Places to visit in Andhra Pradesh
80 places to visit in Andhra Pradesh, each with LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own: Amaravati Stupa, Bugga Ramalingeswara Temple, Chintala Venkataramana Temple and more. Stand at any of them with the app open and the stamp is yours, confirmed on site, in your Andhra Pradesh volume.
10 National monuments · 4 State heritage sites · 29 Famous places to visit · 10 Offbeat places · 27 Hidden gems
National monuments in Andhra Pradesh (10)
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Amaravati Stupa
A Buddhist stupa of the second century BCE whose carved railings are now largely in museums in Chennai and London.
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Bugga Ramalingeswara Temple
A Vijayanagara temple at Tadipatri where the linga stands below the river's water table.
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Chintala Venkataramana Temple
A Vijayanagara temple at Tadipatri with a stone chariot and carving that repays a whole morning.
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Gooty Fort
A ruined fort on a rock above Gooty, also called Ravadurg.
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Guntupalli Caves
A rock-cut chaitya with a circular hall, Buddhist, in the Kamavarapukota hills.
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Konda Reddy Fort
A gate tower in the middle of a working city.
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Nagarjunakonda
A Buddhist city moved stone by stone to an island.
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Parasuramesvara Temple
A village temple near Tirupati holding one of the earliest lingas anywhere in India.
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Undavalli Caves
Four storeys cut into a hillside in the seventh century, with a five metre reclining Vishnu on the second.
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Yaganti Temple
The Nandi that is said to be growing.
State heritage sites in Andhra Pradesh (4)
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Belum Caves
The longest cave system open to visitors in India at three and a half kilometres, cut by an underground river.
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Kondapalli Fort
A seventh century hill fort the British used as a barracks, above the village that makes the painted wooden toys.
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Simhachalam Temple
Sandalwood covers the deity for all but one day a year.
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Thotlakonda
A Buddhist monastery on a hill above the sea.
Famous places to visit in Andhra Pradesh (29)
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Ahobilam
Nine Narasimha shrines up a forested hill.
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Amareswara Swamy Temple
Amararama, one of the five Pancharama shrines of Shiva, and the only one on the Krishna rather than the Godavari. Its walls carry some thirty five inscriptions, the earliest from 1129.
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Araku Valley
Coffee grown by Adivasi cooperatives at nine hundred metres, reached by a railway with fifty eight tunnels.
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Dowleswaram Barrage
Arthur Cotton's barrage of 1852 on the lower Godavari, rebuilt in 1970 and named after him.
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Draksharama
One of the five Pancharama shrines.
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Gandikota
A fort on a gorge where the Penna river has cut three hundred metres into quartzite, called the Grand Canyon of India.
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Godavari Bridge
A truss bridge over the Godavari at Rajahmundry, carrying road and rail together.
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Horsley Hills
The state's own small hill station.
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Kanaka Durga Temple
On Indrakeeladri, above the Krishna.
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Kanipakam Vinayaka Temple
A Ganesha that emerged from a well and is said to be still growing.
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Kodandarama Temple
One of the finest Vijayanagara temples in Rayalaseema, its gopuram rising over the village of Vontimitta. The poet Bammera Potana is said to have offered his Telugu Bhagavatam to Rama here.
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Ksheerarama
One of the five Pancharama shrines of Shiva, where the lingam is milk white. Its gopuram rises nine storeys over the town of Palakollu in the Godavari delta, among the tallest temple towers in Andhra.
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Lambasingi
The one place in the plains where frost is possible.
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Mahanandi
Spring water so clear the coin at the bottom is legible.
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Mallikarjuna Temple, Srisailam
A jyotirlinga and a shakti peetha on the same hill above the Krishna.
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Maredumilli
Rainforest and tribal hamlets in the Eastern Ghats.
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Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve
The largest tiger reserve in India, 3,728 square kilometres across five districts and two states.
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Panakala Narasimha Swamy Temple
A shrine on the slope of Mangalagiri hill where Narasimha is offered panakam, jaggery water, poured into the open mouth of the deity. It is said to take in half of whatever is offered and leave the rest, however much is poured.
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Penukonda
The second capital of Vijayanagara after Hampi fell, on a hill fort with seven gates and a Gagan Mahal at the top.
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Prakasam Barrage
Twelve hundred metres of barrage across the Krishna at Vijayawada, carrying a road as well as the water.
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Puruhutika Devi Temple
Counted among the eighteen great Shakti Peethas, where the goddess is said to have fallen at Pithapuram. Her shrine stands in the grounds of the Kukkuteswara temple, beside its large tank, and draws pilgrims through the Navaratri festival.
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Puttaparthi
A village that became a town around one ashram.
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Somarama
One of the five Pancharama shrines of Shiva, at Gunupudi in Bhimavaram. The lingam is said to change colour with the moon, pale at the full and darker at the new, and the goddess Annapurna sits in a shrine on the floor above.
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Srikalahasti Temple
The air lingam, and the place to be rid of the serpent planets.
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Sripada Srivallabha Mahasamsthanam
The birthplace of Sripada Srivallabha, revered as the first incarnation of Dattatreya in this age. His padukas are worshipped in the temple, and Pithapuram is counted among the holiest places of the Datta tradition.
