[BackInTheFold]

Starting a new thread since I can't seem to find others (mods please do merge if any exist).

My wife, 10 year old son and I will be traveling to Kolkata from Bangalore. We have generally been predisposed to head out of the country for our vacations/trips and are making a conscious effort to explore our own country. Hence the ad-hoc trip.

My wife and I have hazy memories of Kolkata from our visits from when we were younger. We would really appreciate inputs from the TBHP community (Kolkata residents in particular) on options to explore while we're there.

Some background:

• We will land in Kolkata around 11:30 on 7-Sep and fly out around 6 PM on 9-Sep.
• We'll be staying at the Vivanta by Taj on EM Bypass.
• We would prefer NOT to do the usual touristy or shopping things.
• We love food. While I'm a vegetarian, I love eggs and am also not the kind that doesn't eat all the vegetables. My family is non-vegetarian
• We love experiences steeped in history and culture, not limited only to museums.

Below are a few options that came up based on some preliminary research:

• Kumortuli area
• Visiting the Jewish synagogues that we hear have been recently restored
• Dakshineswar Kali temple
• Belur Math (by ferry from the Dakshineswar Kali temple?)
• Ferry ride from Babughat (sic)?
• Street food in the Park Street or Gariahat areas (would really love some recommendations here)

We'd appreciate your inputs and recommendations on things to do, do's/don'ts etc.

[saket77]

Visit Chandannagore/ chandan nagar. This is long time pending in my list and I would love to go there myself. Not too far from Kolkata but sure to offer something very different.

Read about the place and check if it you would like what if offers. BHPians from Kolkata may let us help know more about it.

Regards,
Saket

[nitishk]

You are staying very close to Gariahat so street food/shopping will be a 10 minute auto ride.

Acropolis mall is a 2 min walk as well.

If you are religiously inclined, then you are do a day trip either to Gangasgar islands or Iskon Temple in Mayapur.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by BackInTheFold

My wife and I have hazy memories of Kolkata from our visits from when we were younger. We would really appreciate inputs from the TBHP community (Kolkata residents in particular) on options to explore while we're there.

Some background:

• We will land in Kolkata around 11:30 on 7-Sep and fly out around 6 PM on 9-Sep.

We'd appreciate your inputs and recommendations on things to do, do's/don'ts etc.

You have just about 48 hours to spend in Kolkata.

Since you've been there earlier, are you planning for this to be a nostalgia trip?

Experiences steeped in history & culture in Kolkata are mainstream tourist activities, and can hardly be considered off-beat. The city is a foodie's paradise, so indulging in a food trip won't be a difficult exercise anywhere in the city. Try going through this thread (A Guide: Eating out in Kolkata (Calcutta)).

How well would your 10-year-old son cope with the heat / humidity / rain prevailing in Kolkata now?

[anjan_c2007]

While at Kolkata, you could board the Dum Dum airport - Tollygunge or Tollygunge- Dum Dum airport AC bus to travel to any location from your hotel towards Tollygunge/ Rashbehari Square/ Lake Market (Komala Vilas here has a very good and clean South Indian vegetarian restaurant)/ Gariahat (Bhojohari Manna is a very good Bengali restaurant near Ritchie Road, Gariahat) all to the South and other locations towards the North and Dum Dum airport on the other side. A trip to Southern and Central Kolkata are more preferable. After reaching Rashbehari Square, you could board the Metro to reach any location in Central Kolkata (Esplanade/ Lindsay Street (New Market is located here)/ Park Street (Peter Cat restaurant at Stephens Court here offers excellent Chelo Kabab (non veg))/ Rabindra Sadan/Netaji Bhavan (museum now that was Netaji's residence) / Hazra Square / Kalighat ). All these locations exemplify the city's hustle bustle. Please prefer Metro or taxi rides when you are short of time.

You can also board a tram at Ballygunge (enroute from EM Bypass to Gariahat), which goes upto Rashbehari Square/ Kalighat and beyond on one route and to Gariahat, Park Circus, College Street etc on the other route. Do not miss the tram ride. Using public transport makes you get a feel of the pulse of the city.

[digitalnirvana]

You have approx 48 hours. You'd want to rest and not make it too heavy on travel as your son is young.

