Pradip paswan · Howrah Bridge12.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Kolkata
A riveted cantilever bridge, a colonial grid gone green, and the best street food in eastern India.
Kolkata
Kolkata is the most legible of the big Indian cities and the least hurried, and it rewards walking more than any of them. The Hooghly runs down its western edge; the Howrah Bridge crosses it — opened in 1943, renamed Rabindra Setu in 1965, and built entirely by riveting rather than with nuts and bolts — and carries something like 100,000 vehicles and over 150,000 people on foot every day, which makes it the busiest cantilever bridge anywhere. East of the river the city is a nineteenth-century grid gone soft at the edges: a maidan the size of a district, terracotta-and-plaster houses in North Kolkata, bookshops on College Street, and a coffee house where the argument has been running for decades. It is a city for three or four unhurried days, not an airport night on the way to the hills.
Explore Kolkata on the map
City locations, drawn from our published destination data. Attractions, hotels and restaurants are not mapped yet.
The unmissable Kolkata
What to do in Kolkata
The city divides cleanly into a colonial south, a older north, and the river between them.
The river and the bridge
- Walk or ride across the Howrah Bridge — a riveted cantilever from 1943, and still the busiest of its kind in the world.
- Take the ferry between Howrah and the Kolkata bank; it is the cheapest and best view of the span.
- Princep Ghat and the Strand in the late afternoon, when the light comes off the water.
- Kumartuli, the potters’ quarter, where the Durga idols are built through the year in straw and clay.
The colonial city
- The Victoria Memorial and the Maidan around it — a park large enough to change the weather of a walk.
- St Paul’s Cathedral, the Town Hall and the Dalhousie Square banking quarter.
- The Indian Museum, the oldest and largest museum in the country.
- Park Street after dark, for the restaurants that have been there since before independence.
North Kolkata
- College Street, where the secondhand bookstalls run for the length of the road.
- The Marble Palace and the Jorasanko Thakur Bari, the Tagore family house.
- The flower market under the Howrah Bridge approach, which starts before dawn.
- Eat: kathi rolls, phuchka, mishti doi and the sweet shops that treat rosogolla as a serious discipline.
How long to stay
The colonial centre
The Victoria Memorial, the Maidan, St Paul’s and the Indian Museum, finishing on Park Street.
The river
Mallick Ghat and the flower market before dawn, across the Howrah Bridge, then Kumartuli and the ghats by ferry.
North Kolkata
College Street, the Coffee House, Jorasanko and the Marble Palace, on foot and slowly.
Choose
Either the Botanic Garden and the southern suburbs, or a day trip to Chandannagar and the old French quarter up the river.
Getting around
Kolkata has the oldest metro in India and the last working tram network, and both are genuinely useful rather than nostalgic.
Arriving
- Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (CCU) is north-east of the centre and well connected domestically.
- Howrah and Sealdah are the two main railway stations; long-distance trains reach the rest of the country from both.
- The city is the natural start for Darjeeling, the Sundarbans and the north-east.
Moving
- The metro runs north to south under the spine of the city and is the fastest way along it.
- Trams still run on a handful of routes — slow, and worth one ride for its own sake.
- Yellow Ambassador taxis and app cabs cover everything else; traffic is heavy from mid-morning.
- The Hooghly ferries connect Howrah with several ghats and are quicker than the bridge at rush hour.
Travel intelligence
Four things worth knowing before you fix the dates.
The city’s defining festival, when thousands of temporary pandals are built and the streets stay awake for days. Extraordinary to witness and extremely busy — accommodation tightens months ahead.
Dry, mild and comfortable for long days on foot. March onward turns hot and humid; the monsoon from June is heavy and the city floods in places.
Enough for the colonial centre, North Kolkata, the river and a proper amount of eating. Two nights makes it a transit stop, which is how most people get it wrong.
The Sundarbans need a permit, a registered boat and a guide arranged through an operator. Darjeeling is an overnight train or a short flight north.
Where to stay
Three areas cover almost every kind of trip, and they are close enough that the choice is about character rather than convenience.
Park Street & Chowringhee
- The central choice, walking distance from the Maidan, the Victoria Memorial and the Indian Museum.
- Best for a first visit and for anyone who wants to eat out on foot.
Alipore & the south
- Quieter, greener and more residential, with the zoo and the racecourse nearby.
- Better for families and for longer stays; you will use taxis more.
Near the river
- Closest to the ghats, Kumartuli and the flower market, which all want an early start.
- The most atmospheric option and the least polished.
Where to photograph
Early morning is the whole answer in this city; by ten the light is flat and the traffic has arrived.
First light
- The Howrah Bridge from Mallick Ghat, with the flower market working underneath it.
- Princep Ghat and the Strand before the haze lifts.
- Kumartuli, where the idol workshops open early and the light comes through the roofs.
Later
- The Victoria Memorial from across the water at the south end of the Maidan.
- College Street’s bookstalls, which are best when they are busy.
- North Kolkata’s older streets — plaster, shutters and courtyards rather than monuments.
Nearby
What sits within reach of the city, and what genuinely needs its own days.
Frequently asked
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