Puducherry, formerly Pondicherry, is not your typical Indian city. Once controlled by French colonialists, the southern Indian seaside resort has distinctive Franco architecture found in few other places in the country.

That, and it’s recently reclaimed beach, make it one of South Asia‘s hidden gems. 

Aurofilio Schiavina, a Puducherry native that studied at Newcastle University, set out in 2009 to restore his home city’s beach.

After the construction of a port in the city, the beach that once drew tourists vanished.

But after setting up PondyCAN (Pondy Citizen’s Action Network), Mr Schiavina worked with the government to bring back the sand to the shoreline.

The project, which cost £5.9m, has seen 4,50,000 m3 worth of sand dredged up onto the beach.

However, other methods were used in conjuction to bring the shoreline back to life.

MV Ramana Murthy, director of the National Centre for Coastal Research, who designed and implemented the ambitious project, said, according to National Geographic: “We found two solutions to bring back the original coastline.

“One was sand nourishment from the harbor and the other the artificial reef, which has so far done 40 percent of its job.”

Now, thanks to the restoration, alongside the fabuous French Quarter the city boasts, Puducherry was listed as the second-best palce to visit in 2025 according to Lonely Planet.

The experts from the guide urged visitors to pop into the Puducherry Contemporary Art Gallery and discover the artefacts of the Chola and Vijayanagar empires at the Puducherry Museum.

Puducherry was beaten to top spot in the Lonely Planet guide by the French city of Toulouse.