Chennai is not really the sort of place where you would want to spend a couple of weeks. Sure there is a beach, but it is not a resort and a day or two is long enough to see the (limited) sights. Mahabalipuram, an hour to the south, is more interesting. Fascinating historical sights, and some nice resort stayle hotels. It's still not a place for a beach holiday though. Pondicherry, a couple of hours further south is also worth seeing. But nowhere on the East coast can really be compared with Goa - the sea is rough so swimming is inadvisable, there are no beach shacks, bars are expensive and only in hotels (excpt Pondicherry, which is well known for cheap booze).

we had the pleasure of staying in chennai.with my indian friend and his family 2 years ago. this was a spur of moment thing as i had met him only in a chat room 4 years before,he invited myself and hubby to stay during our holiday in goa, we also took our goan taxi driver, for moral support. all i can say is it was the best time of our lives/we all know how friendly the goan people are,but i can say my friend was a genuine man and his wife and children so pleasent and loving. we were treated like royalty.no one trying to please us for gifts and tips,we stayed 4 days in his house with his family and visited his mother and fathers house,every second we were made to feel part of there family,even our taxi driver whom was from a lower caste was treated the same as us.we visited lots of places during our stay and never parted with any money at anytime. the city is huge and smoggy and the traffic is manic, times goa by 100 and you will start to get the picture,not pleasent, i would feel intimitated if we were not among friends as we stopped everyone in there tracks,i guess they dont see many english people,our friend was grining from ear to ear constantly as he felt so p[roud to show off his friends from england,the beach i was informed was the second largest in the world ..though im not sure ,but it went for miles,we went there about midnight and it was lo9vely to see young couples and familys enjoying its beauty,during the day was far too hot and very low humidity making it impossible to venture ouit before 3pm,our friend suffers bad from asthma,and it was impossible for him to breathe during the day.i feel very fortunate to have been invited in to this familys home after all we had only chatted via the internet ,i had not even seen a photo of him. guess it was a risk my children thought we were crazy, we are both in our mid fortys and i thought live dangerously for once ,,im glad we did .we did buy diamonds from there from a diamond merchants shop a friend of our friend 100s and thousands of them all just tipped out for us to pick and at a bargin price too even cheaper than goa .i would think twice about venturing there on holiday with out our friend as ive said it was intimidating and the place was huge though i am glad we went,

Chennai is completely different from Goa. Its supposed to have the longest beach stretch attached to a city, but the beach is not really like Goan beaches. If you are travelling with family and kids, then I recommend the Fisherman's Cove at Chennai. Its about an hour from Chennai city by road, but its a fabulous hotel and the beach is pristine, and is like a private beach. The hotel is a Taj hotel, and has many activities for sea-sports (?) - and for children. The resort itself has a mix of rooms in a block and smal private cottages with views of the sea. My children and I simply loved the place and I have been there often. Chennai is famous for silks, so its a good idea to pick up some raw silk material, very cheap - which i did and got some lovely dresses stitched for me. A tourist thing to do is to visit the San Thome Church - which is built over the grave of St. Thomas, the doubting apostle of Jesus Christ. Christianity was brought to India by him, he spent years preaching here, before he was killed by a native Brahmin priest. The grave itself is very old and something of a wonder.