I'd suggest day 1 ie 7th Sep
1. Go to the Maidan & Victoria Memorial in the afternoon. Get your son a horse / pony ride
2. In the evening watch the musical fountain show at Citizen's Park next to the Victoria
3. Take a cab to Park Street and have dinner at Peter Cat or Mocambo's, or if you're inclined to taste Bengali food go to 6 Ballygunge Place or Bhojohori Manna. All these places need prior reservations
4. Post dinner take a cab to the hotel and retire for the night

Day 2 ie 8th September
1. Start off the morning with a visit to the Millennium Park on the Ganges
2. Take a ferry ride on the river (MakeMyTrip app experiences section has several options - normal ferry, catamaran, old school dinghis)
3. Have breakfast at the Flotel which is a floating restaurant /barge
4. Go to the zoo and spend a few hours there
5. Have your lunch at any of the Park Street restaurants mentioned earlier
6. Have a visit to the Birla Planetarium (again, prior tickets recommended)
7. Keep the evening free for a visit to Flury's on Park Street
8. Go to the hotel and rest

Day 3 ie 9th September
1. Start early for a visit to Belur Math OR I'd personally take a walk around the Park Street cemetery /churches (again see MMT experiences section for the walks available)
2. Have lunch at Mainland China or Oh Calcutta!
3. Stop over at Science City on the EM bypass
4. Go to the airport

In summary all the places you visit should appeal to your child and be enjoyable to him. That's why no North Kolkata walks or Kalighat or places which will be difficult to cover with all the rains and difficult weather.

Edit - do take a tram ride as Anjan rightly pointed out. That'll be a wonderful memory for the kid

Enjoy your stay!

[BackInTheFold]

Many thanks to everyone who'd responded. Your responses were all really helpful in bringing together our itinerary. We just returned from a memorable and refreshing exploration of just a few of the experiences that Kolkata offers.

Thanks to the heads-up on the weather (rainy and very humid when it is not raining), we ended up packing and preparing appropriately.

Saturday:
- Dropped off our bags at the hotel after a 45-minute Uber ride from the airport.
- Walked over to the closest Balaram Mullick outlet for our first rosogollas of the trip. This was to be a recurring theme!
- Rested briefly before heading to the flagship 6 Ballygunge Place for lunch. We made it there around 2:15 PM, which was serendipitous since we squeaked in between the early birds and the late arrivals. The food and setting were both awesome.
- Suitably fortified, we headed over to the Victoria Memorial by Uber. We had a surprisingly good time here, partly because the rain was playing hide-and-seek, keeping the temperature and humidity low. After lounging in the garden for a bit, we spent an interesting time exploring the inner museum. My son was engrossed in the section about the history of Kolkata.
- We were feeling a little peckish and took a local cab to Russell Street. I had some Jhol Muri at a street vendor and my wife/son had paani puri at Haldirams.
- We briefly stopped over at Flury's, which I daresay was impressive in setting but not as much in its confectionery.
- Appetites still not sated, we then legged over to the Blue Poppy Thakali, a Nepali food joint in the Sikkim House on Middleton. The momos and thukpa hit just the spot. It was a no-frills place with a section dedicated to sitting on the floor. After all the walking, this was much welcomed.
- We headed back to our hotel afterwards and slept like babies

Sunday:
- After a lavish breakfast at the hotel, we hopped into a car that we'd rented for the day (from Savaari). First stop was the Kumartuli area, which would normally be inaccessible, but was far more car-friendly on a Sunday
- The Kumartuli area houses the potters and sculptors who seem to churn out the ubiquitous matkas for chai and all the impressive idols that form such an important part of the Durga Puja celebrations. The area was a riot of colours and character and no wonder a photographers delight, as could be seen with all the professional camera wielding souls who were also walking about.
- As I'd originally mentioned, we were keen on seeing the synagogues that we'd read a lot about. We therefore headed near the Writer's building to visit the Synagogue Megen David, arguably the most impressive.
- After a chai at the Kona Dukan behind the Writer's Building, which hit just the spot in the gentle drizzle, we slushed it over to the synagogue.
- The gate was locked, but the caretaker offered to open it after seeing our ID. What ensued was a great 20-30 minutes of awestruck exploration of the place and its history. The synagogue was recently restored and now stands almost true to its original shape and form. Impressive and a must-visit!

What next but another tour and lunch with some sweets thrown in!
[To be continued]

[arindambasu13]

Originally Posted by BackInTheFold

- We briefly stopped over at Flury's, which I daresay was impressive in setting but not as much in its confectionery.
-
[To be continued]

Balaram Mullick has some of the best sweets in the southern part of the city, which incidentally is where I come from as well, and is a personal favourite. Actually, while their sweets are good all year round, their winter specialities (the ones made using gur, or jaggery) are simply to die for. They are just on another level - stuff like baked roshogolla, kanchagolla, gur payesh and a million other gur based delights which just transport a sweet lover to seventh heaven immediately!

I always schedule a visit in December to ensure that these winter specialities do not escape my grubby hands. A good chunk of my expenses for a Kolkata visit are apportioned towards sweets.

