Kolkata 7 Day Itinerary

The metro fare in Kolkata still starts at five rupees, the cheapest ride on rails anywhere in India, and that single fact tells you more about how to move through this city than any list of monuments. Skip the idea that you need a driver for a week. You need a smart card, a decent pair of shoes, and a plan that respects how slowly Kolkata actually reveals itself.

Day 1: Landing and the Maidan

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport sits in Dum Dum, about 45 to 70 minutes from central hotels depending on traffic, which in this city is never a formality. Skip the touts shouting for your bags and walk straight to the prepaid taxi booth near Gate 3C. A yellow cab prepaid ticket into town runs roughly 350 to 450 rupees, an air-conditioned cab closer to 600 to 750. Ola and Uber work fine too, though surge pricing during evening rush can push a ride past 800 rupees.

Check into a hotel with some history behind it. The Oberoi Grand and ITC Sonar both anchor the upper end; if you want atmosphere without the five-star bill, look at guesthouses around Sudder Street. Lunch at Peter Cat on Park Street is a Kolkata rite of passage, but get the order right: this is a Continental and Mughlai kitchen famous for its chelo kebab, not North Indian cooping, and a meal for two with starters and dessert runs 1,200 to 1,500 rupees. Spend the afternoon at Victoria Memorial. The museum galleries are open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm, with entry at 30 rupees for Indian nationals and 500 rupees for other foreign visitors; the surrounding gardens open earlier, from 5:30am, and cost 30 rupees separately. If your dates land between October and June, catch the Son et Lumiere show in the evening, alternating between Bengali, Hindi, and English nights. Close the day with a walk across the Maidan, genuinely one of the largest urban parks anywhere, or a slow boat out on the Hooghly as the light drops.

Day 2: Temples, trams, and rosogolla

Start at K.C. Das, the shop credited with commercializing rosogolla, for breakfast that will ruin every other version of the sweet for you. From there head north to Dakshineswar Kali Temple and Belur Math, the Ramakrishna Mission headquarters on the opposite riverbank; both reward an early start before the tour buses arrive. Lunch back in town means New Market, where rolls, chaat, and phuchka compete for your attention. Kolkata’s phuchka is not the same dish as panipuri elsewhere in India, the pani carries a sharper, more tamarind-forward heat, and locals will send you toward stalls near Vivekananda Park or College Street over anything aimed at tourists. Ask for the price before you order and skip any vendor a stranger steers you toward for a commission.

Spend the afternoon between the Indian Museum, one of the oldest and largest in Asia, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Fort William, which is still an active Indian Army installation and only viewable from outside without prior permission. Finish at Flury’s on Park Street for a coffee and pastry that leans hard into its old Swiss-confectioner roots, or Nahoum & Sons in New Market, the Jewish bakery still turning out fruitcake from a recipe over a century old.

Day 3: Kalighat and the Bengali table

Mother House, the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity where Mother Teresa is buried, deserves a quiet, unhurried visit rather than a rushed stop between bigger sights. Pair it with Kalighat Kali Temple nearby, one of the fifty-one Shakti Peethas and still a working temple with genuine crowds, not a museum piece. Skip any guide who approaches you unprompted at the gate; official information is posted, and a paid guide should be arranged through your hotel, not picked up on the pavement.

For lunch, choose a proper Bengali thali kitchen like Kasturi or Bhojohori Manna over another hotel buffet; the mustard-forward fish curries and shorshe bata dishes here are worth the detour. In the evening, 6 Ballygunge Place does contemporary Bengali food well, though book ahead on weekends. My opinion after multiple visits: skip the Thakurpukur and Bawali day trips some older itineraries push for day three, they add hours of transit for modest payoff, and that time is better spent simply walking North Kolkata’s older lanes around Shobhabazar and Kumartuli, where idol makers still work in open-air workshops.

Day 4: Eden Gardens and College Street

South Park Street Cemetery is a genuinely striking, overgrown colonial burial ground and worth thirty unhurried minutes. Eden Gardens, the cricket stadium, is best experienced on a match day if your dates align, otherwise a guided stadium tour lets you see the ground without a crowd. College Street’s book market is one of the largest secondhand book markets in the world, running for roughly a kilometer, and Indian Coffee House sits right in the middle of it, still full of students and old professors arguing over adda.

Lunch at Bhojohori Manna again if you loved day three, or try Oh! Calcutta for a more polished take on the same regional cooking. In the evening, book a table at a rooftop restaurant in the Taj Bengal for skyline views, prices run well above street level but the setting earns it once on a week-long trip.

Day 5: Santiniketan, if you have the stamina

Santiniketan, Rabindranath Tagore’s university town, sits roughly three hours from Kolkata by car or a similar time by train from Howrah. It is worth the trip only if you care about Tagore, Bengali arts education, or want a change of pace from city noise; Visva-Bharati University, Kala Bhavana’s open-air art school, and the Uttarayan complex where Tagore lived are the reasons to go. My honest take: this day works better as an overnight than a rushed round trip, since six hours of driving for four hours on the ground is a rough trade. If you would rather stay in the city, swap this day for a longer, unhurried walk through Bagbazar and the ghats along the Hooghly, an experience most itineraries skip entirely.

Day 6: New Town and Science City

Eco Park in New Town is a large, manicured green space built around a lake, popular with local families on weekends and worth an early visit before the heat sets in. Science City, Kolkata’s interactive science museum, remains one of the better family-friendly attractions in eastern India, with a space theatre and evolution exhibits that easily fill half a day. Lunch in New Town leans toward chain restaurants and mall food courts, this is the one day where the food is genuinely unremarkable, so treat it as a practical stop rather than a highlight. For dinner, head back toward Salt Lake or Park Street for something better; Mainland China remains a reliable choice for Chinese-Indian fusion.

Day 7: Shopping and departure

Spend the morning at Gariahat Market for sarees and local textiles, or Quest Mall if you want air conditioning and fixed prices instead of haggling. Park Street’s shops handle everything from books to leather goods. Confirm your airport transfer time generously, Kolkata traffic does not respect flight schedules, and budget at least ninety minutes from central hotels during weekday daytime hours.

Practical notes

Kolkata’s metro network is genuinely excellent and cheap, a smart card costs a small deposit and refills easily, with single fares between five and thirty rupees depending on distance; tourist day passes exist for around 250 rupees if you plan to ride often. Yellow yellow cabs still run on meters in theory, insist on it by saying “meter chalu karo” before you get in, since flat-rate haggling is where visitors get overcharged. Common scams to watch for include note-swapping at cash exchanges, unsolicited “guides” at Victoria Memorial and other monuments, and touts near Howrah and Sealdah stations pushing fake train tickets, buy rail tickets only through the official IRCTC site or the marked tourist quota counter. Carry a mix of UPI payment apps if your bank supports international transfers, plus a stock of small notes, since vendors rarely have change for anything larger than a hundred-rupee bill. October through February is the realistic travel window; by April the heat and humidity make walking tours genuinely punishing.