Kolkata tour package to enjoy a fun filled holiday

Enjoy an ideal holiday amid traditional yet cosmopolitan culture of Kolkata. Get best deals for Kolkata tour package and vacation package Kolkata. Travel to Kolkata with dedicated Kolkata Travel Guide for hanging out around the major tourist attractions in Kolkata. Rejuvenate your spirit in travelling around the city of Joy, the major cultural hub of India.

Kolkata is the capital of West Bengal and the second largest city of India. Kolkata is also called the “city of joy”. Kolkata is a city with soul that is loved by many inhabitants. It is thickly settled, having more than 15 million inhabitants. It is one of the cities in which a Marxist government exists. Kolkata is also the homeland of Mother Teresa and her worldwide well-known mission, by which the city Kolkata earned its popularity worldwide.

Kolkata was founded in 1690 on the bank of the Hooghly River by Job Charnock as a British trade post. He was an envoy of the East India Company. The name of the city comes from the former fisherman village Kalighat. The name means 'black gate' or 'gate of the Goddess Kali'.

Kolkata grew quickly due to its access to the sea favorable for trading routes.The former splendor is still reflected in the buildings of Chowringhee and Clive Street, also at well known Jawaharlal Nehru Road and Netaji Road. Kolkata is a city that is fascinating, teeming with people, life and cultures. Visitors will see rickshaws going down the same street as cars. A street salesperson will be yelling while others bustle down the road. Kolkata has made enormous social progress in the last years. Kolkata has a conscience attraction through the very helpful and friendly Bengalis and the endless bazaars and markets.

Sights in Kolkata

Indian museum

The 1814-established Indian Museum, situated at the intersection of Chowringhee Road and Sudder Street, is the oldest and largest of the country. The present building, designed around a central court with high ceilings, was set up in 1878 and is one of the largest museums of Asia mainland. It exhibits a variety of objects including sculptures and natural historical objects.

The collection of stone sculptures and metal sculptures includes a magnificent Lion Capital made of sandstone of the 3rd century BC. A department exhibits remnants of the Buddhist Stupas from Bharhut in Madhya Pradesh from the 2nd century BC. Further exhibits include stone sculptures from Khajuraho as well as pictures of the Company School showing a group of 19th century Indian artists.

Fort William

Fort William is situated in Kolkata on the eastern bank of river Hooghly. The fort was commissioned at the place of the old village Gobindapur after the British defeat of 1756. It was completed in 1781 and named after King William III (1650-1702). The octagonal shaped Fort William, with a diameter of approximately 1500 feet, has a massive, low-defense wall and six gates. Its enclosure is supposed to be able to accommodate the total European community of the city in the case of an attack. Still today, Fort William serves as the base of the Eastern Command of the Indian Army.

At the northeastern end in Fort William stands the Sahib Minar, a 134-foot-high tower in an architectural mixture of several Middle Eastern styles. The tower was erected in 1928 in honour of Sir David Ochterlony for his earnings in the battles against Nepal (1814 - 1816), therefore also named earlier as Ochterlony monument.

Victoria Memorial

The pride of Kolkata is the Victoria Memorial, situated at the southern end of the Maidan (largest urban park in Kolkata), and made of white marble with its formally formed gardens and watercourses. While other colonial constructions and statues were renamed, efforts to rename the Victoria Memorial failed until now. The popularity of the Queen Victoria (1819-1901) after which the monument is named, seems unbroken.

The extraordinary building with a neo-Romanesque statue over the entrance, Mughal corner cupolas and elegant high colonnades at the sides was planned by the British Foreign Minister Lord George Nathaniel Curzon (1859-1925) in order to erect a memorial in honour of the golden period of British Empire during his tenure. The monument was designed by Sir William Emerson (1843-1924) and was completed in the year 1921.

Inside the Victoria Memorial, there is a collection of the British Indian history with busts, paintings and beautiful pieces of Indian art. The Victoria Memorial Gardens, a large and splendidly designed park, are the suitable place in the hectic place of the 15 million inhabitants to find quiescence and recreations. In the vicinity of Victoria Memorial, lies St. Paul's Cathedral, built between 1839 to 1847, but after several earthquakes the church had to be reconstructed in 1934.

Marble Palace

North of the MG Road at the Muktaram Babu Street, a side street of the Chittaranjan Avenue, leads to the Marble Palace. The imposing mansion with columns was erected in 1835 by Raja Rajendro Mullick Bahadur, a rich zamindar (landowner). It depicts the period of zamindar. The descendants of the Raja still inhabit the palace, whose name can be traceable to the richly decorated marble rooms.

The rooms are furnished with statues, European antiques, Belgian glass, chandeliers, mirrors and Ming vases. Paintings include those of Peter Paul Rubens, Tizian, Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough. There is also a portrait of Ravi Varna - a portrait of a woman, whose eyes follow the spectator everywhere - as well as a painting of five galloping horses that seem to change their direction when viewed from different angles.

Kalighat

The most important temple of Kolkata, Kalighat (five kilometers south of the park street), stands in the center of a thickly inhabited area. The simple, typically Bengali temple with the bent roof was erected in 1809, made of brick and mortar and is dedicated to the black-coloured Goddess Kali, a form of Shakti (power). According to a legend, God Shiva, after the death of his wife Sati (form of Parvati) fell into a rage, and furious began to dance with her dead body so that the entire world trembled.

The Gods tried to control him in a variety of ways, until eventually Vishnu hurled his sun discus and cut up the dead body in 51 parts. Every place, at which one of these parts fell to ground, became pitha, a pilgrimage site for an admirer of the feminine principle of the divinity - Shakti. The temple Kalighat marks the place at which her small toe fell to ground.

Rabindra Setu

One of the most famous signature features of Kolkata is the Haora Bridge (Howrah Bridge) that connects the city with the twin city Howrah, laid on the western bank of the Hooghly River. It is an 246-foot-high and 220-foot-long timber-framed bridge that crosses the river in a single span of 153 feet. It is one of the world’s longest cantilever bridges.

Its official name reads Rabindra Setu. It was constructed in 1943 during the Second World War in order to provide the allied troops access to the front in Birma, the present Myanmar, and replaced an older pontoon bridge.

The Howrah Bridge counts as the busiest bridge of the world. Millions of commuters use it daily and 60,000 vehicles cross it daily.

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