Where to Stay in Kolkata

The colonial backbone of Kolkata, where yellowing Raj-era facades line broad avenues beside the vast green Maidan. Trams rattle along iron rails through the humid air, the smell of marigold garlands drifts from footpath sellers, and the Victoria Memorial gleams white against the morning haze. The Oberoi Grand anchors the strip, and the Indian Museum, Eden Gardens, and St. Paul's Cathedral are all within walking distance.

Kolkata's social spine runs for one kilometre past restaurants, patisseries, bars, and music venues. The smell of fresh-baked rum balls from Flurys mingles with charcoal smoke from street kebab carts after dark, neon-lit facades reflect off damp pavements, and the low echo of live jazz drifts from basement clubs. It sits just south of Chowringhee with Park Street Metro station at its eastern end, making it the easiest neighbourhood in the city to navigate.

The old mercantile heart of the city, where Victorian Gothic office blocks and the neoclassical Writers' Building crowd around the central tank of BBD Bagh. The streets smell of old paper, street-food frying oil, and the faint metallic tang of the nearby Hooghly when the river wind blows east. This is working Kolkata at its most concentrated, and the LaLiT Great Eastern, one of India's oldest operating hotels, is the neighbourhood's crown. Ferry connections from Babughat put Howrah within minutes.

Planned from scratch after 2000, New Town replaced paddy fields east of Kolkata with wide expressways, IT campuses, and tower hotels. Streets are broad enough to feel spacious after the congested centre, traffic moves faster than anywhere in the old city, and the Eco Park's 480-acre green lung gives morning joggers a cool, shaded escape. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport is 20 minutes north, making this Kolkata's primary business-travel zone.

This is the oldest surviving quarter of the city. Crumbling indigo-trader mansions called rajbaris lean over lanes barely wide enough for a cycle rickshaw. The air stays thick with incense smoke from neighbourhood Kali temples. Sizzle of jhal muri carts and ringing of cycle bells fill the alleys from dawn until late at night. College Street's dense used-book market, Kumartuli's clay-idol workshops fragrant with wet earth, and Sovabazar's centuries-old aristocratic courtyard houses make this the most visually layered part of Kolkata. Almost all accommodation is budget. Dive in.