Taking a Trip to India? Visit Kolkata

Kolkata is the capital city of West Bengal. Ideal time to visit this city is from March to October. Visiting Kolkata in October would give you the additional attraction of Durga Pooja Festival which is celebrated here in most colorful ways with great devotion. The place during this place would be crowded and if you do not wish to be there during this time, be there around September when the temperature is just right. Kolkata is linked by Air and Railways. You van visit Kolkata from any part of India by these modes which suits you best. Kolkata which was formerly called as Calcutta was renamed as Kolkata since 2001. This is city of famous poet Rabindranath Tagore. This city is full of life. You may not understand the local Bengali language but, the city is very much live from dawn to dusk and there are many happening places. We reached there by train and got down at Howrah. From Howrah you can go any where. Sealdah is another major junction from you can visit to other places. Chowringhi road bus stand and Babu Ghat bus stand near fort Williams provides the bus services for site seeing or visiting to other nearby places.

In Kolkata, you will find many hotels form 5 start to simple lodge. All depends as where you want to stay and at what cost you prefer to stay. You can choose your hotel accordingly by a proper advance enquiries with Kolkata, West Bengal Tourism Department and select the same which suits best to your budget. There are plenty restaurants which provides a quality good food. The sweets in Kolkata are very popular and you would find many such shops of Bengali Sweets every where. Hopping around the city by public buses is good option but since they are almost crowded and packed for tourist this mode would not prove suitable. There is Metro train or underground train. This is the ideal route for tourist as you get multiple ride tickets also for the same. Metro reaches to almost all famous places in Kolkata. Tram is a another option if you have much time in your hand as they travel very slow. Taking a ride and see leisurely some parts of the city is very pleasing experience. Disadvantage of the tram route is, they ply on some selected routes and may not prove convenient to reach tourist places. Yet, it is a very cheerful ride which you must take and enjoy going from start to end and return. You can see different areas of city which would not be covered under site seeing. That is the importance of the tram route. Then there are cycle rickshaws and hand pull rickshaws running in certain parts of city. Both these rides are fascinating and you will surely enjoy these rides at any time. See those areas closely with these rides. A must for every tourist.

We visited some nice beaches around Kolkata. One such was at New Digha. There are others like Shankarapur and Bakkhali. These beaches have the resorts too. if one wants to stay there, the choice is there or you can come by same day back to your hotel. Digha is very beautiful beach. This beach is almost 5 hours journey from Howrah bus station. Tourist can opt for rail journey and reach Digha. Digha beach is widely spread over miles with shallow sand. Watching sunrise or sunset from this beach is a treat to eyes. Apart from this beautiful beach, the other attraction includes Science Center which is very popular and entertaining with unique style. Then there is very good Aquarium. A not to be missed. You can visit to Amaravati lake which is very beautiful and provides boating facility. Near to this lake is Snake Park if you like to visit. Shankarapur Beach is on the way to digha beach. This is very peaceful beach and has its own beauty. There are some good hotels and one such is Hotel Sandy Bay. You face the sea directly from this hotel. The restaurant there serves very good food. For shopping you get nice shells and jewellery made out of shells are very famous here. Digha Cottage Craft provides various handmade products which attracts tourist. Bakkhali as compared to Digha and Shankarapur beach,is small but very picturesque and silent beach. You can see many migrated birds here. It takes around 4 hours to reach here via crossing ferry boat and changing buses. The place is very beautiful.

Next morning we headed to famous Victoria Memorial Hall. This is a Museum and you can get an introduction of Kolkata history. The structure of this hall is very beautiful. Opposite to Victoria, there is Maidan which is a vast open ground. As this place is in the heart of city, you wonder as this Maidan covers lot of area. Visit after evening and you would enjoy this place once the light fountain is illuminated. This fountain dances on the tunes of the music. This is leisure sitting place or take a walk around. Botanical garden is another place which one should not miss. It is near to Engineering college. This one has very very old Banyan tree. There are all variety of tress you can see here. This is a ideal place for sure mental peace and satisfaction. Next day we went to see Kalighat temple. This temple is located on the banks of river Hooghly. The temple is very beautiful and devotees around the world visit this temple when they are in Kolkata. From there we went to see St.Paul's Cathedral. The structure is very beautiful. Then one can visit Birla Planetarium which is also wonderful. Then we went to see the famous flower market. It is amazing to see so many flowers and buntings made out of flowers at this place. The various flowers and their fragrance makes this place so beautiful. Then we headed for Dakshineshwar kali temple. The temple is dedicated to Durga Kali which is located on the banks of Hooghly river. The temple roofing is in Terra Cotta style which is very beautiful. There are other temples in the courtyard. From this place you may visit to famous Belur Math which is at Howrahh and you can cross the river by boat from the above Kali temple to reach to Belur Math. The structure of this Math is very unique. This is the place where Shri Swami Vivekananda founded the Ramkrishna Mission which is dedicated to their Guru Shri Ramkrishna Paramhansa. This is a very peaceful place. Shri Swami Vivekananda were staying here in this holy place. You may also like to visit Shantiniketan. Check up the timings before you start. This place is around 200+ KM away from Kolkata city. This place was once a open air school. This is very beautiful place. Shri Rabindranath Tagore formed this place as Vishwabharati an educational institute. Then there is that famous Howrah bridge or Rabindra Setu. This bridge is the link between Howrah & Kolkata which is built on river Hooghly. Walking at Sunrise on this bridge is treat by it self. The picturesque view of the bridge and the river below is just amazing.

For all book lovers College street is the area which has lots of book shops. This is very crowded area and be prepared to walk for the choice of books you want to buy. You almost get any book here. This is a very famous place so don't miss it. A Coffee House is near by for the refreshment if you are tired surfing the books. Nicco Park is another place which is very famous amusement park. This one is located in salt lake area. There are plenty of fun rides like Disneyland. There is a cable car and the Rope way rides are available. Boat rides is an additional attraction. You spend almost full day here. There is flower garden which is very beautifully maintained. There are many restaurants which offers very good food.

For food lovers there are many restaurants based in various parts of city. Tourist have a choice from authentic Bengali food to Chinese, Mexican, Italian, Japanese and other Indian variety. There are many fast food joints too hence tourist would find it easy to have his choice of food. Kolkata is also very famous for special Bengali Sweets. There are variety of sweets available in shops every where. Don't miss Bengali Sweets. For shopping try Dakshinapan Complex. Here you will get State government outlets of Hand loom and Handicrafts material which you get them at reasonable rates. There are some foot wear shops in the complex which are worth trying. There is a New Market which is very huge and you almost get every thing under one roof. There are so many shops and you would get tired by the end of the day after loads of shopping. This is what We covered in our visit. I am sure there lot many things in Kolkata which remained to be covered and hence not mentioned here.