Bhagavathy Amman Temple and the Sunrise Point

The temple at the shore is dedicated to Kanya Kumari, the goddess who waited here as a virgin for a marriage that never took place, and it gives the cape its name. The diamond nose-stud of the deity is said to have been visible from the sea and to have drawn ships onto the rocks. It is an old and significant shrine with its own dress conventions - men remove shirts to enter. Visit at dawn and stay for sunrise, watched from the point beside it. Sunset is from the beach on the other side a short walk away, and doing both is the reason to spend a night here.

Padmanabhapuram Palace

Thirty-five kilometres from Kanyakumari, this is the largest wooden palace complex in Asia and among the finest pieces of traditional architecture anywhere in India - the seat of the Travancore rulers, built in stages from the sixteenth century, in carved teak and rosewood with polished black floors, painted murals, latticed windows and a mother-of-pearl ceiling. It sits in Tamil Nadu but is maintained by the Kerala government, an arrangement that surprises visitors. Visit in the morning and allow two hours. It is closed on Mondays and photography inside is restricted. For many travellers it is the best thing in the district.

Suchindram Thanumalayan Temple

Twelve kilometres from the cape, this temple is unusual in being dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma together as Thanumalayan, and it holds two of the district celebrated features: musical pillars carved from single blocks of granite producing distinct notes, and an eighteen-foot Hanuman carved from a single block, among the largest of its kind. The gopuram is substantial and the corridors are long and cool. Visit in the morning; the temple observes a midday closure and the pillars are usually demonstrated by the temple staff.

Vattakottai Fort and the Mathur Trough

Vattakottai, seven kilometres up the coast, is a small eighteenth-century granite sea fort built under Travancore with the water breaking directly against its wall - compact, well kept and a considerably quieter place to look at the sea than the cape itself. Inland at Mathur stands the hanging trough, an aqueduct carrying an irrigation channel across a valley on tall pillars, around a kilometre long and over a hundred feet high, which you can walk along. Visit the fort at sunset and the trough as a short detour; between them they are the two most photographed things in the district after the cape.

Thirparappu, Pechiparai and Maruthuva Malai

West of Nagercoil the country climbs into the Western Ghats and changes completely. Thirparappu has a waterfall on the Kodayar with a temple beside it, best from June to September; Pechiparai is a reservoir among forested hills a little further on. Maruthuva Malai, closer to the cape, is a hill traditionally held to be a fragment of the Sanjeevani mountain dropped by Hanuman, and it is known for the medicinal herbs on its slopes and a cave associated with Agastya. Visit any as a half day. This corner of the district is green and hilly in a way the approach along the highway does not prepare you for.