Kolkata Tours & Experiences

Things to do in Kolkata

The city's monuments are covered in our Kolkata travel guide. These are the things to do around them, from the riverbank at dawn to the festival streets at night.

Pandal-hopping at Durga Puja

Neighbourhood committees try to outdo one another with their pandals, crowds walk the circuits by day and night, and on the last day the images go to the Hooghly to be immersed. UNESCO, which listed the festival as intangible heritage in 2021, describes ten days of worship that open at Mahalaya. Our Durga Puja in Kolkata experience books a hotel near the main circuits and assigns a private guide who tracks the year's most talked-about pandals; our Durga Puja festival guide explains when it falls.

Watching the idol-makers of Kumortuli

In Kumortuli, the city's old potters' quarter, artisans shape and paint the clay images for Kolkata's festivals and send many abroad. In the months before Durga Puja, as UNESCO notes, the workshops model the figures from unfired river clay; their eyes are painted on at Mahalaya, when the worship begins. Kumortuli also holds one of the city's oldest Durga Pujas.

The flower market at Mallick Ghat

Below the Howrah Bridge, the wholesale flower market at Mallick Ghat gets going at about 4 am, as sellers bring in marigolds, lotuses, lilies and roses from across Kolkata and beyond. More than 165 years old, it is eastern India's biggest by West Bengal Tourism's account, and busiest in the festival and wedding seasons.

A boat on the Hooghly from Prinsep Ghat

Prinsep Ghat, a Palladian memorial on the riverbank built in 1841, has lawns and shady benches, and small boats can be hired there for a ride on the Hooghly. Further up the bank, near the Howrah Bridge, Outram Ghat is a favourite place for an early-morning or evening walk.

The metro under the river

Between Esplanade and Howrah Maidan, Kolkata's East–West Metro runs through the first underwater metro tunnel beneath a major river in India, part of a 4.8 km stretch opened in 2024. It is an ordinary commuter line: board at Esplanade and you come up on the Howrah side.

College Street's book market

College Street, known locally as Boi Para, runs from Bowbazar to Mahatma Gandhi Road past Calcutta University and Presidency College, and West Bengal Tourism calls it India's largest book market. Its stalls sell new and second-hand books, rare ones included, and its coffee house has been a meeting place for writers and students since the 1940s.

Chinese food in Tangra

In Tangra and Topsia, in the east of the city, Kolkata's Chinese community, here since the 18th century, keeps its Buddhist temples and old buildings, and its restaurants serve recipes handed down through families for generations.

An evening on Park Street

Park Street has been where Kolkata goes for an evening out since the British era, and it is strung with lights for Diwali, Christmas and New Year's Eve. At Christmas, the Anglo-Indian families of Bow Barracks, also in central Kolkata, light up their lane and celebrate with music, dancing and home-made cake.

Films, theatre and art near the Victoria Memorial

Close to the Victoria Memorial, Nandan screens Bengali and international films, Rabindra Sadan stages Bengali theatre and hosts the Kolkata Film Festival, and the Academy of Fine Arts shows Indian painting and sculpture from 1900 onwards, with dance and drama in its hall.

Choosing between our tours and experiences

Our Kolkata trip is the Durga Puja experience, listed under festival experiences in Kolkata, so the festival calendar decides it. It suits travellers who enjoy hours on foot among dense, good-natured crowds, by day and late into the night, and not anyone who wants quiet or has limited mobility. Kolkata is also where our Sundarbans safari starts, with a road transfer to the boat.

When to go for these

November to February is the time to walk Kolkata: IMD's averages for Alipore give less than 3 cm of rain in each of those months and January afternoons of about 26 °C. Heat builds to around 35 °C by May, thunderstorms are frequent from April to October, and July, the wettest month, brings about 377 mm. Plan Kumortuli for the months before Durga Puja, the puja itself for September or October, and Park Street for Christmas and New Year.

Planning tips for Kolkata

• During Durga Puja, traffic across the city slows considerably; allow extra time between stops and wear comfortable shoes.
• Most pandals can be entered and photographed, though some ask visitors to queue and not to use flash near the image.
• For Kalighat, Dakshineswar and the city's other temples, see our guide to Kolkata's temples.