric literature, Buddhist literature, Assamese folklore and Vedic literature. More on Assam Ancient History…

Political History of Assam (Assam’s Political History):
Historically speaking, the first king who ruled over Kamrupa was Pushya Varman (350-380 AD), who was a contemporary of Samudragupta (350-375 AD). More on Assam Political History…

Upcoming events in Assam:
Every year, several events are organised by the Department of Tourism, Govt. of Assam, to encourage tourists to visit Assam. They are:
Dehing Patkai Festival: 18th to 19th December 2009
Tea Tourism: 20th to 21st January 2010
Elephant Festival: 3rd to 5th January 2010
Rongali Utsav: April 2010

Festivals of Assam (Assam Festivals):
Assam is a land of fairs and festivals. Most of the festivals celebrated in Assam have their roots in the diverse faith and belief of her inhabitants, but a spirit of accommodation and togetherness characterizes the celebration of all festivals.

The perfect fusion of heritage of her numerous races has made Assam the home of the most colorful festivals which are passionate, compelling and mesmerizing reflecting the true spirit, tradition and lifestyle of the people of Assam.

The major festivals celebrated in Assam are Bihu, Baishagu, Ali-Ai-Ligang, Baikho, Rongker, Rajini Gabra Harni Gabra, Bohaggiyo Bishu, Ambubashi Mela and Jonbill Mela and so on. More on Assam Festivals…

Having said that, your Assam visit would be incomplete if you don’t stay in an Assam Homestay. Assam Homestays provide tourists the option to get a flavour of the culture of the state up close. Assam homestays can be the best option to stay in Assam if you are looking to add local flavour to your Assam visit. So next time when you are planning an Assam trip don’t forget to stay in an Assam homestay and explore the land of the one-horn rhino in style.