Visit Park Street: Park Street has been the recreation zone for Kolkata people since the British era, with many restaurants and pubs. It is home to many shops, and several notable buildings such as the Asiatic Society, St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, a Seventh-day Adventist Church, and the South Park Street Cemetery has cenotaphs and tombs of prominent figures from the British Raj era and Kolkata’s Armenian population.
Explore the Sunderbans: The Sunderban National Park is a biosphere reserve, national park and tiger reserve. This UNESCO heritage site is a large mangrove delta spread across 40,000 sq. km between India and Bangladesh. Boat rides to see the wildlife – famously the Royal Bengal Tiger – make for an exciting trip.
Victoria Memorial: A memorial to Queen Victoria, the Victoria Memorial Hall is a museum having an assortment of Victoria memorabilia, British Raj paintings and other displays. It has a notable collection of weapons, sculptors, paintings, maps, coins, stamps, artefacts, textiles etc. In the post independence period a new addition was made to the Victoria Memorial through the addition of the national leader’s gallery with the portraits and relics of the freedom fighters.
Darjeeling: Darjeeling is one of India’s most beautiful hill stations. Once a summer resort for the British Raj elite, it remains the terminus of the narrow-gauge Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, or “Toy Train,” an experience in and of itself. It’s famed for the distinctive black tea grown on plantations that dot its surrounding slopes. Its backdrop is Mt. Kanchenjunga, among the world’s highest peaks.
Kalighat Temple: Built on the erstwhile “ghat” dedicated to the goddess Kali, which gave the city of Kolkata its name, this temple has a rich and storied history dating back to the 15th century. This temple is considered to be one of the sites where a portion of Sati’s body fell by the Shaktism sect, and is hence of their 51 holiest sites.
Jorasanko Thakur Bari: The Jorasanko Thakur Bari is the ancestral home of the Tagore family, at 6/4 Dwarakanath Tagore Lane Jorasanko, Kolkata. It is the house in which the poet and first non-European Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore was born. It is also the place where he spent most of his childhood and died on 7 August 1941. The house has been restored to reflect the way the household looked when the Tagore family lived in it and currently serves as the Tagore museum for Kolkata.
National Library: The National Library of India on the Belvedere Estate in Alipore, Kolkata is the largest library in India by volume, with 2.2 million books, and India’s library of public record. It is designated to collect, disseminate and preserve the printed material produced in India.
College Street: The hub of intellectual activity in India, college street houses a number of renowned academic institutions like Calcutta University, Presidency College, etc. It is also the location of the renowned cafe called Indian Coffee House that has attracted the intelligentsia of the city like Amartya Sen and Satyajit Ray, for decades. The book market of College Street, traditionally called Boi Para, is the largest book market of India and the largest second-hand book market of the world, and the hub of the Bengali publication industry. Almost any rare or new book can be found at this place, at very economical prices.
