Kolkata 3 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)

Three days is our 2-day plan plus a third day in North Kolkata, College Street’s book market, the Indian Coffee House and the Kumartuli idol-makers, still no day trips. Longer stays build straight on this one, through 7 days .

Book these before you go:

Day Focus
1 Victoria Memorial, the Maidan, Howrah Bridge at sunset, Park Street dinner
2 Kalighat and the Motherhouse, the Indian Museum, New Market street food
3 College Street, the Indian Coffee House, the Marble Palace, Kumartuli

Day 1: Victoria Memorial, the Maidan and Howrah Bridge

Land at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International and take the Yellow Line metro from Jai Hind station if your bags allow it, a few tens of rupees to Esplanade via the Noapara interchange. A prepaid yellow taxi runs roughly INR 460-700 ($5-7) to central Kolkata otherwise. Drop your bags near Park Street and head straight to Victoria Memorial once the museum galleries open at 10am. Entry is INR 50 ($0.52) for Indian nationals, INR 500 ($5.20) for other foreign visitors, closed Mondays; the gardens are a separate INR 30 ($0.31) ticket and worth their own slow loop.

Do I need to book Victoria Memorial tickets in advance?

No. Tickets are sold at the gate with no advance booking system, so the only real strategy is arriving right at the 10am opening before the tour buses do. The gardens open earlier, from 5:30am, if you want the grounds to yourself first.

In the afternoon, walk the Maidan, one of the largest urban parks anywhere, past St. Paul’s Cathedral’s Gothic-revival calm, then head to Howrah Bridge for sunset. The bridge’s old “no photography” rule technically still stands, a Kolkata Port Trust order on what it calls a vital installation, loosely enforced though officials have only signaled they might drop it, so shoot from Prinsep Ghat instead of setting up a tripod on the span. For dinner, Peter Cat on Park Street has served the same chelo kebab since the 1970s, roughly INR 1,200-1,500 (~$13-16) for two.

Day 2: Kalighat, the Motherhouse and the Indian Museum

Start at Kalighat Kali Temple, one of the 51 Shakti Peethas and a genuine working temple, not a museum piece. Immediately adjacent is Mother Teresa’s Motherhouse , the Missionaries of Charity headquarters and her tomb, free entry with no ticket of any kind, open roughly 8am-12pm, closed Thursdays. Give it an unhurried half hour.

Spend the afternoon at the Indian Museum on Chowringhee, India’s oldest (founded 1814) and largest museum, genuinely worth two to three hours rather than the rushed forty minutes most itineraries budget. Entry is INR 75 ($0.78) Indian adults, INR 500 ($5.20) foreign nationals, open 10am-5pm Tuesday through Sunday. Close the day at New Market for phuchka, roughly INR 20-50 (~$0.21-0.52) a plate.

Day 3: College Street, the Coffee House and Kumartuli

Spend the morning at College Street, billed as the world’s largest secondhand book market, a dense strip of stalls near Presidency and Calcutta University, generally open 11am-7pm Monday through Saturday and mostly closed Sundays. Tucked inside is the Indian Coffee House, housed in the 1876-built Albert Hall and running as a coffee house since 1942, a genuine multi-generational adda institution for students and writers. Go for the atmosphere, not the coffee itself.

Late morning, the Marble Palace, an 1835-built mansion packed with Raja Rajendra Mullick’s art and antique collection, is free to enter and still technically a private residence of his descendants.

Do I need a permit to visit the Marble Palace?

Sources disagree, so don’t gamble on a walk-in visit. Older guidance says a permit is required in person, the day before, from the West Bengal Tourism Information Bureau at BBD Bag, passport in hand for the ID check; more recent accounts describe visitors walking straight in without one. Call ahead rather than risk being turned away, and don’t bring a camera regardless, photography inside is banned since this remains a private home, not a public museum.

In the afternoon, walk to Kumartuli, the North Kolkata potters’ quarter along the Hooghly, where artisans hand-build the clay Durga idols used across the city’s Puja pandals. It’s busiest in the weeks before Durga Puja (roughly July-September) but worth the walk in any season, and costs nothing to see. Close the evening with a no-frills Bengali dinner near Shobhabazar, kosha mangsho and fish curry at half the Park Street price, or head back toward Park Street if you’d rather stay in familiar territory.

Carry small-denomination rupees throughout; vendors here genuinely struggle to break a note larger than INR 100.