These are the best places to travel this summer

Kolkata (Calcutta)

India Travel Guide

Shop

Get even more with a Lonely Planet guide.

Shop Book
Victoria Memorial, Kolkata, India..For more info search Victoria Memorial (India) in Wikipedia

LONELY PLANET’S RECOMMENDED eSIM

Stay connected in Kolkata (Calcutta)

with

Saily is an affordable eSIM service that helps you stay connected and secure, anywhere in the world.

Get your eSIM

Overview

India’s third-largest city is a daily festival of human existence, simultaneously noble and squalid, cultured and desperate, decidedly futuristic though still in transition. By its old spelling, Calcutta readily conjures images of human suffering to most Westerners – although that's not a complete picture of this 330-year-old metropolis. Locally, Kolkata is regarded as India’s intellectual, artistic and cultural capital. Although poverty is certainly apparent, the self-made middle class drives the city's core machinery, a nascent hipster culture thrives among its millennial residents and its dapper Bengali gentry frequent grand colonial-era clubs.

Must-see attractions

Get a book. Get inspired. Get exploring.

in partnership with getyourguide

Book popular activities in Kolkata (Calcutta)