You are right about Flurys. While it is a place with great heritage, the food is nothing extraordinary nowadays and it is very expensive by Kolkata standards as well. Not worth it, you money can be much better spent in various other eateries dotting the city.

[BackInTheFold]

Originally Posted by arindambasu13

Balaram Mullick has some of the best sweets in the southern part of the city, which incidentally is where I come from as well, and is a personal favourite. Actually, while their sweets are good all year round, their winter specialities (the ones made using gur, or jaggery) are simply to die for. They are just on another level - stuff like baked roshogolla, kanchagolla, gur payesh and a million other gur based delights which just transport a sweet lover to seventh heaven immediately!

We've heard a lot about the jaggery based alternatives. Bancharam, in Bangalore, sells a jaggery rosogolla apparently throughout the year. However, I'm not sure about its provenance though since it still tastes slightly processed.

The quality and freshness of the rosogollas themselves (not the syrup) that we encountered in Kolkata were tongue-tingling. I'm not certain that we'll be able to look at those available Bangalore in the same vein for a while.

[BackInTheFold]

Continuing from Sunday afternoon:

• After the synagogue visit and wading through the muddy streets, we were ready to have lunch. We decided to go to the Blue Poppy Thakali again, given what we thought were untried delights from the previous evening. Same low seating, same table, but the choices this time were a tad underwhelming. Tips to those who visit: go for the tried and tested stuff rather than "new" stuff on the menu. Their strengths clearly are in the traditional momos, thukpas and the Nepali sel roti dishes
• To remedy the less-than-wow lunch, we decided to head out to the Park Street outlet of Balaram Mullick. After wolfing down a couple of rossogollas, life turned rosier and we did a quick round of the Biswa Bangla and the adjacent bookstore on Park street.
• Our family friends run the legendary Balwant Singh Eating House near the Gurudwara at 5 PM. We planned to say hello to uncle and aunty at the restaurant. Boy were they glad to see us! Traditional Punjabi hospitality floored us and we were left groaning under the weight of jalebis, samosas, singharas, their legendary "doodh-cola" and by far the best tea I had in the trip. We politely refused their protestations to stay for dinner (our South Indian stomachs were already heaving!) and headed back to the hotel to recuperate.

Monday:
Trains, planes, automobiles and ferries!

• After a very early breakfast at the hotel, we Uber'ed over to the Dakshineswar Kali temple. Again we lucked out in beating the crowds. After a quick darshan, we took a slow ferry over to the Belur Mutt.
• Our stop at the Mutt was shorter than the return ferry trip to Daksineshwar. To my son, for whom using public transport is a bit of a rarity, a ride on Kolkata's fabled and old metro was a must do. To entertain him, we decided to take the metro from Dum Dum to the Kalighat area before taking a taxi back to the hotel. The day was humid, but my son's excitement in being able to do his metro trek made up for it.
• Keeping up with our resolution of eating only at standalone (i.e. non-hotel) restaurants for the main meals, we decided to sign off on our gluttonous vacation with lunch at the 6 Ballygunge Place Thali outlet near the hotel. All was well with the world after some delicious Bengali fare
• We checked out late from our hotel and headed to the airport via Uber, debating all the while if we could have planned to just do the Daksineshwar trip en route instead of going back and forth as we did. Oh well - all is well that ends well

We realise that we took in a very thin slice of this very alluring city. We'd love to be back, but have other places across India that we are yet to even dip our toes into. Until we do return, we'll look upon this whirlwind trip fondly and the sights, sounds and food will grow brighter in our memories

[SPB_drives]

Please do visit the Park Street, specifically the cemetery there. It has elaborate epitaphs of the initial Englishmen which came to rule India.

[Romins]

Burmese Buddhist temples in Kolkata. I haven't been to anyone but read about these in the book - The Glass Palace.

http://indiavivid.com/buddhist-templ...olkata-part-2/

https://www.wbtourismgov.in/destinat...t_bengal#tab-1

[BackInTheFold]

Originally Posted by Romins

Burmese Buddhist temples in Kolkata. I haven't been to anyone but read about these in the book - The Glass Palace.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I too am a fan of Amitav Ghosh.

Originally Posted by SPB_drives

Please do visit the Park Street, specifically the cemetery there. It has elaborate epitaphs of the initial Englishmen which came to rule India.

We considered these and then dropped them because my son, while a history buff, would have been a little disturbed by a cemetery visit.

Adding to the list of places we could have gone to, the Hindustan Park area near Gariahat, which was recently covered in the Mint Lounge, sounds like a great place to visit, particularly because we were staying pretty close by.
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