Kolkata: where to stay, when to go, and how to get around

Overview

Kolkata is the old capital of British India and still the cultural heart of Bengal, and it wears both facts openly: crumbling colonial facades, a dense literary and political life, and some of the best food in the country. It sits on the east bank of the Hooghly, a distributary of the Ganges, and sprawls north–south along it, with the industrial city of Howrah facing it across the water. This is not a compact, walkable centre — it is a large, congested, humid delta city, and you choose where to stay by how much traffic and heat you are willing to cross to reach the things you came for. Come for the food, the museums, the bookshops and the street life; do not come expecting tidiness or fast transit, and do not come between April and September unless you have a reason.

Where to stay

The tourist and dining centre runs down the eastern side, roughly from the Maidan — the vast central park — through Chowringhee and Park Street. North of that is the old, congested city; south of it are the leafier residential neighbourhoods; and east, out towards the airport, are the planned suburbs of Salt Lake and New Town. Distances look small on a map and are not small in practice: an afternoon crossing town in traffic can eat an hour. Pick an area for what is on its doorstep, not for how central it looks.

Park Street, Chowringhee & the Maidan

The default base for a first visit. This strip holds the Victoria Memorial, the Indian Museum, New Market, the restaurants and old cafés of Park Street, and the green expanse of the Maidan, all within reach on foot or a short hop. Esplanade metro station and the bus and tram hub sit at the top of it, so the rest of the city is easy to reach from here. Stay here if it is your first time and you want the sights and the eating within walking distance. The trade-off is that it is the busiest, most touristed and most expensive part of the city, the pavements around New Market are crowded and pushy, and traffic noise is constant. It is convenient rather than peaceful.

BBD Bagh (Dalhousie Square) & the colonial core

Just north of Chowringhee, this is the old administrative and commercial heart — Writers’ Building, the GPO, the river ghats, and street after street of decaying grand architecture. It is fascinating to walk in daylight and close to both the ferry piers and Howrah across the bridge. Stay here if colonial-era Kolkata is the main thing you came for and you like being able to walk the old quarter before the heat builds. The trade-off is that it empties out after office hours: it is a working district, so evenings are dead, there is little to eat nearby once the offices close, and a few blocks feel neglected at night.

South Kolkata — Ballygunge, Gariahat & Southern Avenue

The genteel, residential south, around the Gariahat market crossing and the Rabindra Sarobar lake. This is where middle-class Bengali Kolkata actually lives and eats: sari shops, sweet shops, para (neighbourhood) life, and the city’s best home-style Bengali restaurants. It is quieter and greener than the centre, and the north–south metro line runs straight down it, which makes getting to the middle of town straightforward. Stay here for a calmer, more local base and for the food. The trade-off is that you are a metro ride or a long taxi from the main sights, and the streets, while pleasant, have fewer landmark draws of their own.

Salt Lake (Bidhannagar) & New Town

The planned suburbs to the east, between the city and the airport. This is modern Kolkata — wide roads, IT parks, malls, and most of the newer business hotels. It is the practical choice if you are here for work in Sector V, arriving late, or leaving early, since it is far closer to the airport than anywhere central. The East–West metro line links Salt Lake Sector V towards the centre and across the river. The trade-off is that it has no character and nothing of the old city about it: you are staying in a suburb and commuting in, and everything that makes Kolkata worth the trip is a long way west.

A note on North Kolkata — Shobhabazar, Kumartuli where the idol-makers work, College Street and its book stalls — it is the most atmospheric part of the city, but it is intensely congested and has very little in the way of places to stay. Visit it; don’t base yourself there.

When to go

Winter, roughly November to February, is the only comfortable time and the season to aim for: warm days, cool nights, low humidity, and the whole cultural calendar in swing. Late September or October brings Durga Puja, the enormous five-day festival that is the centre of the Bengali year — the dates move with the lunar calendar, so check them for your year. The city fills with elaborate lit-up pandals, crowds move through the night, and it is extraordinary to witness, but rooms are scarce and pricey and the streets are packed, so plan well ahead if that is why you are coming. Avoid April to June, when the heat and humidity are punishing, and the monsoon from roughly June to September, when heavy rain regularly floods low-lying streets and stalls traffic. If you can only come in the heat, base yourself somewhere you can retreat indoors in the afternoons.

Getting there & around

The airport (CCU) is out at Dum Dum, north-east of the centre. A metro station opened under the airport in 2025, but it sits on a short line that still needs an interchange to reach the centre, so for most arrivals the simpler way in remains a prepaid taxi from the airport counter or a booked app cab — budget 45 minutes to well over an hour depending on traffic, and expect the longer end in rush hour or rain.

Around the city, the metro is the one fast thing that beats the traffic. The original north–south line (one of India’s oldest) runs the length of the eastern city through Esplanade and down through the southern neighbourhoods; the newer east–west line crosses under the river to Howrah. Use it wherever it goes. Above ground, the roads are slow and dense: an app cab is the practical way to ride and the surviving yellow Ambassador taxis are a dwindling remnant rather than something to count on, shared auto-rickshaws run fixed local routes, and a much-reduced tram network still runs, along with hand-pulled rickshaws in the north — more relic than transport. The ferries across the Hooghly are a genuinely quick and pleasant way to reach Howrah and the ghats. Don’t drive yourself; there is no reason to, and every reason not to.

Kolkata is a major rail hub and it has more than one terminal: Howrah, across the river, and Sealdah, on the eastern side of the centre, are the two big ones, but long-distance trains also leave from Kolkata (Chitpur) in the north and from Shalimar and Santragachi, out beyond Howrah. Which one your train uses matters — check it when you book, since they are on opposite sides of the city and a mix-up costs you an hour.

Practicalities

Kolkata is generally safe and its people are famously helpful to visitors; ordinary big-city care in crowds and at night is enough. Cards are widely accepted in hotels, malls and mid-range-and-up restaurants, but street food, markets and small shops run on cash, so carry some. Dress modestly at temples, and expect to remove shoes.

The food is the point, so eat deliberately. The Bengali table centres on fish and rice: fish in mustard (shorshe), lighter fish curry (macher jhol), and, when it is in season in the monsoon, hilsa (ilish). Order kosha mangsho, a slow, dark mutton curry, and the Kolkata biryani, which comes with a whole potato and often an egg. Street food is a cuisine in itself: kathi rolls (kebab wrapped in paratha, a local invention) and puchka, the sharp Kolkata take on pani puri. Save room for sweets — this is the country’s sweet capital, and rosogolla, sandesh and mishti doi (sweet set yoghurt) are the ones to know. For something different, the Tangra district in the east is Kolkata’s Chinatown and the home of a distinct Indian-Chinese cooking worth a meal.