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Srisailam Dam
A gravity dam in a gorge of the Nallamala hills, below the temple town of Srisailam.
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Tenali
Called Andhra Paris for its theatre and for the three Krishna canals that run through it, past paddy on every side. It is the home town of Tenali Ramakrishna, the poet and wit of Krishnadevaraya's court.
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Tirumala Venkateswara Temple
The most visited place of worship on earth by number of pilgrims, on the seventh hill of the Tirumala range.
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Veerabhadra Temple
Holds a hanging pillar that does not quite touch the floor, and a Nandi carved from one block twenty seven feet long.
Offbeat places in Andhra Pradesh (10)
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Arma Konda
A peak in the Madugula hills north of Paderu, known also as Sitamma Konda.
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Bhavani Island, Vijayawada
One of the largest river islands in India, a hundred and thirty three acres of it in the Krishna at Vijayawada.
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Hope Island
A small tadpole shaped island in the Bay of Bengal off Kakinada.
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Mypadu Beach
A beach twenty kilometres out of Nellore, kept by the state tourism board.
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Papikondalu
The Godavari gorge, reachable only by boat.
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Penchalakona
A pilgrim village in the Nellore hills, built around the Penusila Narasimha temple.
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Perupalem Beach
A beach on the West Godavari coast, being opened up for visitors by the state.
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Suryalanka Beach
A beach on the Bay of Bengal at Bapatla, south of Guntur.
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Vodarevu Beach
A beach lined with coconut palms near Chirala, and the nearest sea to Hyderabad.
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Yarada Beach
A beach in a bowl of hills fifteen kilometres from Visakhapatnam, below Dolphin's Nose.
Hidden gems in Andhra Pradesh (27)
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Antarvedi
Where the Vasishta Godavari meets the sea.
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Arasavalli Sun Temple
One of the few temples to Surya still in worship, where the sun reaches the idol twice a year.
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Bavikonda
A Buddhist monastery above Visakhapatnam with a relic casket and rock-cut cisterns.
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Bheemunipatnam Beach
An old Dutch settlement and its cemetery.
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Borra Caves
Limestone chambers a million years old on the Ananthagiri hills, with a stream still running through them.
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Chandragiri Fort
Where the last Vijayanagara kings kept court.
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Coringa Mangroves
The second largest mangrove stretch in India.
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Ethipothala Falls
The Chandravanka falling into a lagoon above the Krishna, with a crocodile nursery.
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Etikoppaka Toys
Lacquer turned on a lathe, coloured with seed and bark.
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Indira Gandhi Zoological Park
The third largest zoo in India, set inside the Kambalakonda forest at Visakhapatnam.
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Kailasagiri
A hilltop park over the city and the sea.
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Kailasakona Falls
A perennial fall in the Nagari hills, said to carry medicinal minerals.
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Kolleru Lake
A shallow freshwater lake between the Krishna and Godavari, and a pelican colony.
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Kondapalli Toy Village
Soft wood carved and painted for two hundred years.
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Kondaveedu Fort
A Reddy hill fort with a road to the top.
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Kumararama
One of the five Pancharama Kshetras, at Samalkot, with a two storey sanctum.
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Lakshmi Ganapati Temple, Bikkavolu
A temple at Bikkavolu in the Godavari delta to a large monolithic Ganesha, said to be growing. The village also keeps a group of Eastern Chalukya temples more than a thousand years old.
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Machilipatnam Kalamkari
Block printed cloth, dyed the old way.
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Papikonda National Park
Forest on both banks of the Godavari where the river cuts through the hills.
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Ramakrishna Beach
The city's front along the Bay of Bengal, with a decommissioned submarine drawn up on the sand as a museum.
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Rushikonda Beach
The city's swimming beach.
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Salihundam
Buddhist stupas above the Vamsadhara.
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Sri Raghavendra Swamy Mutt
The brindavana of the saint Raghavendra Tirtha on the bank of the Tungabhadra, where devotees have come for more than three hundred and fifty years.
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Sri Venkateswara National Park
The hills behind Tirumala, red sandstone and dry forest, with the waterfall at Talakona.
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Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park
A zoological park at Tirupati, below the hills the pilgrims climb.
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Talakona Falls
The tallest fall in the state, inside Sri Venkateswara sanctuary.
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Ubbalamadugu Falls
A fall in the Nagari hills near Tirupati, reached by a walk up the stream bed.
Collecting in Andhra Pradesh
What are the best places to visit in Andhra Pradesh?
LOQAH lists 80 places in Andhra Pradesh. The best known include Amaravati Stupa, Bugga Ramalingeswara Temple, Chintala Venkataramana Temple, Gooty Fort and Guntupalli Caves. Each has a stamp of its own to collect when you are there.
How many LOQAH stamps are there in Andhra Pradesh?
80, and more are added over time. Each place has LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own.
How do I collect a stamp in Andhra Pradesh?
Open LOQAH at the place and get its stamp. LOQAH checks where you are once, at that moment; at the place itself the stamp is confirmed on site, with a gold badge.
I have been to places in Andhra Pradesh before. Can I add them?
Yes. In Earlier trips, choose Andhra Pradesh and swipe through its stamps, or import your Google Timeline. Each one goes into your volume with the date, if you know it.
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