Mangalagiri sits within easy reach of the main sights of the Krishna delta, all reachable in under an hour. The Undavalli Caves, twelve kilometres north on the road into Vijayawada, are a 5th-century rock-cut temple complex carved into a sandstone bluff above the river — four storeys of cells, columned halls and a long reclining Vishnu in the upper cave. Bhavani Island, in the middle of the Krishna at Vijayawada, is the city's local picnic spot and accessible by a short boat ride from Prakasam Barrage.
The capital region site of Amaravathi, twenty-five kilometres west, holds the remains of one of the most important Buddhist stupas in southern India — third century BCE — and an excellent small museum. The hilltop Kanaka Durga Temple in Vijayawada, the most visited shrine in coastal Andhra, is twenty minutes north. For something more substantial, Kondaveedu Fort south of Guntur is a half-day hike up a forested ridge with the ruins of a 14th-century Reddy kingdom citadel at the top.