Visitors Centre

Your Discovery of Auroville Begins Here

The Auroville Visitors Centre is a place where day visitors and guests can begin to discover and learn about Auroville,  its ideals, history, and present-day manifestation. The VC encompasses a complex of buildings that include exhibition spaces, information and guest reception, boutiques for Auroville products and handicrafts, a bookshop, cafes and a food court.


It is possible for day visitors to visit the Matrimandir Viewing Point to see the Matrimandir from a distance.

Passes are absolutely free.


Facilities

Information Service

Open Monday to Saturday from 9am to 1:00pm and 1:30 to 5:00pm

Sundays open only from 9am to 1pm. Ph. 0413-3509886

Auroville Information Service

  • provides first-hand, personalized information on Auroville. Reception staff are equipped to answer queries in English and other Indian and European languages.
  • stocks brochures, leaflets, books and videos on Auroville in different languages.
  • gives a visual tour of the different aspects of Auroville life, community and its work through its Photo Exhibition space.
  • provides video shows -- regular ‘Introduction to Auroville’ and ‘Introduction to Matrimandir’ videos in English or Tamil, with the possibility of other languages in sub-titled form.
  • features the original rosewood model of the Matrimandir and the Gardens, in its Matrimandir Reception and Exhibition Space.
  • Issues passes to Matrimandir Viewing Point.  From the VC a shaded 10-12 minute walk leads to the Viewing Point in the Matrimandir area. For those who need motorised transport, shuttles are available.



Guest Accommodation Service

Open daily from 9:30am - 12:30pm and 2 - 5pm

Ph: 0413-2622704

Offers guidance and help with guest accommodation in Auroville.

https://guesthouses.auroville.org/




Boutiques

Open daily from 9:30am - 6pm

Display and sell a wide range of Auroville handicrafts such as incense, clothing, tableware, jewellery, furnishings, aromatherapy etc. They also stock a variety of organic herbal syrups, dried fruits, and cereal products made in Auroville.





Cafés


  • Right Path Café: open for food and refreshments from 8 am - 9 pm daily. On Mondays, it closes early at 5 pm. Ph: 0413-2622248
  • Dreamers' Café: open for food and refreshments from 8 am - 8:30 pm everyday during the high season (closes early on Mondays at 6 pm) Ph: 0413-2623034
  • Korean food served on Wednesdays, Fridays, Sundays at the Right Path Cafe from 6.00 pm to 8.30 pm. Closed on Mondays.
  • Dosa Corner, situated above the Right Path Cafe. Serves organic dosas and parottas in an informal setting at an affordable cost. Open daily from 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm. Closed on Mondays.

Seagull Bookshop: Hosts publications on Integral yoga, Indian culture and different aspects of Auroville from design to wildlife, as well as literary and other compilations by a range of Aurovilian authors. Open daily from 9:30am - 5:30pm. Ph: 0413-2622302 

Kiosk: Offers small handicrafts items and affordable refreshments within a social space with sit-out and picnic area. Open 9:30am - 5pm daily. Serves dosas in the evening from 6:30 - 10 pm. Closed on Wednesday evenings. Ph: 0413-2623034

Bicycles for hire: available from the kiosk. Ph: 0413-2623034   

New School Crafts: situated next to the Kiosk, it sells small handicraft items such as incense, soap, oils, etc...Open from 9am - 5pm. Ph: 0413-2623833 

Open Air Boutique: Kamalam, a retail outlet of SEDAB (Sustainable Enterprises Development in the Auroville Bioregion) promotes ethical and eco-friendly products made by rural entrepreneurs. SEDAB is part of a wider Integral Rural Development vision for the bioregion. Its goal is to provide livelihood options for women in villages in and around Auroville. 

Garden Shop (Fleurs d’Auroville) situated next to the main visitors’ parking. The Auroville Botanical Gardens have been established in response to the disappearing Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (TDEF) and to the global need for the conservation of genetic diversity in the plant kingdom in a wide range of climatic conditions. With preservation projects throughout India, a growing, diversifying nursery, and localized educational programs, the Auroville Botanical Gardens act on several fronts in order to simultaneously save and recreate the unique forest ecosystem that stretched along the coast until one century ago.

City transport:  Pick up and Drop Shuttle Service, per passenger fares.

Daily 9:30am - 6.00pm.

Ph 0413-2622611        

Aquadyn dynamised water  is available at Right Path Café and at the main parking lot. Visitors Centre provides free Aquadyn (a product of Auroville) dynamised drinking water for visitors, villagers and Aurovilians.    


Special events

For entertainment evenings (theatre, music/dance performances) and other special events happening at VC, see the notice board at the Centre and at other locations around Auroville, or the weekly News & Notes.Contact Visitors Centre: 0413-2622611 or 9487650951



Open-air exhibitions

International Zone: An open-air exhibition on the International Zone of Auroville. It conveys the international dimension of Auroville, presents the facilities, activities, and institutions of the International Zone and the work being done by the National Pavilions.


Environmental Exhibitions: For more information on Auroville’s work in the fields of alternative energy, water, transport, farming, soil and water conservation...


Daily walking tours starting from Visitors Center

Guided tours are momentarily stopped. The Information Office can provide you with a self-guided map of places to visit on foot in the International Zone, on your way back from the Matrimandir Viewing Point.

https://youtu.be/PqAq6wO6CiQ
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