Puri

Puri, on the Bay of Bengal coast of Odisha 60 km south-east of Bhubaneswar, is one of the four Hindu Char Dham pilgrimage sites (alongside Badrinath, Dwarka, and Rameshwaram) and the home of the Sri Jagannath Temple — the famous 12th-century mandir dedicated to Lord Jagannath (a form of Vishnu/Krishna) along with his siblings Balabhadra and Subhadra.

• The temple's annual Rath Yatra in June-July, when the three deities are placed in colossal wooden chariots and pulled along the 3-km Bada Danda avenue by thousands of devotees, is one of the great public spectacles of Hindu devotional life and attracts over a million pilgrims.
• Inside the temple, the Mahaprasad kitchen — said to be the largest in the world, employing 600 cooks who prepare 56 dishes (the Chappan Bhog) daily on wood fires in earthen pots stacked seven-high — represents one of the most refined sattvik traditions on Earth.
• All food is strictly vegetarian, cooked without onion or garlic, and offered first to the deity.
• Puri's 5-km beachfront on the Bay of Bengal is one of eastern India's longest sandy stretches; the sunrise from Swargadwar Beach is a defining Puri experience.
• For the broader pilgrim circuit, the magnificent UNESCO-listed Konark Sun Temple (35 km north-east) and the Temple City of Bhubaneswar (60 km north-west) complete the Odisha Golden Triangle.
• For vegetarian travellers, Puri is exceptional: beyond Mahaprasad, the local sweets — chhena poda (caramelised cottage-cheese cake), rasabali, khaja (the famous flaky multi-layer pastry sold by Bhojohori Manna and other heritage shops), and rasagulla (the Odia claim for the dessert's origin) — are worth a dedicated trail.
• October to February is the comfortable window; avoid April-June humidity and the October-November cyclone fringe.