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Kolkata India

Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, is the capital of West Bengal and the second-largest city in India after Mumbai. Extreme poverty mixes, often bewilderingly, with crumbling British Raj-era buildings, expansive gardens and historic colleges. Long regarded as India’s cultural capital, Kolkata continues to produce generations of poets, writers, filmmakers and Nobel Prize winners. The city stretches along the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, a tributary of the Ganges, with Howrah on the western bank. For visitors, the most relevant parts of Kolkata lie south of Howrah Bridge, around BBD Bagh and Chowringhee. Kolkata is a vast city with a huge amount to see, but some of the main sights include Eden Gardens, Fort William, Victoria Memorial, Nakhoda Mosque (the largest mosque in Kolkata), Shobhabajar Rajbari, Parashnath Jain Temple, and the Birla Temple, the biggest in the city and well worth a visit. If Bangalore is the Seattle of India, Kolkata is the subcontinent’s London. It’s an in-your-face city that both shocks and charms the unprepared visitor. If your trip only allows for one or two of India’s big cities, you should definitely consider adding Kolkata to your itinerary. Whether you love it or hate it, you won’t forget this city on the Hooghly.

Recommended airport

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Intl (CCU)

Kolkata, India

Kolkata India