Kolkata (Calcutta)
Celesta is the suavest of over a dozen hotels in the Raghunathpur area that target travellers in transit (the airport is 15 minutes away by taxi). It makes a style statement with big plate-glass lobby walls and an upper exterior looking like a Mondrian painting. Luxurious beds are piled with pillows in art deco rooms with rain showers.
It's beside the well-signed KFC on the east side of VIP Rd, 4km south of the airport.
4.93 MILES
Set very attractively amid palms and manicured lawns, this large religious centre is the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission, inspired by 19th-century…
7.66 MILES
The incredible Victoria Memorial is a vast, beautifully proportioned festival of white marble: think US Capitol meets Taj Mahal. Had it been built for a…
10.02 MILES
Despite being an awkward journey by public transport, Kolkata’s lovely 109-hectare Botanical Gardens makes for a great place to escape from the city’s…
4.69 MILES
Countless clay effigies of deities and demons immersed in the Hooghly during Kolkata’s colourful pujas (offering or prayers) are created in specialist…
5.28 MILES
Built in 1835 by a raja from the prosperous Mallick family, this resplendent mansion is as grand as it is curious. Its marble-draped halls are overstuffed…
6.68 MILES
India's biggest and oldest major museum celebrated its bicentenary in February 2014. It's mostly a lovably old-fashioned place that fills a large…
5.24 MILES
The stately 1784 family mansion of Rabindranath Tagore has become a shrine-like museum to India’s greatest modern poet. Even if his personal effects don’t…
8.9 MILES
This ancient Kali temple is Kolkata’s holiest spot for Hindus, and possibly the source of the city’s name. Today’s version is the 1809 rebuild, with…
3.32 MILES
In bird-filled gardens 250m west of Belgachia metro stands the Digambar Jain Mandir, with a tall lighthouse-style tower encasing a meditating statuette…
3.93 MILES
The best known of a closely grouped trio of Jain temples, this 1867 complex is a dazzling if unrefined pastiche of colourful mosaics, spires, columns and…
4.69 MILES
Countless clay effigies of deities and demons immersed in the Hooghly during Kolkata’s colourful pujas (offering or prayers) are created in specialist…
4.9 MILES
Within the Ramakrishna Mission compound on the Hooghly riverbank, several small shrines include the Sri Sarada Devi Temple, entombing the mystic's wife.
4.93 MILES
The centrepiece of the Ramakrishna Mission complex at Belur Math is the huge 1938 Ramakrishna Mandir, which somehow manages to look like a cathedral,…
4.93 MILES
Set very attractively amid palms and manicured lawns, this large religious centre is the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission, inspired by 19th-century…
4.98 MILES
Accessed from the Belur Math car park, this beautifully presented dual-level museum charts Ramakrishna’s life and the travels of his great disciple Swami…
5.22 MILES
It’s fascinating to look inside this unpretentious high-ceilinged restaurant that was once a meeting place of alternative Kolkata. The cheap, dishwater…